On this day, Feb. 12, 1976, actor Sal Mineo was stabbed to death in Hollywood. Mineo, who starred opposite James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” was 37.
A teen idol in the 1950s, Mineo was twice Oscar-nominated — for “Rebel Without a Cause” and in “Exodus.”
Mineo was trying to make a comeback the night he was killed. For two years, police investigated the slaying with little success, focusing on Mineo’s homosexual connections. Then, prison guards in Michigan heard that a pizza delivery man, Lionel Williams, had bragged about killing the actor.
Williams’ wife told police that Williams had come home the night of Mineo’s murder covered in blood.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to 57 years in prison.
— Scott McCabe
