Paul Snider

Paul Leslie Snider (April 15, 1951 – August 14, 1980) was a criminal Canadian nightclub promoter and pimp who murdered his estranged wife, Playboy model and actress Dorothy Stratten. Following her murder, Snider killed himself.^[1][2]

Paul Snider
Born	Paul Leslie Snider (1951-04-15)April 15, 1951 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Died	August 14, 1980(1980-08-14) (aged 29) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Suicide by gunshot
Resting place	Schara Tzedeck Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia
Spouse	Dorothy Stratten ​ ​ (m. 1979; sep. 1980)​

Biography

Snider was born in Vancouver. By the mid-1970s, he was a nightclub promoter and pimp.^[1] In 1977, he met Dorothy Stratten at a Vancouver-area Dairy Queen, where she was working part-time while still attending high school. In 1979, Snider sent professionally taken nude photographs of Stratten to Playboy magazine and she was chosen as a Playmate for the month of August that year. Snider and Stratten moved to Los Angeles and married on June 1 in Las Vegas.^[3]

While Stratten worked as a "bunny" at the Century City Playboy Club, and was cast in a few television and film roles, Snider had engaged in numerous get-rich-quick schemes, including building and selling exercise benches. Stratten supported Snider financially throughout their short marriage.

In 1980, Stratten was named Playboy's Playmate of the Year and was cast in the movie They All Laughed (1981) directed by Peter Bogdanovich, with whom she began an affair. Stratten and Snider separated and he hired a private investigator to follow her.

Murder of Stratten and Death

On August 13, 1980 – the second anniversary of Stratten's first arrival in Los Angeles^[4] – Snider bought a used 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun from a private seller he found in a local classified ad.^[1][5] Later that evening in a conversation with friends, Snider described how he had purchased a gun that day and finished his story by declaring that he was "going to take up hunting."^[5] Snider casually brought up the subject of Playmates who had unexpectedly died; in particular, he spoke of Claudia Jennings, an actress and former Playmate of the Year who had been killed in a car accident the year before.^[6][5] Snider made several morbid remarks to his companions related to the problems at Playboy magazine caused by Jennings' death, including a comment about how the editors would pull nude photos of a dead Playmate from the next issue if there was time.^[5][6]

Stratten arrived for her meeting with Snider at his rented West Los Angeles house at approximately noon on Thursday, August 14.^[1][7] She had spent the morning conferring with her business manager, and one of the topics the pair discussed was the amount of the property settlement Stratten would offer her estranged husband that afternoon.^[8] The police later found $1,100 in cash among Stratten's belongings in the house, which she had apparently brought for Snider as a down payment.^[1] Towards the end of her morning meeting, Stratten's business manager made an observation: that his young client could avoid spending any more time with Snider by handing off the remaining separation and divorce negotiations to her lawyer. Stratten replied that the process would go easier if she dealt with Snider personally, explaining that he was being nice about everything and finally adding, "I'd like to remain his friend."^[9]

Snider's two roommates had left in the morning, so the couple was alone when Stratten stepped into the house that she had shared with her husband until just a few months earlier.^[9][10] By all appearances, Stratten had spent some time in the living room, where her purse was found lying open, before she and Snider went into his bedroom.^[11]

By 8:00 that evening, both of the roommates had returned to the house.^[12] They saw Stratten's car parked out front and noted that Snider's bedroom door was closed.^[1] Assuming that the couple had reconciled and wanted their privacy, the roommates spent the next several hours watching television in the living room.^[13]

Alerted by Snider's private detective who phoned expressing concern after not hearing from Snider all day, the roommates entered the bedroom shortly after 11:00 P.M. and discovered the bodies of Stratten and Snider.^[12] Each had been killed by a single blast from Snider's shotgun. Both bodies were nude.^[1] According to the police timeline and from the forensic evidence collected at the crime scene, Snider had shot Stratten that afternoon within an hour of her arrival at the house, then committed suicide approximately one hour after the murder.^[14][1][15]

Snider's remains are buried at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster, British Columbia.

In popular culture

Snider has been portrayed in three films. The first was a made-for-television movie about the murder titled Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981), which starred Jamie Lee Curtis as Stratten and Bruce Weitz as Snider. Bob Fosse's film Star 80 (1983) dramatized Stratten's life and death. Mariel Hemingway played Stratten, and Eric Roberts portrayed Snider.^[15] In the series Welcome to Chippendales, he was played by Dan Stevens.