Slide Show

They say things happen in threes and so it has come to pass that Savannah one of the adult industry´s most celebrated stars -- and very possibly one of its most controversial stars¸ has become the third major porn queen to take her life in the past ten years. First there was Shauna Grant then Megan Leigh and now Savannah -- the ex-groupie born Shannon Wilsey on October 9 1970 in Laguna Beach¸ California and not quite 24 years old when she died on July 11¸ 1994 by her own hand from a self-inflicted handgun wound to the temple. At her side lay a 9mm automatic pistol.

Death didn´t come easy for the gorgeous young superstar of more than 80 adult features. She was on her way home from a night of partying driving up the winding road to her rented home in the hills of Universal City just north of Hollywood. She was accompanied by a friend of the popular band House of Pain who was house-sitting while they were on the road. It was sometime in the wee hours of the morning around 2 a.m. that Savannah drove her white Corvette through a picket fence¸ breaking her nose hitting her head and causing lacerations to her beautiful near perfect face.

Once she arrived home she asked her friend to take Daisy¸ her pet rottweiler for a walk then phoned her manager Nancy Pera and complained that she needed to be taken to the hospital. Savannah was apparently distraught because she had ruined her exotic beauty just hours before she was scheduled to leave for a lucrative dance engagement that was to have began that very day. Crying and barely coherent she told her manager that she needed plastic surgery and was going to have to cancel her dancing engagement at Goldfinger´s in Nyack N.Y. Savannah earned as much as $5000.00 in a single evening. Pera stated that Savannah "was in a crunch for money. She saw her world collapsing."

When her manager arrived at Savannah´s leased hilltop home she found her in the garage lying on the floor -- in a pool of blood. Pera immediately calling 911 for assistance.

Later Savanah´s manager recalled how the exit wound appeared to be a flower on her head.

Sadly Savannah didn´t die immediately some reports saying her actual time of death some seven to nine hours after the self inflicted wound. Her parents supposedly made a decision to stop life support systems when it was obvious she would not survive much longer.

Savannah was well known as a drug and alcohol user who had grown increasingly paranoid in the past year obtaining a hand gun from one of her close friends. Savannah kept the gun concealed under her pillow at night.

The reason her death was not immediate was due to her placement of the gun at her right temple. When she pulled the trigger the gun reared up causing her to inflict an indirect impact on her brain.

Some say it was a combination of her on-going drug problems her continued financial crisis with the ruthless Internal Revenue Service her deepseated disappointment over her failed love relationships with celebrities such as Slash of Guns & Roses Pauly Shore and Danny Boy of the rock group House of Pain -- all of these things brought together with her lowered self-esteem and recent rejection of an erotic pictoral layout by that scurrilous publication, Hustler Magazine -- snowballing -- pushing her over the edge.

Savannah´s star was fading fast¸ or so it must have seemed to her -- though she was still considered a superstar to the outside world. I now think back to her first interview with the X-Rated press when she told me about her life´s plans. I want to be in this business forever. I really like this business... I´m going to be doing porn for a long time. Till I get all wrinkled up and sagged out.

Just prior to Savannah´s death¸ VCA Pictures scored an erotic marketing coup when they used computer enhanced images of Savannah and Racquel Darrian to create the effect the two starlets were actually posing together on the video box cover of "Andrew Blake´s Desire", when in fact, neither star would agree to pose alongside the other.

For Savannah, a car accident, broken nose, rejection by Hustler Magazine and mounting debts to the IRS proved to be reason enough to call it quits on life itself. A sad ending to a beautiful porn star who seemed unhappy with herself and unhappy with everything around her.

Did porn do it? No. Not anymore than religion did it to Jim and Tammy Faye Baker.

Savannah started out in the porno industry as Silver Kane¸ appearing in "No Boys Allowed" and "Racquel´s Addiction". She then sported her natural breasts¸ which were soon pumped up when she signed an exclusive deal with a low brow porn producer.

Savannah frequently boasted of her many affairs with rock and roll stars, proudly talking about her erotic groupie past with Greg Allman from the Allman Brothers Band; Billy Idol (with whom she once bragged as having had sex a half-dozen times in a single evening); and both Slash and Axl Rose from Guns N´ Roses (she rated Axl a "1" on a scale of 1 to 10 in the sack).

Savannah was quoted as having said "I love sex and I love sex with rockers more than anything else" -- excluding Axl Rose of course.

Note: Official Porn Star Website of Savannah.