Bonnie Lee Bakley From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bonnie Lee Bakley Born June 7, 1956 Morristown,

New Jersey, U.S. Died May 4, 2001 (aged 44) Studio City, California, U.S. Cause of death Homicide Resting place Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills Spouse(s) Evangelos Paulakis (1971; divorced) Paul Gawron (1977 1982; divorced) Robert Moon (1984 1987; divorced) DeMart C. Besly (1988; annulled) Joseph Brooksher (1992; annulled) William Webber (1993; annulled) E. Robert Telufson (1994; annulled) Glynn H. Wolfe (1995; annulled) John Ray (1996 1998; divorced) Robert Blake (2000 2001; her death) Children 4 Parents Edward J. Bakley Marjorie Lewis-Bakley Bonnie Lee Bakley (June 7, 1956 May 4, 2001) was the wife of actor Robert Blake. [1][2][3] Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in Blake's parked car outside a Los Angeles-area restaurant in May 2001. In 2002, Robert Blake was charged with Bakley's murder, solicitation of murder, conspiracy and special circumstance of lying in wait. In March 2005, a jury foun d Blake not guilty of the crimes. Seven months later, Blake was found guilty in a wrongful death civil suit brought against him by Bakley's children. Bakley's m urder remains officially unsolved. Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Legal issues 2 Celebrity obsession 2.1 Marriage to Robert Blake 3 Marriages and children 4 Death 5 Criminal and civil suits 6 References 7 External links Early life Bonnie Lee Bakley was born in Morristown, New Jersey[4] to arborist Edward J. Ba

kley and his wife, Marjorie Lois Bakley. Bakley had three other siblings: Marger ry Lisa Bakley, Joe Bakley, and her half-brother Peter Carlyon from her mother's second marriage. She was raised by and lived with her grandmother in Glen Gardn er, New Jersey while her mother operated an antique business at 6 Kossuth Street in Wharton, New Jersey. Bakley dropped out of high school at age 16 and decided to go to New York City t o pursue a career in modeling and acting at the Barbizon School of Modeling. She was married at 21 to her first cousin Paul Gawron and had two children with him : Glenn and Holly. The couple divorced in 1982.[5] In an effort to support herself, Bakley began a mail-order business sending nude pictures of women, including herself, to men. She also ran "lonely hearts" ads in magazines advertising for a "male companion". After communicating with the me n who answered her ads, she would ask for money for rent or travel expenses.[5][ 6] Bakley's business and scams eventually afforded her enough money to buy sever al houses in Memphis and a house outside of Los Angeles. She was unsuccessful, h owever, in her Hollywood career as a singer and actor under the stage name Leebo nny.[7][8][9] Legal issues Due to the nature of Bakley's mail-order business and other dealings, she was ar rested several times. In 1989, she was arrested in Memphis for drug possession and fined $300. In 1995 , she was arrested for attempting to pass two bad checks from an account of a Me mphis record company. Bakley was fined $1,000 and sentenced to work on a penal f arm on weekends after she plea bargained down to lesser charges. In 1998, she wa s arrested in Little Rock, Arkansas for possessing five driver's licenses and se ven Social Security cards with different names.[10] She used the IDs to open var ious post-office boxes in order to run her "lonely hearts" scam.[5] Celebrity obsession Bakley had a history of pursuing celebrities. Her friends and relatives describe d her as "celebrity-obsessed." Tapes of Bakley's phone conversations reveal that she was starstruck and determined to marry someone famous. "Being around celebr ities," she once said, "it makes you feel better than other people."[11] In 1990, she moved to Memphis and began pursuing singer Jerry Lee Lewis.[10] Bak ley eventually did meet Lewis and even became close friends with Lewis' sister L inda Gail Lewis.[12] In 1993, Bakley claimed that the daughter she gave birth to , Jeri Lee, was Lewis' child. However, DNA tests later disproved her claim.[5] A fter Jeri Lee's birth, Bakley decided to relocate to California. She left Jeri L ee with her first husband to raise, but continued to financially support the chi ld.[12] While in California, Bakley pursued other celebrities including Dean Martin, Fra nkie Valli (Bakley claimed they dated when she was a teenager. Valli denied the claim),[5] and Gary Busey.[13] In 1991, Bakley became interested in Christian Br ando. Christian, the eldest son of Academy Award-winning actor Marlon Brando and actress Anna Kashfi, became a media fixture when he was tried for the murder of his half sister's boyfriend Dag Drollet. Brando pleaded guilty to the lesser ch arge of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years in prison. While h e was in prison, Bakley began writing him and sending photos. After his release in 1996, Brando and Bakley began a romantic relationship. In 1999, Bakley discov ered she was pregnant and initially thought that Brando was the child's father. In June 2000, she gave birth to her fourth child, a daughter she named Christian Shannon Brando.[14] Marriage to Robert Blake

While Bakley was involved with Christian Brando, she was also dating actor Rober t Blake whom she met at a jazz club in 1999. After the birth of daughter Christi an Shannon Brando, Bakley told Blake that she was unsure of the child's paternit y and that he might be the father of the child. Blake insisted on a paternity te st which later determined that Blake, not Brando, was the father of Bakley's you ngest child.[15][5] After paternity was established, the child's name was legall y changed to Rose Lenore Sophia Blake.[16] Blake agreed to marry Bakley under the condition that she sign a temporary custo dy agreement. Under the agreement, Bakley agreed to monitored visits with Rose a nd to get written permission for her friends and family to visit Blake's propert y. The agreement also stipulated that if either spouse decided to end the marria ge, the other spouse would retain custody of Rose. Bakley's attorney advised her not to sign the document as he thought it was "lopsided". Eager to marry Blake, she ignored her attorney's advice and signed the agreement on October 4, 2000.[ 16] Bakley and Blake were married in November 2000.[17] Although they were married, the couple never lived together. Bakley and Rose liv ed in a small guest house beside Blake's house in Studio City of the San Fernand o Valley. The relationship was reportedly rocky; Blake was distrustful of Bakley and hired a private investigator to find out more information about her.[5] Bla ke later found out that Bakley had continued to operate her "lonely hearts" ad s cam during the marriage.[15] Marriages and children Before her marriage to Robert Blake, Bakley was married nine times (many of the marriages were short-lived with one lasting a single day). She had four children ; a son and a daughter with her second ex-husband Paul Gawron, a daughter named Jeri Lee Lewis (born July 28, 1993 whose father remains unknown), and daughter R ose Lenore Sophia Blake (born in 2000 and initially named Christian Shannon Bran do) with actor Robert Blake. Death On May 4, 2001, Blake took Bakley to an Italian dinner at Vitello's Restaurant o n Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. Afterward, Bakley was killed by a gunshot to th e head while sitting in the car, which was parked on a side street around the co rner from the restaurant. Blake claimed that he had returned to the restaurant t o collect a gun which he had left there, and was not present when the shooting o ccurred. The gun that Blake claimed he had left in the restaurant was later dete rmined not to have fired the shots that killed Bakley. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills Memorial Park in Lo s Angeles. Criminal and civil suits On March 16, 2005, Blake was found not guilty of the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley, and of one of the two counts of soliciting a former stuntman to murder her. The other count of solicitation was dropped after it was revealed that the jury was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of an acquittal. Los Angeles District Attorney Steve C ooley, commenting on this ruling, called Blake a "miserable human being" and the jurors "incredibly stupid." Blake's defense team and members of the jury responded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case. During the trial, the defense alleged that Bakley was a drug addict who used her daughter for prostitution.[18] On November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable for the wrongful death of his wife in a civil trial. Bakley's three eldest children sued him, asserting he was resp onsible for their mother's death. The jury ordered him to pay $30 million.[3] On April 26, 2008, an appeals court upheld the civil case verdict, but cut Blake's

penalty assessment in half.[19]