When we talk about the curse of Poltergeist, the classic 1982 horror film, it is because of a series of tragedies and strange events recorded not only during filming but afterward as well. One of the first facts pointed out as proof of this theory is the death of actress Dominique Dunne, one of the stars of the film, at the age of 22.

She was murdered by her boyfriend, John Sweeney, just months after the release of the horror classic, in October 1982, leaving a lasting mark on Hollywood and her father, journalist and writer Dominick Dunne. Dominick never accepted how the murderer’s defense managed to get Sweeney, who already had a criminal record, found guilty only of manslaughter for beating and strangling his girlfriend. He served less than three years behind bars.

“I’m tired of being asked to cry for murderers,” Dunne would often say. “We’ve lost our sense of outrage.” From there, he reinvented himself as a chronicler of major court cases, his articles on O. J. Simpson becoming historic, as well as those on Claus von Bulow, Michael C. Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, Phil Spector, and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Dunne also became the host of “Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege and Justice” on what was then Court TV (now TruTV). Of course, his articles on the brothers Lyle and Erick Menendez were decisive in the defense’s case, as we saw in the Netflix series, where he is played by Nathan Lane. And because his involvement was so significant, there is a whole episode dedicated to his story.

Dominique was the youngest child of Dominick and Ellen Dunne, a prominent couple in the entertainment world and international jet set, who dreamed of an acting career since her uncle was a director and her brother (Griffin Dunne) was an actor. She started out in 1979 with roles on TV, but with Poltergeist, she was entering the exclusive world of cinema.

With the great success of the film, Dominique was cast to reprise the role in the following installments of the franchise, but she died before production of the sequels began.

In 1981, she was introduced to sous chef John Thomas Sweeney, who worked at a famous restaurant in Los Angeles, Ma Maison. They soon moved in together, but their romance quickly turned into a nightmare, due to Sweeney’s jealousy and possessiveness.

Amidst the frequent fights, which soon turned into physical abuse, the scars were impossible to hide. During an argument months before the murder, he ripped out handfuls of the actress’s hair by the roots, and she fled, but eventually accepted his apology. A month before the tragedy, a scene from a horror movie should have signaled that the worst was yet to come.

During a fight, Sweeney grabbed Dominique by the throat, threw her to the floor, and began to strangle her. She was only saved because they had a guest with them and when he heard “loud choking sounds”, he ran to the room where she was being attacked.

Despite the obvious evidence, Sweeney denied that he was trying to kill her and told his girlfriend to go back to bed. Terrified, Dominique pretended to comply, but as soon as she could she fled through the bathroom window. When Sweeney heard the car engine, he ran out and jumped on the hood of the car. She stopped the car just long enough for him to jump off the hood and drive off.

Dominique finally ended the relationship, staying out of his house until her boyfriend vacated the property. As soon as he moved out, she returned, changing the house keys. It wasn’t enough.

Weeks later, he started bothering her again. He showed up at the apartment and insisted on coming in. She was with actor David Packer, rehearsing, and only agreed to talk to Sweeney because his friend was there. However, she went out onto the porch with Sweeney, and shortly after the two began arguing and “heard popping sounds, two screams and a thud.” He immediately called the police, who only replied that the address “was out of their jurisdiction.” David then called a friend and told him that if he was found dead, John Sweeney was his killer.

As he went out the back to find Dominique, David approached the driveway and saw Sweeney in some nearby bushes, kneeling over Dunne, yelling for him to call the police, and when help arrived, he declared, “I killed my girlfriend and I tried to kill myself.”

Dominique remained in a coma for five days until life support was turned off. And if that already sounds tragic, it only gets worse.

After confessing, Sweeney began to claim his innocence. He said he “didn’t mean to hurt” Dominique and lied, saying the two had reconciled and were arguing about getting married and having children. On the day of the murder, he said, his girlfriend suddenly changed her mind about being together and he “exploded and lunged at her”. He says he doesn’t remember anything after that. He only saw that he had “his hands around her neck when she was no longer breathing”. The autopsy confirmed that the strangulation lasted at least three minutes.

The report goes on to say that he tried to revive her and then took two bottles of pills in an attempt to kill himself. In short, he didn’t premeditate or have any malice, he just acted in the “heat of passion”.

Everything he claimed was contradicted by witnesses and police, who remember him as “calm and controlled” the whole time. The testimonies of the ex-girlfriends who were assaulted were not included in the trial, nor were the accounts of the victim’s mother or friends who could confirm Sweeney’s abusive nature. Worse still, he agreed that they should be treated as “rumors”. In eight days, the jury acquitted John Sweeney of second-degree murder, only finding him guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to three years behind bars. The family’s reaction was exactly as depicted in Monsters: The Lyle and Erick Menendez Story.

Dominick Dunne kept a diary throughout his daughter’s trial, and his diary entries were later published in 1984 in Vanity Fair: Justice: A Father’s Account of the Trial of His Daughter’s Killer.

As the Netflix series shows very well, the journalist’s presence in the story was important. He was one of the main obstacles to the Menendez defense. His scathing article in Vanity Fair about the brothers, highlighting all the reports of superficiality and bad behavior on their part, hindered the defense attorney’s goal, which was to establish how the justification would be the trauma of sexual abuse.

Ultimately, Ryan Murphy’s series somehow suggests that the Menendez conviction was the answer many wronged families wanted for themselves, and Dunne’s coverage helped to make that happen. But in the face of so much drama, Dominique’s story also deserved to be told. The Dunnes spent years trying to keep John Sweeney, who changed his name after years, from being forgotten. But eventually, they gave up.

Who knows, maybe one day we’ll have him highlighted as a monster?

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