Morbid - Episode 313: The Unsolved Murder of Bonny Lee Bakley

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Bonny Lee Bakley’s life is rife with controversy, chaos and just straight up tragedy. She was born into an incredibly toxic environment and seemed to go through life looking for some sense of purpose. She was married multiple times, but her last marriage to actor Robert Blake was the one that added the most controversy. The couple was married only about 5 months when Bonny was murdered on the night of May 4th 2001. Immediately Robert was looked into as a suspect and eventually brought to trial for her murder but the mystery reamins to this day. Who killed Bonny Lee Bakley? Great book about this case: Blood Cold by Dennis McDougal & Mary Murphy  Also, check this out. I WROTE A BOOK. ;) ***US WEIRDOS Pre-Order The Butcher and the Wren: Here ***** ***UK WEIRDOS Pre-Order a SIGNED copy of The Butcher and the Wren from Waterstones!!*** As always, thank you to our sponsors: GoodRX: For simple, smart savings on your prescriptions, check GoodRx. Go to GoodRX.com/Morbid HelloFresh: Get sixteen free meals, plus three gifts, with code morbid16 at HELLO FRESH.com/morbid16 BetterHelp: Morbid listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/morbid PrettyLitter: Go to Prettylitter.com and use code morbid to save twenty percent on your first order. Peloton: Visit onepeloton.com to learn more. The Jordan Harbinger Show: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. It is! We are here. And you know what guys? I could not believe the amount of people who said that they loved the discussion in the last episode that we had in the beginning of the episode. Honestly, it felt like a good discussion. It felt good. I felt lighter after that episode.

And a lot of people said they felt that way too, which just like leads me to believe even more that we were all destined to be friends with each other. We were. And that's why I know when I kept seeing people be like, that's exactly what I needed to hear. Yeah. Like I was happy to listen to that discussion

because we didn't want to like, you know, like shove anything down your throat. We're a few years into this now. We've learned that like, talking for 45 minutes before getting to the actual case is like, not really a great use of your time. Like, kind of a bummer. Like, we're taking up valuable moments of your life by doing that and like, we don't want to do that.

You know what, though? It's a very even split of people that fucking, and people that are like, I't want to do that. You know what though, it's a very even split of people that fucking think that and people that are like, I want you to do that more. And I see both sides. And you know what, that was a good compromise, I felt like every once in a while. You get 11 minutes. We'll give you 11 minutes of just talking about

what we want to talk about. And I think that's a great compromise for everybody. I think once a month we just do 11 minutes. I think we should do that. We'll just pick a subject, we'll chat for 11 minutes and then get right into it. Everybody can just shake it off. Next subject, mayonnaise.

There you go. It just came to me and I'm like, I hate it. We'll get into it. Stay tuned. It's gonna be hotly debated, okay? But I was nice to see that everybody kind of like needed that this week

And I get maybe we all felt it at once. We just all needed to chat about it because I know I did and I think I asked it to There was like something in the calls There was like a heaviness in the air that just needed to be cleared out So it felt really nice. Thank you so much guys for telling us that like you needed it because it makes us feel good and Yeah, I think the only thing that I wanted to throw in before we get to the case today is, do you guys know our wrote a book? I wrote a book. What? And it's a cool serial killer tale. It's fictional, by the way, very fictional. Why haven't you said anything about this? I know I didn't, you know, I've been very quiet about

it, but I didn't know how to communicate with you. I'm sorry. I didn't say it last time and I was like, oh, I get to say it this time. Because I don't want to say it whenever the fuck you feel like. I don't want to shove it down your throat, but it's a cool fictional serial killer tale, set in a Louisiana by you, set in New Orleans.

It has a cool female medical examiner who I love with all my heart and soul. Ren. And it's really like has, I think you guys will love it It has a cool female medical examiner who I love with all my heart and soul. And it's really like has, I think you guys will love it because I had you in mind the whole time. And you can pre-order it right now. It's gonna come out September 13th of this year. So only a few more months, not that far away. It's really not. It's, oh, I didn't even actually think about this. It is the perfect way to start pre-optober.

Pre-opt over. Did you plan the 13th pre-October. Pre-October. Did you plan the 13th? I know 13. I didn't plan that. Well, we can't do Friday. But like not, not. Yeah. No, it's not a Friday.

It's a Tuesday, but it's going to be the spookiest fucking Tuesday you ever had. So. All right. Let's go. That's a big old promise, but I know that it's true. I'm going to deliver it. But if you want to pre-order it right now, you can pre-order it at tinyurl.com slash the butcher and the rent, or for my UK lovelies out there, or for some US lovelies, if you're

like all the lovelies, I was going to say, hello! There you go, if that didn't drive you away from this, stay with me. And there are signed copies available at Waterstones in the UK and you can go to the Waterstones website and you can search butcher in the run, ilopopup. You can pre-order a signed copy. I am going to sit in personally sign thousands of copies. So I get in there, like half a million, right? Do it. Do it. Do it. Not a half a million. Holy shit. I just made that up. That would be wild. But not a half a million. I would love to tell you that, but I'm not doing that in my hand will fall off. But there's a good, good

amount in there. But go get yours. Yeah. Go get them. And you can do that at Waterstones, just search the butcher and the ren. It's up there. They've been amazing to partner with. We're very excited about it. And I'm excited to be working with Penguin in the UK. And it's all awesome. And I'm very excited about it.

So go ahead and pre-order it because it's going to be fun. And up into the point of September. There's gonna be some like fun stuff that we do. So stay tuned. It's all happening, Shina Shea. It's all happening. But that's my only shell I got for you right now. So thank you for listening everybody.

And here we go. Here we go. That just makes me want to start cheering and that brings me to a dark place in my mind. I have no idea how we got there, but we got there. Here we go. Here we go, you know. Oh, hate it. Love it. Anyways, this isn't about cheerleaving. This is up, please. Oh, Bonnie Lee, Bake Lee. Yes, it is. I like didn't realize what a crazy story this was, and I didn't realize how sad it was. I mean, I knew it was very sad, but then I peeled back the layers of the onion and it just got sadder and sadder with every layer. Um, that's very exciting. Yeah, and, and I'm so excited to

sit through all those rotten layers of this onion. Um, I do want to give you a bit of a trigger warning for the beginning of this, talking about Bonnie's earlier years there is some sexual abuse and Some of it was like in the family so if that is not something that you want to listen to today I will not hold that against you and you could probably just skip to the middle and you know what we love you And I love you anyway, so let's get into it. Bonnie Lee Bakeley was actually born the day before me Anyway, so let's get into it. Bonnie Lee Bakeley was actually born the day before me, but not the same year.

She was born on June 7th, a Gemini in 1956 in Morris Town, New Jersey. And because she's a Gemini, you know that this story is about to be chaotic and provide you with like a lot of different anxieties. Woo, yeah, but I mean, I do that every time we sign onto the show, so you're welcome. Thank you. Yeah, so she was born to um, I'm gonna say two people. I'm not gonna say parents because they were horrible,

but their names were Edward and Marjorie Lewis Spakley. Now Edward at one point actually worked as a tree surgeon. Stop it immediately. Guys, we don't do this on purpose. And it's weird because I do feel like it happens at least like every couple weeks with like a really small, minute detail. Oh yeah, it happens way too often. It's weird.

And you know what else happens really often is like I'll pick a case that has like a date that's around when we're gonna be releasing it, but I don't mean don't mean to. I think it's just because we are cosmically aligned. I think so. You and I. Yeah. Just Capricorn and this Gemini. I know. It's like it's a great partnership. I love it. So yeah, he did work as a tree surgeon but his career didn't really last that long because he was also an alcoholic and not necessarily in the frame of mind to be operating construction machinery like a chainsaw. Uh-oh. Yeah. Like nothing happened. He just like stopped working on the wall. It just like wasn't a great idea. Yeah.

Like he didn't like cut his leg off right now. It was just like a preemptive like something bad could happen. Yeah, I think someone was like we should stop sending him into trees with chainsaws. That's really good to be proactive. That's about it. It is. Now, he was barely a father to his children because once he did stop working, he would be at the bar from like, sun up to sundown. And when he was left to watch the kids on one particular occasion, he tried to sell

one of them for alcohol. Oh, come on. Yes. I hate this kind of shit. Yeah. That makes me crazy. And this is a sexual assault trigger warning. There were other times where Bonnie would be left alone with her father and was molested by her.

Oh God, what a fucking monster. Disgusting. And the sad thing about this too is that she didn't really have anybody in her life that she could go to, because her mom was away. Her mom worked at an antique business that she owned, and she would be away from the house all day. So she didn't really have her mom to go to because then her mom would get home

but she would not want to be bothered at all by the children or Bonnie at all. She just wanted to be left alone and when they did try to be like, hey mom, pay attention to me because you created me, she would just like berate them and scream at them. Cool. Yeah, that's what you do when you have kids for sure berate them and scream at them. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's what you do when you have kids for sure.

Yeah, and as a parent, one of like the cool things about being a parent is that you get to decide when you give attention to your kids. Yeah, totally. That's like one of the best parts about being a parent is you can just take long periods of time where you just go, you know, and I'm not feeling it. I'm tired right now. Yeah. And kids understand.

Pay time off, even. Yeah, absolutely not. In case you couldn't feel that sarcasm like dripping out of my pores, that's insane to me. Right. I don't give a shit how hard you're working. You come home, you're a parent. Yeah. The end. The end of story. Exactly. Like, I'm sorry. I'm tired. Like, no, you have a kid. Well, it's sad because then it's like you're just- They missed you. They missed you and you're just creating this cycle where they don't understand love and they don't.

Like, they're going to go into the future and not understand how to receive or give love. Yeah, and that always like just hurts my heart to think of a little kid with, because again, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a place where I felt like loved and cared for and safe. Mm-hmm. And I feel like it just like kills me now to think about any little

kid having any kind of inkling of not being safe or not being not having a place to go where they can just be like I'm scared. I'm sad. I'm upset. I can tell you what the very shitty feeling makes me so sad. I know well I was fortunate enough to have mom puppet to go to but but not always. And sometimes you just want your mom or you want your dad. Well, because when you are in your mom's belly, that's when your bond starts. And then when you come into the world,

and she just wants nothing to do with you, you don't understand that as a child, because you're already bonded naturally. Of course, so it's just that much more traumatizing. Because it's really bonded. Like, naturally. Of course. So it's just that much more traumatizing. Because it's like really sad. You just start off life abandoned. Kids are just looking to be safe.

That's literally all they want. Kids are like puppies. Like they give love, receive love. Like just validate their feelings. That's all they want. Make them feel safe. Make them feel like they can come to you. Right.

They can be your best frickin' friend. Yeah, just give them love them. It's tough. It's tough, but it's like, it's a tough job, yeah. But it's awesome. They're also so fucking cute. Teeth all around, like your kids. Oh my god.

And usually when they're like in that, well, I just love that little time when they have the chubby cheeks. And they list and stuff. Oh my god. I love them. Ah. Oh my god! I love her! Ah! Oh my god! I love her! Oh my god!

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So thank you to good Rx for saving me money and also continuing to keep me correct. For simple smart savings on your prescriptions, check good Rx. Go to gooderex.com slash morbid. That is goodRx.com slash morbid. GoodRx.com slash morbid. Good Rx is not insurance, but can be used in place of insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. In 2021, good Rx users saved 81% on retail prescription Now, they weren't only like just like abusing the children and screaming at the children.

They were abusing each other and screaming at each other. They just fought constantly. What a hellscape. And then one day, the mom just decided, you know what, fuck this, we're out of here. She packed up all her stuff, and she did end up taking the kids with her. But at one point or another, Bonnie ended up being sent to live with her grandmother. Now I read in the book, Blood Cold, which you should 100% read.

It was very good. But I read that the reason Bonnie went to live with her grandmother was because she was collateral on a loan that her mom failed to pay back to the grandmother. So then she owed her Bonnie. I I'm speechless. I have I cannot I cannot and I will not. I don't know. You know when people say like, I would sell my firstborn for that. She really went. Whoa, whoa, full send. Whoa.

So grandma was a gentler role in Bonnie's life, but I really would not go as far as saying that she was motherly or nurturing. She would let, she would not let Bonnie bathe regularly because she didn't want to waste water. Okay. So Bonnie would go to school, like remember, she's young when she goes out there to live with her.

She's like middle school elementary school. So she's getting bullied by the other kids for smelling bad and having like, kind of yucky clothes and all that. Oh my god, killing me. So she also struggled with school itself and things weren't really better outside of school either. Because by the time, again, sexual assault trigger warning,

by the time Bonnie was about 10 or 11 years old, she'd been taken advantage of by most of the older men that she came across, not just her father. Yeah. Her grandmother's house wasn't that far from a nudist colony, and one day she and her sister caught wind that this colony was throwing what they were calling a clothes on event.

That included access to their community pool. From the sounds of it, this wasn't an actual nudist colony. It sounds more like it was like a makeshift one of a DIY. It was not a nudist colony. It was more like perverted people getting together. Now the girls decided to go, and when they got there, they found out the event was not as advertised. It was clothes off, and they were out the event was not as advertised. It was clothes off and they were made to strip.

Oh, yeah. Okay. There were apparently not any responsible adults around who escort these girls out of the event. So they decided to stay on that particular day. Now Bonnie's little sister said that she knew something was off about this whole thing and it felt wrong and she never ended up going back. Bonnie not really knowing any better would go back from time to time. Now she had developed earlier than most of the peers her peers and by

all accounts was very confident in her looks and they seemed to be the one thing that she could kind of rely on the most to get positive attention that she wasn't getting anywhere else. And it was the one thing that she probably felt like she had control of. Mm-hmm. And she felt like authority in that. Exactly. And this nudist colony kind of like you were saying, it was the one place where people paid attention to her,

and she finally felt cared for. So, as adults looking at the situation, we know that's not okay, but Bonnie was looking at this situation through the eyes of like a preteen and just didn't know any better. And eventually some of the horrible people there got a hold of her and took nude photographs that ended up circulating for cash. My God.

How, and was she like a teenager? She was like about 10 or 11 from the accounts that I've read. Oh my God. A baby. The amount of monsters in this fucking world, man. I've seen it, and I should say, I've seen it reported as 10 or 11,

and I've also seen it reported as 13, but I haven't seen it reported older than that. Yeah, and regardless, even if she was 21. Exactly. So by the time she was 16, she had had enough of New Jersey. Oh yeah, yeah, I can't imagine why. She had struggled, she'd been abused

by perverted monsters, bullied mercilessly, I can't imagine why. She had struggled, she'd been abused by perverted monsters, bullied mercilessly, and she was just done. Now growing up, she always knew that she wanted to be famous. She thought, you know, maybe I'll be a movie star, maybe I'll be an actress, maybe I'll model, but one way or the other, I'm gonna have a career that makes me famous. That seems to be kind of a trend with a lot of kids who grow up in that kind of environment because I think it's one of those things like I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to be a glitzy star. Right.

Everything's going to be fixed. And all this trauma will be gone. She said it herself too. It's like she's getting bullied at school so she was like, I just kept a promise to myself that I was going to show all these kids one show them. How great I am and like what I'm capable of. Like she said, it was basically gonna be payback to anybody who had ever taunted her or taken advantage of her.

Yeah. So where do people on the East Coast go who most likely don't have enough money to buy them a flight directly to Hollywood? New York City, baby. Oh, I'm literally like where? You just looked at me with the blake stain. You know, it's ridiculous.

And this is how you can tell that I'm tired. It's been a long week. You said East Coast, and I was like, where in Massachusetts? Like, literally, my mind only thought of Massachusetts as the entire East Coast. You were like, balls. I was literally like, the cape. You talk about Boston Falmouth?

Talk about Chattel? He tell what's going on. The vineyard? No, I literally forgot that there were other states on the east coast. There's a few. There's a handful, one might say. A basket full. There are.

Nope, just mess. Chuse, it's over here. Yeah, so she obviously didn't have enough to make it as far as Hollywood, so she settled on New York. She got herself out there and she found the Barbizon modeling and acting school. Oh my God, did you go there? I did not myself did not go there. But Barbizon is like a very well-known, like, modeling agency slash, like, you know those ones that are like training classes to like modeling and acting classes?

Oh yeah Oh yeah. I do that whole thing, but it was always like on TV and like in malls. I was going to say did they like stop you at the mall? Yeah, I think it was one of those. Did you ever fall for one of those? I did not. I didn't get approached a lot. One time the end of my mom got in the biggest fight because they stopped me at the mall obviously, and they said you're a model kid, and my mom was like no.

And I was like, you're going to be big. I was pissed. As you should be. I know. Yeah, I think it was like a big thing in like the 80s. Like early 90s, I think I remember hearing that name a lot, and it was like just circulating. It was like a spell.

Well, what's it do you kid? Look at me. So she decided to enroll under the name Leigh Bonny. Now, whatever she learned there, did seem to kind of pay off in the beginning and she did get a few modeling jobs. She was also an extra in a 1985 movie called Turk 182 and the 1987 movie Radio Days, but neither of them were very good movies. Apparently. All together she really didn't get a lot of work from her days at Barbizon.

There you go. Now, when she started to realize that she wasn't gonna get rich or famous like she thought this way, she kind of had to come up with a way to get rich at the very least. For now, she would put fame on the back burner. Now unfortunately already knowing that nude photos of women could make some serious money, Bonnie decided to start her own business doing just that. serious money, Bonnie decided to start her own business doing just that. She started out by putting ads in like saucy magazines and she would pretend that she was like heading off to college and she needed help with tuition money or some kind of similar scam like that. Yeah. And it was basically just a way to get money out of whoever was reading the ad. She'd send them like a sexy pick and they would

send her money. And she really did have a way of stringing these men along. And the men she tried to target were usually like lonely older men because they were easy targets. Of course. Now she'd tell them that she wanted to be with them, but then she'd come up with a reason why she needed more cash to come out and see them. And sometimes she would go and meet them, but it was like when she felt like she had gotten enough money out of them. And sometimes she would just ghost them all together. It was like, I think I remember listening

to Karen and Georgia cover this way back when, and they were like, she was catfishing before catfish. There you go. So when she started making more money and more cash, she pretty much had a full on business from which men could order nude pictures, get a spicy letter, and sometimes she would hop on the phone for a spicy conversation.

I love the spicy letters, my favorite. And she was like really good at it. Yeah, spicy pen pals for life. There were like multiple people who were like, she could have had a great career in like pornography. Wow. She was a great writer. Now, she'd come up with different aliases,

but she was the one behind everything. She once said that she was trisexual, meaning that she would try anything. Oh my god, amazing. And that kind of became like the slogan for her like her business. Trisexual, I will try anything. Yeah, she elaborated later and she said that she particularly enjoyed satomasochism and that she also identified as bisexual. Hey, get it. Yeah, so she was like really open. Yeah. In the time where most people weren't really open.

I was gonna say, yeah. Now most of the letters and phone calls shared the common theme of being incredibly kinky. And that is where the money was for these fellas. Oh, of course. Now, the business started doing so well eventually that Bonnie started making like real good money. Now, according to Mary Murphy, who co-wrote that book I mentioned, Blood Cold, she said that Bonnie was making about $300,000 a year.

Holy shit. When the business was at its highest point, wow. Wricing in 300,000. From spicy. Yeah. So she starts getting all these different PO boxes all over the place and buys a couple properties with the money that she's bringing in. But to open her PO boxes all around the nation, she had to have these different aliases. And because of that, she would run into

trouble with the law on more than one occasion. In 1989, she got a fine for drug possession. About six years later, in 95, she wrote two bad checks and got another fine. Plus, she got a fine for drug possession. About six years later in 95 she wrote two bad checks and got another fine Plus she got sentenced to work on a penal farm on the weekends. Oh, yeah, and then 1998 was her most infamous arrest. She was arrested in Arkansas and when she was apprehended She had five driver's licenses on her and seven social security cards. All with different names attached to them. The fraud, the fraudulent behaviors in that vehicle. The most fraudulent.

It is. Now that got her a three year probation stint where she could not leave Arkansas. Makes sense. Yeah, they were like, you need to cool it with the alias. You need to chill out. So not only was she arrested a few times, Bonnie was also married a few times. Do you have any idea how many times she was married? If you had to give it a guess, your best guess. Six, ten. Ten. She was married ten times. Whoa. Although about half of those marriages were indulged. All right, so it's like, I don't,

she's so married. I mean, she's so married. Yeah, that's still it happened. Yeah. Wow. 10 times. 10 people asked her to marry them. I know, it's not crazy.

That's always wild to me. Yeah, like, not to say she wasn't gorge, but like, where do you find 10 men? Yeah, anybody. I'm always like, wow. Yeah, you know? No. A good portion of these men were people

who she had met through her business. And the marriages would usually end one of two ways. Bonnie would take a good portion of their money and run off with it, leaving them to figure out what the fuck just happened. Or they would catch onto the scheme that she was running and they would leave her. Okay. So it's so happily. Yes, super easy is how it would usually end. Well, happily when she ran off with the money for her, not for them. But the first time she was married, it was actually to a man named Evangelos Polakis. Now, Evangelos was not from America, but he wanted to stay in America. And he knew marrying a citizen would probably be a good start.

Yeah. And he knew Bonnie because they had actually met through modeling and he proposed the idea of getting married to her and she was like, oh, absolutely, that sounds great. And he kind of made it sound like he had a chunk of cash. Ooh, so she was like, that sounds even great here. Like, you know what, that sounds great actually. Her mind literally just like made that register sound like

clinging, clinging. You didn't go with touching, going with, going. It's a little more authentic. It is, it feels right, good. So, Bonnie agreed and they got married, but literally as soon as everything was signed, she went missing with his money.

Oh boy. And she didn't come home until it was too late and he had already been deported. So, they ended up getting that one an old. Oh, yeah, I think that's the best course of action on that one. Yeah, the divorce slash annulment happened the same year that the marriage did, 1971. And about four years later, in 1975, Bonnie was getting married again. This time, to a man named Paul, who happened to be her cousin. Okay, her

cousin of the first persuasion. Okay, we're keeping the bloodline close, cleaving up here. Yeah. They did end up having two children together named Glenn and Holly. Okay. And most of the time, Paul seemed to be the one who was taking care of the kids because Bonnie was busy kind of traveling, taking her business to the next level. I said before she was not supposed to be traveling, that is going to come back later. Yeah, I was just going to say, isn't that a problem? Yeah. It's not a big no-no.

Huge, huge no-no. Huge. But she would put a ton of ads in the Swinger magazines now, and she had a lot of clients to keep up with because by this point in her career, she was friendly with the people who worked for these porn publications and Swinger magazines and because of that, she was able to get their mailing lists and then she could add those to her client list. So she was a busy gallot this year. Yeah, bustle and business. But her kids, Gwen and Holly said that,

yes, she was like super unconventional, but that she was a really good mom to them. Wow. So I just thought it was important to note that like, even though she kind of sounds like maybe she was running all over the place, they still felt like they were getting what they needed. Wow, and good for her for breaking the cycle. Yeah, I agree. Good for her. So in 1982, Bonnie and Paul's marriage ended after just five years together and Five years was her longest marriage. Whoa. Yeah

10 and the longest one is five years. That's busy It is so she had her eyes set on fame again and she left the kids with Paul to track down one of her favorite singers in the entire world the killer Jerry Lee Lewis. Oh. Now, excuse me. She knew that he lived in the Memphis area, so she moved out there. I think she already had a house out there, and she did her best to make his acquaintance. No.

And she left the kids. She did leave the kids with Paul to do so. It's not a great mothering move. Not a great move. I think she would go back and forth a lot. Okay. So, yes, she knew that he lived in Memphis, so she was like, I gotta get out there.

And essentially, she just started stalking him. Not a good human move. Not a good human move. She would just like show up front row at all his nearby concerts. She would find her way into parties that she knew that he was gonna be at. She was determined to beat this man.

And her efforts did lead her to him one night that same year. Oh, now she somehow charmed him and they actually became friendly, but things got weird very quickly. She really attached herself to a lot of his inner circle, like his sister, Linda Gail Lewis, and she also became really close friends with his wife, Secretary.

That woman's name was Judy Howell, and they ended up being friends for the rest of Bonnie's life. Wow. That's wild. But things ended between her and Jerry's kind of friendship when she started getting too attached. Because he was married at this point? Yes.

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So Linda alleged that on more than one occasion, Bonnie threatened to kill Jerry's wife, Carrie. Yeah. And it was also rumored that she made friends against Jerry and Carrie's child. Oh, come on. Now, like I said, those are alleged, but... Yeah, and threats... ...through that shitty behavior. That shitty behavior, and then...

To say the least. And the threats toward Carrie are not really rumours. They're people who were there saying they are true. That's fucked up. So toward 1993, Bonnie found out that she was having her own child, and she insisted that the baby was gerryly Lewis's. Oh, yes. She even went as far as naming the baby girl,

Jerry Lee, just Jerry with an eye. Okay. And she told anyone who would listen that Jerry Lee was leaving his wife for her and they were gonna raise this baby together. And then when word made it back to Jerry Lee himself, he completely denied that the baby was his, and some sources do claim that a DNA test proved

that the baby wasn't his, but I couldn't find anything like concrete. I mean, I mean, definitive thing. Yeah, I couldn't find like a reporter, like a DNA test myself. But either way, he was done with this friendship, and when it became clear that this wasn't how Lonnie was going to achieve fame, she sent little Jerry Lee to live with her other children and Paul. And he took

the baby in like, as his own. Yeah, we got to stop collecting children and then just leaving them places. We do. That's a bad look. We do. And I'm a bad look. I'm wondering if the baby was Paul's baby. Yeah, that's the other thing. I'm like, who's child is this? We don't really know. Now, Bonnie decided that there wasn't anything left for her in Memphis anymore, and she was going to move out to Hollywood because there were plenty of stars out there to rebel, both with.

Yeah. She is not giving up Hollywood. I'm like, girl, you're rich. Like just deal with that. You rich, you got kids, just hang out with Paul. Chill out. Yeah, just vibe. She wouldn't want to just vibe though.

She wanted to V.I. out. Just vibe. Yeah. She wouldn't want them, just vibe though. She wanted to V.I.B.E vibe. Ooh. It's like, but she brought humans into the world. Yeah, quite a few of them. You were now responsible for. Mm-hmm. So when she made her way out to Hollywood,

it was while a pretty big name star was involved in a pretty bigly, bigly, wow, that's embarrassing. Wow. It's like the most embarrassing thing I've ever said. I feel the embarrassment. I've said some really embarrassing that's embarrassing. Wow, that's like the most embarrassing thing I've ever said. I feel the embarrassment. I've said some really embarrassing things. Wow. Wow.

We'll just marinate that for a second. I just needed to acknowledge that that was horrific. I appreciate it. In a very big murder trial. I'm just going to say that sentence again. She made her way out to Hollywood, and it was when a pretty big name star was involved. And a pretty, I meant to say highly publicized.

I get that, that's highly big. But for some reason, I met. I searched together. Bigly publicized. It happens to all of us. It does. We combine words for no apparent reason at all. Yes, so this gruel big name Salam was Christian Brando.

Oh, yes. He had just murdered his sister's boyfriend, Dagdrollett, and was facing up to 10 years in prison because murder, because murder kind of his sister Cheyenne she was pregnant at the time and she confided in him that Dagd was beating her So Christian said he just wanted to go and talk with him and that his only intentions that night were to scare the guy But as he was leaving, Dagd reached for his gun, he said, and then it went off and shot Doug and Doug ended up dying. Okay. So all in all, he was sentenced to 10 years for not murder, but voluntary manslaughter. Yeah, that makes sense. Instead of murder. Yeah.

And he was out in around five years. Yeah. Yeah. So during the time that he was in prison, though, you're like, how is this related to the story at all? Being the son of an A-list celebrity, he was bound to receive a lot of mail. And who's good at writing letters? I, you know what, I can't think of anyone. Bonnie is our friend Bonnie is like, Bonnie is a very talented seductress letter writer. Spicy letter writer. Add a little bit of space. That's right. Now she was obviously pretty good at writing these obscene letters at this point, like she's, this is her whole entire career. So she sends one to Christian and it was a pretty juicy one and she also included some photos to go along with the letter if you get what I'm saying. Add a little cayenne to the whole thing. Add a little bit of oops, I just dropped the whole paprika,

can in there. Love it. And through their correspondence with each other, a relationship did start to form. And by the time Christian was out of jail, he and Bonnie were regularly dating. Okay. But Christian was not the only celebrity that Bonnie was with. Okay. While she was dating Christian, she also met a man by the name of Robert Blake. I don't know if you've heard of him. I've never heard that name. You haven't? No. Well, if you really haven't, Robert Blake has had quite an extensive acting career.

He actually got his start back in 1939 when he was only five or six years old. His first movie was called Bridal Suite, but that same year he started appearing in our gang, aka Little Rascals. Oh, that one. His first movie was called Bridal Suite, but that same year he started appearing in Our Gang, a.k.a. Little Rascals. Oh, that one! And over his entire career, he appeared in more than 120 films in TV series. Wow, if you look at his like IMDB page, it's so long. I'm gonna do it. Now, he and body actually had a lot in common. They both were actually from New Jersey, and they both had incredibly traumatic childhoods. The book, Blood Cold, goes actually pretty in depth about Robert's childhood. So again, I'm going to link that, and I really recommend reading that

as like a deeper dive. But I will tell you that Robert's parents were among some of the worst monsters that we've ever talked about. They would beat him, they would make him eat out of a bowl on the floor like a dog. Sometimes they even locked him in a closet for long extended periods of time as a child. Oh my God. And he later said of his childhood quote, I think many people like me die in infancy.

When you're left to a crib all night long, freezing in your own urine or your own vomit and no one cares if you live or die, you die. Oh, isn't that like, horrific? That was his view on his childhood. Oh, so sad. So Bonnie and Robert met at a jazz club in 1999, and the two of them really hit it off, probably kind of relating on a deeper level than most people would understand.

You know, I'm sure they had many horrific tales to share with each other. Now by 2000, the year 2000, Bonnie was pregnant again, and this time she wasn't 100% certain whether the baby's father was Christian Brando, or if Robert Blake was the father. A common confusion. So she was pretty sure that the baby was Roberts, but when she told him he was fucking pissed. Oh. Because she had promised him that she was on the pill and that she wouldn't become pregnant. And she said, even if I do become pregnant,

I'll have an abortion. Now, it's a little bit confusing. Robert already had children, so it's unclear why he didn't want anymore, but he was adamant that he did not want anymore children and that she had lied to him. Okay. I mean, it's like, that happens.

It's personal choice. It's personal choice. A certain point with kids and they're like, okay, I'm done. I mean, he was 66 years old at this point, so I think he was like, I'm cool. Yeah. But it's like, you don't know what really happened here. Yeah, no, no, that's really no exact Yeah, and well, we kind of do some of it because we'll get into it. So Bonnie did become pregnant

And she was not willing to go through with the abortion and she told Robert that and he was not happy And I say we do know what happened because there's a recorded phone call between the two of them. Oh. And he's just telling her how upset he is that she lied to him. He's like very condescending and like very clearly angry in this phone call.

And he just keeps telling her that it's going to come down on her for lying to him. Oh, like God is gonna come down on her. Like she'll get, basically he's like insinuating that something bad is going to happen to her because you'll get what you deserve. Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like, you can read it.

Like, you'll get what you deserve because karma is a thing or like, he's definitely believed in God. So he thought, like, you'll have your judgment day, but you can also kind of read into it in a context of like, I'll fuck you up. Yeah. Like, it's going to come down to on you like me. Exactly. I'm going to come down on you.

Exactly. And I mean, the whole thing is just like very, that's a complicated situation on every single level. Yeah. Because it's like if you're really trapping someone into getting pregnant, that's fucked up. And it's on the other end of that, it's like, what if it failed? Yeah.

And it was like not her. But you know, I mean, like, it like, there's so many levels to that, but there's a lot of levels. You can't know unless you're actually in that relationship. That's the thing. I think it's just like a very personal quality. That's why I'm like, I'm reserving judgment of that entire thing,

because who the hell knows what really happened there. Exactly, but it was a messy situation to say at least. Very much. At one point, he told her that he had cancer, and that's why he didn't want to have any children But then it turned out that he was lying about that and that's like dark and stormy right there Yeah, it was a big old mess. Yeah, so no worries though. She wasn't getting anywhere with Robert She was like that's fine. I'll just go for Christian instead. Hey, so she convinced Christian that the baby was his which worked

Until the baby was born and which worked until the baby was born and looked literally like a miniature Robert Blake. Now, even still, Bonnie named the baby Christian Shannon Brando, and at the same time, though, tried to figure out how she was going to get back with Robert. Okay. So a few months after Christian Shannon was born, Robert finally agreed that he would do a DNA test and he paid to fly Bonnie and the baby out to California. Now, Bonnie and the baby were living in Arkansas

and technically shouldn't have been traveling across state lines because Bonnie was still on parole from that 1998 arrest. I forgot about that. But since Robert was finally ready to accept the possibility of this child being his, Bonnie decided, fuck parole! Eek.

Yeah. So the day she got out there and they had the paternity test done, it revealed the truth. The baby was Roberts. Oh, okay. Now later on down the road, they did obviously change the baby's name from Christian Chin and Brando to Rose Lenore Blake. Okay, but before that could happen, Bonnie was arrested in LA.

Well, technically, you see, once Robert found out that the baby was his, he actually had Bonnie set up. Oh, yeah. He knew that she was on parole, and that coming out to LA would be a direct violation of said parole. So he tipped off her parole officer

and had her sent back to Arkansas and then gave the little baby to his older daughter to take care of. My God. And I think he thought, like, cool, like we don't have that baby with her because I'm kind of worried about, he was worried about the baby being raised by her.

Okay. And he was like, well, it's my baby. So I have to take some kind of responsibility for it. So he gets Bonnie to come to LA, gets control of the baby, sends her packing and thinks that's gonna be the end of it. But I don't know if he knew Bonnie or not, that wouldn't be the end of it. No, of course that wasn't gonna be the end of it. That's not gonna be the end of it with anybody.

But my God, what a messy, messy life. This is so- It is. Everyone is leading here. Messy, it's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so-

It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so-

It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's like so- It's all like laid out and makes sense. It's making sense to me. I'm glad. Yeah. So yes, so Bonnie gets arrested.

She gets sent back in the dark inside, and she gets placed on house arrest. Okay. Now she's less than pleased, obviously. She realizes that she got set up, but now there was that paternity test out there that confirmed what she knew all along, and she realized that she could use that to her advantage.

She could sue Robert Blake for a whole lot of money and child support if he didn't agree to marry her, and he had just kidnapped their child. Yeah. So, she filed a police report stating that Robert Blake had kidnapped her child. There's that. And she told him he had two choices.

Marry me, or pay a pretty penny in child support month the month because you are a rich actor. So Robert decided to do the former to marry her. Okay. But first, they had a very extensive pre-nut Britain up. Yeah. Pre-nut Britain up. Pre-nut Britain up.

According to that book, Blood Cold, the pre-nut was 18 was 18 pages long. And most of those pages expressed loads of different rules that Bonnie had to adhere to. She was not allowed to have any of her family visit, unless she got written permission from Robert beforehand. What the fuck? She was not allowed to conduct any of her quote-unquote business on his property. And she was not entitled to any of his property, whatsoever, nor was he entitled to any of hers. All their property remained separate because remember she owns a few properties at this point. Yeah, a real meeting of a real union. Yeah, she also like wasn't to live in the same house as him. She lived in a bungalow attached to the back of his ranch. Okay. It was like, this is a different, different kind of love, I suppose. It was an arrangement, if you know.

Yeah, this is definitely an arrangement. So both parties signed that 18 page long prenup and they get married on November 4th, 2002. And pretty soon after they were married, Robert Blake hired a PI to keep track of Bonnie as you do when you get married. And dig a little bit more into her past. How romantic. Yeah, isn't that part of everybody's vows?

Yeah, I'm actually interviewing different PIs right now. Just to like dig up a little bit on Drew's past. I promise to allow your PI to tell me for all eternity. Yeah, exactly. Like, I do. I do. Like before I say I do, I have to say that part.

Absolutely. Thank you. I'm writing that into my boss. Also, you just said 2002 and I was like, wow, this was only 10 years ago? No. No, mm-hmm. 20 years ago. My heart and soul is still in 2012, I suppose.

I guess so. Well, that's the thing you got married. So it is, so I'm just living there. Nup shules. Nup shules, you know? Now, speaking of marriage, about five months into the marriage on May 4th, 2001, Bonnie and Robert went out to dinner in Studio City

at one of Robert's favorite restaurants, Vatelos. Now, he was a regular at Vatelos and the owners loved him. He even had a dish named after him. Fush, how do you say that pasta? That's like, I like to be getting it out. It's like fucili. I think you're very close if you're not completely correct. Keep talking first. You know what? I think it Italian, I think the Italian language is beautiful.

I think it sounds wonderful coming out of people who speak Italian. And I think it sounds really good coming out of Google who's gonna tell us how to pronounce Fusilli. There you go. Fusilli. Girl. Bitch. Girl. I mean, I'm here to say that my DNA test told me I was like part like a little little scoop of Italian in there. Did yours? Okay. I that's actually a point of contention in my life because the entire reason why I signed up for 23 and me was because I was hoping and I don't really have an explanation as to why but I was just hoping that I was Italian. Why not? I just wanted to be. Yeah. I don't know what to tell you. I just wanted to be. I get it. Nilch.

I have a very tiny portion. Not the same. So I should have said that correctly, but I did not. I did find out that I have Jewish descent, though. Yeah, that's interesting. I'm like 7% Ashkanan'sy Jewish. That's so cool, which I was like, okay, so I found out something cool.

Yeah, you always do, man. It was a trade-off, you know? It is. Not Italian, but I'm Jewish. Fusilli. Fusilli. Fusilli and okay, okay. So this fusilli was fusilli ala Robert Blake. Oh, I want that. Like I wanted to, I don't want Robert Blake's. I mean, I want a dish named fusilli ala. Alena. Alena. That's a little complicated because ala fusilli ala Alena. Alala Alena. Yeah, it doesn't sound right. Alala Alena. I would love to read that No, I don't think you should

But I don't want Robert Blake's Yeah, it has to be so gross Like who puts pasta and spinach together They're gonna find my face So after they finished up their dinner Because I don't know if I mentioned But they were going to dinner Yeah Fusili

Fusili Robert and Bonnie decided to walk about a block and a half to Robert's car Because he parked about a block and a half to Robert's car because he parked about a block and a half away that night, which was a little bit weird because usually he just parked right out front. Okay. But so they get back to the car and Robert says, oh shit, he kind of like does that thing where you check your pockets. Oh no, I don't have my wallet.

Yeah, why is that coming up a lot in our lives? But he was doing that to check for his gun that he had recently been carrying for Bonnie's protection. Okay. According to him during her final days, Bonnie was actually being stalked and he thought that it was potentially by a man who she'd been scheming and like he was stalking her now with plans to get even. Oh, because he had been schemed. Yeah. So he's checking for his gun and he doesn't have it and he's like, shit, I think I must have fallen out, fallen out in the booth in the restaurant.

Let me run back and get it. That's always a wild thought process to me. Oh, my gun must have fallen out while we were eating dinner. Like, I feel like you notice when a gun slips out of your pants. Yeah. I've never had one in my pants, so I don't know. But maybe that's what she says. Maybe you don't. Maybe in my pants, so I don't know. But maybe that's what she said. Maybe you don't, maybe you don't notice. I don't know. I haven't had that experience. It's a weird

thought. Like, oh, shit. I bet it just slipped out into the booth. Yeah, it's a little weird. Yeah, a little weird. I'm just saying. I don't know anything. So he's like, Bonnie, why don't you just hop in the car where the windows are open even though you're being stalked? Yeah, he was like, I'll be back at a chiffer. I mean a chiffer. I was that remind you of. I love that. Never been kissed. So he slips back into Vatelos and he grabs his gun, though nobody remembers seeing him do so. Well, weird. And he makes his way back to the car. But when he gets back there, Bonnie was not as he had left her. Oh my god, most cat litters are just so gross and they're like a pain in the butt. They get clumpy, the dust goes everywhere. They don't trap odors very well. You start to walk into your basement and you're like, oh, is this like a urine station? Gross.

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Guys, we all know that when you are working out, you need something to switch it up. It can't be the same or you're gonna get bored and you're gonna say, screw it, I'm not doing this. Well, that won't happen with the Peloton bike and bike plus, because they are pushing you further with so much new. They have new classes, they have new music, they have new ways to keep your workouts fun and motivating. Because like I said, we all know that doing the exact same thing over and over again is not gonna get you anywhere. It's not gonna keep you excited. You gotta be excited. You can't be bummed. I love. I've said it before. I love my Peloton bike. I'll say it again.

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We know how much yellow Hamilton and I just did an M&M ride and it was one of the best rides I've ever done. Shout out to Dennis. With these new artist series classes, you work out to the music of a single artist for the entire class and we're talking everything from your favorite hits to the deep cuts. From pop and rock to hip hop and EDM, there's over a hundred artists series to choose from. You can find your favorite music and you can turn your next workout into a concert. Who doesn't want to do that? Raise your hand. I don't see anybody. You all want to do it. But you can filter it for any music genre or intensity level that you want.

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That's o-n-e-p-e-l-o-t-o-n.com. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC Bonnie was still sitting in the passenger seat, but she was slumped over the center console. In the literal minutes that it took him to walk to Vitello's in back, somebody had shot Bonnie twice. Ooh, once in the right cheek, and the bullet lodged itself into her temple, and once in the shoulder,

and that bullet lodged itself in her upper back. Oh. Now Robert started panicking, and because he didn't have a cell phone, he just started knocking on nearby doors. Now the first door that he knocked on, he didn't get any answer. But the second door that he knocked on, the guy opened and the guy inside was Sean Stannick. And he agreed to call 911 and he also agreed to come out and see if he could help Bonnie at all.

Yeah. Now while Stannick waited with a dying Bonnie, Robert said, I'm gonna run back to Vitello's and try to see if there's any kind of doctor there. Okay. So he runs back to Vitello's and just leaves this random man that he doesn't know with his dying wife. And he runs into the restaurant and screams and asks if there's a doctor or anybody who can help.

And also stops to have a few glasses of water before making his way back. Okay, that's the weird thing to me because I can understand absolutely. You wait with her, he's already called 911, like I'm gonna go scream and yell for a doctor. I like I get the panic of that and like I'm just running here to do this. I don't understand stopping for hydration. No, I don't get that. Like you can have a liquid IV later, it's not gonna understand that.

Yeah. So 9-1-1-1 was called at about 9.40 pm. And the first responders started arriving within five minutes. Oh wow. It was clear to them pretty quickly that Bonnie was not going to make it. But they tried not to let that on right away to Robert. But a few of the first responders, and Sean Stannic himself,

remembered that Robert Blake did seem to be sobbing, like heavily sobbing. And Sean was like, I could, like, I was kind of giving him a hug and I could, I could feel that it felt like a genuine sob, but what was weird was that no tears were coming out of his eyes. Okay. And multiple people said that. And it was just kind of something that struck them as odd.

Yeah. Now, we always say like, it's odd in hindsight, but you just, but you just don't know. You don't know. I don't know. I, I, it's like one of those things I hate judging like grief. Yeah, I don't know. And also maybe he has like a tear duct problem. Yeah, you don't know. People get blocked tear ducts all the time. It's apparently really painful. There you go. But Bonnie Lee arrived to the hospital and pretty much right as soon as she arrived she was announced a dead Oh, and she was only 44 years old That's really sad and what like a a very like tragic and chaotic life

Yeah, and she had a young baby. She had a lot of young kids a lot of young kids and like literally And a just a baby. Oh, that's really sad and it just gotten married whether it was like a strange marriage or not We don't know the interim work. There's just a lot of life events like that. It's just sad. That should have been half the really sad, sad situation. Yeah. So the block and a half around the corner from Vitello's became a crime scene. And Robert Blake was immediately brought into the police station so that the cops could figure out what the fuck was going. Yeah. Now, because it was now clear that Bonnie had been murdered, they needed to determine that his gun was not the murder weapon

because he's standing on the seat with a gun there. And they also needed to test his hands for gunshot residue. So there technically wasn't enough residue on his hands to be considered gunshot residue. But there were two consistent be considered gunshot residue. But there were two consistent particles of gunshot residue on the right hand and three consistent particles on the left hand. Okay. Now, usually there are about three components that make up gunshot residue, lead, antimony, and barium. Okay.

Antimony, excuse me, and barium. Now, the test on Robert Blake's hands only had one out of the three components that make up gun shot residue. Okay. So there are a couple explanations as to why he could have had minimal particles on his hands. One of those like explanations was that he was telling the truth when he explained to the investigators that earlier that day, like way earlier, he had done some target practice. Okay. Because by that point, he had washed his hands, he had done this, that, and the other thing he had eaten dinner.

Yeah. Only a little bit would be left. Or there's the fact that his hands weren't actually tested until about three hours after Bonnie had been killed. Oh. He could have washed his hands several times within that period because he had gone to the bathroom a few times. And Marsha Clark pointed out in her reinvestigation of the crime on the show,

Marsha Clark investigated the first 48. Investigates the first 48, excuse me. That while he was waiting for Bonnie to be loaded into the ambulance and there's pictures of this, he was sitting on a curb and his hands were in grass and later on the first responder said that the grass was wet. Oh, to be able to wash his hands a bunch of time and also had his hands and rotted off grass. And Marsha Clark also pointed out and again there's pictures of it, he was running his hands

through his hair a lot. So again that's going to wipe everything off. Yeah, for sure. So it could have gotten rid of a good amount of residue. But for that reason, they weren't really able to determine whether or not he had shot the gun. Yeah, you can't say for sure. Like it was a complete toss up.

They were, however, able to determine that his personal Smith and Wes and Revolver was not the murder weapon. Okay. So the gun on him was not the murder weapon. Not happened. Now in the following days, revolver was not the murder weapon. Okay. So the gun on him was not the murder weapon. Not happened. Now in the following days, the investigators were actually able to find out what the murder

weapon was. It was a German made gun, a 9mm Walther P38 that still had one bullet inside. And the gun was found inside of a dumpster that Robert's car was parked behind. Okay, so that meant whoever had killed Bonnie had shot her and then most likely tossed the gun almost immediately into the dumpster. Yeah. Why would you do that? Which is highly, highly weird.

Just very strange, very unlikely. So the investigators are stoked that they find the murder weapon so quickly, but their excitement is Uber short-lived, because when they go to find out who the gun is registered to, they see that the serial number has been scrunched off. They're noose. They also realized pretty quickly that the gun had been wiped down with some kind of oil, meaning that any chance of fingerprints was basically gone. Oh man. Whoever did this planned ahead to use this gun. Because the other thing was like a question was raised when Marsha Clark were reinvestigated

in the crime, which by the way, I fucking love Marsha Clark. Oh yeah. Bad bitch energy. Absolutely. But they were like, what was their oil in the dumpster? No. There wasn't oil in the dumpster. There wasn't oil in the dumpster.

Intentionally. Yes. To obscure that. Yes. To obscure that. Yes. So the day after Bonnie was killed, the LAPD served a search warrant at Robert's ranch. Now, like I said, Robert lived in the main part of the house, which had like all the regular stuff, kitchen, living room, three bedrooms.

And Bonnie lived in a bungalow that was attached to the back of the house with their daughter Rose. Okay. Now I think Rose like kind of went back and forth between the house. Yeah. Now I think Rose like kind of went back and forth between the house. Yeah. Now while searching through Bonnie's things, they found hundreds, hundreds of recorded phone conversations,

which is how we know about that call with Robert when she found out she was pregnant. Yeah. They also found thousands of letters from the porn business that she was still running, even though she wasn't supposed to be running it out of the bungalow. Uh-oh, but like whatever. They also found like tons of nude photos and a bunch of licenses and IDs.

There were also notebooks filled with different information about her clients. She would write down things that they liked, things that they didn't like, little reminders about certain people. Like, his favorite meal is this, his favorite color is this. She was so busy. She was busy and she was like organized, which is very organized, but also chaotic. Yes. At the same time. I feel like she was like organized on paper and chaotic and like, exactly, which is like actually exactly how most Japanese are. Hi. So that's what they found on her side of the house. On a Robert's side of the house, they found $12,000 in cash, a very large gun collection, and oddly enough, they found a 100 count box of 9mm rounds with three bullets missing from the box. Oh, now if you remember, do Bonnie was killed with two bullets and then there was one bullet left inside the murder weapon

That's two plus one which equals three Three are missing from the hundred count box What's Jim's favorite color Three yep, so I don't even know so all of of those bullets, by the way, are 9mm rounds. Okay. So upon first glance, the LAPD is like pissing their pants because they're so excited. They're like, mother fucking jackpot. They're like, we don't even have to do work, fellas.

Let's go. For real. Weirdly enough, they did seem to do like a pretty good job on this case. We love to see it. We do. We love to see it. Unfortunately, it was later determined that the bullets in Roberts' house were hand-loaded,

and the ones that Bonnie had been killed with were factory-loaded. Okay. I looked into the difference of those two things, and it was mind-numbing. Like, two-way-two complicated. To Google that yourself. Okay, cool.

Because I really wanted to explain that to you, but as I was reading, my mind became physically numb. I get that. You're going to Google it. Thank you. I am. You'll probably understand it better than I did. I've never shot a gun or anything like that, so I don't know how to work.

But this isn't about me. It's about the investigation. The police still were not sure that Robert was innocent, and they started working on their case against him, which took them about a year. And according to the press release that they put out on the day Robert was arrested, April 18, 2002, the LAPD had to travel to 20 different states and interview more than 150 people to be confident enough that their suspect was the right guy. Whoa.

Now Robert's bodyguard, Earl Caldwell, was also arrested because they believed he was in on a conspiracy to commit murder. Now Robert Blake was arrested and charged with one count of murder with special circumstances of lying in wait, two counts of solicitation of murder, and one count of murder conspiracy, and then Earl was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Okay. Now when he was arrested, Earl, the police found not only a strange list in his possession,

that seemed to be a list of laying out all the possible tools needed from Erder. Oh, two shovels, small sledge, crowbar, 25 auto, get blank gun ready, old rugs, duct tape, drain-o, pool acid-ly. Yeah, I was gonna try to find a way to make that like a household to-do list, but uh... That's a no. Urled in. That's a murder list right there. It's a murder list. Uh... It also struck them as like a little bit weird when they found a rare German made gun in his apartment. Where have I heard that? Yeah, it's weird because that murder weapon was also a pretty rare German made gun.

It was a rare though? Rare. Or was it common? Rare. Rare. Like how my steak is preferred. Ooh, how minus knots. Yeah, like the complete opposite.

The fighting continues. So it definitely seemed like a lot of their evidence against Robert and Earl was purely circumstantial, but they did have two pretty good witnesses or so they thought. Oh. Now during their investigation into one of Robert Blake's former co-stars, Roy Snuffy Harrison came forward. Yeah, he did. They were in the movie Boreta together. Oh, okay. Did you see Boreta? I know Boreta. It's like very famous. Yeah, he did. They were in the movie Beretta together. Oh, okay. Did you see Beretta? I know Beretta.

It's like very famous. Yeah. I haven't seen it. But so Roy's stuffy Harrison comes forward and tells the investigators that shortly before Bonnie was killed, Robert had called him, and this was in November of 2000, and he asked for the names of two stuntmen, that they both knew, that I believe also worked on Beretta. Now these men were Ronald's Duffy Hamilton

and Gary WizKid McClarty. Yeah, it sounds sick. It sounds sick. Like we have Snuffy, Duffy, and WizKid. No, they all exist. Yeah, they're for real. Yeah. I'm sorry, Miss Jackson, they are for real.

They are for real. So Snuffy believed that the reason Robert wanted to get in touch with these two guys was to take a hit out on Bonnie, although he said Robert never told me that. He was like, I just, I think he's like, you know what, I felt it in my bones. I just felt it. Yeah.

But later at trial, both men would testify that Robert Blake met up with them on multiple occasions and discussed various ways in which they could take Bonnie out. Holy shit. He explained to both men that he felt like she had trapped him into a marriage that he wanted away out of and that he didn't want her to be the one to raise Little Roselinaur because he was worried that she'd be brought up in a life of sin, quote unquote, if she was raised by her mother or her mother's family. Okay. Yeah. Duffy later testified that during one of their meetups, he said to Robert, we should really

be using like a calling card for these phone discussions. Yeah. Are there going to be traced? For sure. You should use this card and call me from a pay phone so that we could, these calls are untraceable later on. And Robert was like, oh shit, like that's a great idea. So he got a calling card.

A receipt for that card was actually one of the items taken from his home during the search warrant execution. It kind of defeats the purpose. It was also later determined via phone records that he used the calling card only when he spoke with the two stunt slash hitmen. And he hadn't listened to Duffy's advice about using a pay phone and instead use his own personal home phone to make these calls. Oh, that's different.

Yeah, that's different. Yeah, that's different. Yeah, that's gonna be a problem. It was. Yeah. So Earl called Wells charges of conspiracy, actually ended up being dropped, and so did Robert Blake's conspiracy charge. And you'll be happy to know that Earl called

well did have a list that had an explanation for that list. Oh, he does. Yes. So he was doing some handiwork for Robert. Those shovels were for like breaking up concrete around the pool area, because they were gonna, I don't know, like plan to fucking garden together.

Okay. And the pool acid in the lie were to clear up Robert's newly green tingeed pool. Yeah. Yeah. And that like 25 auto. If that's the one that threw me off, that was that he had had his oil changed at 25,000 miles. He told Marsha, clerk that.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, Marsha probably bought that, right? Yeah, she was like, oh, kido kido. Marsha was like, yeah. She was like, you know what? I don't really have time to argue with you because I'm trying to solve a murder here, but that's not true. Hello, this episode is brought to you by the Jordan Harbinger Show.

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I-N, as a Nancy, G-E-R, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Jordan Harbinger, we love you. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ That whole thing about the blank guns, that was because Robert wanted to do a photo shoot with some guns, and he wanted blanks put in them, because I guess you can see if it's loaded or not.

So it would make the gun look loaded, which would make it look so badass. Of course. And then the old rugs, he said, I think we were getting rid of some old rugs. And sometimes you're just getting rid of old rugs. I mean, I can't lie. Sometimes you are getting rid of old rugs.

It happens. It's not beyond the realm of possibility. It's not. That 25 auto thing is, what do you mean? He just changed his oil. Yeah. Yeah. What are you talking about?

You know what? You cleared it up. That was just a honey to-do list. Just changed his oil. Yeah. Speaking of honey to-do lists, that made me want honey to-do donuts. Oh, you made me want donuts. Oh, donuts.

So good. But it was determined later on that Earl was actually in Washington when Bonnie was killed. But during my research, which is like speaking of Honey Do lists, his girlfriend actually testified at Robert Blake's trial, I found out that Earl had her go to his apartment the day after Bonnie was killed to remove a bunch of stuff, including his computer, some phone numbers that he had pinned to a random bulletin stuff, including his computer, some phone numbers that he had pinned to a random bulletin board, multiple receipts, and also told her to

throw away an out-toid can that had a bunch of like brownish rocks inside. Okay, the police were like, yeah, those were probably drugs, and we think that Robert Blake wanted to plant those on Bonnie to get her arrested, but then instead ended up having her killed. Oh, yeah. Yeah, whenever somebody calls you and is like, hey, can you clear some stuff out of my place really quick? Like real fast?

The answer is... Like, lickety split? No. You say, nope. The answer is can't do it. Call a junk removal service. Not me. Not me.

Mm-mm. So the prosecution, they had Snuffy. They had Duffy. They had WizKid. The trifecta. They were all gonna testify along with a few others who testified that Robert Blake definitely wanted his wife, Bonnie Dead. Now, they had compelling evidence, but the defense did a much better job.

They immediately went after Snuffy Duffy and WizKid. The Holy Trinity. They proved that they had long histories of drug abuse. They were like using math and stuff like that. So they just wanted for credibility. They went for credibility. And it was proven somehow that they had also had hallucinations at one point in time, which just made them look like completely unreliable

with this as a course to the jury. And they were also able to argue the gunshot evidence away, the gunshot residue evidence away, because they brought in a specialist that testified that the murder weapon that was used, that like weird German gun, usually produces about 2,000 particles of gunshot residue. So the fact that Robert only had five particles

of a substance consistent with gunshot residue on his hands really didn't have any standing in court. Okay. Which I get that one. Now they also argued, and I do also understand this argument, that Bonnie could have been killed by a number of other people, potentially by someone that she had skimmed out of money through her business,

which they had plenty of evidence of by that point, or they argued, and I bet you didn't think that this was going to come back, that Christian Brando might have had something to do with her murder. Yeah. Now... Now, I could see these being possibilities. Of course, because they made the point that Christian might have been agitated over this whole paternity saga. Yeah.

Because I don't know if you guys know this, but the Brando family is like a pretty public family. Yeah. So that didn't really look good for them. Of course. Yeah, because I don't know if you guys know this, but the Brando family is like a pretty public family. Yeah. So that didn't really look good for them, of course. Especially following the fact that he had just gotten out of jail for manslaughter. I was just gonna say it, and then there was that whole thing. He was like, I really didn't need this right now, thanks.

And they had all those recorded phone calls that they seized from Bonnie's place. There was a phone call where she was on the phone with Christian, and he said to her, not on my behalf, but you're lucky somebody ain't out there to put a bullet in your head. Ooh. Yeah.

And coming from that whole like manslaughter thing too, it's like you have history of violence. You have a history of violence. That's very sweet. You have a history of violence. Anyone saying that, you'd be like, excuse me? You'd be like, what's that? Who says that? That's very specific. Anyone saying that you'd be like, excuse me? You'll be like, what exactly? Who says that?

That's very specific. So for that reason, Christian Brando was subpoenaed to testify in the Robert Blake case. He pled the fifth and wouldn't talk. Wow. Yeah. He ended up actually getting confined for a contemptive court.

So like, interesting. It's your right, but you'll be in contemptive court. I know. If you get subpoenaed, it's like, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. And Robert Blake actually never took the stand to testify during this trial. Now, all in all, Robert Blake's trial lasted three months,

and they went over all that information that I just gave you. And while that was happening, he spent about a year in jail and actually did like an amazing interview with Barbara Walters. Oh, really? And he later thanked her.

Wow. When he got out of jail because on March 16th, 2005, he was acquitted by the jury. Wow. He was later. I do remember this now. I do too, actually, which is funny because I remember being like a little kid and seeing this on the tinnitus show. His face, you just remember.

You do. He has a very memorable face. He also kind of looks like one of my step-dads. Yeah, he does. Yeah, we sure does. As I was going through this, I was like, sir, you're like unsettled. Oh, okay. Yeah. I was like, I don't want this to sway my opinion, so I'm just not going to make one. No, he was found not guilty during like his criminal trial, but he was later sued by Bonnie's older children about eight months after that criminal child. So this is a civil suit.

Yeah. And he was found guilty of her wrongful death. That's always very interesting to me. It never really makes sense to me because I'm like, how can you be guilty of her wrongful death? But not guilty of her death. It makes everything feel incomplete. It does.

Well, this whole fucking thing feels incomplete. Yeah. But because he was found guilty, he was ordered to pay $30 million. But the amount was actually cut in half a few years after. So Robert Blake's attorney from his criminal suit, Jerry Schwartzbach, claims that there was a ton of juror misconduct, and that Robert's lawyers for his civil case were underqualified to represent him. But in reality, most of the jury was convinced that Robert had something for his civil case were underqualified to represent him. But in reality, most of the jury was convinced that Robert had something to do with Bonnie's death

because of his own behavior on the stand. Because in this trial, he did have to testify. And the jury found him both combative and threatening. So now you know why he didn't testify in the first one? Yeah. Schwartzbach did agree that Robert's performance on the stand was not his best. He said that Robert quote, self-destructed up there.

All right. That's not the best time or place to self-destruct. It's not. But, you know? Yeah, you know. So technically, Bonnie's murder still remains unsolved. Oh, that's sad. And people have all kinds of theories about what happens.

Because there really are kind of like, in my mind, I think there's three possibilities. I think actually, maybe four. I think there is a world in which Robert could have done it. Absolutely. There's a world in which he could have hired somebody to do it. Absolutely. There's a world in which maybe Christian Brando did it. Absolutely. And there's a world in which he could have hired somebody to do it. Absolutely. There's a world in which maybe Christian Brando did it.

Absolutely. And there's a world in which maybe it was one of the only hearts, guys, that she had skamed out of money. He was stalking her any kill there. 100%. So there's four possibilities. And we just don't know. And no matter what, it's just sad.

It is. It's just like a really sad ending to a very chaotic existence. It is. I just feel really bad for her kids. I do too. Like that sucks. And it's like this whole story sucks. Yeah, this whole story is just incredibly messy

and just so sad. I hope they're like thriving. Well, so Christian Brando died in 2008 due to complications from pneumonia, but Robert Blake is still around. He's 88 years old. He apparently has like a few years ago started uploading to YouTube kind of like talking about his life story.

And he kind of started saying like strange macabre things that people were like, what is going on here? So if you're interested, you can go watch his YouTube channel. Okay. Just subscribe and like, I did not see this being the update. I'm going to be honest with you. He's just like eating YouTube. That was that was a curve ball. Didn't see that. Yeah. No. But he and Bonnie's older daughter just to kind of like end this on the note about how her kids are doing. I hope it's happy.

Yeah. Robert and Bonnie's only daughter Rose did tell Good Morning America in a 2019 interview that she does her best not to talk about Bonnie's death with her dad. She said, quote, I just kind of told him that I'm not really there yet. I don't want to know the answers yet. I think what happened was horrible and so sad. I don't choose a side because I don't know any better than anyone else. Yeah. And it's her parents.

It's her parents, and that's like her father who's still alive, and she's like, I don't think I'm ready to know yet if my father had anything to do with it, or who did have anything to do with it. No matter what, like she said, it's just sad. That's the best. No matter what the outcome is,

or what the answer is here, it's so sad. And I agree with her, like, I can't choose a side either because I don't know any better than anybody else. Exactly. There's possibilities. Right. And they all make sense, to be honest, which is even sadder. That's the thing. That's the thing.

And that position in life that this is confusing. And it's like, I feel that just sucks. And it's like, there was no good start to life. You know? That's the thing. It started so tragic. Like your childhood was so incredibly tragic. And then most of her life was chaotic and tragic. And I do think that she was just kind of somebody

looking to be loved. And that nobody really gave her the time of day. Yeah. She was just looking in the wrong places because she wasn't set up with the proper tools to look in the right places. Exactly, you know? And then her life just ended so tragically

because of really how it all started. Yeah. It's like no matter what you think because I honestly have no idea. I'm not even gonna sit here and... I really don't eat those. Point fingers because I don't know and I'm not gonna sit here and be like,

you did it or he did it or he did it. Right. Those are possibilities. All of them. And we have no idea. And each of them, I mean, never know. Is a strong case. That's the thing.

They all make sense. They're all a pretty strong case because we did have two men testify that he did try to solicit them to commit the murder. And we do have that weird calling card. For sure, we do. We do have Christian Brando's history of violence and the fact that he said somebody might put a bullet in her head and then somebody put a bullet in her head. The calling card is what really threw me.

The calling card is weird. And if that is, here's the thing. If Robert Blake had nothing to do with this, then that's a whole other set of tragedy. Yeah. A whole other level to this tragedy. It is. If he had something to do with it,

that's a whole other set of tragedy. It's like there's just no, there's no happy outcome. It's all bad. So it's just like, wow. And it's like a bunch of children lost their mother. Yeah. That's false.

So that is the incredibly tragic story of Bonnie Lee-Bakeley. Very bleak. The bleakest. Very bleak, but very sad. Yeah, so we did decide that we're gonna do a spooky episode for the second episode of the week, because I told Elena, I was like,

I just wanna prepare you that this is like an incredibly tragic story. It's a very sad. There's all tragic stories, but this one really has like a a way about it. Some of them just have a way about it. A different kind of heaviness, and this is just like, oh, it's one of those.

Man, so we're gonna do something spooky for the next episode. I think we're gonna do some spooky lighthouse. Yeah, you guys really dug the lighthouse episode, and which was awesome, we love hearing that. Yeah. Because when we get excited about something like that, we're like, I hope everybody likes it. I hope our friends approve.

And I think you guys dug it. And so we got a ton of emails. So many. Suggesting lighthouses with pictures of lighthouses with stories, keep them coming, because we want to continue doing this series for sure and you're gonna get one this week. Yay! Yeah! So with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it! Weird! I don't need to tell you not to keep it this weird but don't. But yeah, but I do so don't. Definitely don't!

Bye! But yeah, what I do, so, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill? Or are they made to kill? I'm Candice DeLong and on my podcast Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon music. I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse,

FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings, breaking down Lori Valow, a K-Aa. Mummy Doomstays Motives, and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder? I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes

to your morning routine. Hey, Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast, Killer Psychie Daily, in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today