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

Biography

Snider was born in Vancouver. By the mid-1970s, he was a nightclub promoter and

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

. In 1977, he met Dorothy Stratten at a Vancouver-area Dairy Queen, where she was working part-time while still attending high school and groomed her to become a model as well as his lover. 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. While Stratten worked as a " bunny" at the

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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 helped support 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.

Death

On August 14, 1980, Stratten was shot and killed in the West Los Angeles house she had shared with Snider, whose body was found next to hers. Police believed Snider raped and murdered Stratten, and then killed himself with the same shotgun. 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

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as Snider. Bob Fosse's film '' Star 80'' (1983) dramatized Stratten's life and death. Mariel Hemingway played Stratten, and Eric Roberts portrayed Snider. In the series '' Welcome to Chippendales'', he was played by

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Snider, Paul 1951 births 1980 deaths 1980 murders in the United States 1980 suicides 20th-century Canadian criminals Burials in British Columbia Canadian Jews Canadian rapists Canadian male criminals Canadian murderers Crime in California Deaths by firearm in California Domestic violence in the United States Male murderers Murder–suicides in California People from Vancouver Suicides by firearm in California Violence against women in the United States