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Bonny Lee Bakely: Hollywood Dreams and Nightmares · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

0:37
Bonnie. A voice on the recording of a phone call between two friends asked,
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did you ever stop and try to figure out why you're only attracted to
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famous people? Bonnie's answer was swift, and it seemed to come to her
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easily quote being around celebrities makes you feel better than other people, And it
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was this feeling of happiness that Bonnie Lee Bakeley would chase her entire life.
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Her journey started on June seventh, nineteen fifty six, in Morristown, New
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Jersey, and right from the get go, her life was rife with grief
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and abandonment. Her father, Edward J. Bakeley, was an alcoholic and
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almost never around Marjorie Lewis. Bakeley sent Bonnie off to live with her mother
1:23
in Glen Gardner, New Jersey, so Marjorie could focus on running her own
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business. There, Bonnie grew up with her siblings, seemingly lacking the sense
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of attention and affection that children need from their parents. When Bonnie was only
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eleven, she and her sister stumbled upon a pool party run by a nearby
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nudist colony, and Bonnie got her first real fix of the limelight. After
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that, Bonnie often attended parties and events held by this nudist colony, and
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it was shortly after that that some of the other attendees began taking pictures of
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her. The dark undertones this whole situation were lost on the young Bonnie,
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who reveled in this sudden influx of attention from the adults around her and didn't
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stop to ask what those pictures were being used for or who they were being
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sold to. But then again, she was only eleven. Maybe spurred on
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by her popularity amongst the nudest colony, Bonnie dropped out of school at the
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age of only sixteen. Her ambition was to become a model, and to
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achieve this she moved to New York City so she could attend the Barberizon School
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of Modeling. It was there that she met the first of what would be
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a very long line of husbands. His name was Evangelos Polachus, and he
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was also a student at the Barberzon School of Modeling. But what sparked between
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the young couple was hardly a whorld win romance. Evangelos needed a green cart,
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and Bonnie was willing to help him get one for a price. The
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two struck up a deal and Evangelos paid Bonnie to marry him, held up
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her end of the bargain just long enough to get her payout, and then
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she divorced Evangelos. Shortly after that, he was deported and Bonnie had a
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clean slate to work with. Then, at only twenty one years of age,
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Bonnie married her second husband, her first cousin, Paul Goron. They
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had two children together and were married for a total of five years, making
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their union the longest that Bonnie would ever have. And it was during the
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next few years that Bonnie would cement the most successful part of her career.
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Perhaps thinking back to those early days in the Nudest Colony, Bonnie began selling
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nude pictures of herself and other women. This was before the time of the
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Internet and smart phones. Obviously, Bonnie would take out ads and magazines and
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newspapers, and people who wanted to buy her pictures would reach out and pay
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Bonnie through the mail. Bonnie would then send them pictures or simply just keep
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the money and give them nothing in return. Bonnie set herself up quite nicely
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with her mail order earnings. She managed to buy herself several properties, including
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a house just outside of Los Angeles, which would come in handy for the
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next part of her journey. Spurred on by her success, Bonnie moved to
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Hollywood to pursue a career in singing and acting. Bonnie arrived in the beating
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heart of America's entertainment industry with probably more than most than her shoes do.
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But like so many that have come before her and the minis that would come
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after, Bonnie found herself a small fish and a very very big pond.
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She didn't manage to make much of a splash with her new career, but
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she always had the old one to fall back on. Bonnie expanded her business.
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She began forging driver's licenses and checks, some of which were used to
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open peo boxes for her mail order business, but some of them she sold
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when she was picked up by the police in nineteen eighty nine. She also
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had drugs and her p although it's hard to say for certain if she was
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dealing them herself. Bonnie was in and out of the court system for years.
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If she wasn't in the courthouse marrying a new husband, she was usually
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bargaining her way out of another charge of forgery. On one occasion, when
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she was arrested yet again. Bonnie had five driver's licenses and seven Social Security
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cards in her possession. But despite the turbulence that seemed to follow Bonnie wherever
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she went, she still hadn't given up on making it big one day.
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It may have been that Bonnie would never be famous in her own rights,
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but that wouldn't stop her from rubbing shoulders with celebrities, and maybe, if
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she was lucky and persistent enough, she could even end up marrying one too.
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Bonnie had always been a fan of celebrities, but after moving to Hollywood,
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she seemed to take her love to a whole new level. She then
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began to actively seek out celebrities, hoping that one day her stars would align
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and her luck would turn. She had her first brush with success in nineteen
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ninety when she met Jerry Lee Lewis, then in his fifties, The American
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musician who went by the nickname The Killer wasn't exactly at the height of his
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career anymore, but he was still good enough for Bonnie. The two mets
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and three years later, Bonnie claimed that Jerry Lee Lewis was the father to
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her newborn daughter, a daughter Bonnie named Jerry Lee, just in case anyone
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was unsure of the parentage. A DNA test later revealed that Jerry Lee Lewis
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was not actually the father, and Bonnie left the young girl with her second
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ex husband, Paul, so she could move closer to Hollywood. There she
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met and allegedly had relationships with men like Dean Martin, Frankie Valley, and
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Gary Busey. But it was in nineteen ninety one that Bonnie would discover the
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target of her next big obsession, Christian Brando, the son of actor Marlon
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Brando. Christian was in the news a lot at the time for killing Dag
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Drawlitt, his sister's ex boyfriend. Christian had attacked Dag after finding out that
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he was often violent towards Christian's sister. Christian claimed that during a scuffle,
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the gun he had been holding accidentally went off and killed Dag. Christian then
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pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and spent five years in prison. It was during
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Christian's incarceration that he began receiving fan mail and nudes from Bonnie Lee Bakeley.
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The two struck up a connection, and when Christian was released, that connection
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became physical. A while after that, Bonnie found out that she was pregnant
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once again. Bonnie gave birth to another daughter and named her Christian Shannon Brando,
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a bold move to make when Bonnie herself wasn't exactly sure who the child's
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father really was. It turned out that during the time that Bonnie became pregnant
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with her fourth child, she wasn't dating one celebrity, but two. The
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other man in question was actor Robert Blake, and there was a good chance
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that Robert was actually the father to Bonnie's baby. Unsure and wanting to be,
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Robert insisted that tests were done to determine the child's paternity, and Bonnie's
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life was changed all over again. When the results came back, it turned
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out that Christian Shannon Brando wasn't a Brando after all, she was a Blake.
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So Christian Shannon Brandeau became Rose leonor Sophia Blake, and a new agreement
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was struck up between her parents. Just happy to finally be an official part
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of a celebrity family, Bonnie signed a prenup that would hand over her rights
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as a parent to Robert if she were to ever file for a divorce.
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The stipulation was the same the other way around, but Bonnie couldn't sense the
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danger that clause could potentially put her in. She signed the pre nup and
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married her tenth husband. Bonnie and baby Rose moved into Robert's estate, although
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they were made to live in the neighboring guest house instead of living in the
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main house. It seemed like Bonnie's new marriage had hit the Rocks before it
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had even left the harbor. Robert was suspicious of Bonnie and her intentions and
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hired a private investigator to dig up any dirt he could on his new wife.
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The PI uncovered that Bonnie was still running her mail order business and was
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still selling her nudes. The couple were now in a tight situation and trapped
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in an unsuccessful marriage. Neither could file for divorce without losing custody of their
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child to the other, and neither of them wanted to do that. But
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it was only when the baby was eleven months old that fate would intervene and
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solve the issue of custody for the newly formed family for them. On May
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fourth, two thousand and one, when Bonnie was forty four years old,
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Robert Blake took her out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Thetello's. Dinner
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went well enough, and it was only when Bonnie was sitting in the car
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afterwards that Robert realized that he'd forgotten his gun back at the dinner table.
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He left his wife in the car and went back to the restaurant to pick
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it up, but when he returned to the car, he was up a
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gun but down a wife. While Robert had briefly gone back to the restaurant,
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somebody had approached Bonnie and shot her twice in the head. She later
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died on the way to the hospital. The gun that Robert had gone back
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to collect that day was quickly determined not to be the murder weapon, and
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a city wide hunt ensued. Ten days after Bonnie was killed, The murder
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weapon was recovered from a trash can close to the restaurant. It was an
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older Walter pistol, quite unique and a collector's item, but the serial number
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had been filed away and there was no way for the investigators to trace it
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back to the owner. Bonnie was buried, and four years later Robert sat
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in court charged with the murder. The prosecution argued and presented witnesses who claimed
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that Robert had approached them and tried to solicit their services in killing his wife.
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They put to the courts that Robert not only wanted Bonnie gone to avoid
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losing custody of his daughter, but that he was furious with her too.
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She'd approached Robert and tricked him into fathering a child, also that she could
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finally attain her dream of becoming rich and famous. The motive sounded solid enough,
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but Robert's defense lawyers were able to chip away at the integrity of the
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prosecution's witness, and they put forward their own theory. The defense argued that
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Bonnie had been killed by a disgruntled customer, possibly one of the many men
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that she had conned out of money during her years running her mail order business.
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The courts agreed, and Robert Blake was found not guilty of killing Bonnie.
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He was, however, found liable for Bonnie's wrongful death when Bonnie's three
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eldest children suit him in a civil court kind of an O. J.
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Simpson situation. He was ordered to pay thirty million dollars in compensation. Shortly
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after that, Robert filed for bankruptcy, but the courts upheld of verdict.
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After he filed an appeal. They did, however, cut his penalty down
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to fifteen million dollars. That's ten Minute Murder for today brief and bingeable true
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