Lana Turner left her daughter $50,000 and the rest of a $1.7 million trust to her maid of 45 years

In 1958 Lana Turner's 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed Turner's lover, Johnny Stompanato, to death in Turner's home. The killing was ruled justifiable homicide. In a 1982 trust document Turner left Crane $50,000 and a few personal items. Everything else went to Carmen Lopez Cruz, described in the document as Turner's "close friend, employee and companion of over forty-five years." The document said Crane received less "for many reasons, including the sums that were given to her by Turner earlier." Turner died of throat cancer in 1995. Her fortune was put at $1.7 million. In 1999 Cruz sued the lawyers who handled the estate in Los Angeles Superior Court. She said the Lana Turner Trust had been drained by taxes and by lawyers' and accountants' fees, and that she was left with "virtually nothing." Her court papers alleged that she nursed Turner through her illness after Crane abandoned her. In 2000 Crane asked the court for leave to argue that Cruz had broken the trust's no-contest clause by suing the trustee. On September 6, 2001, the Court of Appeal held in Matter of Lana Turner Trust, B145455, that Crane could file that petition without risking her own $50,000. The appeals court did not decide whether Cruz had forfeited her share. No published ruling on that question was found.