Bonny Lee Bakley (June 7, 1956 – May 4, 2001) was the second wife of actor

Robert Blake Robert Blake may refer to: Sportspeople * Bob Blake (American football) (1885–1962), American football player * Robbie Blake (born 1976), English footballer * Bob Blake (ice hockey) (1914–2008), American ice hockey player * Rob Blake (born 196 ...

, who was her tenth husband. Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in Blake's parked car outside a

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-area restaurant in May 2001. In 2002, Blake was charged with Bakley's murder, solicitation of murder,

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

and special circumstance of lying in wait. In March 2005, a jury found Blake not guilty of the crimes. Seven months later, Blake was found liable in a

wrongful death Wrongful death claim is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are compensated for the harm, ...

lawsuit brought against him by Bakley's children. Officially, Bakley's murder remains unsolved.

Early life

Bonny Lee Bakley was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to

arborist An arborist, tree surgeon, or (less commonly) arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants in dend ...

Edward J. Bakley and his wife, Marjorie Lois Bakley. Bakley had three siblings: Margerry 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 Gardner, New Jersey Glen Gardner is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. At the time of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 1,704,Wharton, New Jersey Wharton is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the borough's population was 6,522,Barbizon School of Modeling. There she met an immigrant named Evangelos Paulakis, who needed to get married in order to stay in the United States. Bakley agreed to marry him for a price, but then almost immediately ended the marriage; Paulakis was

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

.ThoughtCo profile of Bonny Lee Bakley
/ref> At age 21, Bakley married her

first cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

Paul Gawron. At roughly five years, this would prove to be the longest of her ten marriages, and they had two children together, Glenn and Holly. The couple divorced in 1982. 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 men who answered her ads, she would ask for money for rent or travel expenses. Bakley's business and scams eventually afforded her enough money to buy several houses in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, and one house outside Los Angeles. She pursued a Hollywood career as a singer and actor under the stage name Lee Bonney, but was unsuccessful.

Legal issues

Due to the nature of Bakley's mail-order business and other dealings, she was arrested 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 Memphis record company; she was fined $1,000 and sentenced to work on a penal farm on weekends after she plea bargained down to lesser charges. In 1998, she was arrested in

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

, for possessing five driver's licenses and seven Social Security cards with different names. Bakley used the IDs to open various post-office boxes in order to run her "lonely hearts" scam.

Celebrity obsession

Bakley had a history of pursuing celebrities, with her friends and relatives describing her as "celebrity-obsessed." Tapes of Bakley's phone conversations reveal that she was starstruck and determined to marry someone famous. "Being around celebrities," she once said, "it makes you feel better than other people." In 1990, Bakley began pursuing singer

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis ma ...

. Bakley eventually did meet Lewis and even became close friends with Lewis' sister,

Linda Gail Lewis Linda Gail Lewis (born July 18, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. She has recorded with Stephen Ackles, Van Morrison, and with her brother, Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an A ...

. In 1993, she claimed that the daughter she gave birth to, Jeri Lee, was Lewis' child. However,

DNA test Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, o ...

s later disproved her claim. After Jeri Lee's birth, Bakley decided to relocate to California. She left Jeri Lee with her ex-husband Paul to raise, but continued to financially support the child. In California, Bakley pursued other celebrities, including Dean Martin, Frankie Valli (Bakley claimed they dated when she was a teenager; Valli denied the claim), and

Gary Busey Gary Busey (; born 1944) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Buddy Holly in ''The Buddy Holly Story'' (1978), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics ...

. In 1991 she became interested in

Christian Brando Christian Devi Brando (May 11, 1958 – January 26, 2008) was an American actor who was one of the eleven children of actor Marlon Brando, and the only one Brando had with his first wife, former actress Anna Kashfi. On May 16, 1990, Brando ...

, the eldest son of

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-winning actor Marlon Brando and former actress

Anna Kashfi Anna Kashfi (born Joan O'Callaghan; 30 September 1934 – 16 August 2015) was a British film actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s but was better known for her tumultuous marriage to film star Marlon Brando and the controversie ...

, who had become a media fixture when he was tried for the murder of his half sister's boyfriend, Dag Drollet. Brando pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of

voluntary manslaughter Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender acted during ''the heat of passion'', under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they canno ...

and was sentenced to ten years in prison. While he 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 discovered 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.

Marriage to Robert Blake

While Bakley was involved with Christian Brando, she dated actor

, whom she met at a jazz club in 1999. After the birth of daughter Christian Shannon Brando, Bakley told Blake that she was unsure of the child's paternity and that he might be the father of the child. Blake insisted on a

paternity test DNA paternity testing is the use of DNA profiles to determine whether an individual is the biological parent of another individual. Paternity testing can be especially important when the rights and duties of the father are in issue and a child' ...

which later determined that he, not Brando, was the father of Bakley's youngest child. After paternity was established, the child's name was legally changed to Rose Lenore Sophia Blake. Blake agreed to marry Bakley under the condition that she sign a temporary custody agreement. Under the agreement, Bakley agreed to monitored visits with Rose and to get written permission for her friends and family to visit Blake's property. The agreement also stipulated that if either spouse decided to end the marriage, the other spouse would retain custody of Rose. Bakley's attorney advised her not to sign the document because he thought it was "lopsided". Eager to marry Blake, she ignored her attorney's advice and signed the agreement on October 4, 2000. Bakley and Blake were married in November 2000. Although they were married, the couple never lived together. Bakley and Rose lived in a small guest house beside Blake's residence in

Studio City, California Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 192 ...

. The relationship was reportedly rocky; Blake was distrustful of Bakley and hired a private investigator to find more information about her. Blake later found out that Bakley had continued to operate her "lonely hearts" scam during the marriage.

Marriages and children

Before her marriage to Blake, Bakley was married nine times (many of the marriages were short-lived with one lasting a single day). Her eighth husband was Glynn Wolfe, famous for holding the record for the largest number of monogamous marriages. Bakley had four children: a son named Glenn and a daughter named Holly with her second husband Paul Gawron; a daughter named Jeri Lee Lewis (born July 28, 1993) with an unspecified man, after DNA tests disproved her claim that the child was fathered by Jerry Lee Lewis; and daughter Rose Lenore Sophia Blake (born in June 2000 and initially named Christian Shannon Brando) with actor Robert Blake.

Death

On May 4, 2001, Blake took Bakley to dinner at Vitello's Restaurant on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City, Los Angeles. Afterward, Bakley was killed by a gunshot wound to the head while sitting in the passenger seat of Blake's black 1991 Dodge Stealth, which was parked on a side street around the corner from the restaurant. Blake claimed that he had returned to the restaurant to collect a gun which he had left there, and was not present when the shooting occurred. The gun that Blake claimed he had left in the restaurant was later determined not to have fired the shots that killed Bakley. Bakley was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Criminal and civil suits

On March 16, 2005, Blake was found not guilty of the murder of 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. Blake's defense, led by M. Gerald Schwartzbach, attacked the credibility of associates who alleged Blake had wanted to hire them to kill Bakley, and also raised the possibility the victim was murdered by one of the men she had conned out of money in the past. Law professor Laurie Levenson stated the

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

established a possible motive for murder (Blake's vitriol towards Bakley due to his belief she'd tricked him into fathering a child to access his wealth) but had failed beyond that to prove Blake directly or indirectly was responsible for killing her. CBS News legal analyst David Hancock wrote "there was no single part of their case that was strong enough to overcome the many weak links." Los Angeles County District Attorney

Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence Cooley (born May 1, 1947) is an American politician and prosecutor. He was the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2000 to 2012. Cooley was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2008. In 2010, Cooley won the Republican nominati ...

, 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 by stating that the prosecution had failed to prove its case. During the trial, the defense alleged that Bakley was a

drug addict Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...

who used her oldest daughter, Holly, for prostitution. On November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable for the

of his wife in a civil trial. Bakley's three eldest children had sued him, asserting that he was responsible for their mother's death. The trial included a famous Perry Mason moment when Eric Dubin, the attorney for Bakley's family, called the girlfriend of Blake's longtime bodyguard and co-defendant Earle Caldwell to the stand and asked if she believed they were involved in the crime, something no one had asked her before. "Dead silence filled the court," Dubin recalled. "Tears filled her eyes as she paused for what seemed like a decade, then leaned into the microphone and said that yes, she did believe that they were involved." The jury ordered Blake to pay $30 million. In 2006, Blake filed for bankruptcy, with debts of $3 million for unpaid legal fees as well as state and federal taxes. On April 9, 2010, the state of California filed a

tax lien A tax lien is a lien which is imposed upon a property by law in order to secure the payment of taxes. A tax lien may be imposed for the purpose of collecting delinquent taxes which are owed on real property or personal property, or it may be ...

against Blake for $1,110,878 in unpaid back taxes. On April 26, 2008, an appeals court upheld the civil case verdict, but cut Blake's penalty assessment in half, to $15 million. Blake's attorneys had protested that jurors improperly discussed the

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

and O. J. Simpson verdicts during deliberations of his case, but the appeals judge ruled that such discussions were not improper.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakley, Bonny Lee 1956 births 2001 deaths 2001 murders in the United States Actresses from Little Rock, Arkansas American murder victims American people convicted of fraud Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Deaths by firearm in California Female murder victims People from Glen Gardner, New Jersey People from Memphis, Tennessee People from Morristown, New Jersey People from Studio City, Los Angeles People murdered in Los Angeles Unsolved murders in the United States 20th-century American women 20th-century American people