Episode #222 | 2.21.25

Dorothy Stratten: A Playboy Pinup, a Private Investigator, and a Chilling Murder

Listen free:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeart | Pandora | Amazon Music | TuneIn | Castbox

In this episode

Dorothy Stratten went from Dairy Queen counter girl to Playboy pinup to murder victim – in just two years. Hugh Hefner called her the next Marilyn Monroe. A major Hollywood director wrote a role in his new film just for her, confident that she would make the leap from centerfold to starlet. But all of that was cut short on August 14, 1980, when a private investigator stumbled upon a brutal murder scene that shook the entertainment industry to its core.

Sources

Death of a Playmate (Village Voice) 

Hugh Hefner, the murder of Dorothy Stratten and the dark side of Playboy (Washington Post) 

Dorothy Stratten interview on The Tonight Show 1980 

How Sopranos star Peter Bogdanovich married his Playboy lover’s baby sister after jealous ex raped & shot her in head (The US Sun)

Death of a Starlet (Wondery)

Paul Snider’s Cause of Death: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know (Heavy.com)

Scar Tissue, by Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman

The Meaning of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" (Extra Chill)

Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.