Introducing: The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley

Death of a Starlet

Wondery

True Crime, Josh Lucas, Tracy Pattin, Exhbit C, Hugh Hefner, Playboy, Peter Bogdanovich, Hollywood & Crime, Dorothy Stratten, Documentary, Exhibit C, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2024

⏱️ 2 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.

You can binge all episodes of Hollywood and Crime: The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Find Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bonnie Lee Bakley came to Hollywood with a dream. She wanted to be someone famous.
0:13.0	I was just a kid that everybody hated in school.
0:15.0	But then you grow up saying, oh, I'll fix them.
0:18.0	When she married actor Robert Blake,
0:21.0	she thought her dream had come true,
0:24.0	until it all went wrong.
0:26.0	You need address.
0:27.0	Emergency.
0:28.0	Okay, we need a woman with feedback.
0:29.0	On May 4, 2001, at 9.30m. Bonnie was found in a car bleeding severely.
0:36.1	She's conscious. Is she conscious Robert? No. She had been shot in the head.
0:42.0	Ma'am?
0:43.0	Oh my God.
0:44.0	Okay, is she breathing?
0:45.0	I don't know.
0:46.0	All right.
0:47.0	Within the hour she was gone.
0:50.0	O'
0:55.0	Boney went from victim to villain. The press called her a grifter, a liar, a scammer.
0:57.0	She was in the pornography business, she was in the prostitution business,
1:01.0	she had criminal convictions all around the country in various states.
1:04.0	But who was Bonnie really?
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -130 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.