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14 Celebrities Who — Yes, It's True — Killed People
Ferris Bueller's Day Off star Matthew Broderick was behind the wheel of a car that crashed into an oncoming car, killing two people. It happened on August 5, 1987, when Broderick and his girlfriend Jennifer Grey (just weeks before the release of her classic film Dirty Dancing) were vacationing in Ireland. Broderick was driving a rental car when he drove into the wrong lane and collided with a car driven by Margaret Doherty, 63, and her daughter Anna Gallagher, 28. Both women were killed, while Broderick was unconscious and badly injured, leaving Grey to initially believe she was the lone survivor of the accident. Upon coming to, Broderick had amnesia and didn't remember the entire day of the accident, saying, "I don't remember even getting up in the morning. I don't remember making my bed. What I first remember is waking up in the hospital."
Broderick ended up spending a month in the hospital, recovering. Years later, Grey would call Broderick a "great driver" and emphasize that, "nobody was drinking. It was just an accident. And it was tragic." Still, authorities initially considered charging Broderick with "Dangerous driving causing death." They instead charged him with "careless driving." He pleaded guilty and paid a $175 fine, which the victim's family called a "travesty of justice." In 2002, Broderick said, "It was extremely difficult coming to grips with what happened, but in time, I felt better about that terrible experience. Therapy helped."
Actor Alec Baldwin accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming the Western Rust. On Oct. 21, 2021, the small-budget production was already a chaotic mess despite only being 12 days into filming. Lane Luper, the A-camera first assistant, resigned just one day before Hutchins' death due to the production playing "fast and loose" with safety procedures. She wrote in her resignation email: "So far there have been 2 accidental weapons discharges and 1 accidental SFX explosives that have gone off around the crew between takes… To be clear there are NO safety meetings these days. There have been NO explanations as to what to expect for these shots." Baldwin and 25 crew members would later release a statement denying these allegations.
On the day of the shooting, the production team was preparing to film a scene where Baldwin's character would point a gun at the camera. To demonstrate, Baldwin pulled out what he thought was a "cold gun" (meaning a weapon with no projectile in it) and reportedly said, "So, I guess I'm gonna take this out, pull it, and go, 'Bang!'" Right then, a bullet fired from the gun (Baldwin claims he never pulled the trigger; authorities contest that), and it hit Hutchins in the chest. She was airlifted to the hospital but died hours after pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in February 2024, but the case was dismissed just four days into the trial when it came to light that police and prosecutors may have withheld evidence during the presentation of their case. According to his wife, Hilaria, Baldwin has been diagnosed with PTSD and said to her, "'If an accident had to have happened this day, why am I still here? Why couldn't it have been me?'"The film's armorer (the weapon's coordinator), Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March 2024 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors argued that she failed to follow basic safety procedures and was responsible for the presence of live rounds on set. "Her reckless failure resulted in the loss of an incredible life," the prosecution said during sentencing. "She was the armorer. That was her one job. She didn't do it." She completed her sentence on May 23, 2025.
Actor Robert Blake, known for the films In Cold Blood and Lost Highway, as well as the TV series Baretta, was found liable for the wrongful death of his much younger wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. On May 4, 2001, Blake — after eating with Bakley at Vitello's Italian Restaurant in Los Angeles — claims to have left his wife in the car while he ran back into the restaurant to retrieve a pistol he'd forgotten, and upon returning to his car, found her shot in the head. Police determined the gun Blake left inside the restaurant wasn't the murder weapon, and when the eventual murder weapon was found in a dumpster, his prints weren't on it. Still, Blake was arrested after two stuntmen came forward claiming Blake had tried to hire them to kill his wife (although their history of drug use was used against them at trial). With no forensic evidence or murder weapon to tie Blake to the crime, he was acquitted after a nearly five-month trial.
In 2005, shortly after the criminal acquittal, Bakley's family filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit; Blake was found liable and ordered to pay $30 million, later reduced to $15 million.
Former First Lady of the United States Laura Bush was the driver in a crash that took a teenager's life. On the night of November 6, 1963, Laura Welch (her birth name) ran a stop sign while driving her father's Chevrolet sedan. Her vehicle plowed directly into another car at an intersection, killing Michael Dutton Douglas. Making a sad situation even sadder, Douglas was a close friend of Laura's with whom she'd spent hours chatting on the phone. According to police reports, Laura was not drinking, was not speeding, and was not charged. The whole thing was ruled a tragic accident. At the time, the crash didn't make national news — she was just a teenager in a small Texas town. But when Laura became First Lady in 2001, the story resurfaced.
In her 2010 memoir Spoken from the Heart, Laura finally addressed the crash in detail. She wrote, 'The whole time, I was praying that the person in the other car was alive. In my mind, I was calling 'Please God, please God, please God,' over and over and over again.' She added that the trauma shaped her life, and that 'I lost my faith that November, lost it for many, many years.'
Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. On October 12, 1978, Vicious's 20-year-old girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was found dead on the bathroom floor of their room at New York's infamous Chelsea Hotel. She was clad in her underwear with a single stab wound to the abdomen. Vicious, having taken 30 Tuinal pills and drunk a bottle of Jack Daniels that night, was found incoherent. When police questioned him, he first said, "I stabbed her, but I didn't mean to kill her," and later claimed he didn't remember anything. The murder weapon was a Jaguar-brand hunting knife — a gift from Nancy, ironically. Vicious was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, but there were questions about whether he actually killed her.
Some theories suggest that one of the many drug dealers or sketchy hangers-on in and out of their room that night could've done it. Rockets Redglare, their drug dealer, was even named by some as a possible suspect. Other theories include Sid accidentally stabbing Nancy during a fight and a suicide pact gone Vicious's life spiraled further out of control, and on February 2, 1979, he died of a heroin overdose. He was found with a note in his pocket that read: "We made a death pact, and I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby." He never stood this day, there's no official answer to who killed Nancy, but the case was closed after Sid's death. Nancy's mother, Deborah Spungen, later wrote in her book And I Don't Want to Live This Life: "The world saw them as punk's perfect couple. I saw a boy and a girl slowly destroying each other."
Ryan Grantham — the child actor known for the 2010 movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid — killed his own mother. On March 31, 2020, the then-21-year-old raised a gun and shot his mother in the back of her head as she played piano in their British Columbia home. He then loaded up his car with guns and ammunition and drove east with a plan to kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He ultimately changed his mind and considered carrying out a mass shooting at his alma mater, Simon Fraser University, before deciding to turn himself in.
According to Grantham's lawyer, Grantham was assessed by two court-appointed psychiatrists who 'agreed that at the time of this horrendous event, he (Grantham) was suffering from a major depressive disorder and a cannabis use disorder, among other things.' Grantham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and, at his sentencing, pledged to spend his life rehabilitating himself and helping others. He is eligible for parole in 2036 after serving 14 years.
Melrose Place alum Amy Locane — who starred opposite Johnny Depp in John Waters's cult classic Cry-Baby — killed a woman while driving drunk. On the night of June 27, 2010, Locane was driving 53 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone when she crashed into a car driven by Fred Seeman, who was making a left-hand turn into his driveway. Seeman's wife, Helene, an NYU adjunct professor, was killed in the accident. When police arrived, Locane, who had been drinking at a friend's barbecue, was found to have a .23 blood alcohol level, far above the legal limit.
Locane was convicted of second-degree vehicular homicide and assault by auto but received a sentence of only three years in jail, two less than the minimum sentence for the offense (the judge cited the welfare of Locane's children in giving the shorter sentence). Locane — who joined Alcoholics Anonymous after the crash and is now sober — served three years behind bars before being paroled on June 12, 2015, but an appeals court subsequently found her initial sentence to be too lenient and resentenced her to eight years in jail on September 17, 2020. She was released from New Jersey's Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women on Dec. 20, 2024, but still feels guilt and "a lot of remorse,' telling US Weekly, 'It's a very, very, very heavy reality to live with,' and that she keeps the victim in mind when praying or doing daily devotionals.
The Shield actor Michael Jace killed his wife. On May 19, 2024, at Jace's home in the Hyde Park area of Los Angeles, Jace shot his wife April — an elite, medal-winning sprinter — in the back as their young sons, ages 5 and 8, looked on from their bedroom. Prosecutors said Jace then shot his wife in the legs before telling her, "If you like running, then run to heaven." Prosecutors further contended that Jace, who had been drinking all day, was "obsessed" with the idea his wife might leave him and believed she was having an affair.
Jace was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. At his sentencing, Jace said, "There is absolutely no justification for my actions on that night. I am profoundly sorry for the pain that I've caused everyone." Jace is serving his sentence at California State Prison, Corcoran.
Joe Son — a professional mixed martial arts fighter turned actor in 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (he played the villain Random Task) — killed a cell mate. In 2008, Son was arrested for kicking in the door of his roommate's car. As part of a plea deal, Son was required to provide a DNA sample to the authorities. When his sample was run through the system, it linked him to a horrific, nearly two-decade-old cold case.
On Christmas Eve in 1990, he and an accomplice pretended to be lost as they approached a 19-year-old woman walking her dog. They then threw her into their car and held her hostage for hours, beating and raping her. Son also repeatedly threatened to shoot her as he counted the bullets in his gun. At the trial, the victim recounted how Son said "he was giving me to himself as a Christmas present." Son was convicted of one count of felony torture (the statute of limitations had run out on the sexual assault charges) and sentenced to seven years to life. Just a month after beginning his sentence, Son killed his cellmate. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to an additional 27 years.
Phil Spector, the music producer famous for his "Wall of Sound," shot a woman to death. On February 3, 2003, the 63-year-old Spector, during a night of heavy drinking, met B-movie actor Lana Clarkson at the House of Blues in West Hollywood (she was working there as a hostess to help make ends meet). Despite Clarkson initially mistaking the slightly-built, big-haired Spector for a woman, he managed to convince her to go back to his Los Angeles mansion, where, just a few hours later, Clarkson died — shot through the mouth by Spector's gun. Spector's chauffeur would later testify that his boss came out of the house with a gun in hand and said, "I think I just shot somebody." Spector initially claimed that Clarkson "kissed the gun," but investigators determined it couldn't have been self-inflicted.
Here's the thing: Spector had a history with guns. During his trial, five other women testified that Spector had pulled guns on them during similar encounters, including one who said he threatened to shoot her if she didn't stay. Spector was even said to have pulled a gun on John Lennon during a 1970s' recording session. So In 2009, after a six-year legal saga (and a mistrial), Spector was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life. He served his time at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, where he died in 2021 from complications related to never admitted guilt and maintained until his death that Clarkson's death was an accident or suicide.
The Emmy-winning star of Roc, Charles S. Dutton, was convicted of manslaughter. In the late 1960s, Dutton was a teenager growing up in the rough McCulloh Homes housing project in Baltimore, Maryland. Visiting the old neighborhood in 2000, Dutton told the Washington Post, "All my buddies are dead, in the pen or strung out." That was almost Dutton's fate, too. He started using drugs, liked to fight, and dropped out of the seventh grade. Then, at age 16, he got into a fight with a man and stabbed the man repeatedly. "I killed a guy who nearly killed me," he told the Washington Post. "I never did anything to anyone who wouldn't have done the same to me. At first, I had no remorse. But then I used to wonder what the guy would look like if he was still living. Would he amount to something?"
Dutton was arrested and convicted of manslaughter. He spent a long stretch behind bars before his story took an unexpected turn. While behind bars, Dutton read an anthology of Black playwrights and became obsessed with acting and storytelling. After his release, he attended the Yale School of Drama and then found success in Hollywood.
Legendary boxing promoter Don King killed two different men. Before turning to fight promotion, King was a hustler from Cleveland running an illegal numbers racket. In 1954, a 23-year-old King shot dead a man named Hillary Brown, who was attempting to rob one of his gambling houses. That killing was ruled a 'justifiable homicide,' but in 1966, when King killed another man, the law wasn't as forgiving. In that incident, King brutally beat a former employee named Sam Garrett, who owed him money, stomping on him repeatedly until police arrived. Officers testified that they found Garrett lying on the pavement, severely injured and bleeding from the head. He later died of his injuries.
In 1975, King described the situation to the New York Times: "I fistfought this man. And in the kicking and fighting of what I call the frustrations of the ghetto expressing themselves, this man's head hit the concrete, and he hit it pretty hard. Seven, eight days later, he expired. The rollers that arrested me didn't know who I was and they charged me with aggravated assault. When they found out it was Don King, the sensationalized numbers baron, the charge escalated to second‐degree murder."King claimed it was self-defense, but the court disagreed. Still, King wasn't convicted of murder. Instead, he was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and served just under four years in prison.
Junkie and Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs shot his wife to death. Before making it in the literary world, Burroughs largely lived off a stipend from his wealthy parents while exploring his interests in writing, drugs, and sex (with both men and women). In 1951, Burroughs was living in Mexico City with his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, and their two young children. One night, while drinking with friends, a gun in Burroughs' hand went off and killed Vollmer. What exactly happened is unclear. Initially, Burroughs said he and his wife were performing their "William Tell act," where he attempted to shoot a glass balanced on Vollmer's head but missed, hitting her in the forehead. That story quickly changed to this: Burroughs had dropped his gun, and upon hitting the floor, it went off. Also rumored? That Burroughs was in love with a man and shot her on purpose.
One witness to the death, Eddie Woods, believed it was an accident: 'He was out of it, in shock that this happened. Again, to me, that's evidence it was absolutely an accident. He was shocked that he had hit her, and he was trying to wake her up. This guy was out of it.'Whatever the truth, Burroughs escaped accountability. While he was arrested and charged with culpable homicide, legal maneuvering and family money enabled him to spend only 13 days in jail and then skip back to the United States. Later, the emotional turmoil Burroughs carried from the tragedy pushed him toward writing. As he wrote in the introduction to his novel Queer:"I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death... It brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle."
