Introducing Hollywood & Crime: The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley

Criminally Listed Presents: Into the Killing

Society & Culture, Documentary, History, True Crime

4 • 685 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2022

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On May 4, 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley was found fatally shot in a car on a dark North Hollywood street. The prime suspect was her husband, famed actor Robert Blake. But Bonny, a longtime con artist, had plenty of enemies. She left behind a trail of men she’d scammed, and she had a volatile relationship with Christian Brando, the troubled son of movie star Marlon Brando.

Not since the O.J. Simpson case had the eyes of the nation been so fixated on a homicide. The search for Bonny’s killer took detectives on an eleven-month odyssey across the country and through Hollywood's underbelly of hustlers, drug addicts, and would-be hitmen. It would be the most expensive murder investigation in LAPD history to date.

This is the story of Robert and Bonny’s toxic relationship, her shocking murder, and his chaotic trial. Did actor Robert Blake kill his wife? Or was the murder someone else's vendetta?

From Wondery, and the team behind the hit series Hollywood & Crime (The Dating Game Killer, The Wonderland Murders, Death of Starlet) comes a six-part series about love, obsession and fame gone wrong. Co-hosted by Tracy Pattin and Josh Lucas.

Find Hollywood & Crime: The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley at: wondery.fm/ITK_TEOBLB

Transcript

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0:00.0	Small Town Girl, Bonnie Lee Bakely, always dreamed of marrying a movie star. Her obsession with
0:05.2	celebrities resulted in nine divorces until Bonnie eventually married famous actor Robert
0:10.8	Blake. However, Bonnie learned that being close to the spotlight comes with consequences. Within
0:17.2	a year of her marriage, her Hollywood dream came to an end when she was found fairly shot outside of a diner in North Hollywood.
0:24.6	Monty's troubling past, complicated detectives almost year-long investigation into her murder, which had the LAPD breaking through Hollywood's underbelly of gangsters, drug addicts, and would be hitman.
0:40.9	Her husband, Robert Blake, remained the prime suspect in her murder,
0:45.3	but the media pointing the finger back at Bonnie, saying she had it coming.
0:50.1	From Wondry, the execution of Bonnie Lee Bakely is a thrilling new chapter in the hit Hollywood and Crime podcast series.
0:53.5	Robert Blake knew Bonnie spent most of her life
0:55.9	as a con artist who dreamed of being famous. But when Robert Blake were luckily let Bonnie
1:00.9	stay in his guest house, it began the role he'd become most famous for and accused murderer.
1:06.6	You're about to hear a preview of the execution of Bonnie Lee Bakely. While you're listening, follow the execution of Bonnie Lee Bakely on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
1:15.8	Spotify, or you can listen ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.
1:26.2	It's a little after 9.30 p.m. on May 4th, 2001.
1:32.3	Fireworks flash across the sky in Studio City, just over the Hollywood Hills.
1:37.5	Cinco de Mayo has come a day early this year.
1:42.1	Inside a small yellow house on a quiet street,
1:45.8	Sean Stanick sits at a desk in his robe.
1:49.1	He's spending Friday night hunched over his keyboard,
1:52.2	writing a screenplay,
1:53.6	hoping to become the next Quentin Tarantino.
1:57.6	But tonight, Stanick won't write another word.
	...

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