Leonora Johnson is a character mentioned in Grand Theft Auto V.
History
Background
Leonora Johnson was born on August 29th, 1952 in the Midwest. Her father, Harold, was a chicken farmer and her mother, Ellen, was a slopper at a dairy farm. She suffered lung problems due to heavy smoking during childhood. At school, Leonora was an unremarkable student, but hit puberty at an early age, and attracted a lot of attention from other students and the school faculty.
At fifteen years old, Leonora dropped out of high school and travelled to Los Santos by hitchhiking to escape from her uncle and dreamt to become either a movie star or a model. After working as a waitress for several months, her natural beauty and childlike naivete caught the eye of the entertainment industry, and Leonora became a common face on the Vinewood party circuit and casting-couch circuit.
Movie Career
By the early 1970s, Leonora was getting regular work as a model in print ads, television commercials and minor acting roles on movies. In 1973, she got cast in Richards Majestic Productions' film "Rum Runner" in which she played Beryl, a wise-cracking disabled prostitute and stole every scene she was in. However, she was described by the media as "a pretty face to watch without perhaps much spark in the eyes", implying although she was beautiful-looking, she probably wasn't very intelligent. It was also rumored that she was considered for the female lead role in "The Many Wives of Alfredo Smith." However, she was abducted, tortured, raped and murdered by Peter Dreyfuss in 1975.
Murder
Dreyfuss mutilated Leonara by cutting off both her hands and feet and placed them in opposite areas, cutting off several facial features, leaving multiple incisions on her breasts, drawing a star on her back with cigar burns, slicing off a portion of her thigh and writing "ham" on it while also raping her. As she begged to be free, Dreyfuss kept on, and she kept screaming. When Dreyfuss told her to be quiet, she refused, so he killed her. He then cleared up all the evidence and the tracks so he wouldn't be caught.
On January 17th, 1975, following an anonymous tip-off to the LSPD, her body was found by the side of the Land Act Dam by reporters hours before the LSPD showed up, with the reporters trampling over all usable forensic evidence. The LSPD couldn't find any form of evidence to figure out who killed Johnson, so the case was closed shortly afterwards.
After Leonora's death, Dreyfuss taunted her family for years by sending letters, making anonymous phone calls, and sending Leonora's locket and her severed lips on the anniversary of the murder. According to some other rumors/reports, he had also stalked her for years before finally abducting and raping her, though this was not confirmed by himself.
More information about Johnson's murder can be found on the in-game website www.whokilledLeonoraJohnson.com. According to this site, a pornographic take of her murder, "Lay Enormous Johnson," was produced in 1984. Leonora was portrayed by Jessica Barlow, a woman who claimed to have been "Leonora's best friend at high school," although Leonora's parents had no idea who she was.
The story was also featured in an episode of The Underbelly Of Paradise.
Events of Grand Theft Auto V
There is a series of 50 scraps of a torn-up letter that Peter had sent to a friend, David Richards, in 1975, shortly after Leonora's murder, confessing his crime and justifying his actions artistically. After finding all the letter scraps, the player will see the entire letter, and then the "Strangers and Freaks" mission A Starlet in Vinewood will be unlocked for Franklin, in which he confronts Dreyfuss about the murder, and vigilante justice against Dreyfuss is optional.
Character
Influence
Leonora Johnson's murder shares similarities to the Black Dahlia Murder.
Some details of Leonora Johnson's murder are perhaps a reference to the death/murder of Kay Amin, the former wife of Ugandan ex-President, Idi Amin. Some of the injuries Leonora sustained are similar, specifically her arms and legs being cut off and put in opposite places, as this is what happened to Kay Amin.
The detail of "ham" having been written on the portion of Leonora Johnson's thigh that had been cut off could reference the murder of actress Sharon Tate, whose blood was used to write "pig" on her house's front door. Tate was also the wife of Roman Polanski, a possible inspiration for Dreyfuss.
Gallery
