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CNN Saturday Morning News

Audio Tape Sheds Light on Bakley Murder

Aired May 12, 2001 - 07:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the latest on the killing of actor Robert Blake's wife, CNN has obtained a copy of some tape recordings that Blake's lawyers turned over to Los Angeles police. According to Blake and his attorney, they are recordings Bonnie Bakley made of her own telephone conversations.

Here's CNN's Charles Feldman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The audio recordings you are about to hear were discovered by Robert Blake's investigative team, CNN has been told in the small guest house where Blake's late wife, Bonnie Bakley, resided, next to her husband's home.

(voice-over): The tapes purport to be recordings Bakley made of her own phone conversations over a period of time last year, before she married Blake and while paternity of their infant daughter was still being clinically established.

Blake's lawyers allowed CNN to make complete copies of the recordings after they were turned over to the LAPD as evidence. Blake himself told CNN that the voice on the tape was his wife's.

When Bakley gave birth to her daughter, she named her after actor Christian Brando, Marlon Brando's son. She told people she thought it was his child. But CNN has not established that she actually ever knew the younger Brando, and our attempts to reach Christian Brando were unsuccessful.

Complicating matters, she had a very real affair with Robert Blake, more than two decades her senior, and paternity tests have clearly determined he is the father of Bakley's baby.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BONNIE BAKLEY, ROBERT BLAKE'S WIFE: I met Blake, and I thought, well, when I met Blake, I kind of wanted him, but I kind of didn't, because I -- he wasn't, like, up to par with the looks, you know. I couldn't remember what he looked like younger. You know, I've started looking at movies now. But -- and I thought he was cute when he was younger.

But, like, he wasn't what I was looking for, and I was already -- I thought I was already in love with Christian, you know? And then -- but then I thought, well, I don't really -- I don't know if I really would want him the rest of my life, or -- because he's going to get even older and worse-looking, and I'm already in love with Christian.

Blake, he come on real mushy and sweet, like he's really falling for me, and then, you know, and I was backing off all then, you know, and then all of a sudden, I don't know what happened, but I fell for him. And then he started backing off. And then I got this awful feelings, you know, that pain that, you know -- it's like withdrawal or something, like really sad and really depressed.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FELDMAN (on camera): Bakley talks about her various legal problems on the tapes.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BAKLEY: Yes, I know, I've had three years' probation just for having different IDs, you know? And it wasn't even, like, I was really using them for anything totally, you know, too, too illegal either, you know. I mean, it's my business, and if I want to, you know, like, fool guys in the mail and say that I'm somebody else, you know, what's the difference?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FELDMAN: In another portion, Bakley goes so far as to wonder how a judge might react if she admitted tricking a well-known celebrity into having her child.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BAKLEY: Even if I was to admit and say, OK, well, I -- no, I didn't take the pill, I (inaudible) didn't take the pill and I didn't take it at that date.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FELDMAN (voice-over): The question you may be asking is, why would Robert Blake's lawyers give this tape to a news organization? While Blake has not been named a suspect in the slaying of his wife, police say they have not ruled him out either. His lawyers contend that something or someone in his wife's past is responsible for her death. The tapes, they claim, bolster that argument.

But it is also possible that they fear Blake might eventually be arrested for the killing and want to create public sympathy for him.

Blake's wife clearly had a troubled past and clearly craved the spotlight.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BAKLEY: I was the kid that everybody hated in school because I was, like, poor and couldn't dress good, and -- you know, and everybody always made fun of me, because I was, like, a real loner type, you know. So then you grow up saying, Oh, I'll fix them, I'll show them, I'll be a movie star, you know?

And it was too hard, because I was always falling for somebody. So I figured, well, why not fall for movie stars instead of becoming one, you know?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FELDMAN (on camera): And so, in death, Bonnie Bakley found what she never did in life. She is now famous.

Charles Feldman, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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