The Last Take

Thirty years after her murder, Hollywood starlet Krista Helm’s daughter Nicole is determined to uncover the truth behind her mother’s brutal stabbing in 1977—a crime that has haunted her since she was nine. Krista, a dazzling yet volatile beauty who danced through the glittering worlds of Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, and the Shah of Iran, lived a life of excess, ambition, and secrecy. Her diary, sex tapes, and a rumored $300,000 stash of drugs suggest she was playing with fire. Now, a new generation of detectives is reopening the cold case, unearthing a web of jealousy, betrayal, and possible mob ties. Tony Sirico, the future 'Pauly Walnuts' of *The Sopranos*, was seen cleaning out her apartment days after her death—taking her furs, tapes, and personal effects. Her closest friend, Lenny Barron, may have orchestrated the cover-up to protect her reputation. The investigation takes a shocking turn when DNA under Krista’s fingernails is traced to a woman—possibly her jealous lover, Patty Collins—though Patty denies ever being in California. Meanwhile, a decades-old theory resurfaces: the killer might be Lionel Williams, the man convicted of murdering Sal Mineo on the same day and in the same neighborhood. Though Williams was supposedly in jail at the time, new evidence suggests he wasn’t arrested until after Krista’s death—and was never questioned. As the case reopens, Nicole clings to the hope that justice, long delayed, may finally come.