Went to dinner with his ex-wife last night and blew her frickin brains out. Told police he went to his car to get something, and when he came back she was dead. (heh heh, good one)

-- Johnnie Cochran (don't worry @ i'll. get him off), May 05, 2001

Answers

Wife of actor Robert Blake shot dead in Los Angeles

May 5, 2001 Web posted at: 2:14 p.m. EDT (1814 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The wife of actor Robert Blake was found shot dead in the front seat of her husband's car outside a Los Angeles restaurant, police said Saturday.

Police were questioning the actor Saturday. He was not in custody.

Blake told police he and his wife, Bonnie, left a Los Angeles restaurant at 9:40 p.m. Friday in Studio City, northwest of Hollywood. He said they had gotten into their car when he realized he had left something in the restaurant, LAPD spokesman Guillermo Campos said.

Blake said he returned to the restaurant, retrieved the item, and, when he got back to the car, discovered that his wife had been shot once in the head, Campos said.

Blake walked to a nearby house, where he called paramedics. They were unable to revive the woman, and she was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.

Blake, 67, began his career as a child actor in the "Our Gang" comedies of the 1930s and '40s. His career took off with "In Cold Blood," the 1967 film account of the Clutter family killings in Kansas. He later starred in the television series "Beretta."

The Nutley, New Jersey, native was born Mickey Gubitosi. In 1940, he took the stage name Bobby Blake and began playing child roles in a wide range of films. But he continued to use the name Mickey Gubitosi in the "Our Gang" series for another three years.

During talk show appearances in the 1970s, Blake discussed his anger over his treatment by his family and the studio as a child and his bouts with drug abuse.

-- smells like a paid hit (blake not sharpest @ crayon. in box), May 05, 2001.

No shit, Nutley NJ? Martha Kostyra Stewart (59) is also from Nutley. Do you think they ever had it off?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 05, 2001.

Had it off or got it on?????

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), May 05, 2001.

Blake fucked Martha Stewart when she was in high school, but his pecker was so small she didn't feel anything. That was when she decided to become a lesbian, and to this day she is still a virgin.

-- (martha needs @ real. man), May 05, 2001.

Not looking good for Mr. Hardass. Veeeery suspicious behavior by Mr. More Than One Screw Loose.

Actor Blake hires attorney in wake of wife's death

Police are calling shooting death a homicide

May 5, 2001 Web posted at: 11:41 PM EDT (0341 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Robert Blake has retained a lawyer as Los Angeles police searched his home in the investigation of the shooting death of his wife.

The death of Blake's wife, Bonnie, is being investigated as a homicide, police said. She was found Friday night shot dead in the front seat of her husband's car.

Police said Saturday that Blake was being questioned, but the actor was not a suspect.

Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun, said his client had left his wife Friday night waiting in his car while he returned to a nearby Los Angeles-area restaurant to retrieve his gun, which he had dropped.

Braun said Blake's wife believed someone had been stalking her and had asked the actor to carry the weapon, which is registered to him.

"There is no weapon that has been recovered at this point, and there are no primary suspects," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Don Hartwell.

Braun said Mrs. Blake had an "interesting past" that "seems to have caught up with her." The lawyer said the actor had only married his wife because she became pregnant with his child.

Blake, 67, began his career as a child actor in the "Our Gang" comedies of the 1930s and '40s. His career took off with "In Cold Blood," a 1967 film account of the Clutter family killings in Kansas. He later starred in the television series "Baretta."

Actor appeared flustered, witness says

After Blake returned to the restaurant, Vitello's, co-owner Joe Restivo told CNN that the actor appeared flustered and asked for two glasses of water, then drank them and left. It did not appear that Blake retrieved anything, he said.

Blake told police that after he discovered his wounded wife, he walked to the house of Sean Stanek, across the street from the restaurant parking lot. Stanek, a film director, said he heard a knock on his door around 9:50 p.m. When he answered the door, he said Blake told him his wife had been hurt. Stanek said he grabbed a phone, called 911, and both men ran across the street.

Stanek said when they got to the car, Blake's wife was still alive, but there was blood everywhere. He said paramedics arrived almost immediately.

CPR was administered at the scene; but she was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.

One of Vitello's owners, Steve Restivo, said Blake has been a regular at the restaurant for 20 years -- often eating there two times per week - sometimes with his wife, sometimes with friends.

Blake, a native of Nutley, New Jersey, was born Mickey Gubitosi. In 1940, he took the stage name Bobby Blake and began playing child roles in a wide range of films.

Blake continued to use his real name as the name of his character in the "Our Gang" comedy series.

During talk show appearances in the 1970s, Blake discussed his anger over his treatment by his family and the studio as a child and his bouts with drug abuse.

-- (Mickey always was kinda nuts @ and. dumb too), May 06, 2001.

Was his wife a friend of the Clinton's?

-- Marg (okay@cutaway.com), May 06, 2001.

"CPR was administered at the scene; but she was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. "

We just can't get away from Charlie, can we? LOL!

-- jammy (jammin@with.jammy), May 06, 2001.

How come the stupid cops did not check Blake's gun to see if it had been fired? Sheesh.

-- blake voted for dumbya (add to @ bush. body count), May 06, 2001.

impeach dumbya now

-- OJ voted for Dumbya too (he@really.did), May 06, 2001.

Where was Kato during all this??? If Blake gets the same stupid fucks for a jury as OJ did, he's off scot free.....

-- bend over (here_it@comes.again), May 07, 2001.

Nothing has been proven yet. Reserve judgment and allow the courts to decide. The only thing we know for sure is his wife was involved in "seedy" dealings which *might* have gotten her killed (by someone other than her husband).

-- (Just@keeping.score), May 07, 2001.

He went back into the restaurant to get his GUN, and instead had a couple glasses of water and appeared "flustered"?

Hmmm, now he using the same strategy as OJ did, hiring an investigator to detract attention away from himself.

*******

Sunday May 6 3:23 PM ET

Actor Blake Hires Investigator in Wife's Murder

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Robert Blake, best known for his role as a detective in the 1970s hit television series ''Baretta'', has hired an investigator to solve the real-life murder of his wife, his lawyer said on Sunday.

Blake -- whose wife was shot and killed on Friday night near a Hollywood restaurant where the couple had dined -- was still in a hospital on Sunday after suffering from high blood pressure.

His lawyer Harlan Braun said Blake was taken to an undisclosed hospital on Saturday night and would probably remain there until Monday.

The actor's blood pressure shot up as he waited in his car for the police to finish searching his home.

Blake's wife, Bonny Bakley, 44, was shot once in the head in the couple's car as she waited for him to retrieve a gun he had left at Vitello's, a popular neighborhood restaurant.

As Blake headed back to his car, about a block away, he discovered his wife slumped over in the passenger seat, shot in the head. The woman died later at a hospital.

Detectives questioned Blake, 67, about the shooting but Los Angeles Police Department Guillermo Campos on Sunday said he was not considered a suspect.

Police said no suspects have yet been identified and the motive for the crime has not been established.

As the spouse and the last person to be seen with the victim, Blake has been very cooperative, said Braun, adding ``obviously a murder case remains opened until it is solved.''

``He's (Blake) already given them five hours of interviews and they have taken routine tests from his clothing and his hands, which all came back negative,'' said Braun.

The police served a search warrant and conducted a search of Blake's residence.

Braun said the actor's own hired investigator was searching for further clues. ``Our investigators are now searching the house after the LAPD (news - web sites) finished,'' Braun said. ''With our assistance, there may be stuff in her property that could provide clues ... The police didn't really have a chance to understand her background, so here may be a clue that we can find that they didn't,'' Braun told Reuters. He said they would turn over anything they found to the police.

The lawyer said Blake's wife had believed someone had been stalking her and had asked Blake to carry a gun, which was registered to him.

``The problem is that she had sort of a checkered background,'' said Braun, noting she had been involved in ``lonely hearts con schemes'' in which she milked lonely men out of money through ads across the country.

``She claimed that she stopped it,'' said Braun.

Blake married Bakley last November after a relatively casual relationship and DNA tests showed he was the father of Bakley's daughter, Rose. The child was originally named Christian Shannon Brando because Bakley initially thought the child was the daughter of Marlon Brando's son, Christian.

Braun said Rose, born June 2, was staying with relatives.

After Blake found his wife shot on Friday night, he ran to the nearby house of his friend, Sean Stanek, begging him to call 911, according to Braun. Bakley was transported to Saint Joseph Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Braun said Bakley had lived in a separate house on the back of Blake's Studio City property.

Blake, born Mickey Gubitosi in Nutley, N.J. played detective Tony Baretta in the television show that ran from 1975 to 1978. He began his career as a child actor in the ``Our Gang'' film series and has appeared in 127 films, including his critically-acclaimed portrayal of real-life killer Perry Smith in the 1967 movie ``In Cold Blood.''

His most recent film included ``Money Train'' in 1995 and David Lynch's ``Lost Highway'' in 1997.

-- (veeeeery @ suspicious. behavior), May 07, 2001.

For posterity: I think the evidence shows he's innocent and I'm willing to put my name on this post.

-- (Just@keeping.score), May 07, 2001.

But if he was black he would be guilty, right?

-- (hmmmm @ very. interesting), May 07, 2001.

Monday May 7 10:11 PM ET

Lawyer Says Blake in No Shape for Lie Detector Test

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police on Monday carted away a mystery object found in a trash can near where actor Robert Blake's wife was murdered while his lawyer insisted his client was innocent but in no emotional shape to take a lie detector test.

Police found the object in a blue trash canister on a construction site about a block away from where Bonny Lee Bakley, 45, was found shot in the head in the passenger seat of Blake's car on Friday night after the couple had a meal at local Italian restaurant.

A Los Angeles police spokesman declined to say what the object was and the Los Angeles Coroner's office said it had been ordered by police to keep its autopsy report on how she died secret for the time being.

Blake, 67, told police he had left his wife alone to retrieve a gun he had left at a restaurant where they had just dined. The type of gun used in the attack has not been revealed.

Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun, has painted Bakley as a scheming con-woman who preyed on elderly and famous men, including his client. Braun said she was in fear for her life in the days leading up to her murder, even asking Blake to carry a gun to protect her. That was the weapon Blake said he had gone back to the restaurant to retrieve.

Braun told ABC Radio on Monday that his client was innocent, saying, ``I have absolutely no doubt about that.''

He also said Blake was too emotionally upset to take a lie detector test. ``It would be difficult to isolate the factors (that comprise the test) but it is something to be considered,'' he told ABC Radio.

Couple's Relationship Rocky

Meanwhile, a relative of Bakley in Memphis, Tenn., told KNBC Los Angeles that she and Blake had a rocky relationship and he had taken to carrying a gun around, boasting that he had a bullet with her name on it.

Braun said his client had the gun because Bakley was afraid someone was after her. He admitted the couple had troubles but said they had been getting along better.

Police have said that Blake is not a suspect in the case and Braun said his client has willingly cooperated, submitting to two lengthy interviews and allowing police to search his home and take away phone records, weapons and other possessions.

Braun said Blake, a former child star in the ``Our Gang'' comedies, was in a ``state of shock'' but working with a private investigator, going through personal papers for clues to his wife's murder. ``if they find anything, they will turn it over it to police,'' Braun told ABC.

Asked why Blake left her alone in the car to retrieve the gun, the lawyer told ABC it was a split-second decision.

``In hindsight, he wished he hadn't done that but he just reacted instantly, having left the gun behind and remember there was not anything specific -- he just knew that she had a generalized concern and maybe he thought she was a little paranoid.''

Married Out Of Obligation

The lawyer said that Blake and Bakley had a casual sexual relationship when she became pregnant with the couple's daughter.

Blake felt she tricked him and he would not have married her otherwise. ``He married her out of a sense of obligation; they were not close. ... The nature of her business was to con people, especially the desperately in need and the lonely. When you are dealing with people's emotions like that some one could out and kill her,'' Braun said.

Blake married Bakley last November after DNA tests showed he was the father of Bakley's daughter, Rose. The child was originally named Christian Shannon Brando because Bakley initially thought the child was the daughter of Marlon Brando's son, Christian. Braun said Rose, born June 2, was staying with relatives.

Blake spent part of the weekend at an undisclosed hospital being treated for shock and high blood pressure.

Bakley had lived in a separate house on the back of Blake's Studio City property.

Blake, born Mickey Gubitosi in Nutley, New Jersey, played detective Tony Baretta in the television show that ran from 1975 to 1978. He began his career as a child actor in the ``Our Gang'' film series and has appeared in 127 films, including his critically acclaimed portrayal of real-life killer Perry Smith in the 1967 movie ``In Cold Blood.''

His most recent films include ``Money Train'' in 1995 and David Lynch's ``Lost Highway'' in 1997.

-- told you so (guilty as hell @ putting my name. on it), May 08, 2001.

"Got to luv Florida.......Gossip RULZ

-- usmer (shh@aol.con), May 08, 2001.

ACTOR THREATENED WIFE HER BROTHER SAYS

By DAVID K. LI and DAN MANGAN

May 8, 2001 --

Robert Blake's troubled wife lived in fear of the "Baretta" actor, who once warned her he "already had a bullet with her name on it," one of her relatives said last night.

"He was making a lot of verbal threats," Leebonny Bakley's half-brother, Peter Carlyon, told a Memphis TV reporter in an interview aired on KNBC-TV in Los Angeles.

"She had been talking ‘life is such a headache, I feel like I'd be better off dead.'

"He made the statement to her that she didn't need to worry about it, he already had a bullet with her name on it."

Carlyon claimed Bakley was terrified of Blake because he carried a gun.

"I'm fearing for my life," Carlyon quoted her telling him. "If anything happens, he did it."

Carlyon stopped short of accusing Blake of Bakley's shooting death, but hinted he may have hired a hit man.

"I'm not saying he pulled the trigger, but he does have the financial means to have someone else pull the trigger," he said.

The Post also learned yesterday another pal worried about Bakley. Ray Hale, a former tour manager for rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, said Bakley "was real nervous and real scared when she was talking about this [situation]."

"She had told me . . . ‘I'm more afraid of Robert Blake than I am with Christian Brando,'" Hale said.

Brando, son of actor Marlon Brando, served prison time for the death of his half-sister's lover.

Bakley, 44, dumped Brando for Blake several years ago.

Hale said Bakley had mixed feelings about Blake, the man with whom she had an 11-month-old daughter.

"When he's nice to me, I love him. When he's mean to me, I don't," Hale said Bakley told him.

"She said that he mentally abuses her, calls her stupid . . . ," Hale said from his Pennsylvania home.

Blake, 67, married Bakley last November after DNA tests verified he was the father of her daughter. They lived in separate quarters on property owned by Blake.

Bakley was shot through the head while sitting in a parked car outside the Studio City restaurant Vitello's, where the couple had just dined. Blake told cops that as she was being murdered, he was inside the restaurant retrieving a licensed handgun that he had dropped.

L.A. cops who interviewed Blake say he's not a suspect.

Yesterday, cops said they are looking into reports by Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun, that any number of people would have a motive for killing Bakley.

Bakley had a criminal record for Social Security card misuse and possession of stolen credit cards, and also had romanced and fleeced lonely men she met through personal ads she placed, her friends and family say.

A source close to Blake told The Post the LAPD has already tested Blake's hands for gun-powder residue and the test came back negative.

-- putting my name on this post (blake guilty as hell @ i. guarantee it), May 08, 2001.

Blake didn't pull the trigger, but he hired somebody to do it.

-- (i@guarantee. it), May 08, 2001.

Damn, come on now, LA cops say he isnt a suspect.....surely THAT settles it.... Liberal Media and all?

I luv his bird.

-- sumer (sh@aol.conq), May 08, 2001.

"he was inside the restaurant retrieving a licensed handgun that he had dropped."

No holster, it just fell out of his pocket or something? I can't imagine someone just "dropping" a gun without even noticing it until he goes back to his car.

-- (what@crock.hooey), May 08, 2001.