Bonnie Lee Bakley

Bonnie Lee Bakley

Early life

Bonnie Lee Bakley was born in Morristown New Jersey June 7, 1956.

Bakley dropped out of high school at age 16 and decided to go to New York City to pursue a career in modeling and acting at the Barbizon School of Modeling. She was married at 21 to herfirst cousin Paul Gawron and had two children with him: Glenn and Holly. The couple divorced in 1982.

In an effort to support herself, Bakley began a mail-order business sending nude pictures of women, including herself, to men. She also ran "lonely hearts" ads in magazines advertising for a "male companion". After communicating with the men who answered her ads, she would ask for money for rent or travel expenses. Bakley's business and scams eventually afforded her enough money to buy several houses in Memphis and a house outside of Los Angeles. She was unsuccessful, however, in her Hollywood career as a singer and actor under the stage name Leebonny

Bakley had a history of pursuing celebrities. Her friends and relatives described her as "celebrity-obsessed." Tapes of Bakley's phone conversations reveal that she was starstruck and determined to marry someone famous. "Being around celebrities," she once said, "it makes you feel better than other people."

While in California, Bakley pursued other celebrities including Dean Martin, Frankie Valli (Bakley claimed they dated when she was a teenager. Valli denied the claim), and Gary Busey. In 1991, Bakley became interested in Christian Brando. Christian, the eldest son of Academy Award-winning actor Marlon Brando and actress Anna Kashfi, became a media fixture when he was tried for the murder of his half sister's boyfriend Dag Drollet. Brando pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years in prison. While he was in prison, Bakley began writing him and sending photos. After his release in 1996, Brando and Bakley began a romantic relationship. In 1999, Bakley discovered she was pregnant and initially thought that Brando was the child's father. In June 2000, she gave birth to her fourth child, a daughter she named Christian Shannon Brando.

Marriage to Robert Blake

While Bakley was involved with Christian Brando, she was also dating actor Robert Blake whom she met at a jazz club in 1999. After the birth of daughter Christian Shannon Brando, Bakley told Blake that she was unsure of the child's paternity and that he might be the father of the child. Blake insisted on a paternity test which later determined that Blake, not Brando, was the father of Bakley's youngest child. After paternity was established, the child's name was legally changed to Rose Lenore Sophia Blake.

Blake agreed to marry Bakley under the condition that she sign a temporary custody agreement. Under the agreement, Bakley agreed to monitored visits with Rose and to get written permission for her friends and family to visit Blake's property. The agreement also stipulated that if either spouse decided to end the marriage, the other spouse would retain custody of Rose. Bakley's attorney advised her not to sign the document as he thought it was "lopsided". Eager to marry Blake, she ignored her attorney's advice and signed the agreement on October 4, 2000. Bakley and Blake were married in November 2000.

Although they were married, the couple never lived together. Bakley and Rose lived in a small guest house beside Blake's house in Studio City of the San Fernando Valley. The relationship was reportedly rocky; Blake was distrustful of Bakley and hired a private investigator to find out more information about her.Blake later found out that Bakley had continued to operate her "lonely hearts" ad scam during the marriage.

On May 4, 2001, Blake took Bakley to an Italian dinner at Vitello's Restaurant on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. Afterward, Bakley was killed by a gunshot to the head while sitting in the car, which was parked on a side street around the corner from the restaurant. Blake claimed that he had returned to the restaurant to collect a gun which he had left there, and was not present when the shooting occurred. The gun that Blake claimed he had left in the restaurant was later determined not to have fired the shots that killed Bakley.

She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Early life