The Mistress of Hollywood: June Cassandra Mincher

Reporter Jan Klunder covered the three-week trial, describing an array of unusual witnesses: "a transsexual who performs in pornographic films, a former cocaine addict, a man with alleged ties to a notorious felon, and a woman who said she suffered a nervous breakdown eight months ago after her mother was killed by her son."

In stark contrast, Antonelli's wealthy family was also present in the courtroom.  There were rumors that one witness had changed his story about identifying Antonelli because he hoped the family would pay him.

Deputy district attorney Andrew Diamond argued that Antonelli was driving the getaway car on the night of the shooting, but he could not at this time offer the identity of the shooter.  However, Antonelli's two defense attorneys insisted he had been living in Phoenix, Arizona, when the shooting occurred, hiding from Mincher.

More details emerged about the nature of the conflict between the victim and the defendant.  They had begun a phone affair in the summer of 1983, after Antonelli had called in response to one of Mincher's ads.  At that time, she was using one of her 33 aliases, Pam Rogers.  They began talking for hours a day, and Mincher apparently developed a crush on him.  Antonelli, for his part, believed he was in love, said his attorney, but apparently he was in love with a fantasy image, because he could not tolerate what Mincher looked like when he saw her.  "He was cruelly disappointed with the actual person he saw."

Mincher was unable to deal with rejection, so she'd launched a campaign of terror against him, his father, his grandmother, and others in his family.  In some calls, they'd alleged to police, she had threatened to have Antonelli killed.  "Telephone records showed that as many as 72 calls in 45 minutes were made from Mincher's apartment to the Antonelli family," states Klunder.  "Hundreds of phone calls were made almost daily."  June apparently enlisted some of her friends to help her keep up the disturbing barrage.  "Inexplicably, the records also showed several calls to the Vatican."

But the feud was not one-sided.  Among Mincher's friends was a transsexual named Robin.  She claimed that she listened in on conversations between Mincher and Antonelli and had heard him threaten to kill her if she didn't leave him alone.  Robin agreed that Mincher was obsessed with him and was calling continuously.