The brutal murder of up-and-coming actress Dominique Dunne, star of the 1982 blockbuster Poltergeist, left her prominent Hollywood family traumatized.
His father, Dominick Dunne, had already hit rock bottom. Divorced and broke, his initial success in Hollywood had waned and he had been forced to sell everything he owned, even his dog.
As the dreaded trial approached, Tina Brown, soon to be Vanity Fair’s fearless new editor, encouraged Dunne to keep a diary during the harrowing trial. When she finished it, she would publish it. It caused a sensation, but Dunne left out a crucial part of the story.
Dunne’s son, actor Griffin Dunne, has revealed in his new memoir that his father was haunted by secrets of his own – secrets he feared could derail the trial, shame his family and lead to his daughter’s killer escaping justice.
In The Friday Afternoon Club, Griffin – best known for his roles in American Werewolf in London and, more recently, The Girls on the Bus – writes that it was only when his father was on his deathbed, dying of bladder cancer, that he discovered he had been having a 30-year affair with one of Dominique’s best friends, many years his junior.
Alex, Dominique and Griffin with their father, Dominick Dunne, in 1967 at the Chateau Marmont
Dominique Dunne, right, starring in the 1982 blockbuster Poltergeist, shortly before she was brutally murdered in the driveway of her West Hollywood home.
Griffin Dunne has written a memoir about his childhood in Hollywood royalty and the murder of his sister Dominique. The actor is best known for his roles in American Werewolf in London and, more recently, The Girls on the Bus.
That deathbed moment helped Dunne gradually unravel the mystery of her father’s life and she has now revealed for the first time the harrowing diary entries that were never made public.
Dunne’s captivating account also details how his close friend Carrie Fisher lost her virginity to him and his endless encounters with stars such as Frank Sinatra, Dennis Hopper and Harrison Ford, who at the time was a handyman for Dunne’s aunt, the author Joan Didion.
Dominique had shot to fame in the film Poltergeist and on television shows such as Hart to Hart and Fame. But her young life was cut short when she was strangled by her abusive ex John Thomas Sweeney on October 30, 1982.At the entrance of his house in West Hollywood. home.
Artist Norman Carby had been a star witness at the murder trial, and his account of the abuse Dominique suffered was seen as a defining moment. He faced brutal cross-examination from defence lawyer Mike Adelson, who attempted to portray Dominique as a drunk and drug addict whose death was simply a tragic accident.
After his arraignment, Griffin writes that Carby had joined the family for a celebratory lunch. “Mom told him that what he said on the stand gave her the only moment of hope since the trial began.
‘Neither Alex (Griffin’s brother) nor I could understand why Dad decided to skip this lunch, of all lunches, and not be with us to thank Norman for his testimony… But I did notice that he kept his distance from Norman as we all gathered in the hallway before entering the courtroom.’
Sweeney was acquitted of second-degree murder and charged with voluntary manslaughter, much to the outrage of the family. Dunne’s account of the trial was published, as promised by Tina Brown, and he became a star reporter for Vanity Fair, covering other high-profile criminal cases, including those of the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson.
But it wasn’t until years later, in the spring of 2008, that Griffin began to unravel the mystery of her father’s coldness toward Carby, when she traveled to Germany to see him undergoing stem cell treatment.
“After dropping off my luggage, I knocked on her door,” she writes. “A boy slightly younger than me opened the door and it took me a moment to identify him as Norman Carby, Dominique’s close friend and the impressive witness at her murder trial.
The Dunne children – Alex, Dominique and Griffin – on the beach in 1970
Griffin Dunne starred alongside Linda Fiorentino in Martin Scorsese’s 1985 film After Hours.
Dominique with Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver in the TV movie The Day the Loving Died
Dominique’s breakthrough role as an actress came in the ABC movie The Hitchhiker’s Diary.
John Thomas Sweeney was acquitted of second-degree murder and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, much to the outrage of his family.
‘Dad was in bed, looking grey and extremely thin when I went to hug him. ‘Do you remember Norman?’ he said, ‘from the trial.’
While Griffin tried to piece together the puzzle and figure out why that face from the past was standing in front of him, his father fell asleep and Carby had to fill in the blanks.
Dominique had acted as matchmaker for the two when Dunne was going through the worst time of his life. They fell in love and supported each other for 30 years.
“We’ve been celibate for a long time,” Carby told Griffin, “but he’s never stopped caring about me.”
Griffin was still curious as to why he had kept it a secret for so long. In the 1980s, there was nothing wrong with being gay, especially if you worked in show business.
Her answer came four years after Dunne’s death. Missing her father, she traveled to Austin, Texas, to the Briscoe Center for American History, where his papers are archived. There, she found the notebook containing the notes Tina Brown had told her to take all those years ago.
On August 23, he had written:
‘Adelson (Sweeney’s lawyer) is a dangerous and evil man who hates me as much as I hate him. I believe his hatred has led him to hire a detective to investigate my background and to discover my relationship with Norman… This disgusting and cruel man will expose our relationship to discredit your testimony and my character.’
Griffin with his father Dominick in 1988, five years after his sister’s murder trial.
Dominick Dunne shares a laugh with Joan Collins at a party in New York
Dominick became a star reporter for Vanity Fair and covered other high-profile criminal cases, including that of OJ Simpson (left).
Then she imagined the aggressive line of questioning: “Have you been having a secret relationship with your best friend’s father for all these years? What kind of friend are you? What kind of father has a relationship with the friend of one of his children? What is the age difference between you and Mr. Dunne, who I believe is a senior citizen?”
In the diary, she went on to vow that if her relationship with Carby was used to sway the verdict in Sweeney’s favour, “I will kill myself… this time I really will.”
The sense of torture her father had endured—not only facing his daughter’s killer in court, but fearing the possibility that he might somehow be responsible for her acquittal—was unimaginable to Griffin.
“When I reread the passage at the Briscoe Center, brief images of his face that day came to mind,” she writes. “He was contorted and making little moaning sounds that I didn’t remember hearing until now.
“Adelson, as it turned out, didn’t play that card on what must have been the longest day of my father’s life.”
But she adds: “I would have done anything to be able to hug him and tell him how sorry I am that he had to go through all that alone.”
The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne is published by Penguin Press
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