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Robert Blake: Child Actors, Killer Roles, and the Murder of Bonny Lee Bakley
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Robert Blake was a former child actor and tough-talking TV cop. He was also a tough customer. He talked like a mobster, lived like a cowboy, and was intimately familiar with the rougher side of life. That rough side of life caught up with him in 2001, when he was charged with murder when his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was found shot dead in the front seat of Blake’s Dodge Stealth. Depending on who you talk to, Robert Blake was either rightfully acquitted…or managed to escape justice.
Sources
Tales of a Rascal: What I Did for Love, by Robert Blake
Criminal Investigations: Celebrities and Crime, by Michael Newton
Actor's Trial, Complete With Pulp Novel Characters, Draws to a Close (NY Times)
'Baretta' Star Acquitted of Murder in Wife's Death (NY Times)
Who Murdered Bonny Lee Bakley (TruTV)
Stuntman key witness vs. Blake (Court TV News)
Stuntman: Actor Robert Blake offered me $10,000 to 'pop' his wife (CNN)
Author: Police suspected Robert Blake hours after wife was slain (Court TV News)
Scene is set in Blake case; cue stuntman (Court TV News)
Robert Blake Arrested For Murder Of Bonny Lee Bakley (LAPD Online)
Little motive, plenty doubt (Newsday)
Actor Blake liable in wife's death (CNN)
Actor Blake loses US court appeal (BBC)
Life and Career of Robert Blake (ABC News)
Interview with Robert Blake (RogerEbert.com)
Daughter of actor Robert Blake opens up 2 decades after her mother's death (Good Morning America)
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Molly Quinlan Artwick.
Copy edited by James Sullivan.
Scored and mixed by Colin Fleming.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak