Sal Mineo’s Murder
On the night of February 12, 1976, Sal Mineo returned home from rehearsal for the play P.S. Your Cat Is Dead.
After parking his car in the carport below his West Hollywood apartment, he was stabbed in the heart by a mugger. Lionel Ray Williams, a pizza delivery man with criminal record, was convicted and sentenced in March 1979 to 57 years in prison for killing Mineo and for committing ten robberies.
Although considerable confusion existed as to what witnesses had seen in the darkness the night, Williams claimed to have had no idea who Mineo was. Corrections officers later said they had overheard Williams admitting to the stabbing. Williams’ wife later confirmed that on the night Mineo died, he had come home with blood on his shirt.
Mineo was 37-year-old.
There is no evidence that his murder was related to his homosexuality.
