Bonnie Lee Bakley Biography, Early Life, Marriages and children, Death

Bonnie Lee Bakley Biography

Bonnie Lee Bakley was born on June 7, 1956 and died on May 4, 2001 was the second wife of actor Robert Blake, who was her tenth husband. 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 found Blake not guilty of the crimes. Seven months later, Blake was found liable in a wrongful death lawsuit brought against him by Bakley’s children. Officially, Bakley’s murder remains unsolved.

Bonnie Lee Bakley Age

Bonny Lee Bakley was born on June 7, 1956 and died on May 4, 2001 at the age of 45 years

Bonnie Lee Bakley Early Life

Bonnie Lee Bakley was born in Morristown, New Jersey on June 7, 1956. Her father, Edward J. Bakley, was an arborist and her mother, Marjorie Lois Bakley, was an entrepreneur. She grew up along with her siblings, Margerry Lisa Bakley and Joe Bakley.

Bonnie’s mother was always busy with her antique business at 6 Kossuth Street in Wharton. So she moved in with her grandmother and started living in Glen Gardner, New Jersey. Bonnie was always interested in the showbiz and aspired to become a model.

After dropping out of high school, Bonnie headed to New York with hopes of becoming a star. She enrolled herself at Barbizon Modeling and Acting School. She registered her name as Lee Bonnie and managed to bag some minor modeling jobs. She even worked as an extra in a few movies.

But her dream of becoming a star was not materializing and hence, she began to look for ways that would make her rich and famous. Perhaps, the fact that she was a victim of sexual abuse and her difficult childhood seeded in her the desire to become noteworthy. In order to accomplish her goal, she manifested a blind obsession that eventually turned her into a criminal.

Bonnie Lee Bakley 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. Her eighth husband was Glynn Wolfe, becoming the 27th woman to marry the man 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 first cousin and second ex-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 Shannon Christian Brando) with actor Robert Blake

Bonnie Lee Bakley Death

On 4 May 2001, Blake and Bonnie visited Vitello’s Italian Restaurant, a place where Blake was a regular customer. After enjoying a sumptuous dinner, the two walked towards their car. According to Blake, while walking out he realized that he had left his revolver in the restaurant and hence went back to get his gun.
When he came back, he found Bonnie lying in a pool of blood after being shot in her head. He then called out for help but it was too late to save her.

Investigation

The first investigation report suggested that Blake had committed the crime and that he was helped by his bodyguard. Further investigation revealed that the revolver Blake was carrying and the one used for the murder were different. The latter was retrieved from a landfill site nearby.
The Los Angeles police department investigated for nearly a year before arresting Robert Blake on 18 April 2002. Two years later, Blake’s trial resumed and he was found guilty. On March 2005, a jury of twelve members was deployed to study the case. The panel gave its verdict in favor of Robert Blake and he was exonerated of all the charges.

Ubiquitous Bonnie: Mistress of Sham

Bonnie married Demart C. Besly, a widower from Montana, who was one of her Lonely Hearts clients. He proposed marriage to her which she readily agreed since Demart was a wealthy man. Unfortunately, Demart too met the same fate as Evangelos.
The heartbroken Besly was so hurt after he was ripped off by her that he decided to pen down his feelings which resulted in a manuscript of 400 pages. The manuscript was used in the investigation and was later published with the title, ‘Ubiquitous Bonnie: Mistress of Sham’.

Bonnie Lee Bakley 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 Cooley, 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 who used her oldest daughter, Holly, for prostitution.

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 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. On April 26, 2008, an appeals court upheld the civil case verdict, but cut Blake’s penalty assessment in hal

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Bonnie Lee Bakley Facts

Robert Blake Was Her Tenth Husband

Bonnie Lee Bakley, a native of Morristown, New Jersey, had been married nine times before wedding Robert Blake.

One of four children to Edward Bakley and Marjorie Bakley, she dropped out of high school to move to New York City where she pursued a career in modeling and acting.

There, she met a man named Evangelos Paulais, who Thought Co. reports she agreed to marry for a price. The outlet writes, “…but not long after the two shared ‘I dos,’ Bakley, with the money safely tucked away, ended the marriage, and Paulakis was picked by the authorities and deported.”

Many of her ten marriages lasted only weeks, and one is reported to have just lasted just one day.

 She Was Rumored to Be Focused on Finding Herself a ‘Celebrity Husband’

According to a 2001 People article, Bonnie was focused on finding herself a celebrity husband. She was said by friends and family to be celebrity-obsessed, and once quoted by EW as saying, “Being around celebrities makes you feel better than other people.”

Speaking to People, Paul Gawron, Bakley’s ex-husband, said, “That’s all she ever wanted to do, was meet stars… She’d read and find out where they were going to be and then she’d be there.”

With Gawron, Bakley had three children. Gawron also happened to be Bakley’s first cousin. Thought Co. writes of Bakley, “Bakley’s obsession to be in the inner circles of the famous mixed with the fact that she was not getting any younger. This motivated her decision to leave her kids in Gawron’s care and head to Memphis, Tennessee, to the door of musical artist, Jerry Lee Lewis.”

She Was Arrested a Number of Times

In 1989, Bakley was arrested for drug possession. Six years later, she was arrested for her attempts to pass two bad checks.

The arrests didn’t stop there, though. In 1998, Bakley was arrested for possessing a handful of driver’s licenses and Social Security cards. According to People, she had been involved in a series of scams. Frankie Jean Lewis, whose brother knew Bakley, tells People, “She wasn’t selling Girl Scout cookies… She was bad to the bone, but with a good heart.”

The outlet goes on to detail the nature of her scams. “Bakley allegedly advertised in magazines for male companions, and when they responded, she sent them desperate letters asking for rent money or travel fare.” She would then demand hundreds of dollars.

Friends also tell People that Bakley would sell nude photographs of herself. Her half brother Peter Carlyon tells People, “I’m not going to deny that she was a con artist—she was… She was not Mother Teresa.”

She Claimed She Was Unsure of Her Daughter’s Paternity

Leading up to her relationship with Blake, Bakley was romantically involved with Christian Brando, the son of Marlon Brando and actress Anna Kashfi. When her daughter, Christian Shannon Brando, was born, Bakley is reported to have told both Brando and Blake that she wasn’t sure which man was the father. She did, however, list Brando as the father on the birth certificate.

A paternity test eventually revealed that Blake was the father of the girl, whose name was legally changed to Rose.

An archived 2005 article reads, “Blake and Bakley married in November 2000. Several witnesses have testified that Blake only agreed to marry Bakley to retain custody of their infant daughter.”

Blake Was Found Not Guilty of Bakley’s Murder in 2005

In November of that same year, however, he was found liable for Bakley’s wrongful death in a civil trial. He was ordered to pay $30 million to the children of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, as a result.

In February 2006, Blake filed for bankruptcy. His lawyer appealed the jury’s verdict, but in April 2008, the appeals court upheld the decision. The amount Blake owed was cut in half, to $15 million.

Since then, rumors have surfaced that Blake may be interested in returning to acting to pay off some debts from his legal troubles.

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