Is it O.J. Simpson all over again? A new Hollywood-style murder mystery has captured the attention of the US in the last week. This time the story involves a has-been actor and a con-woman victim.
On May 4th, television actor Robert Blake (67) and his wife of six months, Bonnie Bakley (44), were having dinner at Vitello's, an Italian restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, not far from Blake's home. After dinner, the couple returned to his car, which Mr Blake had parked about a block from the restaurant. According to what he told police, Mr Blake returned to the restaurant, saying he had forgotten his gun which he says he left in the booth the couple shared. When he returned to his car, he founded his wife slumped over and bleeding. She had been shot in the head.
A hysterical Mr Blake knocked on the door of an adjacent home and asked the residents to call 911, an emergency police number. As police and ambulances arrived to pronounce Bonnie Bakley dead, Mr Blake sat and cried and vomited near the scene. He was then questioned by police for six hours before being released. Since then, the Los Angeles police department has declined to name Mr Blake an official suspect, but they have focused almost all of their investigation on him. Mr Blake, meanwhile, has hired a lawyer named Harlan Braun, one of Los Angeles's most famous criminal attorneys.
As might be expected, the media are having a field day with both Mr Blake and his deceased wife. Both are extremely colourful characters, the kind of human stories almost too tabloid-ready to be true.
Blake was the star of the 1970s television drama Baretta and has appeared in numerous films, including the 1967 classic of Truman Capote's novel's In Cold Blood. For her part, Ms Bakley's reputation has been thoroughly exposed. A convicted grifter and con-woman, Ms Bakley was said to have sought for years to marry a celebrity. She finally snagged Mr Blake by announcing she was pregnant with his child. They married on November 19th of last year, a loveless union say friends, that only happened because Mr Blake was determined to raise his new daughter.
Since the murder, Mr Blake's attorney, has been on a crusade to paint Ms Bakley as a sad and desperate woman who sold nude pictures of herself and attached herself to stars like Mr Blake after her own dream of being a Hollywood star didn't work out.
"She became a hanger-on, a star stalker," said Braun. In addition, Mr Braun made sure the media knew all about Ms Bakley. It seems she had a practice of placing lonely hearts personal ads in newspapers. When men responded, she sent them letters asking for money. Police say she collected thousands of dollars this way. In a series of taped telephone conversations Ms Bakley made while speaking to friends, she offered several explanations for her lifetsyle and her choices: "It's my business, and if I want to fool guys in the mail saying I'm somebody else, what's the difference?"
Mr Braun's approach, known in legal circles as "dirtying the victim," is a controversial one. "I feel like she's being treated as the defendant," says Cary Goldstein, a civil attorney representing Bakley's family. "The spin on this matter by Mr Blake and his counsel is a disgrace."
But Mr Braun is unapologetic. He says he's just doing his job, letting the public and the police know that plenty of other people may have wanted Bakley dead.
For his part, Mr Blake has always been known for having a volatile temper. Years ago he spoke openly about being abused as a child. But friends like actor Gary Busey say they cannot imagine Mr Blake being involved in a crime like this.
And in fact, the Los Angeles Police Department says Mr Blake is only a witness, even though they obtained search warrants for his home twice. There are, however, some inconsistencies in his story.
ALTHOUGH Mr Blake says he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a gun, two employees have told police that Mr Blake did not leave a gun behind. Further, one says he can recall Mr Blake returning only once, after Ms Bakley was already shot.
Others have wondered about Mr Blake's knocking on a neighbour's door. Almost everyone in Los Angeles carries a cellular phone. People have found it odd that Mr Blake, who said he was carrying a gun because he was concerned about safety, would not also be carrying a cell phone.
Still, Bonnie Lee Bakley did live a rather strange life and it is not absurd to think that someone in her past may have wanted her dead. One thing is certain; the LAPD is handling this case very carefully. The mistakes made in the O.J. Simpson murder investigation have haunted this police department for years. They are determined not to repeat those errors. After all, this is Hollywood.
"It used to be just whodunit," police spokesman Sgt John Pasquariello said. "But we realize the attention's going to be on us as much as it's going to be on the crime itself. We've got to be cognisant of that, and realise we're under the same light as everybody else in this scene. We've got to be particular about how our image is portrayed."