Death of a Centerfold: Dorothy Stratten’s Murder and the Blame Fight

Dorothy Stratten, the twenty-year-old 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, was murdered on August 14, 1980, by her estranged husband Paul Snider in what Los Angeles police determined was a murder-suicide. The Dorothy Stratten murder became one of the most litigated reputations in American pop culture, pulling Hugh Hefner, director Peter Bogdanovich, and a generation of journalists into a decades-long argument over who, besides the man holding the shotgun, bore responsibility for her death.

Who Dorothy Stratten Was

Born Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten in 1960, she grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was working at a Dairy Queen in 1978 when Paul Snider, a local nightclub promoter described by associates and journalists as a “pimp” and “hustler,” spotted her.¹ Snider, then twenty-six, persuaded the teenager to pose for nude photographs and submitted them to Playboy’s “Great Playmate Hunt.”² She did not win, but Playboy brought her to Los Angeles, where Hefner named her Miss August 1979 and later Playmate of the Year for 1980.³

Hefner connected her with a professional manager and a money manager and positioned her as a Hollywood prospect. Former Playboy director of promotions Miki Garcia later described the arrangement differently, alleging Stratten was “under his thumb” because of restrictive contracts and that Hefner saw her as a “meal ticket” who “could sell an incredible amount of magazines.”⁴

The Marriage That Ended in Murder

Stratten and Snider married in June 1979 in Los Angeles.⁵ Early on she credited her success to Snider and stayed in daily contact with him from shoots.² As her career grew, the Playboy circle pushed Snider to the margins. Hefner eventually banned him from the Mansion, calling him a “hustler and a pimp.”⁶ Associates said Snider wanted “ownership” of Stratten and grew desperate as he lost his primary source of income and status.

In August 1979, Garcia sent Hefner a memo warning that Snider had been “arrested in Vancouver for dope peddling and pimping” and was “very dangerous.” Garcia said no one responded, Playboy security claimed they “knew nothing” about Snider’s background, and Hefner ignored the warning because of the money Stratten generated.⁷

Stratten met director Peter Bogdanovich at the Mansion while seeking acting work. He wrote a role for her in his romantic comedy They All Laughed, and during the New York shoot they fell in love. Colleagues warned Bogdanovich that Snider was volatile. After production wrapped, Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich and asked Snider for a divorce.²

Snider hired Los Angeles private detective Marc Goldstein to spy on Stratten and Bogdanovich.⁸ He borrowed a .38 revolver and was seen waiting outside Bogdanovich’s home. On August 13, 1980, the day before the murder, he purchased a 12-gauge shotgun.⁵

What Happened on August 14, 1980

Stratten went to the Los Angeles home she had shared with Snider on August 14, 1980, to discuss a financial settlement and the end of their marriage. Both Hefner and Bogdanovich had reportedly tried to talk her out of the meeting.⁵

Police found the bodies at roughly 12:30 a.m. on August 15. Both were nude. Stratten had been shot in the face with the 12-gauge shotgun, which was recovered under Snider’s body. Investigators concluded that Snider raped Stratten, killed her, and then shot himself.⁸⁵ She was twenty.

The Fight Over Who Was to Blame

The murder sparked a bitter public argument that outlasted most of its participants. The opening salvo was journalist Teresa Carpenter’s “Death of a Playmate,” published in The Village Voice on November 5, 1980. Carpenter argued that although Snider pulled the trigger, Hefner and Bogdanovich shared a deeper culpability as men who treated women as instruments of their ambitions: “In Snider a lust for the score; in Hefner a longing for a star; in Bogdanovich a desire for the eternal ingenue.” The article won a Pulitzer, though by default after Janet Cooke’s Washington Post entry was revealed as fabricated.⁹

Hefner and Bogdanovich reacted with what was described as “incredulity and horror” and set about producing counter-narratives.³ Hefner commissioned a rebuttal in the May 1981 Playboy, written by Richard Rhodes and the magazine’s editors. Bogdanovich sold a memoir proposal. The projects hardened into an open feud.

Bogdanovich’s Book

In August 1984, Bogdanovich published The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960–1980. The book accused Hefner of seducing Stratten and keeping her “in near bondage as a Playboy model,” calling him a “super pimp” alongside the “little pimp” Snider.¹⁰¹¹ Bogdanovich also wrote candidly about himself: “To be candid, I think I lost my mind a bit.”⁶

Hefner’s Response

Hefner called the book a “total fabrication” reflecting Bogdanovich’s own “pathological guilt trip.” He denied any romantic relationship with Stratten, describing it as “strictly business and platonic,” and said he was considering a lawsuit. He assembled a dossier of correspondence, memos, and Mansion visitor logs to rebut the book.¹⁰ At a news conference, Hefner said Stratten’s death “was motivated not in any way by her association with Playboy, but clearly by the breakup of her marriage, because of the affair with Peter Bogdanovich.”⁵ Playboy spokesman Don Rogers called the book “riddled with fabrication and innuendo,” and said Hefner, who believed its publication contributed to a stroke he suffered in early March 1985, planned to “unleash a major attack” on its claims.¹¹

Films About the Stratten Murder

The first dramatization was the 1981 NBC television movie Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story. Marc Goldstein, the private detective Snider had hired, served as a technical adviser. Bogdanovich and the Stratten estate sued, alleging Goldstein had stolen Stratten’s diaries and personal effects to sell to a studio; the suit was dismissed.¹²

Director Bob Fosse adapted Carpenter’s Village Voice article into the 1983 feature Star 80. Paddy Chayefsky recommended the project and told Fosse to write it alone.¹³¹⁴ Hefner publicly dismissed the finished film as “too shallow.”

They All Laughed, the Bogdanovich comedy that had brought the couple together, was itself derailed. Time Life Films went defunct before release, 20th Century Fox pulled it after poor test screenings, and no studio wanted a romantic comedy led by an actress who had just been murdered. Bogdanovich bought back the distribution rights and self-released the film to honor Stratten; the attempt failed and pushed him into bankruptcy.¹⁵¹⁶

Louise Stratten, the Estate, and the Slander Suit

After the murder, Bogdanovich took responsibility for Stratten’s family, including her younger sister Louise Hoogstraten, eventually becoming her guardian.¹⁷ In 1988, Bogdanovich, then forty-nine, married Louise, then twenty, who used the stage name L. B. Stratten. The wedding, near Vancouver, drew widespread attention.¹⁸ They divorced in 2001 but continued working together.

At his 1985 news conference, Hefner publicly accused Bogdanovich of a sexual affair with Louise when she was thirteen. Louise, then sixteen, filed a $5 million slander suit against Hefner. She dropped the suit later that year, and Hefner’s attorney stated no money changed hands.¹⁹

Stratten’s estate itself produced further ugliness. Because Snider was still legally her husband and police determined he died after her, Snider’s family argued they were entitled to her assets, including a Mercedes, and harassed her mother to obtain the car.¹²

Renewed Scrutiny in Secrets of Playboy

The case drew fresh attention in the 2022 A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy. Former Playboy valet Stefan Tetenbaum alleged he witnessed Hefner sexually assaulting Stratten in the Mansion grotto and said a security guard told him to keep quiet.²⁰ Garcia repeated her claims about the ignored 1979 memo and said that after the murder she was ordered to call every Playmate at 6:30 a.m. and instruct them not to speak to the press. “My job was to go in there and silence them,” Garcia said. “And I did.”⁷

The series carried a recurring disclaimer that most of its allegations had “not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges,” and hundreds of former Playboy employees and Playmates signed an open letter defending Hefner and calling the allegations “unfounded.”²⁰ In a January 2022 statement ahead of the series, Playboy’s current leadership denounced Hefner’s alleged “abhorrent actions” and said “today’s Playboy is not Hugh Hefner’s Playboy.”⁴

1
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Vanity Fair. Dorothy Stratten Hollywood Horror Story
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People. Secrets of Playboy Episode 6 – The Corporation – Dorothy Stratten
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ABC News. Horrific Murder of Playboy Playmate on Verge of Hollywood Stardom
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New York Post. Dorothy Stratten’s Murder – From Playboy to Real Life Horror Movie
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Yahoo News UK. Miki Garcia Warned Hugh Hefner About Paul Snider
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Vanity Fair. Dorothy Stratten Hollywood Horror Story
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UPI. The Feud Over a Playmate’s Death
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UPI. Younger Sister of Slain Playboy Centerfold Dorothy Stratten
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People. Secrets of Playboy Bombshells