Mugshots: Robert Blake - A Hollywood Murder | Forensic Files

[Music] a real life Hollywood mystery at 5:30 this afternoon detectives arrested actor
Robert Blake there is nothing that Bonnie Lee bakeley has ever done that justifies her having been murdered I
didn't think that he had it in him to actually do something like that a tragic tale featuring a fallen star he's a damn
good actor one of the best of his generation he's a very gentle humble person Robert Blake is not a nice guy
Robert Blake is not Beretta Robert Blake is not the guy from our gang Robert Blake Fallen star next on mug
[Music] shots [Music] [Music] within Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley sits Studio City a middle class
neighborhood only a few miles from Hollywood on the night of May 4th 2001 vellos a local Italian restaurant famous
for having opera singers performed during dinner prepared a special booth for a special Patron Robert Blake best
known for his award-winning portrayal of TV StreetWise cop Beretta it's a place where Robert Blake typically would eat
usually three times a week and he had a pasta dish named after him the allaha Robert Blake it was pasta with spinach
and tomatoes Blake had made a reservation alerting the staff that he would be arriving with a guest we saved
his stable Booth was out of the way and you know and that's it nothing unusual at approximately 8:30 p.m. Blake
drove the short distance from his home to vell's this parking lot was full and on
both sides of the street there were cars uh according to Witnesses unable to park close to the restaurant
Blake looked for an alternative spot to park his car Robert Blake and his wife had parked about a block and a half to
the west where the blue Volkswagen is there was a house under construction there at the time and there was a big
commercial dumpster out front before exiting the car according to Blake his wife Bonnie Lee bakeley
made a special request she was sort of hypervigilant around that time and he carried a weapon and she asked him to
bring the weapon into the restaurant Robert used to carry the gun with him all the time at night that was one of
the reasons that he didn't like valet parking either cuz a lot of times he keep the gun sometimes under the seat
Blake and his wife walked to the restaurant and sat inside at Blake's favorite Booth he came in we had a table
for him I sat him he asked me to get him some soup I got him some soup because I knew EX
exactly how he wanted then I went over to the table and he was drinking it out of a bowl so I said to him you know what
I say you more of Sicilian than my father used to be a lot of times we went in the back cuz Robie liked the singing
love to sing he said tell me I rather if I had to do anything over I'd rather sing than
act the couple finished their meals and prepared to leave I waited for him to leave I said good night goodbye and and
I left and I went home they finished their dinner at vell's and they start their walk and it's about a football
fields length to the car he would have sat down in the car roll the windows down to light up a cigarette and at that
moment realized he didn't have his gun and he took off according to the court documents he says I'm going to go back
and then he does Blake says he then ran back to the restaurant to retrieve his gun a 38
caliber pistol according to to Blake during the time it took him to walk back to the restaurant get his gun and return
to his wife two shots were fired into the car striking bakeley in the shoulder and head and when he comes back to the
car he tells detectives he discovers that his wife is slumped over in the passenger seat upon discovering his wife
in dire condition Blake says he immediately attempted to get help he tells police that he goes around the
neighborhood and he knocks on Doors and he Rings doorbells frantically trying to
get somebody to answer but Blake claims he was unable to find anyone who was willing to open their door nobody
answers people think that he might be some thief or something scam artist finally Blake found a nearby resident
who was willing to help he hears Robert Blake he answers the door and Robert Blake says to him that something
terrible has happened to his wife the resident immediately jumped into action he gets his phone he calls 911 Blake
says he then left the crime scene in order to return to vellos again this time looking for a
doctor he calls for a doctor and a woman who's a nurse volunteers and comes back
to the crime scene with him arriving at the scene the nurse found Bonnie in the passenger seat of the car barely alive
she discovers Bonnie Lee bakeley there and sees her as she's gasping her last breath as bakeley was fighting for her
life life Blake sat down on the sidewalk at this point Robert Blake is getting physically ill he's
vomiting police and emergency Personnel arrived at the scene only moments later and attempted to save her
life I woke up and there was about 40 people out in my driveway and the doorbell was ringing and ringing and I
didn't know what was going on and about an hour later my mother called and at the same moment I was watching CNN my
sister was being loaded into the amb she was rest to St Joseph's Medical Center and it was not too long after
that when she was declared dead at this point we have not identified a single person as the
suspect responsible for the murder but rumors had already started linking Blake to Bonnie's death the murder would begin
a year-long high-profile investigation the likes of which had not been seen since the OJ Simpson
case delving into the lives of of Blake and his wife the investigation would uncover facts about both that would play
like a Bee Movie could Robert Blake be involved in his wife's death next on mug shots on May 4th 2001 Robert Blake's
wife Bonnie Lee bakeley was shot to death on a dark Studio City street only miles from downtown
Hollywood while police immediately launched a murder investigation the media focused their attention on Robert
Blake's extraordinary past Robert Blake is this feisty guy who has a great deal of charm and who uh resents Authority he
had the hard Edge but he also had a likability to him as well you know he kind of went yeah I like this guy
underneath that anger and under I like this guy and to this day I'm very fond of Robert
[Music] Robert Blake was born Mickey gubitosi on September 18th 1933 in Nutley New Jersey
but later moved to Hollywood Robert Blake's father took him out to Hollywood when he was a child it was the age of
the child star and Blake was very talented as his father realized soon after the family arrived Blake at age
five and still named Mickey gubitosi landed apart on the TV series Our Gang he literally gets discovered he's
the cute kid who gets discovered and ends up supporting his family despite the fact that Blake was providing for
his family his resentful father went to great efforts to belittle him I never forget the time when Robert told me
about his father taking him down the street with a dog's collar he drag him down the street like a dog you know this
was after he was working on The Little Rascals you know and he was bringing all the money
in and I'll show you how big you are you know I mean that had to be horrendous in 1942 when the hour gang
series was cancelled Blake a rising child star was told to adopt a stage name at 9 years old Mickey gubitosi
became Bobby Blake he was cast as a Native American boy named Little Beaver in the western
series red Ridder sorry Ryder Douglas is wanted for murder and I am turning him [Music]
in good kitty Blake's career as a child actor did not stop there as he appeared in numerous television programs and
films such as the return of Ren Tintin and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre starring Humphrey Bogart he is one of
the last remaining actors who knew all the greats who were no longer here um he worked with Bogart he worked with
Spencer Tracy he you know he worked with every he knew Judy Garland if you ever walked
in Robert's house there was nothing but pictures of him when he was a child and the only grownup you really ever saw was
like Roy Rogers or uh Dale Evans as Blake reached his teams he would continue to land Parts in
television and film but despite his success lake at age 18 and by his own admission plunged into a dangerous cycle
using drugs and alcohol a cycle that would plague him throughout his life after a brief stint in the military
Blake returned to Hollywood in 1959 where he continued to be a working actor through his
mid-30s in 1961 Blake married actress Sandra Kerr with whom he would later have two
children meanwhile Blake's career continued to move ahead anybody who has a sense of
what makes a good actor would recognize him mean any member of the audience who has any feeling for what acting is all
about he was enormously talented I always admired him as an actor and he always gave you more than you know than
than I think you were expecting In Cold Blood in 1967 at the age of 35 Blake was offered
the role of a vicious killer whose abusive upbringing had led him to a life of violence Robert Blake plays Perry
Smith Blake's performance in In Cold Blood garnered rave reviews and instantly vaulted him to Hollywood's
coveted A-list he was uh probably the most talented actor I've ever worked with he was spontaneous original just a
pleasure to watch I think he's got a lot of different colors and again that's why
I felt he was such an interesting actor following his success in In Cold Blood Blake made a series of bad career
choices including turning down the role of ratzo Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy a part
that would become a signature role for Dustin Hoffman then as Blake's career was
founding he got a call that would change everything in 197 5 he was offered a role on a new television series called
Beretta even though Beretta made Blake a household name he didn't like being known as a TV star he accepted this
television show and the minute after he signed the contract didn't believe that he should have been doing television
that he was in fact a movie star from the first day on the set of Beretta Blake's resentment for working in
television was apparent he used to say say is nothing wrong with doing a television show but it's something you
do on the way up or on the way down he believed that you know he should have been Pacino or dairo and here he was
doing this cheeseball our television show on ABC part of uh Robert's antipathy towards
Authority was reflected in the way he looked at scripts because in fact a script represented a form of authority
after all the script says what Beretta is going to do where he's going to go and what he's going to say and that's an
order even so Blake won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best actor in a dramatic series Beretta was a success
and Blake began earning over $25,000 a week in the face of his success Blake held on to his humble
roots avoiding many of the perks afforded Hollywood stars there was no home in Belair there
was no Mercedes Benz there was no jewelry he drove around in a car that that I it was such a
clunker that it occurred to me that he drove that car on purpose so that it would look bad on the universal lot and
embarrass the Executives Robert didn't make a lot of friends in town you know he was standoffish you know and he
didn't hang with a lot of people he was not a Rodeo Drive kind of guy and he was
not really comfortable in some of the world that other celebrities moved pretty easily in but but on The Tonight
Show due to his quick wit and sharp tongue he became a crowd favorite he's a very funny guy he really can get you
laughing if you look at those tonight shows you can you'll see how hysterically funny he was a lot of what
he did on the Carson show was thumb his nose at authority figures whether they'd
be Studio Executives or politicians and he would Express the opinions and feelings of a great many people out
there in the audience who feel the same way he used to refer to the executives in the Black Tower at Universal as the
suits and I could tell by the inflection of his voice when he said that word suit
that he had a hatred for suits by the time Beretta was cancelled after three and a half seasons Blake had
developed a reputation as someone who was difficult to work with while we were doing Beretta some of
the stories of things that happened and some of the things that made Robert difficult um we were beginning to get
around in 1981 after a tumultuous 20-year marriage Blake and his wife Sandra Kerr
divorced after starring in a handful of mediocre television movies and series during the 80s and 90s such as Joe
dancer and Helltown Blake was given an opportunity to work with avangard director David Lynch in the movie Lost
Highway it was on the set that Blake met John salari an extra and fellow Italian from
Back East the two became fast friends we used to come here on Tuesday nights they
had every Tuesday night they had Italian New York night and all the Italian actors from New York and Blake spent so
much time with Solari that he considered having Solari move into his Studio City
home I was going to live in the back house because I could cook back there Robie never cooked in his house he
always went out to eat well he said because he didn't have the the fans but when I would cook he would M eat it like
a gavone and uh we used to sit and watch TV and talk and you know about his life at age 67 Blake was a complicated
man who had led a complicated life he had survived substance abuse physical abuse depression and
Hollywood part of him rejected this whole Hollywood world and part of him really wanted to be part of
it and wanted to work and wanted to be recognized for that work and I think that was his struggle so it wasn't so
much that he was down on his luck and needed the money but the fame that he rejected at the same time he craved he
knew and worked with all of these people and he has incredible stories to tell and you know that part of Hollywood
history is quickly fading away and Blake is one of the last of the most Bacons really now in the Twilight of his career
it seemed as if Blake would merely fade away as so many older Hollywood stars do but in
1998 he would meet a woman named Bonnie Lee bakeley who would ultimately Place Blake back in the spotlight for one
final curtain call who was Bonnie Lee bakeley next on Mugshots Blake and bakeley were like two peas in
a pot in a lot of ways they both grew up in very Scrappy households in New Jersey
both families were poor and very violent both kids were abused Bonnie grew up in
a troubled uh environment she came from a broken home here's person who is desperate for Fame in any form it's hard
to talk about how i a you know I just get crazy because you know she wasn't a nice
person somebody said to me when you how can you talk about somebody who's dead I
said since when do you got to speak nice about the dead this woman is is a woman
obsessed with Hollywood and celebri this there is nothing that Bonnie Lee bakeley
has ever done in her lifetime that justifies her having been murdered what did she do she zealously chased after a
celebrity to marry him how many women in America America want to marry a celebrity Bonnie Lee bakeley was born on
June 7th 1956 in Morristown New Jersey and to her family Fame was everything she was very neglected by her parents
and grandmother but the only people who counted for them were famous people bakley's grandmother loved tough guys in
the movies Bogart Kagney Garfield she was a big Beretta fan she loved Robert Blake she used to watch on Johnny Carson
all the time and talk about how cute he was if you want to get approval from your family what do you do in that
situation maybe you bring home a famous guy in search of acceptance and notoriety a young and Confused Bonnie
began advertising auring photos of herself in magazines by the time Bonnie became a
teenager she had decided that it was perfectly okay to sell naked pictures of herself to anybody who would pay for it
Bonnie quickly learned that there were men all over the country that were willing to send her money with the hopes
of meeting a pretty girl soon after that she parlayed the business into mail order pornography really and started
taking out ads in men's magazines under different personas hi I'm Claire I'm a nurse would you like me to take care of
you if you send me 10 bucks I'll send you a big wet kiss as Bonnie's mail order business was starting to bring in
money she married her first cousin a man her grandmother said looked like a movie
star Bonnie was a pretty young girl and she married young had two kids despite her odd profession and choice of husband
her friends and family say she was a good wife and mother Bonnie took care of her children really well she was very
family orientated woman if somebody was out of work and and needed a few bucks she'd put them to work sorting
mail uh in the business she would take care of family anyone who needed help she would help Bonnie was such a big
part of everybody's life she was always in touch either letters cards she never forgot a holiday a
birthday phone calls I mean she was a big part of everybody's life Bonnie may have been a good mother
but that did not stop her from targeting wealthy men and illegally marrying them
this scam allowed her to get their money and disappear she's basically a grifter
and a scam artist and and uh I had been defrauding men across the country for almost a quarter of a century Bonnie's
lawyer dismisses the seriousness of these activities a lot of her Antics were rather comical there's a story of a
sheriff up in northern part of the country they got married in Las Vegas and he handed her a role of quarters to
go play the slot machines and that was the last he saw of her in 1983 at age 27 Bonnie moved her
family to the music capital of the world Memphis Tennessee she tried it as an actor she
didn't make it she tried it as a singer she had no voice and ultimately came down to I'm going to marry it you know
I'm going to attach myself to Fame in some way and that way I will get Fame once in Memphis she set her sites
on the Aging rockabilly Idol of her youth Jerry Lee Lewis the reason she wanted to meet Jerry Lee Lewis is cuz
she felt that they had something in common aside from the fact that she liked R&B um he had married his first
cousin and so had she Bonnie became a groupy following Jerry Lee Lewis from concert to
concert while spending time with Lewis she became pregnant and claimed that the child was his Lewis denied her claim and
Bonnie went public with her story she had a daughter and she had first claimed that the baby was his and she named the
baby Jerry Lee in the wake of Bonnie's tabloid allegations her relationship with Lewis
turned cold unable to Hitch herself to Lewis's star Bonnie focused her efforts on her
mail order business by the 1980s she had built her little home brw pornography business into more or less a six-state
Empire she had PO boxes in those six states she was getting thousands of letters from people all over the country
if not the World a lot of these people were sending her cash 10 20 $30 sometimes a lot more than that sending
her bus tickets to come visit them sending her plane tickets using dozens of aliases for her scams Bonnie
eventually ran into trouble with the law Bonnie was arrested for some sort of identity theft charge she had multiple
identities that she used in her business while on probation for fraud Bonnie who
by now was in her 30s ignored her sentence of of house arrest and went to California where she hoped she would
finally achieve her lifelong goal Fame all she ever wanted to do is move her family to California she has you know
just this very American goal ultimately her goal was where everybody's goal is if you really want to find Fame and
that's La that's Southern California she came out here in a very calculating fashion to meet a star and to marry or
somehow link herself to a star she had a billboard up on Sunset Boulevard with her picture on it saying
you know call Bonnie bakeley new actress or whatever it is she this woman was desperate to break into Hollywood that's
the [Music] key one of Bonnie's first Targets in Hollywood would be an unlikely pseudo
celebrity she began sending pictures of herself to a convicted killer named Christian Brando the son of Marlon
Brando bakeley thought he was very good-look obviously desirable the son of one of the greatest actors of all time
so she started sending him photos of herself and apparently he responded after Brando was released from
prison he and Bonnie struck up a relationship in 1998 while still seeing Christian Brando Bonnie attended a jazz
performance where she would meet Robert Blake next on mug [Music] shots on a warm fall evening in
1998 Robert Blake went to a Studio City jazz club where he would first meet Bonnie Lee bakeley Robert is a jazz fan
so he would spend the evening in jazz club so which what happened is she discovered where Robert went and
Robert's a man of habits he would go to certain clubes Club so she stationed herself at that club it sounds like it
must have been lust at First Sight evidently they you know hustled right out to the parking lot there and had a
quickie I don't think she knew that Blake was in In Cold Blood she might have known him from Beretta but she
really knew him cuz he was a guy from The Tonight Show while Bonnie's friends and family would later state that her
meeting with Blake was by chance members of Blake's Camp would disagree we know that she had done a property profile on
him ahead of time so she knew how much property he had and he was a Target just like Christian Brando was a Target it's
not true that she was stalking Robert Blake she didn't even know she KN all she knew was that he was
famous despite the fact that Blake was over 20 years her senior Bonnie had finally found a star a Bonafide star who
took a great interest in her he actually liked her and she liked him as we as we've all heard him a million times but
their relationship was much more complicated than uh the press has made it out to be she and Blake would
continue to see each other and meet at various jazz clubs bakeley had promised Blake that she was was using birth
control when they were sleeping together and then of course it turned out that she wasn't months after first meeting
Bonnie Blake learned she was pregnant he was outraged and someone would trick him
into a pregnancy at 67 years old at first Robert Blake was clearly denying paternity he did not want this child um
he was trying to convince her to have an abortion but Blake was not the only one
bakeley was discussing her pregnancy with she had Christian Brando convinced that it was his child Bonnie now thought
that she had two potential husbands to choose from well you think Christian actually cares more like huh he's more
of a caring Ty think she recorded a phone conversation in which she laid out her Dilemma to a friend you guys are
more the same age you think Blake is almost you know he's getting really old he's older than Jerry you think he just
isn't the type to ever settle down or nothing huh once the child was born Bonnie named
her baby girl Christian Brando how does she name a a girl Christian Brando I mean it could be Christine Brando how do
you name a girl Jerry Lee Lewis even though Bonnie claimed that the child was Brando's Blake expected that he might be
the father a photograph of the baby appeared and Blake saw it and immediately realized that the baby was
his and flipped out have you ever seen a picture of Rosie I mean it's got Robert's eyes and was like a beautiful
female Robert Blake he demanded a paternity test and it proved that the baby was his Blake fell in love with the
child and wanted her to be renamed Rose Sophia Blake you saw that all of a sudden there was this new life it was
just incredible to watch this realizing the only way to be a father to Rosie was
to marry her mother Blake insisted on a prenuptual agreement the agreement was just unbearably oppressive they could be
living together and and married for 25 years and then at the end Blake could either die or they could divorce and
Bonnie would get nothing desperate to be Mrs Robert Blake she and Blake were then married
Blake believing that he had been forced into the marriage moved Bonnie into the guest house behind his Studio City
[Music] property now that Bonnie was married to a celebrity she could easily be located
by just about anyone Bonnie expressed concern about just that people from her past finding
her I do remember when she called Robin and told him about she wanted her plates
on the car she had a Mercedes and she wanted the plates change right away and it it sounded funny you know she said
that somebody didn't like the idea she was with Rober and this and that so Robert and I used to joke we were going
to put a sign in front of the house she's in the back we didn't want to get shot despite keeping Bonnie at arms
length by having her stay in the guest house Blake soon realized that he still wanted out of the marriage he had a
legal game plan plan he had lawyers civil lawyers who were setting up the situation so that eventually when he
divorced um Bonnie that he would get full custody he didn't want to have to deal with her as mother of his child he
didn't want to have to pay her support he didn't want to see her face soon after becoming married Blake
and bakeley went camping oddly Blake brought along a man named Earl Caldwell Earl they call him a bodyguard but
actually in Hollywood people have what they call assistance and I would call them more
assistant/ um uh handyman helper Bonnie's attorney remembers a bizarre tale she told about the camping
trip with Earl Caldwell Bonnie and Robert were naked in a sleeping bag and Caldwell showed up popped out of the
bushes and was supposed to shoot B killer at that time and couldn't go through with it uh Blake comes out at a
sleeping bag naked goes over to Caldwell tells him it's okay puts his arm around his shoulder Caldwell's
crying and the two of them are sort of commiserating and snuggling while Blake is naked with his arms
around Caldwell on a lounge chair Bonnie later called her sister Marjorie and said she thought that Blake was trying
to kill her he was mean and she was afraid of him and um he's going to kill me I just don't know when you think it's
going to hurt things like that it was just really bad if Bonnie was right and Blake did want to kill her why did she
stay with him Bonnie saw this as her Destiny Bonnie was trapped and I think maybe somehow Bonnie knew that she was
now going to be the celebrity she always wanted to be he had her baby and she knew once she left that was it the
number was going to get changed he might move no more access to the baby I think
she felt paralyzed she had reached the Pinnacle of her dream she had married a famous
person according to Blake there were dozens of men with a motive to kill her there were letters where people were mad
at her and guys aren't happy when you theyve realize they've been scammed even out of a couple hundred bucks on the
night of May 4th 2001 Blake made a dinner reservation for two at vell's it would be Bonnie's last meal
[Applause] [Music] a murder investigation centering on Robert Blake next on Mugshots Bonnie Lee bakeley was declared
dead at 10:15 p.m. at St Joseph's Medical Center on May 4th 2001 certainly upon hearing about
Bonnie's death I was greatly troubled but I knew right away who the suspect was going to be they made their mind up
that night that he was the Killer and any investigation of any other possibilities is totally superficial
only as an eyewash it was sad for him uh actually tried to reach him and couldn't get through because I thought
you know this must be a terribly difficult time for him with another Hollywood celebrity at
the center of a murder invest instigation parallels to the OJ Simpson case began to surface from the defendant
Bronco having been blamed by the media for Simpson's acquittal and accused of leading a sloppy and unprofessional
investigation the Los Angeles Police Department and District Attorney's Office were now determined to get this
one right we are continuing to follow All Leads and to examine all evidence in a thorough thoughtful and methodical
manner they blow this the political Heads Will Roll there will be uh great consequences for losing it if they
Prevail they're going to show everybody hey we can do it the OJ case was an aberration we learned we can handle
these matters this is a great police force that has a huge monkey on its back from OJ from the riots from Daryl Gates
so here comes yet another celebrity case they want to do it right autopsy reports
show that Blake's 38 caliber pistol was not the murder weapon within days police
recovered a 9mm World War II pistol from a dumpster near the crime scene it had been wiped clean of fingerprints and
doused in motor oil ballistics showed it was the weapon that had fired the Fatal
shots we have gathered our case despite the efforts of Blake's attorney Blake was emerging as the prime
suspect the police doubted his reason for carrying a gun that night the reason he said he was carrying a gun he' had a
concealed weapon permit since the mid 1990s and he also said that he was carrying the gun because he was worried
for his wife's safety Blake's account of why he parked his car so far from the restaurant also fell under scrutiny
Blake Parks the car an unreasonable distance from the restaurant in a dark area behind a dumpster by a construction
site but Blake's Camp had an explanation for his actions we went places and he would park two blocks away from where we
were going just him so I accepted it this is I knew if I was going anywhere out with
Robert I had to take my hiking boots police also questioned Blake's claim that he had forgotten his gun
inside the restaurant anybody who's carried a concealed firearm will tell you that at
any given moment in time they know where that firearm is they didn't oops leave it behind on the seat in the restaurant
by accident and he put the weapon down on the seat next to him and it probably went down on the floor when he uh put
his sweatshirt back on at the end of the meal we even have one witness who uh who
was with Robert Blake once when he took the gun in and forgot it in the restaurant if he's carrying a gun for
Bonnie's protection why did he leave her behind the dumpster in a dark area with
the windows open they go out get into the car he discovers that the gun is no longer in his waistband and then
instantly rushes back to the restaurant not thinking about leaving his wife out there or anything like that when he gets
back she shot that's essentially what happened it's a non-believable story not credible at all No One Believes
it Blake included in his account that he had recently fired his 38 caliber pistol Blake's story established two
things Bonnie required protection and Blake had a reason for having gunshot residue on his
hands a search of the car of Blake's associate Earl Caldwell uncovered an incriminating handwritten list that
included two shovels a small Sledge a crowbar 25 auto get Blank gun ready old rugs duct tape Drano pool acid lie and a
plant you're going to dig a hole you're going to roll someone up in the carpet you're going to tape it with duct tape
you're going to kill them with the 25 auto you're going to pour lie over them to make the body disappear and become
unrecognizable but the list is actually a composite list of stuff that Robert that Earl was getting to do work around
the property those close to Blake suspected that someone other than Blake had killed Bonnie I could imagine some
guy out there defrauded by her and didn't know who she was or what it was looks at the national inquire and says
Ah so this is the lady that's been screwing around with me for all these years oh she's with Robert Blake uh
let's check out Robert Blake where does Robert Blake eat three nights a week at patellos you you got Trunks and Trunks
of potential people that wanted to that could take this woman off the count potentially I mean there's thousands
that she ripped off how many years she been doing it that was her life another possibility police
considered was that Blake had hired a hitman 3 months after Bonnie's death police
spoke to two exetta stuntmen who claimed Blake had solicited them John salari who
has spent a good portion of his life in prison believes that if Blake had wanted
to have Bonnie killed he would have come to him how come he never as approached me about it if I knew anybody or
anything like that never once the only thing he ever told me he says John John I got to make this work I mean if you're
hanging out you know with a guy that rides a horse why would you ask a truck driver
to teach you how to ride a horse the police had a strong circumstantial case but no hard evidence
there is no physical evidence that I'm aware of that links him to the killing uh GSR is meaningless it's gunshot
residue tests are meaningless no blood the killer poured oil over the gun uh and tossed the oil can the entire case
turns on the uncorroborated testimony of two stuntmen Mr Blake's Council poo poos
every piece of evidence that comes forward it's not two stunned people it's five it's five people that were
approached to murder Bonnie and he says they're all either misinformed or telling
lies months would pass without an arrest this country has seen way too many celebrities and wealthy people get
away with murder with the Spectre of the OJ Simpson case looming overhead political pressures mounted yet without
any eyewitnesses it began to seem as if the murder of Bonnie Lee bakeley might go
unsolved a full year after the murder an arrest is finally made we're here today
to announce that the Bonnie Lee bakeley case is solved next on Mugshots on the afternoon of April 18th 2002
after nearly 12 months of Investigation police alerted the media that two arrests were underway in connection with
the murder of Bonnie Lee bakeley surrendering without a fight Earl Caldwell Robert Blake's associate was
arrested for one count of conspiracy to commit murder Robert Blake was arrested for one count of conspiracy to commit
murder two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of Murder in the First
Degree we're here today to announce that the Bonnie Lee bakeley case is solved at 5:30 this afternoon detectives
with the Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide division arrested actor Robert Blake for the murder of his wife
44 year-old Bonnie Lee bakeley there's a ton of evidence there are several witnesses and there have has been an
arrest and that's because the police believe that Robert Blake committed this murder it just to me is out of character
for him has a very high IQ it just seems to me that he would be too smart I mean
there is such a thing as divorce you don't have to kill somebody you know to get custody of a
child as the Los Angeles DA's office prepares for trial those who have followed the case reflect upon Blake and
she actually in a sad way achieved her goal you know and got the fame that she came looking for she had
to die for it unfortunately but she got what she came for pl's a really interesting case in how the boundaries
between actor and person are completely blurred he's clearly a guy who's traveled on the dark side in a lot of
ways it's not been easy being Robert Blake I don't think he just came out of it a pretty scarred and sad guy he's had
problems with depression problems with drugs problems with booze uh that he survived but even at the height of his
success he really didn't let himself enjoy it I don't think I don't want to be an apologist for a murder or if
that's in fact what it turns out that Robert is but that I but I have my doubts you know I just have my doubts I
just know for certain and have said that all along he was the one I know he was angry enough to do what he did he
threatened her enough and he had motive means an opportunity in my heart of hearts I know he didn't do it and I just
wonder sometimes is he going to come back and sit here with me when I saw him dancing with Rosie you
know just singing and dancing and being the happiest guy I ever saw in my life you ever going to see that again I
don't know every major player in the story is broken and love starved and floating around the perimeters of
Hollywood in one way or another we deep inside Hollywood you know all you've got
a B and C Hollywood players here Beyond any Hollywood writer's wildest imagination the story of Bonnie
Lee bakeley and Robert Blake is a tale of Fame and its deadly [Music] price I

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Brief Summary

Robert Blake is arrested for the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley amid a complex Hollywood saga.

Key points

Robert Blake's Arrest. Detectives arrested actor Robert Blake in connection with his wife's murder.
A Tragic Dinner. On the night of May 4th, Robert Blake and his wife dined at Vell's restaurant before tragedy struck.
The Murder Investigation. The murder of Bonnie Lee Bakeley sparked a year-long investigation into her life and Robert Blake's past.
Robert Blake's Career. Robert Blake's journey from child star to Hollywood's A-list actor is marked by talent and turmoil.
Bonnie Lee Bakeley's Life. Bonnie Lee Bakeley, born into a troubled family, chased fame and fortune throughout her life.
Bonnie's Scams. Bonnie ran a six-state scam operation, receiving cash and tickets from her victims.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was desperate to break into Hollywood.

24:37WatchJul 28, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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