“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is shining the spotlight on a completely separate murder – one that happened a decade before the brothers’ trial.
Episode 7 of the series – titled “Showtime” – features a long dinner party scene where Nathan Lane’s character Dominick Dunne breaks down the Menendez case as he sees it through the context of having sat through his own daughter’s murder trial. It’s also a trial that earned significant media attention a decade earlier.
Dunne’s daughter Dominique was a 22-year-old rising actor fresh off a lead role in 1982’s “Poltergeist.” She was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney after their breakup on Oct. 30, 1982. Sweeney confessed to the murder – and an attempt to kill himself after – when the police arrived on the scene.
Here’s what we know about Dominique, the night she was killed, and where Sweeney and the rest of her family is today.
Who was Dominique Dunne?
Dominique was the youngest child to Dominick and Ellen Dunne. She immediately began pursuing Hollywood aspirations. Her first break was in 1979’s “Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker.” After that she landed episodes of “”Lou Grant,” “Breaking Away,” and “Hart to Hart.”
Her biggest claim to fame happened when she landed the role of Dana in 1982’s “Poltergeist.” That led to an episode of “Hill Street Blues,” and at the time of her murder she was shooting the alien invasion miniseries “V.”
What happened to her?
Dominique met John Sweeney at a party in 1981. By all accounts, their relationship moved fast and within a few weeks of meeting they had moved in together. It didn’t take long for things to get rocky, though.
Arguments started happening regularly and on Aug. 27, 1982 Sweeney got physical with her to the point that he ripped out clumps of her hair. Dunne fled to her mother’s house where Sweeney later showed up banging on the door demanding to be let inside.
In September, after the two seemingly reconciled, there was another dispute allegedly occurred where Sweeney began strangling Dunne but was stopped when a friend heard the scuffle and intervened.
Then came Oct. 30, 1982. Sweeney showed up at Dominque’s place – after having moved out – hoping to reconcile once again. The two talked outside because she had been running lines for a project with David Packer in the house. The conversation quickly turned aggressive. Packer called the police after hearing noises outside and seeing Sweeney knelt over Dunne’s unconscious body.
Sweeney admitted to strangling her when the police arrived. Dominque was quickly placed on life support but never regained consciousness due to oxygen deprivation. She was pronounced dead after her parents agreed to take her off the support.
Where is John Sweeney?
Sweeney was charged with first-degree murder to which he pleaded not guilty. He was eventually acquitted of second-degree murder charges and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. When all was said and done, Sweeney got out on parole after two and a half.
After his brief stay in prison, he got a job as head chef for a Santa Monica restaurant. His tenure there wasn’t long-lasting because the remainder of the Dunne family protested outside until Sweeney quit and left Los Angeles altogether.
Dominick Dunne later admitted in a 2007 that for a time he’d hired a private investigator to keep tabs on Sweeney. That’s how he learned Sweeney remained a chef but had changed his name to John Maura. Eventually, the father admitted he stopped asking for updates and lost track of his daughter’s killer.
“I don’t know where he is,” he told Slate. “I don’t want to know where he is. … It’s much healthier.”
Where is the rest of her family now?
Her father Dominick had been a successful Hollywood producer for years up until her murder. After her death, he refocused on crime writing thanks to an in-depth article he published in Vanity Fair in 1984 about what it was like going through his daughter’s murder trial.
He turned his eye, and pen, to other high profile cases in the years to come. Along with the Menendez trial he also covered the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995 and Phil Spector’s in 2007. His writing on the Menendez trial was one of the key reasons it gained so much media popularity. He died in 2009 at age 83.
Dominique’s mother Ellen dove into advocacy work after the murder. She started the Justice for Homicide Victims foundation which earned her presidential recognition from George H. W. Bush. She died in 1997 at 64.
Her brother Griffin stayed in Hollywood, where he starred in iconic films like “An American Werewolf in London” and “After Hours” and directed films like “Practical Magic,” and continues acting today. Most recently he played Nicky Pearson on “This Is Us” but has also appeared in “Succession,” “Billions” and “The French Dispatch.”
