Eddie Murphy's controversial car ride with trans hooker who met grisly end a year later

In 1997 actor and comedian Eddie Murphy was at the top of his game, conquering Hollywood.

But when he was picked up by police with a transgender prostitute in his car, at a well known cruising spot, it threatened to shatter his wholesome public persona.

On May 2, at 4.45am, police pulled a then 36-year-old Murphy over in Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, with Shalimar Seiuli in his Toyota Land Cruiser.

At the time he was married to Nicole Mitchell, with whom he has five children, and insisted he was a “good Samaritan” simply giving Shalimar, aka Atisone, a lift.

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No action was taken by police on Murphy, who turns 62 tomorrow (April 2), but Atisone, a “known transsexual prostitute”, was picked up on an outstanding prostitution warrant.

Murphy’s spokesperson said: “She asked him for a ride, and Eddie did so, like he had helped people in the past.”

The rep told CNN that Eddie said: “I was trying to be a Good Samaritan, and this is what happens.”

The star, with his lawyer present, told People magazine that Nicole and their kids were away, and he had insomnia, so he went for a drive to buy magazines.

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“I saw this Hawaiian-looking woman and said, ‘What are you doing out here?’ She said, ‘I’m working,’” Murphy recalled of the meeting with the American-Samoan Shalimar. “I said, ‘You shouldn’t be doing that [soliciting].’ And bada-bing… I’m never giving anyone a lift again.”

Murphy explained that he “thought Atisone was a girl” but noted, “That’s not even the issue. It wasn’t like I was looking for someone. It was a person I assumed was a girl at the corner.”

The Coming to America actor added: “What people don’t know is, for years and years at night I’d get in my car, I’d drive all over Manhattan, I’d give derelicts money.

“I’d stop and talk to homeless people. I’d go to corners where there are prostitutes and give them $5,000 and $10,000 to go home and get off the street. … When I’m doing something charitable, I’m not doing it for publicity. … It’s out of the goodness of my heart.”

The National Enquirer was said to have paid Atisone’s $15,000 bail in exchange for her story.

In an article entitled “Eddie Murphy’s Secret Sex Life — His Transvestite Hooker Tells All” she claimed that Murphy had asked to see her in lingerie.

Murphy ended up suing the National Enquirer and the Globe — for $5 million each — for libel, slander, and invasion of privacy for publishing interviews with trans prostitutes who claimed to have had sexual relations with the actor.

Soon after, he settled the suit with the Globe and then dropped the one against National Enquirer and had to pay the tabloid’s legal fees.

Sadly Atisone was back in the news almost a year to the date after her arrest with Murphy, when she was found dead on a sidewalk — wearing only lingerie — outside her apartment building.

She had apparently locked herself out of her fifth-floor apartment and tried to swing from the roof to her window on a towel and missed.

She fell five floors and suffered severe head trauma, resulting in her death, which was classified as accidental.

The coroner’s report stated someone heard a scream at 5 o’clock in the morning, which is believed to indicate the time of her death.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk