S5:01:114 Death of a playmate: Dorathy Stratten

David 2: [00:00:00] She was young. Beautiful. And your typical girl next door. One day while just doing her job. She was spotted working at her local dairy queen. The man who spotted her, looked like he had her best interest at heart. But to be honest, he was only there to serve himself. After months of convincing this young girl. 

He finally got her to take test photos for Playboy. That started what would become of the young lady named Dorothy Stratten? Join us as we discuss the life and tragic death of this young woman. Join us as we examine death of a playmate, Dorothy Stratten on this episode of a day with crime

David: What's going on. Everybody welcome to another episode of A day with crime. . We are your hosts, David, 

Geneva: And Geneva, 

David: you are listening to season five episode one, Geneva. [00:01:00] How are you doing today? 

Geneva: I'm fine. It's cold. But otherwise I'm fine because since people might not know, I moved, I'm not going to disclose where I moved to, but I moved and it's cold. That's all I'm going to say. We're not in Florida anymore. I feel like real. It is real winter. We have snow the other day. I took a picture of it.

So how are you dad?

it's kinda chilly down here too in good old California. No, we don't say that very often, but it is. We're getting to that end of that winter time and we filling it. Otherwise everybody is doing good. We doing fine. Just happy to be back on the podcast grind. Okay, everybody. So couple things you want to go all the way before we get into today's case, we are back for season five.

David: This is going into our fourth year. So we've been here with you guys for three and a half years. So we thank you guys for being here. We know we've had a rough last season,[00:02:00] but hopefully this time in season five, we don't have that. So there's a couple of things we want to point out to you guys right here at the top that you will notice that has happened since a day with crime has been on our hiatus.

So a couple of things has changed one in the way that we record. Now, we've been here almost four years in Geneva, and I have been trying to find this solution of how we can actually get things recorded, being that she's remote, and I'm not to where it sounds like we were next door. If you listened to anything and season one, season two, sometimes in season three, you will hear what we call internet garbling.

That is when all of a sudden she starts sounding like a robot or it drops off. we've have finally found a solution to that. And we using that today and we want to give props out to Riverside dot F M. It is a whole recording studio that is based online. So hopefully you guys are going to hear a lot more difference.

and it's gonna sound like we right next door, because the way that it works, where it actually [00:03:00] records the files locally onto a browser and then uploads it. So we should get rid of all of that. So good sound going forward. The other thing we wanted to point out is we now finally have our website and it's already launched.

David: So in the end of the show notes, and in the outro , you will hear us tell you to go to www.adaywithcrime.com. Everything that you can think of is there every episode of the podcast, we're going to start doing blog posts from here on out. If there is one warranted, meaning that we do have some photos of whatever we want share, 

 you guys can get that over there. A couple of different ways to support the podcast if you wish. We are going to have ad free subscriptions on Supercast. As well as we do have buy me a coffee, which you will

David: see the yellow cup of coffee in the left-hand side when you go to the website?

So it's just five bucks. You just want to drop us $5, to help us out with the podcast and to continue us going. all of that can be found [00:04:00] on the website. So now we have our one stop shop for that. We have been working feverously on it. So we hope that you guys do enjoy it. So that's a couple of things we wanted to get out to you guys and let you know here at the top Geneva, how are you feeling about coming back and the new improvements that we've made to the podcast?

Geneva: I think it's going to be good at 

David: So I am overly excited, so I miss it whenever we don't get to. The podcast. So hopefully everybody stays nice and healthy as we need them to. And, we're going to be good. All right. So let's drop in to today's case. We're going to take you back to 1980, where this case comes from, obviously from the title of the case, you already know that the person that we are going to talk about today is deceased.

So we're going to talk about death of a playmate,Dorothy Stratten. [00:05:00] Geneva. You ready to do death of a playmate?

Geneva: ready as I'll ever be. 

David: once again, keep in mind that so you guys can follow along with us, we do use Wikipedia. We have fully researched this case, which you will find out as we go along because you will probably hear things that is not here and we will fill in any holes in the Wikipedia. This is how it's always been kind we give you guys a reference, and then we just fill you in as we go along.

All right. So Dorothy Stratten was born, Dorothy, Ruth Hoogstraten, February 28th, 1960. And unfortunately she passed away August 14th, 1980. She was known professionally as Dorothy Stratten. She was a Canadian and she was a Playboy playmate. She was a model and actress and she was the Playboy playmate of the month for August, 1979 and playmate of the year in 1980.

Stratton appeared in three comedy films, and then at least two episodes of shows, broadcast on American [00:06:00] network television. She was murdered at the age of 20. by her estranged husband and manager Paul Snyder. Her death inspired two motion pictures, the 1981 TV movie, death of a centerfold and the 1983, theatrical release Star 80. As well as the book the killing of the unicorn, and the songs Californication by the red hot chili peppers.

The best was yet to come by Bryan Adams and cover girl by Prisom.

All right. So before we go on, I'm just going to say that I had no idea up until we did research for this, that, the song Californication was about Dorothy Stratten. So I went back and re-read the lyrics and it perfectly does fit, what she went through. All right. So she was born in grace maternity hospital in Vancouver on February 28th, 1960 to Simon and Nellie Hoogstraten, who had immigrated from the Netherlands. In 1961

her brother, John Arthur was born in may 68, her sister Louise Stratton.[00:07:00] In 1977, Stratton was attending Centennial high school and 

Coquitlam, British Columbia. Concurrently she was working part-time at a local dairy queen where she met 26 year old Vancouver area club, promoter, and pimp Paul Snider who began dating her. Snider later had a photographer take professional nude photos of her, which were sent to Playboy magazine in the summer of 1978.

She was under the age of 19 and the legal age of majority in British Columbia. So she had to persuade her mother to sign the model release form. Now let's talk about that real quick, because there's already a number of things wrong in just that statement. And this is why we do thorough research. So it wasn't like she just met Paul and all of a sudden he said, come to my house and take off your clothes

let me shoot you something for Playboy and it was done. It took him actually a few months to convince Dorothy, [00:08:00] there's some video I will post on the website, but if you watch the video and some of her interviews, you can tell that Dorothy Stratten was a very, shy girl. They always said that she was the perfect Playboy playmate, because she was exactly that she was the girl next door, which back in those times, that's exactly what Hugh Hefner was trying to portray in his magazine.

So it took Snider a while to get her to take those test photos. And her mother did not sign the model release, actually it was forged. So because she did not want to tell her parents what it was she was going to do, she didn't feel like that they would agree with that. Paul Snider actually forged the signature to get her to go to Playboy.

And that's how the model release got there. But now, if you are from the U S you already know that she was already legal enough to do that on her own. [00:09:00] If she was a United States citizen as a legal age of majority here is 18, but it's not over the British Columbia is not even 19. I think it was like 20 or 21 over there.

Geneva: So from what I could see, it might be changed now, but I think at the time that this all happened, it was 19 in British Columbia. 

 I know they're more strict over there than we are. 

David: Yeah. To be honest, I didn't look it up. but I'm sure it's probably changed.

I think in the documentary, they said, at least at the time that the age of majority was 19, which is why they had to forge a signature. But even in the documentary, they said that there was forged. 

So this is why people, you can't a hundred percent trust, Wikipedia all the time. All right. So in August of 78, she moved to Los Angeles where she was chosen as a finalist for the 25th anniversary great playmate hunt. Snider joined her in October and in June, the following year, they married. With her sur name, shortened to Stratton.

David: She became Playboy's miss August, 1979, and began working [00:10:00] as a bunny at the Playboy club in Century city, Los Angeles. Let's fill in those gaps there because there are certainly some. So it says that she came down for the finals of the 25th anniversary great playmate hunt that is true, but here's what happened with that.

Hugh Hefner was really taken by Dorothy, according to him, she was the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. She was graceful, she was everything the magazine wanted. It was between Dorothy and another girl who also was pretty, but they didn't feel like that she was as pretty as Dorothy. But because Dorothy was shy because she was very what they call in the business, green.

They felt like that she needed to come a little bit more out of her shell,Hugh Hefner did not pick her for the 25th anniversary playmate that year, but that's what was going to happen. So instead she became, Playboy's miss August of [00:11:00] 79. Now it goes on to speed through and says that she married Paul.

Okay. there's some things about that too. Wasn't as joyful as that seems. Paul was coming out as a bad guy. And if you ever watch the documentary death of a playmate on 2020 there is a number of stars that's talking about them. One of them is max Baer Jr.

Now that name sounds familiar. If you ever watch the show, Beverly hillbillies, he played Jethro. And apparently he was friends with Paul. He gives you the whole rundown of Nope, because Paul wanted to try to hang on to that. He was trying to make money. He saw that Dorothy was a goldmine. He basically did everything within his power to get her to marry him.

Everybody was against her marrying Paul Snider from the beginning. It was not a joyful occasion. Hugh Hefner was upset. Her family that knew about it. Didn't like her sister Louise didn't want him to marry him, but it was she felt like she owed that to [00:12:00] him. So she went ahead, and married him.

and that was that. Anything, you got to say about that.

Geneva: All I got to say is if Hugh Hefner doesn't want you to do it. I feel like you shouldn't do it. 

David: Right.

I'm not really a fan of Hugh Hefner. I'm gonna just be honest, may he rest in peace, but I don't love Hugh Hefner. But I just feel like if he's don't do this, you should leave. 

David: And well, on top of all of that, it didn't say that she worked at the Playboy club at century city. she did, but the one thing that she could not do was she could not sell alcohol because he was on the 21. So she was what they call a door bunny, which is basically a bunny that just greet you at the door, get you to where you're going and seating.

So if you guys are there as about my age and you know all about this stuff, that means that I don't even think they really taught her how to do what they called the bunny dip. Which, if you ever went to a playboy bunny club, it was a way of them serving you a drink where they just like, dip to [00:13:00] the side.

So carrying on Hugh Hefner had high hopes that Stratton could have meaningful crossover success as an actress. So she featured in episodes of the television series, book, Rogers and fantasy island in 1979. Also that year she had some small roles in the films, America thon, the roller disco comedy skate town USA in a lead role in the exportation film,Autumn born.

Heffner reportedly encouraged Stratten to sever ties with Snider, calling him a hustler and a pimp. Rosanne Katon, and other friends warn Stratton about Snider's behavior. Stratton began an affair with Peter Bogdanovich while he was directing, they all laughed. Now they just first do a lot of this kind of give some incidence about that.

It sounds like she got married and then she dealt with Peter Bogdanovich. There was a lot of time in between that. It is very true that Paul was a pimp. People started finding out that he actually did have two or three girls working up underneath him. and [00:14:00] they was giving him money and he was using thier money to live off of and do whatever it was

that she wanted to do. By the time she got to, they all laughed. Which is a movie that she did with John Ritter. She was already very unhappy. Her and Paul was already to the point of being estranged. She had already moved out of her house. and everybody started saying, don't go back. You just need to leave Paul.

And then she met Peter Bogdanovich, who was a director who directed, they all laughed. They spent so much time together that they did end up falling in love. So there was a large gap in between that when Stratton the rod at the Playboy mansion for the 25th anniversary playmate hunt, she was very shy and naive.

She was very uncomfortable with the casual, nudity and sex in several contemporary playmates, including Pamela Bryan, Gail Stanton, and Marcy Hanson, befriended Stratton, and protected her from some of Hefner's friends whom they consider to be predators. [00:15:00] Alright guys lets just face it. I don't care how nice the grotto look, I don't care how nice the playboy mansion was.

We all know what was going on at the mansion. And that's why they said that they protected her from some of Hugh Hefner's friends. Cause he had friends that was coming over there that was expecting to do things. and Dorothy, wasn't all about that. She was already shy as it was, to the point of, it was a lot of work for Paul, even Gary to take those texts photos.

And then in the documentary, they actually show that she's so nervous that she giggled and laughed a lot during some of her photo shoots. 

All right. So on March 22nd, 1980 Stratton flew to New York city to begin work on what became her last film project, which was, they all laughed. A romantic comedy being directed by Bogdanovich. Laugh would be Stratton's fifth,  movie in a career that had only begun the year before and represented her first substantial role in a big budget picture, playing the [00:16:00] unhappily, married love interest of John Ritter,

one of the films stars. Bogdanovich who also wrote the screenplay said in an interview that he had based the backstory of Stratton's character on what he had learned about her marriage to Snider. If you ever watched the movie, they all laugh and know the story of Stratton and Snider. You can definitely tell, especially some of the lines he wrote taking a stab at him.

She had spent the first two and a half months of 1980 completing her playmate of the year shoot and making her previous movie Galaxina in Southern California. With all her work close to home, Snider assumed the role of his wives chaffeaur as well as her or SATs manager and acting coach, but Snider's near constant presence, as well as his criticism of an almost daily arguments with his wife, caused, Dorothy so much stress that her coworkers at Playboy and the [00:17:00] Galaxina set, took notice of the tension in the relationship. As the spring of 1980 approach Snider insisted on accompanying, his wife to New York city. But Stratton at least recognized the problems he could cause while she was making the most important picture of her young career.

Also wanting the freedom to pursue relationship with Bogdanovich. Dorothy convinced Paul to remain in Los Angeles after explaining that the director Ann had decided to close the set of his film to all, but the cast and immediate crew. 

Dorothy and Peter Bogdonovich consummatted their affair on the day after her arrival in New York. I think we need to take the time right here. Cause they're skipping all over him to talk a little bit more about Paul and what is going on at this time? so basically by now Paul's already made his interest.

Dorothy's already become playmate of the year. Hugh Hefner can't stand Paul. So basically he [00:18:00] has the most beautiful woman in the whole mansion as far as everybody is concerned, but being the dog that Paul was he's back over in the grotto. He's trying to hit on all the other girls. He's trying to sleep with everybody.

He's harassing other females to the point to where Hugh Hefner pretty much barred him from the Playboy mansion. The only time that he could come up to the mansion is if Dorothy was with him. He also felt that he was the reason that Dorothy was as successful as she was. And when people started rejecting Paul, not wanting him, but wanting Dorothy, which happened very quickly, they started setting it up to where Paul didn't have to come to any meetings that Dorothy had to take place in. They started setting her up with other management. This is when Paul's will start to turn. He starts to go crazy because he feels like that somebody else is taking credit for what [00:19:00] he should be getting. And with all this money that now is getting thrown around to Dorothy, he feels like that he should be getting some of that cash, especially when she became playmate of the year, which we'll talking about a little bit more the gifts she got, but she got I think over $200,000 in cash and gifts, just for being playmate of the year. And Paul was getting none of that. What's your thoughts on that Geneva?

Geneva: First of all. I don't like Paul to begin with. I feel like Paul is skeezy anyway. but it seems like he wanted fame, but on somone else's back. Like he wanted to be known for the fame. 

But didn't want 

to actually have to put in any of the work cause Dorothy was doing all the work for him. 

David: Right. He didn't want to do the work, but he wanted all the money, a clear mindset of a pimp because what he was already getting. So just wanted to talk about it since they skipped all over Paul. Wanted to tie it in a little bit so you guys can better understand as we go along, [00:20:00] why things happen the way that they did.

So on April Dorothy briefly returned to California to prepare for upcoming introduction as the new playmate of the year and follow on publicity tour with several months of filming left to be completed in New York. This was the last time that she would live with Snider in their Los Angeles area home. On Wednesday, April 30th at a luncheon held on the grounds of Hefner's mansion.

Stratton was presented to the assembled entertainment press as the 1980 playmate of the year in his introductory remarks. Hugh Hefner noted that Dorothy was from Canada and had received $200,000 in cash and gifts. In addition to the title. In a fleeting comment,Hugh Hefner also acknowledged that the effect that Stratten's charming combination of beauty, intelligence and sensitivity had on many who knew her when he said, and she is something rather special 

[00:21:00] they always are, but Dorothy is really quite unique. After taking the lectern Dorothy thanked Mario. Caselli the photographer who shot both her playmate of the month and year pictorials , several Playboy executives, and finally Hefner whom she declared has made me probably the happiest girl in the world

today. Later that evening, Dorothy appeared as a guest on the tonight show starring Johnny Carson. If you're listening keeping in mind who was not mentioning there, Paul. when she said that Hugh Hefner has made her the happiest girl in the world that cranked another gear in Paul.

And then now she's on the tonight show with Johnny, which he thought he should be there that cranks another gear. So as we go along, his gears is just keep cranking to, the climax of this. The next day, Dorothy began a two week promotional tour of Canada. Having no events scheduled over the first weekend, she flew to New York on a whim to surprise Peter [00:22:00] Bogdanovich. Conflicted about her marriage.

Now more than ever, Dorothy wrote to her husband from Canada, asking for more freedom in their relationship. With his wife beyond his immediate control and fearing the worst upon reading her letter.

Paul telephoned from Los Angeles and flew into a rage when Dorothy answered. The Canadian tour was arranged to end in her hometown of Vancouver, so Dorothy might relax for a few days with family before returning to work on they all laughed.

However snider appeared in Vancouver at the last minute where he coerced her into spending some of her brief vacation, making personal appearances at several local nightclubs. Since Paul knew many of the club owners, he personally negotiated and collected Dorothy's appearance fees, and then pocketed the entire sum when she returned to Bogdanovich in New York city.

Again, he's trying to capitalize because he's not getting any of that Playboy money. But because of who Dorothy was, it was very [00:23:00] easy to persuade her to do things. And again, she was the kind of person that felt like she owed Paul something. So when they went around to these nightclubs, she just went ahead and did it, but she saw no money because he took it all. 

During this time in Vancouver it was reported that Dorothy and Snider had a particularly heated argument. At some point, during the fight, Dorothy offered to give up her acting career and suggested the couple permanently returned to Canada. However, Paul rebuffed his wife's attempt to save their marriage because he wanted all that money.

In the days of weeks after Paul returned to Los Angeles, he found it increasingly difficult to get in touch with Dorothy. In late June, just a few weeks after their first wedding anniversary, Paul received another letter from her. This one announcing that they were now physically and financially separated.

Paul had several responses to the second letter. He emptied the couples joint bank account. He had a [00:24:00] brief affair with an old girlfriend. And now convinced that Dorothy was having an affair of her own with Bogdanovich, paul hired a private detective to gather evidence of his wife's infidelity. As a foreign national living in the U S without a green card that would allow him to hold a job and having no other source of income, Snider relied on Stratton

now through her business manager to pay the monthly household bills. Little was left over for a extravagances such as the expenses incurred by a private detective working on the case 3000 miles from home. Therefore over the summer of 1980, Paul began selling Dorothy's playmate of the year prizes at a loss for quick cash.

The most notable example, being a Jaguar sports car that Playboy had valued at $26,000.by mid July principal photography on they all laugh was completed in the New York production wrapped. On Wednesday, July 30th, Stratton and Bogdanovich returned to Los Angeles after [00:25:00] having spent a 10 day holiday together in England. 

Dorothy's official LA residence was now at the address of a newly rented Beverly Hills apartment, but an actuality, she had quietly moved into Peter Bogdonovich's mansion in Bel-Aire all. Alright this begins the attorney point. Dorothy pretty much told Paul she was done taking care of him. She even instructed her management not to give him any more money.

Understand since all of this is going down, she has been taking care of him, all the household bills and everything. But at the point that he came up and said, we are done. She wanted to be out. She had already moved out of the house before she even went to shoot the film, they were already separated.

And so this was getting Paul's gears to start turning, becoming more dangerous than what he already was. it's, like I said, he wanted [00:26:00] all the fame, but he didn't want to do nothing for it. But then didn't think about the repercussion of you are just like, you're married to the money, Like it's not your money.

how are you feeling about the relationship she ended up having with Peter Bogdonovich? Understand Peter Bogdanovich was significantly older than Dorothy was. Do you think that she was probably pushed into that because of Paul?

David: Maybe he made her feel loved. How do you think we got to that point? 

Geneva: And she was what, like 20, 

David: By this time. Yeah. She was only 20. 

Geneva: I don't love it. And it's not because I'm against age gaps but here is where I have a problem. I feel even with age gaps, there is a line. if she was like 25 and he was in his mid thirties Like I would be okay with that. so in my opinion I feel like she was duped into that to begin with, cause he was a pimp when she met him. I don't know if the whole thing feels very manipulative just because she [00:27:00] is under the age where your brain is fully developed. You know what I mean Dad? Like your brain is not fully developed till you're 25. I don't, in my opinion, I don't feel like a 20 year old can be in a relationship that won't turn toxic. You might not be toxic to begin with, but I feel like, a 20 year old cannot date an almost 40 year old without it turning toxic. Cause I feel like that, I guess it could happen, but I feel nine times out of 10, it's going to go from being okay to being very controlling. 

David: now when it comes to Bogdanovich, I will say this. He was completely the opposite of Paul. He actually did not go with her to take advantage of her. Matter of fact, he was filthy rich. so she's going from somebody who has nothing to somebody who actually has a lot. And he actually really did, even though the age gap was there, which was the shocking thing to me, when I did the research about this, he [00:28:00] actually really did love Dorothy, Dorothy really did love him.

So he wasn't doing any taken advantage of, he moved her in, kept her away from Paul, made sure that she was doing things on her own. But yeah, to a lot of people this was like he is too old. on the other side of that though, Max Baer and all these other people was pretty much happy, That she was with Peter Bogdanovich, even though there was a huge age gap because she was being taken care of.

Geneva: Now I did watch the 20, 20, episode. And I will agree with you that it does appear that Dorothy loved him and he loved dorothy, that's fine. I'm just saying like statistically an age gap like that with one of the people whose brain is not fully developed, Being under the age of

25. If it was reversed and Dorothy was a man,

and [00:29:00] Bogdanovich. 

It was a woman. I would say the same thing just because you still have one party whose brain is not fully developed. It's easier to take advantage of somebody that way. Now. I don't think that what happened in this situation.

I'm just saying, I don't love it. 

 I feel that Dorothy was on a different plane. Here's why she already been through this stuff with Paul. It, and there is something that I myself agree with, which is this. You can put a child in adult situations and they become a child much sooner. Even the people that says your brain ain't fully developed until you 25 says that because I was one of them.

David: I was very grown by the time I was 14, 15 and 16, because I had to be. And I think in Dorothy's situation now that she's been taken advantage of, now that she's been, hoodwinked by Paul, he's doing what he wants to do. he'sbecome comtrolling . I think she was ready for what she was getting into.

just let you guys kinda know, there was about what a 21 years age gap between them. He was [00:30:00] 41. She was 20. so let's move on. So on the night of July 31st, 1980. Paul by now aware that his estranged wife was back in LA and living with Bogdanovich, hid among the shadows, just outside the directors estate carrying a borrowed handgun intending to shoot anyone who appeared at the entrance of the property.

After several hours of inactivity, Paul grew impatient and left, drove up into the Hills, overlooking the city. And he admitted later to a friend, he had thoughts of suicide. So you picking up on that? Yes. He went to kill Peter Bogdanovich that night. At approximately noon on Friday, August 8th, Dorothy and Paul saw each other for the first time in nearly three months at Paul's and Dorothy's former house in west Los Angeles.

After having already persuaded Dorothy to pose for Playboy and then marry him. Paul was supremely confident before the meeting that he would convince his wife to take him back. But his hopes of a reconciliation were quickly [00:31:00] shattered when Stratton admitted that she had fallen in love with Peter Bogdanovich and wanted to finalize their separation.

A dejected cider agreed to meet Dorothy one more time, the following week to discuss a money settlement. let's correct that. First of all, this is why I say , I think Dorothy was way stronger than the head than we want to admit or believe is because Paul is the man that has gotten her where she is.

He was the first man to ever convince her to do things, that she did not want to do. in one of her interviews, she even said, I've never taken off my clothes before for anyone I did not know. And that it took Paul A long time to convince her of that. So I think that she was still, even though I agree brain ain't fully developed and all of that, but I think that if she was still thinking in that child mentality, it would have been very easy for Paul to pull her back into that trap.

She would have left Peter and went back to him for any other reason out [00:32:00] assure obligation. The other part that's wrong in that is it said that Paul agreed to meet Stratton for one more time the following week, that was not the case. Basically paul asked for Dorothy to come meet him one more time.

He said that he wanted to just talk to her and see what's going on. And they jumbled all this stuff up right here, because it said, that he tried to get her back while all of this took place at the meeting that he actually convinced her to go to. And everybody told her they didn't want her to go.

So it wasn't Snider that agreed. It was Snider asking Dorothy, if she would come over one last time. So later that afternoon, less than a week before Dorothy's murder, Paul had to return the borrowed gun to its owner over the next five days, he would become obsessed with getting another. On August 19th, the day after his meeting with [00:33:00] Dorothy, Snider and the private detective he had hired went to a local gun store. After being told that the store could not sell him a firearm because of his Canadian citizenship.

Paul asked the detective to buy the gun that he wanted. the man said no. When Paul saw the private detective again the following day, he tried to convince the man to buy him a machine gun for home protection. But the detective talked him out of the idea. The next day, August 11, Paul drove out into the San Fernando valley to look at a gun he had found for sale in a newspaper. 

He got lost however and eventually gave up and went home before finding the owner's address. On August 13th 1980 marked the two year anniversary of the day that Dorothy had first arrived in Los Angeles, to begin her acting and modeling career. So this dude was crazed. He had to get a gun,back then I hate to say it, but I was alive, but I was a kid back then.

But I think in the eighties, we had a lot of stronger gun laws than what we [00:34:00] currently do. Now. I think that if this was current, he probably could have found somebody Canadian not to give him a gun from inside that store .But he was hell bent on getting, his hands on a gun. So it was already in his mind what he was going to do when she came over to the house.

What's your thoughts on that Geneva?

Geneva: This man really tried to convince somebody he needed a machine gun for home protection. 

 you can protect your home with a shotgun or like a pistol. You don't need a whole machine gun. Absolutely not. 

David: What that says to me is he was making sure that whoever he was going to shoot, wasn't going to come back. And he was ready to have enough bullets to take out anybody else, I guess that wanted to decide to interject with that.

All right so on August 13th, 1980, the day before murdering Stratton. Paul bought a used 12 gauge [00:35:00] pump action shotgun from a private seller he found a local classified ad. Later that evening in a conversation with friends, Paul described how he had purchased a gun that day and finished this story by cryptically declaring that he was going to take up hunting. During the same conversation barely more than 12 hours before the murder, and otherwise jovial Snider casually brought up the subject of playmates who had unexpectedly died. In particular.

He spoke of Claudia Jennings an actress and former playmate of the year who had been killed in a car accident the year before. Paul made several morbid remarks to his companions related to the problems at Playboy magazine caused by Jenkins death, including a comment about how the editors will pull nude photos of a dead playmate from the next issue

if there's time. Dorothy arrived for her meeting with Paul at his rented west Los Angeles house at approximately noon [00:36:00] on Thursday, August 14th. She has spent the morning conferring with her business manager. And one of the topics the pair discuss was the amount of the property settlement the playmate would offer her estranged husband that afternoon.

The police later found $1,100 in cash among Dorothy's belongings in the house which she had apparently brought for Snider as a down payment. And just to clarify, it says that she met him at Paul's rented west Los Angeles home. It is exactly the same home that they use to share together towards the end of her morning meeting Dorothy's business manager made a fateful observation that his young client could avoid spending any more time with her husband by handing off the remaining separation and divorce negotiations to her lawyer. 

Dorothy replied that the process will go easier. If she dealt with Paul personally, explaining that he was being nice about everything and finally adding, I like to remain his [00:37:00] friend. Paul's two roommates had left in the morning, so the couple were alone when Dorothy stepped into the house that she has shared with her husband until just a few months earlier. By all appearances, Dorothy has spent some time in the living room where her purse was found lying open before she and Paul went into his bedroom. By eight o'clock that evening, both of the roommates had returned to the house.

They saw Dorothy's parked car out front and noted that Paul's bedroom door was closed. Assuming that the couple had reconciled and wanted their privacy, the roommates spent the next several hours watching television in the living room. Alerted by Paul's private detective, the roommates into the bedroom shortly after 11:00 PM that night, and discovered the bodies of Dorothy and Paul. Each had been killed by a single blast with Snider's shotgun.

Both bodies were nude. according to the police timeline. Paul had shot Stratton that afternoon within an hour of her arrival at the house. And Paul then committed [00:38:00] suicide or possibly one hour after the murder. Sometime after midnight in the early morning of August 15th, the private detective telephoned the Playboy mansion and told Hefner that Stratton had been murdered.

Hefner then call Bogdanovich. After collapsing at the news bogdanovich was sedated. Dorothy's mother was told of her daughter's death at her Vancouver area home later that morning by an officer of the Royal Canadian mounted police. Dorothy's body was cremated and the remains interred in the Westwood village Memorial park cemetery in Los Angeles.

The epithet on Dorothy's grave marker includes a passage chosen by Bogdonovich from chapter thirty four of the Earnest Hemingway novel, a farewell to arms. Three years after the murder, the authors granddaughter Mariel Hemingway played Dorothy Stratten in star 80 a Bob Fosse Biopic about the doomed playmate and her husband.

Let me read you briefly what her gravestone [00:39:00] says. It says if people bring so much courage to this world, the world has to kill them to break them. So of course it kills them. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave and impartially 

if you are none of these, you can be sure that it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry. We love you, Dr.

 So just to give you guys a little clarification on the last part that is exactly what happened. Now there is some things out there that I want to warn you guys against that is false. There's one YouTube video. 

David: I found out of a guy going to visit the house and the grave one of these days, because I live near LA I'll plan on going to some of these places, but he actually reported that Dorothy was found strapped to a man-made sex contraption that was built by Paul. And that's where he shot her at. That is absolutely false.

Now it is true that he did have a sex contraption. It is also [00:40:00] very true that he did rape her before and after the murder. Which it takes a very special dude who ain't got no heart to do that because I have seen the crime scene photos. I will not post them. you can look them up on Google.

There's some of them that is there. There was one that was very disturbing that I had never seen before. It was exactly what she looked like after she got shot. But if you actually watched the movie star 80, which if you guys have never seen it, yes Mariel Hemingway plays Dorothy, but Eric Roberts, this is the first movie he ever did.

And this is where he became the famous actor that he is because he played Paul Snider to a T. If you ever see the movie, which the name came from what was on Paul Snider's license plate. Because he put star 80, which is what he figured that Dorothy would become. The last scene of the movie when they pan out.

And they show you the photo of the death [00:41:00] scene. That is actually the police photo that was taken when they got there. All right, Geneva. So what's your final thoughts on Dorothy Stratten?

Geneva: My final thoughts. I just had to say every time that you asked me what my final thoughts are makes you think of Jerry Springer. final thoughts on this, I just feel like this was so senseless. You know what I mean? most of these cases are. But I just feel like this one was just senseless. And. I just want to warn anyone that goes to watch the 20, 20 thing. Like at the end, there is like an aerial view of what it looks like, aftermath.

I just feel like that needs to be a warning. Cause I know you warned me about it dad and I forgot. 

 And I'm going to just say, do not watch that 20, 20 special with kids in The room.

Because they don't really give you a lot of warning in the special, they're kindlike was an aerial picture taken and then they show it to you. Like there's no warning of you're going to see it. You [00:42:00] know what I mean? I just feel like this was so senseless.

Geneva: Like I just don't feel like that there was a reason for it. You know what I mean? So, I mean, may she rest in peace? You know what I mean? I feel like she would have done great things. I feel she was already famous in her own. Right. feel like she would have gone on to do more things than just the little bit of acting that.

she did and the centerfold stuff.

I agree.

Geneva: that's how I feel. What are your final thoughts dad? 

 As somebody who's studied this case for a long time, I've seen the movie star 80 several times. I was around 9 years old when all those went down, but I've studied this case.

David: This is a true tale of. How men and sometimes women can manipulate somebody. If you look at Dorothy's whole career, it was a career that was started because somebody else wanted that to happen. Now, do I think that Playboy could have found Dorothy on her own? [00:43:00] Yeah. If she went looking for something like that. But she wasn't, she was as nice girl next door, Canadian, innocent girl,working at dairy queen.

And then here comes Paul. I think after she got into the groove of it and after she knew what was going on. I do think that she started to get comfortable with it. But from everything I've read and saw, I don't believe that she would want to been a Playboy her whole life. She would have started parlaying that into other things that she was good at with the acting and things of that nature.

Truly a life cut short at the age of 20. That's sickening to me. My youngest daughter is gonna turned 20 this year. So when I read these cases, I'm thinking about them like, man, back in that day, even now that could be her that's why I'm so over protective. But, Paul was a dude that should've never been around anybody just to let you guys know, I didn't know this.

I did research. [00:44:00] These are the things I told you I was gonna tell you, you didn't, you were at the end. But there has been, a fan made Dorothy Stratten website that is out there. It's been running for at least 16 years. And it has a lot of stuff on here that this guy managed to get his hands on.

He has rare photos, all clean photos, but he has rare photos that was shot of Dorothy, that nobody else has a couple of the playmates that she worked with,contributed to the website. he has people just sending them pictures of them and Dorothy and telling stories and tributes.

One of the things that I found on here is there's actually a letter from one of Paul Snider's ex girlfriends, actually the one right before Dorothy. And she goes on to say that Paul had always been this way, that when she met him in a nightclub. He was buying her, everything, putting her in lavish hotels,buying her flowers and cars and whatever she wanted.

[00:45:00] And then she later found out that all the money that he was using was off the backs of the four girls that he was pimping out. So they was paying him and he was using thier money to go off, and to , spend it on her. It came to a point to where she also wanted and needed to break up with Paul and she did.

And Paul pulled the exact same thing that he did with Dorothy. He tried to convince her to come back over to the house so that they could speak one last time and friends did not let her go and said, don't go. And she says in the letter that she's glad that she didn't go because she probably would have ended up like, Dorothy.

She also goes on to say that she doesn't think that Dorothy's friends did enough to protect her. I disagree with that because if you look at the documentary, which i'm post , the name of it and some links, if there is any on YouTube. You would see that everybody was telling her don't go. They did everything short of pretty much strapping her [00:46:00] down into a chair and locking doors and put her in a closet. Either way

it was, she was pretty much hell bent on the fact that she was going to go and she was going to see Paul because she trusted him. And for whatever reason, she didn't believe that he would actually kill her. And understand that he didn't pull that out until they were in the house, in the bedroom where he had already barricaded the door.

And it was up until the point where she finally said, no, Paul we're done. Then that's when he brandished the shotgun and said that if she didn't reconsider that he would take her out and him. And just to clarify that timeline, they said that she was shot within an hour of being there. that could probably be the case so if you watch the movie, you do see when she gets shot.

There's some things that ends up going on. And then Paul ends up taking his life one hour afterwards. So may Dorothy rest in peace. It was a young [00:47:00] life cut short, wish it never would have happened. Let this be a cautionary tale to all you young women out there. Do things for yourself. Don't let a man try to persuade you to do anything you don't want to do.

Don't let them feel like they have any kind of control over you because the moment they feel like that they have control and they've given you everything. That's the moment we get people like Paul. All right. That does it for this one. We thank you for tuning in. We hope that you enjoyed this case.

Geneva, do you have any shout outs?

Geneva: I actually do so I shout them out before,I want to shout out the podcast anatomy of murder. Okay. it's, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and. I cannot remember the man's name right now, but he is like an ex, NYP YPD detective. And now he's like a, news journalist, but I cannot remember his name right now.

 I want to talk them out.

Geneva: ..Because a, I love their podcasts, but also their podcasts [00:48:00] moved. So it used to be uploaded, I think like on Monday or Wednesday, and now it's being uploaded on Tuesdays. So go listen to that anatomy of murder awesome podcast. Very insightful is more of a, um, educational podcast in my opinion, because you really get the, perspective of not only an ex detective, but alsoAnna-Sigga NicolazziWaze was a prosecutor. a different viewpoint. You know what I mean? They're just being told the stories. So anatomy, murder. That's all I got. Do you got any shout outs this weekend? 

David: Actually I do. So we're going to shout out a new podcast. It's called Sunday civics. It is hosted by a young lady named L joy Williams. This podcast has actually been nominated for NAACP image award for outstanding news and information in a podcast. she is a [00:49:00] political strategist and she gives you lessons on how we need to take civic action on things.

So give her a listen. I did actually meet her briefly this morning because I had a conference for some of the tools that we are using and she was there. So make sure you go and check out joy for Sunday civics.

All right. God's was always your thank you for tuning in. We are glad to be back. We're looking forward to what we are going to be bringing you here in season number five. Also again, I mentioned SuperCast. If you want add free. Go to our website, sign up for SuperCast. You get a three day free trial on the Nation current and Nation Premium plans. 

And then on the Gold plan, which is a yearly plan, we give you 7 free trial. Try it out. You have nothing to lose! All ad free and you will get the [00:50:00] episodes for that week. About two days earlier than everybody else. Remember we drop our new episodes now on Monday, which means that at the latest you guys will get them onSaturday over on SuperCast. As always guys, thank you for tuning in and staying with us.

We hopefully that nothing goes wrong. This year. We have a lot planned for season five and, we are just happy to be back. So with that said people as always don't commit any crimes out there. 

Geneva: So you don't end up on our podcast.[00:51:00]