WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.360 I want to start with a moment that happened, 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:04.839 well, relatively recently at the 95th Academy 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.620 Awards. Right. You have the in memoriam segments, 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:10.119 usually this very solemn, you know, respectful 00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:13.019 moment where the industry honors its legends 00:00:13.019 --> 00:00:15.919 who passed away. Of course. But then Jimmy Kimmel 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.600 gets up there and instead of a somber introduction, 00:00:18.899 --> 00:00:21.199 he makes a joke. He tells the audience to text 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:23.039 a number if they think Robert Blake should be 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:25.670 included. It was brutal. Yeah. Absolutely brutal. 00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:28.469 It was basically turning a man's entire life 00:00:28.469 --> 00:00:32.429 and his death into some kind of reality TV poll. 00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:35.479 Exactly. And the result was. He wasn't included. 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:38.359 He was not. He was completely, utterly erased. 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:40.979 And that erasure, that's really what we need 00:00:40.979 --> 00:00:42.960 to unpack today. I think so. Because we're looking 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:45.280 at a life that is, and this is no exaggeration, 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:48.679 one of the strangest, darkest, and most contradictory 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:50.920 in the history of Hollywood. It really is the 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:52.899 ultimate Hollywood paradox. We're talking about 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:55.539 a guy who started out in the innocent black and 00:00:55.539 --> 00:00:58.979 white world of the little rascals in the 1930s. 00:00:58.979 --> 00:01:01.679 And ended up as the central figure in a sensational, 00:01:01.859 --> 00:01:04.989 almost unbelievable murder trial. in the 2000s. 00:01:04.989 --> 00:01:07.390 A career that, according to the author Michael 00:01:07.390 --> 00:01:10.109 Newton, was one of the longest in Hollywood history. 00:01:10.569 --> 00:01:14.849 It ran from 1939 to 1997. That's nearly 60 years 00:01:14.849 --> 00:01:18.750 of work. Consistent work, too. But today, you 00:01:18.750 --> 00:01:21.609 say the name Robert Blake and nobody thinks of 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:24.780 the Emmy, nobody thinks of... In cold blood. 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:27.739 No, they think of the trial. They think of Vitello's 00:01:27.739 --> 00:01:29.760 restaurant. They think of Bonnie Lee Bakley. 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:31.799 And that's our mission for this deep dive. We 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:33.799 aren't just here to recount the biography or, 00:01:33.859 --> 00:01:36.019 you know, read the Wikipedia page. No, not at 00:01:36.019 --> 00:01:38.400 all. We've got the biographical records. We have 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:41.359 the trial summaries, filmography data. And we're 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:43.120 going to use all of it to try and figure out 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:45.500 how Michael James Gubitosi. This kid from New 00:01:45.500 --> 00:01:48.079 Jersey. Yeah, how this kid from Jersey morphed 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:50.140 into the pariah of the century. And to really 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:52.650 understand the end of the story. You know, the 00:01:52.650 --> 00:01:55.109 acquittal, the civil verdict, the total financial 00:01:55.109 --> 00:01:57.530 ruin. Yeah. We have to go back to the beginning. 00:01:57.750 --> 00:01:59.930 We have to look at the mechanics of his life. 00:02:00.109 --> 00:02:02.230 What do you mean by mechanics? I mean, how a 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:05.049 traumatic childhood literally rewires a person's 00:02:05.049 --> 00:02:08.789 brain. How a very specific, very important legal 00:02:08.789 --> 00:02:11.780 mentorship kept him from. completely imploding 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:14.360 for decades. And what happens when that safety 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:16.900 net is finally suddenly gone? Exactly. It's a 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:20.500 case study in trauma, fame, and the blurred lines 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:23.740 between a tough guy persona and a deeply broken 00:02:23.740 --> 00:02:26.419 reality. That's it perfectly. So let's go all 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:28.599 the way back. Before he was Robert Blake, he 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:31.300 was Michael James Gubitosi, born in Nutley, New 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:34.900 Jersey in 1933. Right. September 18, 1933. Yeah. 00:02:34.939 --> 00:02:37.780 His parents were Giacomo and Elizabeth Gubitosi. 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:39.599 And they were Italian immigrants. They were. 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:42.120 from the Campania region. His father was from 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:44.479 a town called Montella, his mother from Pola. 00:02:44.819 --> 00:02:47.000 Now, usually when we hear Italian immigrants 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:49.460 in the 30s, we have a certain kind of story in 00:02:49.460 --> 00:02:51.439 our heads. Right. The Ellis Island narrative. 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:54.020 Exactly. But this wasn't that. This was different. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.800 Because they didn't stay in New Jersey for long. 00:02:56.939 --> 00:02:58.919 The sources say they packed up and moved to Los 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:01.500 Angeles in 1938. And they did it for one specific 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:05.409 reason. To work as movie extras. See, that feels 00:03:05.409 --> 00:03:08.650 so intentional. That's a very specific kind of 00:03:08.650 --> 00:03:10.389 ambition, isn't it? To move your whole family 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:12.330 across the country for that. It absolutely was. 00:03:12.409 --> 00:03:15.930 It's the classic stage parent dynamic. But you 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:18.349 have to imagine it dialed up to 11. They didn't 00:03:18.349 --> 00:03:20.129 just want work for themselves. They wanted to 00:03:20.129 --> 00:03:22.289 put the kids to work. And they did right away. 00:03:22.469 --> 00:03:25.889 Oh, yeah. By 1936, the three Gubitosi children, 00:03:26.169 --> 00:03:28.689 Michael and his siblings, were already performing 00:03:28.689 --> 00:03:31.629 as an act. The Three Little Hillbillies. Three 00:03:31.629 --> 00:03:34.569 Little Hillbillies. It's such a specific vaudeville 00:03:34.569 --> 00:03:36.330 -style name. It gives you a picture, doesn't 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:38.849 it? It does. So Little Michael is basically thrust 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:41.270 into performing as soon as he can walk and talk. 00:03:41.349 --> 00:03:43.770 He's learning that his entire value comes from 00:03:43.770 --> 00:03:46.270 entertaining other people. Precisely. And that 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:48.750 value proposition paid off very, very quickly. 00:03:48.949 --> 00:03:52.810 He got his big break in MGM's Our Gang Shorts. 00:03:52.949 --> 00:03:55.250 What most of us know now as The Little Rascals. 00:03:55.289 --> 00:03:57.740 Exactly. He was brought in to replace another 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:00.960 child actor, Eugene Porky Lee. I grew up watching 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:03.280 those reruns. They were on all the time. It feels 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:05.960 like this iconic piece of Americana. Blake was 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:10.060 in, what, 40 of them? 40 of them. Between 1939 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:13.780 and 1944, he eventually became the series' final 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:17.420 lead character. Yeah. But here. Here's where 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:19.259 this story gets a little heartbreaking, and it 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:21.779 really hints at the trouble brewing just beneath 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:24.819 the surface. Okay. The sources all note that 00:04:24.819 --> 00:04:27.560 as a child actor in our gang, Blake's character, 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:30.040 Mickey, was often called upon to do one thing. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:34.079 Cry. To cry, which is acting 101 for a child 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.860 star, right? You need the cute kid to be able 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:39.879 to cry on cue. It's the whole game. Right. But 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.629 he couldn't do it. He was criticized. as a child 00:04:42.629 --> 00:04:45.089 for being unconvincing when he cried. That's 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:47.689 rough for a kid. It's more than rough. Critics 00:04:47.689 --> 00:04:49.850 at the time even called him obnoxious and whiny. 00:04:49.970 --> 00:04:52.269 That is incredibly harsh for a six or seven year 00:04:52.269 --> 00:04:54.970 old. But it's also deeply ironic, isn't it? Because 00:04:54.970 --> 00:04:56.670 when we look at the source material about his 00:04:56.670 --> 00:04:58.910 home life, you'd think he would have a limitless 00:04:58.910 --> 00:05:01.290 reservoir of sadness to draw from. And that's 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:03.430 the tragedy. That's the psychological key to 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:05.370 understanding him, I think. He was living an 00:05:05.370 --> 00:05:07.430 absolute nightmare at home, but he couldn't perform 00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:09.750 sadness correctly for a camera. What does that 00:05:09.750 --> 00:05:12.610 suggest to you? It suggests a profound level 00:05:12.610 --> 00:05:16.350 of dissociation. To survive his home life, he 00:05:16.350 --> 00:05:18.769 likely had to completely shut down his emotions. 00:05:18.850 --> 00:05:22.310 He walled them off, which of course made accessing 00:05:22.310 --> 00:05:24.949 them for a role almost impossible. Let's talk 00:05:24.949 --> 00:05:26.990 about that home life, because nightmare is a 00:05:26.990 --> 00:05:29.209 strong word, but the details in these notes, 00:05:29.329 --> 00:05:32.230 they more than support it. The abuse was severe. 00:05:32.529 --> 00:05:36.459 His father, Giacomo, was an alcoholic. But it 00:05:36.459 --> 00:05:39.060 went so far beyond just neglect or, you know, 00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:41.879 drunken stupors. Blake himself stated later in 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:44.319 his life that his father physically and sexually 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:47.560 abused him. And his mother. Elizabeth. She was, 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:50.420 by all accounts, complicit in creating and maintaining 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:52.939 this environment. There is one specific detail 00:05:52.939 --> 00:05:55.480 in the biography that, I mean, it's stomach churning. 00:05:55.579 --> 00:05:57.879 The punishment involving the closet. It's the 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:00.060 kind of detail that just stays with you. Blake 00:06:00.060 --> 00:06:01.980 described being locked in a closet for hours 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:04.379 on end. and being forced to eat his food off 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:06.379 the floor. Just stop and think about that for 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:08.560 a second. You have a child who during the day 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:10.720 is being applauded on a movie set. He's a star. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.519 He's a family's breadwinner. The golden boy. 00:06:12.660 --> 00:06:15.100 And then he goes home, gets locked in a dark 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:17.860 closet, and is treated like an animal. It creates 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:20.660 a massive fracture in the psyche. It has to. 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:23.620 You have the public self, which is competent, 00:06:23.819 --> 00:06:26.860 loved, successful. And you have the private self, 00:06:27.019 --> 00:06:31.129 which is humiliated. powerless and utterly degraded. 00:06:31.129 --> 00:06:33.470 And that split doesn't just go away when you 00:06:33.470 --> 00:06:37.149 turn 18. No. It festers. It becomes part of your 00:06:37.149 --> 00:06:39.250 core programming. And it wasn't just at home 00:06:39.250 --> 00:06:41.810 either. He struggled to integrate with the outside 00:06:41.810 --> 00:06:44.430 world. The notes mention that when he finally 00:06:44.430 --> 00:06:46.949 entered public school at age 10, it was a disaster. 00:06:47.189 --> 00:06:50.310 A complete disaster. He was bullied mercilessly. 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:52.949 He got into constant fights. He was eventually 00:06:52.949 --> 00:06:55.230 expelled. You have to imagine this is a kid who 00:06:55.230 --> 00:06:57.649 has never learned how to socialize with his peers. 00:06:57.889 --> 00:07:01.129 How could he? He only knows two modes, performing 00:07:01.129 --> 00:07:04.129 for adults or surviving abuse from adults. He 00:07:04.129 --> 00:07:06.189 was a raw nerve walking around a schoolyard. 00:07:06.290 --> 00:07:08.170 And the casting directors didn't help with his 00:07:08.170 --> 00:07:10.970 identity crisis. After Our Gang, he moves into 00:07:10.970 --> 00:07:13.350 the Red Rider film series. Right, the B -movie 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:15.310 westerns. He played a character named Little 00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:19.230 Beaver from 1944 to 1947. And Little Beaver was 00:07:19.230 --> 00:07:21.449 a Native American character. A Native American 00:07:21.449 --> 00:07:24.470 boy, yes. And this brings up a really interesting 00:07:24.470 --> 00:07:26.709 point about Hollywood casting practices at the 00:07:26.709 --> 00:07:31.350 time. Robert Blake was 100 % Italian -American. 00:07:31.509 --> 00:07:34.680 Right. Yet... throughout his entire career, even 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:37.819 into his adult life. He was frequently cast as 00:07:37.819 --> 00:07:40.990 Native American or Mestizo characters. It's a 00:07:40.990 --> 00:07:42.649 trend that started when he was a kid and just 00:07:42.649 --> 00:07:45.230 followed him for decades. I mean, he's in The 00:07:45.230 --> 00:07:47.569 Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart, 00:07:47.689 --> 00:07:49.750 one of the greatest films ever made. A masterpiece. 00:07:50.110 --> 00:07:52.009 And he plays the little Mexican boy who sells 00:07:52.009 --> 00:07:54.410 Bogart the lottery ticket. It creates another 00:07:54.410 --> 00:07:58.230 layer of identity confusion. Who am I? I'm Michael 00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:00.209 Guvatosi, but they call me Robert Blake. But 00:08:00.209 --> 00:08:02.910 on screen, I'm Little Beaver, or I'm a Mexican 00:08:02.910 --> 00:08:05.410 lottery seller. He's wearing masks on top of 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:09.009 masks. And eventually at age 14, he just... He 00:08:09.009 --> 00:08:11.029 runs away from home. It's a desperate move for 00:08:11.029 --> 00:08:14.209 a 14 -year -old in the late 1940s. But you can 00:08:14.209 --> 00:08:16.209 understand the impulse. Get away at any cost. 00:08:16.430 --> 00:08:18.649 But running away doesn't solve the internal problems, 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:21.089 does it? No, of course not. He had several very, 00:08:21.189 --> 00:08:23.610 very difficult years there. And then there's 00:08:23.610 --> 00:08:26.269 a definitive break in the family dynamic. His 00:08:26.269 --> 00:08:28.870 father, the source of so much of this pain, died 00:08:28.870 --> 00:08:31.910 by suicide in 1956. And Blake's reaction to his 00:08:31.910 --> 00:08:33.929 father's death? He refused to go to the funeral. 00:08:34.110 --> 00:08:36.649 Wow. That speaks volumes. There was no closure 00:08:36.649 --> 00:08:40.370 there. Just pure anger. Exactly. And that anger, 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:42.750 that unresolved trauma, it has to go somewhere. 00:08:43.049 --> 00:08:45.309 Which brings us to his transition into adulthood. 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:47.889 This is often where child stars crash and burn. 00:08:48.029 --> 00:08:50.470 And frankly, Robert Blake almost did. The lost 00:08:50.470 --> 00:08:52.730 years. He was drafted into the Army in 1950, 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:55.470 right? During the Korean War. He was. He serves 00:08:55.470 --> 00:08:58.610 his time. And he gets out at age 21. Now you 00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:00.350 have to put yourself in his shoes for a moment. 00:09:00.470 --> 00:09:02.909 He has no real world skills other than acting. 00:09:03.049 --> 00:09:06.049 He's not the cute kid anymore. He's a grown man 00:09:06.049 --> 00:09:08.169 with a mountain of emotional baggage. He has 00:09:08.169 --> 00:09:10.750 no prospects. And the sources mention a deep 00:09:10.750 --> 00:09:13.690 spiral into depression and substance abuse. It 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.409 was a very dark period. A two year addiction 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:19.789 to heroin and cocaine. He even resorted to selling 00:09:19.789 --> 00:09:22.799 drugs just to survive. This is the moment where 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:25.200 he could have easily become just another sad 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:28.340 Hollywood footnote. Remember that kid from Little 00:09:28.340 --> 00:09:31.139 Rascals? Yeah, he overdosed in the 50s. That 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.519 was the trajectory he was on. It was, but he 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:36.019 pulled out of it. And the notes point to a very 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:38.860 specific turning point. An acting class run by 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:41.220 a man named Jeff Corey. Jeff Corey. He was a 00:09:41.220 --> 00:09:43.399 blacklisted actor who became this legendary teacher. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:46.519 That's him. And his class wasn't just about how 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:49.370 to say your lines. It was about how to be. It 00:09:49.370 --> 00:09:52.110 was about digging deep. For Blake, it was essentially 00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:54.870 therapy. It was about rebuilding his personal 00:09:54.870 --> 00:09:56.629 and professional life from the ground up. And 00:09:56.629 --> 00:09:58.590 this is when he officially becomes Robert Blake. 00:09:58.710 --> 00:10:02.090 Yes. In 1956, he starts billing himself as Robert 00:10:02.090 --> 00:10:04.570 Blake for the first time. He was consciously 00:10:04.570 --> 00:10:06.809 shedding Mickey Gooby Toasty and trying to build 00:10:06.809 --> 00:10:09.789 a new man, a new identity. But even with the 00:10:09.789 --> 00:10:12.370 acting classes, even with the new name, someone 00:10:12.370 --> 00:10:15.149 with that much damage, the abuse, the closet, 00:10:15.289 --> 00:10:17.590 the heroin, he needs more than that. He needs 00:10:17.590 --> 00:10:20.250 guardrails. He needs a stabilizing force. He 00:10:20.250 --> 00:10:23.090 does. And reading through these sources, one 00:10:23.090 --> 00:10:26.669 name stands out as arguably the single most important 00:10:26.669 --> 00:10:29.629 figure in his entire adult life. Louis L. Goldman. 00:10:29.789 --> 00:10:32.509 Louis Goldman. The sources list him as an entertainment 00:10:32.509 --> 00:10:36.029 attorney. But reading Blake's own quotes about 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:38.549 him, he sounds like so much more than that. He 00:10:38.549 --> 00:10:40.769 was everything. He was the surrogate father. 00:10:40.970 --> 00:10:43.870 He was the protective, competent father that 00:10:43.870 --> 00:10:47.210 Giacomo never was. Blake later made a comparison 00:10:47.210 --> 00:10:49.870 that I find fascinating. He compared Goldman 00:10:49.870 --> 00:10:53.529 to Customato. Customato. The boxing trainer who 00:10:53.529 --> 00:10:56.149 discovered and handled Mike Tyson. Exactly. And 00:10:56.149 --> 00:10:58.269 it's the perfect analogy. Explain that. Well, 00:10:58.309 --> 00:11:01.269 think about Mike Tyson in his prime. An incredibly 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:04.149 powerful, talented, but extremely volatile force. 00:11:04.590 --> 00:11:07.570 D 'Amato didn't just teach him how to box. He 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:09.750 contained him. He focused all that aggression. 00:11:09.830 --> 00:11:12.350 He gave him structure. Blake saw Goldman in the 00:11:12.350 --> 00:11:14.389 exact same way. There's a quote here from Blake. 00:11:14.389 --> 00:11:16.970 He says of Goldman, he kept me out of the courtrooms. 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:19.669 Which is just chillingly ironic, given what happens 00:11:19.669 --> 00:11:22.269 later. But listen to how Blake describes their 00:11:22.269 --> 00:11:25.409 dynamic. He said Goldman had the psychological 00:11:25.409 --> 00:11:28.230 wherewithal to get him to respect and love him. 00:11:28.850 --> 00:11:31.149 And he said Goldman could tame the junkyard dog 00:11:31.149 --> 00:11:33.970 inside of him. The junkyard dog? That's how Blake 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:38.070 saw himself. Yes. Scrappy, defensive, dangerous, 00:11:38.330 --> 00:11:40.730 ready to bite. And when the junkyard dog got 00:11:40.730 --> 00:11:43.230 into trouble, which by all accounts he did frequently, 00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:46.009 Goldman would fix it. He would go into judges' 00:11:46.090 --> 00:11:48.190 chambers, he'd smooth over bar fights, he'd handle 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:50.669 disputes. Blake said, when I was with him, I 00:11:50.669 --> 00:11:53.370 was like a little boy. So, in a way, Goldman 00:11:53.370 --> 00:11:55.970 allowed Blake to remain in this state of arrested 00:11:55.970 --> 00:11:58.539 development. He handled all the adult responsibilities 00:11:58.539 --> 00:12:01.259 so Blake could just focus on acting. Precisely. 00:12:01.259 --> 00:12:03.299 It was a symbiotic relationship, but a deeply 00:12:03.299 --> 00:12:05.379 dangerous one. Because it meant Blake never really 00:12:05.379 --> 00:12:07.200 had to develop his own emotional regulation. 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:09.960 He never had to grow up. He basically outsourced 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:12.259 his conscience and his impulse control to Louise 00:12:12.259 --> 00:12:14.580 Goldman. And here is the piece of foreshadowing 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:17.399 that just makes your blood run cold. Louise Goldman 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:21.659 died in 1991. 1991. Ten years, almost to the 00:12:21.659 --> 00:12:24.059 day before the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley. So 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:26.860 for a full decade, the junkyard dog was off the 00:12:26.860 --> 00:12:30.220 leash. Completely. Blake was without his voice 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:33.100 of reason, without his handler, for ten years 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:35.820 before the events that would completely destroy 00:12:35.820 --> 00:12:38.419 his life took place. It's the central what -if 00:12:38.419 --> 00:12:40.899 of this whole story. It really is. You have to 00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:44.620 wonder, if Goldman had been alive in 2001, would 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:47.320 he have intervened? Would he have stopped the 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:49.250 marriage to Bonnie? Would he have just paid her 00:12:49.250 --> 00:12:51.610 off and sent her away? It's impossible to know, 00:12:51.629 --> 00:12:54.450 but the timing is just undeniable. But before 00:12:54.450 --> 00:12:56.169 we get to the tragedy, we really have to look 00:12:56.169 --> 00:12:58.169 at the triumph. Because between the heroin addiction 00:12:58.169 --> 00:13:01.269 and the murder trial, Robert Blake became a massive, 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:04.090 massive star. He really did. And it wasn't just, 00:13:04.129 --> 00:13:05.610 you know, commercial success. It was critical 00:13:05.610 --> 00:13:08.169 acclaim. The role that really broke him through 00:13:08.169 --> 00:13:11.029 to the mainstream as a serious adult actor was 00:13:11.029 --> 00:13:14.700 the 1967 film In Cold Blood. Based on the Truman 00:13:14.700 --> 00:13:17.440 Capote book, an incredible book. And Blake played 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.559 Perry Smith, one of the real -life murderers. 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:22.179 And the casting was just eerie. Blake had this 00:13:22.179 --> 00:13:24.500 striking physical resemblance to the real Perry 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:27.179 Smith. They were both short, dark -haired, with 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:29.519 this kind of wounded, intense look in their eyes. 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:31.759 But it went deeper than looks, didn't it? Oh, 00:13:31.820 --> 00:13:34.899 much deeper. Perry Smith was a troubled drifter 00:13:34.899 --> 00:13:37.679 with his own traumatic background. A man who 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:39.879 felt the world had kicked him while he was down 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:42.389 his whole life. So Blake didn't have to do a 00:13:42.389 --> 00:13:45.029 lot of research to find that emotion. No. He 00:13:45.029 --> 00:13:47.710 didn't have to act it. He inhabited it. He channeled 00:13:47.710 --> 00:13:50.769 all that rage, all that closet trauma into the 00:13:50.769 --> 00:13:53.370 role. And it worked. It's a terrifying performance 00:13:53.370 --> 00:13:55.429 because it feels so completely, horribly real. 00:13:55.629 --> 00:13:57.909 There's a piece of trivia here that I find fascinating. 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:00.269 It says Blake was the first actor to say a specific 00:14:00.269 --> 00:14:03.210 curse word in a mainstream American film. He 00:14:03.210 --> 00:14:06.049 was. In Cold Blood, he was the first actor to 00:14:06.049 --> 00:14:08.289 say the word bullshit in a mainstream motion 00:14:08.289 --> 00:14:11.960 picture. It seems so tame now, but in 1967, that 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:13.720 must have been like a grenade going off in the 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:16.159 theater. It absolutely was. Yeah. And it signaled 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:18.639 a shift. We were moving away from the polished 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.740 golden age of Hollywood and into the new Hollywood. 00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:25.139 Yeah. The era of Scorsese, of Coppola, of grit 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:28.340 and realism. And Bleck was right at the forefront 00:14:28.340 --> 00:14:31.320 of that wave. He was the perfect antihero. And 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.820 he took that antihero energy and brought it to 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:37.200 television in the mid -70s with Beretta. Beretta 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:41.139 was a phenomenon. It ran from 1975 to 1970 up. 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:44.940 He played Tony Beretta, this streetwise, plainclothes 00:14:44.940 --> 00:14:47.620 detective who lived in a rundown hotel with his 00:14:47.620 --> 00:14:50.220 pet bird. Right. We can't talk about Beretta 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.860 without mentioning the bird. It's Fred, the pet 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:56.200 cockatoo. It's such a weird, specific quirk for 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.899 a character. A tough guy cop who talks to his 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:02.809 bird and the catchphrases. That's the name of 00:15:02.809 --> 00:15:04.409 that tune. You can take that to the bank. It 00:15:04.409 --> 00:15:06.549 just worked. It was so charismatic. He won an 00:15:06.549 --> 00:15:09.250 Emmy for it in 1975. He did. He was on top of 00:15:09.250 --> 00:15:11.490 the world. He had successfully made the transition 00:15:11.490 --> 00:15:14.850 that almost no child stars make. He was a respected, 00:15:15.009 --> 00:15:18.129 award -winning adult actor. He had the money. 00:15:18.149 --> 00:15:19.990 He had the fame. He had the industry's respect. 00:15:20.269 --> 00:15:21.909 But even then, looking at the roles he chose, 00:15:21.990 --> 00:15:23.909 they were always intense. He did a show called 00:15:23.909 --> 00:15:26.350 Helltown in 1985. Where he played a priest in 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:28.769 a tough inner -city neighborhood. He also wrote 00:15:28.769 --> 00:15:30.730 for that show. He was very involved in the creative 00:15:30.730 --> 00:15:33.509 process. And then his final film role, this one 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:36.450 is really unsettling in hindsight. 1997, David 00:15:36.450 --> 00:15:38.490 Lynch's Lost Highway. Playing the mystery man. 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:40.629 Have you seen that movie? Because that character 00:15:40.629 --> 00:15:44.509 is pure nightmare fuel. It is a chilling, unforgettable 00:15:44.509 --> 00:15:47.549 performance. He's in this ghostly white makeup 00:15:47.549 --> 00:15:51.149 playing this omnipresent, sinister force that 00:15:51.149 --> 00:15:54.000 seems to know your darkest secrets. And in retrospect, 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.039 seeing him play such a disturbing, almost demonic 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:59.279 character right before his real life took that 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:03.259 dark turn, it just adds another layer of unease 00:16:03.259 --> 00:16:05.480 to his whole filmography. It's like the darkness 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:07.360 of the roles was bleeding into the man himself. 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:09.539 Or maybe the man was bleeding into the roles. 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:11.500 It's hard to tell where the line is. So by the 00:16:11.500 --> 00:16:14.559 late 90s, his career is winding down. He's semi 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:17.580 -retired, living comfortably. And then in 1999, 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.220 at a jazz club, he meets a woman named Bonnie 00:16:20.220 --> 00:16:22.399 Lee Bakley. And this is where the story shifts 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:25.679 genres. We move from a Hollywood biopic into 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:28.980 a full -blown true crime thriller. And to understand 00:16:28.980 --> 00:16:30.580 what happened next, you really have to understand 00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:33.480 who Bonnie Lee Bakley was. The sources are, well, 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:35.820 they're not kind to her, but they are very consistent 00:16:35.820 --> 00:16:37.899 in their description. She had a reputation. She 00:16:37.899 --> 00:16:39.700 was a grifter. That's really the most accurate 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:42.080 term for her. The sources describe her as having 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:44.539 this long history of exploiting older, lonely, 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:47.360 often famous men. She ran a mail order business 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.000 selling nude photos of herself, right? She did. 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:52.340 And by the time she met Robert Blake, she had 00:16:52.340 --> 00:16:54.559 already been married nine times. Nine times. 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:57.360 That is that's a lot of legal paperwork. It's 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:00.100 a career in itself. And at the time she met Blake, 00:17:00.259 --> 00:17:03.799 she wasn't just seeing him. She was also actively 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:07.099 dating Christian Brando. Marlon Brando's son. 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:10.000 Marlon Brando's very troubled son. Talk about 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.859 targeting a very specific demographic. Troubled 00:17:12.859 --> 00:17:15.579 Hollywood figures with famous last names. Exactly. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.519 And then inevitably she gets pregnant. And in 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:22.559 true grifter fashion, she hedges her bets. She 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:25.759 told both Christian Brando and Robert Blake that 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:28.019 the baby was theirs. She initially named the 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:31.140 baby Christian Shannon Brando. She was betting 00:17:31.140 --> 00:17:34.220 on the Brando name carrying more weight or more 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:36.119 money. There were even letters she wrote that 00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:38.079 came out later where she describes her dubious 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:40.519 motives. She was explicit about it. She was looking 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:42.599 for a payday, for security, for a connection 00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:45.119 to fame. She didn't really care which man provided 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.420 it. Blake, Blake wasn't just going to take her 00:17:47.420 --> 00:17:50.599 word for it. No, absolutely not. He insisted 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:53.319 on a DNA test. And when the results came back, 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:56.680 they proved conclusively that Robert Blake was 00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:59.180 the biological father, not Christian Brando. 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:02.039 Okay, so now we have a situation. Blake is 66 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:05.170 years old. He has a baby with a woman he knows 00:18:05.170 --> 00:18:09.210 for a fact is trying to con him. A woman he despises. 00:18:09.349 --> 00:18:11.410 Most people in that situation would work out 00:18:11.410 --> 00:18:13.529 a child support agreement and keep their distance. 00:18:13.869 --> 00:18:16.309 But Blake does something that seems completely 00:18:16.309 --> 00:18:19.970 baffling. He marries her. Why? Why on earth would 00:18:19.970 --> 00:18:22.349 he marry her if he knew who she was? He became 00:18:22.349 --> 00:18:26.230 husband number 10 on November 19, 2000. And it 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:28.430 seems it was entirely about the child. He wanted 00:18:28.430 --> 00:18:30.990 custody. He was obsessed with the idea of having 00:18:30.990 --> 00:18:32.750 the child in his life. Maybe he was trying to 00:18:32.750 --> 00:18:34.890 be the kind of father he never had. But it was 00:18:34.890 --> 00:18:37.190 not a real marriage by any stretch. They lived 00:18:37.190 --> 00:18:39.369 in separate dwellings on his property. He was 00:18:39.369 --> 00:18:41.049 in the main house. She was in the guest house. 00:18:41.410 --> 00:18:44.670 That is a recipe for absolute disaster. You're 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:47.410 living yards away from someone you despise who 00:18:47.410 --> 00:18:49.609 you feel has trapped you. It was an incredibly 00:18:49.609 --> 00:18:52.230 hostile arrangement. The custody agreement they 00:18:52.230 --> 00:18:55.099 drew up even designated that the baby. Rose, 00:18:55.099 --> 00:18:57.859 would be raised primarily by Blake's adult daughter, 00:18:57.980 --> 00:19:00.920 Delina. So he was trying to sideline Bonnie completely 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:04.079 while keeping the baby. He was. And that tension 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:06.599 just simmered and simmered until the night of 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:10.339 May 4th, 2001. The night at Vitello's. This is 00:19:10.339 --> 00:19:13.119 the sequence of events that was debated and dissected 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:16.359 for years in courtrooms and on the news. Let's 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:19.309 walk through it, beat by beat. Okay. Vitello's 00:19:19.309 --> 00:19:21.910 Italian restaurant in Studio City was a favorite 00:19:21.910 --> 00:19:24.670 haunt of Blake's. He was a regular there. They 00:19:24.670 --> 00:19:26.609 even had a dish on the menu named after him. 00:19:26.710 --> 00:19:28.809 So he and Bonnie go there for dinner. They park 00:19:28.809 --> 00:19:31.490 the car around the corner on a side street. Which 00:19:31.490 --> 00:19:33.670 is a notable detail. There was parking closer 00:19:33.670 --> 00:19:35.890 to the restaurant, but Blake claimed that specific 00:19:35.890 --> 00:19:39.210 spot around the corner was his lucky spot. Okay, 00:19:39.269 --> 00:19:41.589 so they have dinner, they finish, they walk back 00:19:41.589 --> 00:19:43.450 to the car. Right, and this is where the alibi 00:19:43.450 --> 00:19:45.890 comes in. Blake claimed that after they got to 00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:48.200 the car, he suddenly realized... He had left 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:50.660 a pistol behind in the restaurant. First question, 00:19:50.819 --> 00:19:53.220 why was he carrying a pistol to dinner at his 00:19:53.220 --> 00:19:56.660 favorite restaurant? His claim was that Bonnie 00:19:56.660 --> 00:19:59.380 feared for her safety because of her past, because 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:01.779 of all the men she had scammed. So he carried 00:20:01.779 --> 00:20:05.259 a .38 caliber revolver for her protection. Okay. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.660 He says the gun slipped out of his waistband 00:20:07.660 --> 00:20:10.299 and fell into the booth. So he leaves Bonnie 00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:12.720 sitting alone in the passenger seat of the car 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:16.180 on this dark side street and walks back to Vitello's 00:20:16.180 --> 00:20:18.430 to retrieve it. And while he was gone? While 00:20:18.430 --> 00:20:20.910 he was gone, Bonnie Lee Bakley was shot twice. 00:20:21.269 --> 00:20:23.690 Once in the shoulder and a single fatal shot 00:20:23.690 --> 00:20:25.950 to the head. Leak's story is that he returned 00:20:25.950 --> 00:20:28.109 to the car and found her. Correct. According 00:20:28.109 --> 00:20:30.490 to his version, he returned, found her bleeding 00:20:30.490 --> 00:20:33.309 and unresponsive, and ran to a nearby house to 00:20:33.309 --> 00:20:36.009 call 911. Now, the pistol, the one he went back 00:20:36.009 --> 00:20:38.309 to the restaurant to get, the .38 he admitted 00:20:38.309 --> 00:20:41.150 to having, was that the murder weapon? No. And 00:20:41.150 --> 00:20:43.190 this is the single most important piece of physical 00:20:43.190 --> 00:20:46.039 evidence for the defense. The gun Blake had on 00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:48.920 him was a .38 Special. The bullet that killed 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:50.839 Bonnie came from a completely different gun, 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:55.279 a vintage World War II era Walther P38. Which 00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:57.000 complicates things for the prosecution immediately. 00:20:57.299 --> 00:21:00.400 Massively. If he shot her, why bring a different 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:03.160 gun? If he had a gun on him already, why use 00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:05.480 another one that you have to dispose of? Or if 00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:07.960 he hired someone, why bring a gun to dinner at 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:11.210 all? It's messy. It is messy. But the LAPD was 00:21:11.210 --> 00:21:13.490 suspicious right from the start. The whole setup, 00:21:13.569 --> 00:21:16.869 the forgotten gun alibi, it just felt staged 00:21:16.869 --> 00:21:19.250 to them. It did. Yeah. But they didn't have enough 00:21:19.250 --> 00:21:21.730 to move on him. It took almost a full year before 00:21:21.730 --> 00:21:24.789 they finally made an arrest. April of 2002, they 00:21:24.789 --> 00:21:28.049 take him in. April 18, 2002. Blake was arrested 00:21:28.049 --> 00:21:29.950 and charged with murder with special circumstances, 00:21:30.170 --> 00:21:34.120 plus solicitation of murder and conspiracy. His 00:21:34.120 --> 00:21:36.460 bodyguard, a man named Earl Caldwell, was also 00:21:36.460 --> 00:21:39.099 charged as a co -conspirator. Special circumstances 00:21:39.099 --> 00:21:41.880 is legal code for we can seek the death penalty. 00:21:42.099 --> 00:21:43.900 That's right. They were swinging for the fences 00:21:43.900 --> 00:21:47.039 on this one. So what changed? What gave the LAPD 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:49.680 the confidence to arrest him after a year of, 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:52.400 well, relative silence? Witnesses finally came 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:55.759 forward, specifically two retired Hollywood scum 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:59.660 men, Ronald Hamilton and Gary McLarty. Stuntman. 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:01.960 It's like the plot of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:04.700 is writing itself here. What did they claim? 00:22:04.819 --> 00:22:07.140 They both claimed independently that Blake had 00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:09.259 approached them and tried to hire them to kill 00:22:09.259 --> 00:22:11.519 his wife. Like literally, I need you to take 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:14.000 care of my wife. That sort of thing. Essentially, 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:17.559 yes. They described meetings where Blake allegedly 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:20.319 discussed various scenarios, asking them how 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:23.119 to whack her without getting caught. So on the 00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:26.299 surface, this looks really bad for Blake. You 00:22:26.299 --> 00:22:29.250 have a clear motive. He hated her and felt trapped. 00:22:29.470 --> 00:22:31.910 You have opportunity. He was at the scene of 00:22:31.910 --> 00:22:34.190 the crime. And now you have two witnesses saying 00:22:34.190 --> 00:22:36.829 he tried to hire a hitman beforehand. It looks 00:22:36.829 --> 00:22:39.170 like an open and shut case. So why wasn't it 00:22:39.170 --> 00:22:41.789 a slam dunk for the prosecution? Because the 00:22:41.789 --> 00:22:44.390 witnesses were, well, they were deeply flawed. 00:22:44.630 --> 00:22:46.910 And that's putting it very mildly. How flawed 00:22:46.910 --> 00:22:49.029 are we talking? We're talking the defense had 00:22:49.029 --> 00:22:51.750 an absolute field day with them. Hamilton and 00:22:51.750 --> 00:22:54.859 McLarty were both admitted. heavy drug users. 00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:58.240 McLarty, in particular, had a documented history 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:00.940 of significant mental health issues. Like what? 00:23:01.099 --> 00:23:03.059 He had previously made claims that satellites 00:23:03.059 --> 00:23:05.660 were controlling his brain and that aliens were 00:23:05.660 --> 00:23:09.240 drilling into his head. Okay, that is a major 00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:13.299 credibility problem. If I'm a juror and the prosecution's 00:23:13.299 --> 00:23:15.700 star witness is worried about space lasers, I'm 00:23:15.700 --> 00:23:17.119 going to have some serious doubts. You're going 00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:19.240 to have more than doubts. And with the other 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:21.940 witness, Hamilton, there was evidence of coercion. 00:23:22.250 --> 00:23:24.630 The author, Miles Corwin, noted that Hamilton 00:23:24.630 --> 00:23:27.230 only agreed to testify after being told he would 00:23:27.230 --> 00:23:29.950 be subject to a grand jury subpoena and potentially 00:23:29.950 --> 00:23:33.299 face charges himself for other unrelated crimes. 00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:35.819 So the defense argument was he was just singing 00:23:35.819 --> 00:23:38.220 for his supper to save his own skin. Exactly. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:40.559 They painted him as a cornered man who would 00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:42.779 say anything the DA wanted to hear to get himself 00:23:42.779 --> 00:23:45.019 out of trouble. So the prosecution's case is 00:23:45.019 --> 00:23:47.720 resting on a weird alibi and two stuntmen with 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:50.559 drug problems and delusions. What about forensics? 00:23:50.700 --> 00:23:54.180 Did they find any gunshot residue or GSR on Blake? 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:56.920 This was the other major pillar of the defense's 00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:00.099 case. Blake's hands were tested for GSR immediately 00:24:00.099 --> 00:24:02.420 after the murder. The results were negative. 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:05.160 No residue was found. Let me play devil's advocate 00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.440 here. If he did shoot her, how does he not have 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:11.019 residue on his hands? That was the prosecution's 00:24:11.019 --> 00:24:13.519 struggle. Their theory was that he might have 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:16.019 worn gloves or maybe washed his hands when he 00:24:16.019 --> 00:24:17.539 went back into the restaurant. But think about 00:24:17.539 --> 00:24:20.359 that timeline. It's incredibly tight. It's almost 00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:23.160 impossible. He'd have to walk to the car, shoot 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:25.839 her. Ditch the murder weapon, which was later 00:24:25.839 --> 00:24:28.200 found in a nearby dumpster strip, off gloves 00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:30.380 if you wore them, get back to the restaurant, 00:24:30.599 --> 00:24:33.160 wash his hands thoroughly enough to remove every 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:35.839 single microscopic particle, and then run out 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.359 acting panicked, all in a window of just a few 00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:41.220 minutes. It's a lot to pull off for a 67 -year 00:24:41.220 --> 00:24:44.460 -old man in a state of presumably high stress. 00:24:44.740 --> 00:24:47.359 It creates reasonable doubt. And in a criminal 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:50.319 trial, reasonable doubt is all you need. So this 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:53.180 all leads us to the tale of two trials. The criminal 00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:56.380 trial starts in late 2004. That's right. The 00:24:56.380 --> 00:24:58.500 prosecution painted him as a trapped man who 00:24:58.500 --> 00:25:01.460 took drastic action to free himself from a loveless 00:25:01.460 --> 00:25:03.900 marriage and to protect his daughter from a toxic 00:25:03.900 --> 00:25:06.619 mother. And the defense? The defense, led by 00:25:06.619 --> 00:25:09.380 attorney Meryl Griffith Cohen, argued that Bonnie 00:25:09.380 --> 00:25:11.960 Lee Bakley was a professional con artist who 00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:14.500 had scammed hundreds of men over the years. She 00:25:14.500 --> 00:25:17.119 had enemies everywhere. Their argument was essentially, 00:25:17.400 --> 00:25:19.690 why are you so focused on Robert Blake? There's 00:25:19.690 --> 00:25:21.190 a line of people who could have wanted her dead. 00:25:21.349 --> 00:25:23.329 Some other dude did it. It's a classic defense. 00:25:23.730 --> 00:25:26.069 And given the complete lack of physical evidence 00:25:26.069 --> 00:25:28.890 linking Blake to the murder weapon and the unreliability 00:25:28.890 --> 00:25:32.890 of the witnesses, it worked. On March 16, 2005, 00:25:33.369 --> 00:25:35.869 the verdict came in. Not guilty. Acquitted of 00:25:35.869 --> 00:25:39.170 murder and one count of solicitation. The jury 00:25:39.170 --> 00:25:41.529 deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal on the 00:25:41.529 --> 00:25:44.230 second solicitation count, and the DA's office 00:25:44.230 --> 00:25:47.210 eventually dropped that charge. Robert Blake. 00:25:47.579 --> 00:25:50.059 walked out of that courthouse a free man. But 00:25:50.059 --> 00:25:52.599 the reaction, it wasn't exactly a ticker tape 00:25:52.599 --> 00:25:54.579 parade for him. Far from it. The L .A. district 00:25:54.579 --> 00:25:56.839 attorney at the time, Stephen Cooley, was absolutely 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:59.700 furious. He went on TV and publicly called the 00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:02.960 jurors incredibly stupid. Wow. A sitting D .A. 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:05.539 calling a jury stupid on the record. That is 00:26:05.539 --> 00:26:08.740 wildly unprofessional, to say the least. It shows 00:26:08.740 --> 00:26:11.319 you the level of frustration. He and his team 00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:13.640 truly believed Blake was guilty and had gotten 00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:16.750 away with murder. and the public was really split. 00:26:16.910 --> 00:26:19.690 It had shades of the O .J. Simpson trial a decade 00:26:19.690 --> 00:26:22.809 earlier, a celebrity acquittal that didn't necessarily 00:26:22.809 --> 00:26:24.769 clear his name in the court of public opinion. 00:26:24.950 --> 00:26:26.670 And just like with O .J., the civil trial told 00:26:26.670 --> 00:26:29.789 a very different story. Yes, it did. In November 00:26:29.789 --> 00:26:33.029 2005, Bakley's three older children from her 00:26:33.029 --> 00:26:35.690 previous relationships filed a wrongful death 00:26:35.690 --> 00:26:38.029 suit against him. Now, for anyone listening who 00:26:38.029 --> 00:26:41.109 isn't a legal expert, break down why this often 00:26:41.109 --> 00:26:43.569 yields a different result than a criminal trial. 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:46.700 it all comes down to the burden of proof. In 00:26:46.700 --> 00:26:48.799 criminal court, the prosecution needs to prove 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.420 guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You think of 00:26:51.420 --> 00:26:54.099 that as, say, 99 % certainty. It's an incredibly 00:26:54.099 --> 00:26:57.220 high bar. But in civil court, you only need a 00:26:57.220 --> 00:27:00.099 preponderance of the evidence, which basically 00:27:00.099 --> 00:27:03.359 means 51%. Is it more likely than not that he 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:06.220 was responsible? It's a much, much lower bar 00:27:06.220 --> 00:27:08.180 to clear. And in the civil trial, there was new 00:27:08.180 --> 00:27:10.099 testimony that the criminal jury didn't hear. 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:13.619 Yes. The girlfriend of the co -defendant, Earl 00:27:13.619 --> 00:27:16.880 Caldwell, decided to testify, and she stated 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:19.319 that she believed both Blake and Caldwell were 00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:22.579 involved in the murder. It wasn't a smoking gun, 00:27:22.740 --> 00:27:25.279 but in a civil trial where you only need to tip 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:28.000 the scales, it helped. And the outcome of that 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:30.680 trial? The jury found Robert Blake liable for 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:33.599 the wrongful death of his wife. Liable? And what 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:36.099 was the price tag on that liability? Initially, 00:27:36.099 --> 00:27:38.960 they ordered him to pay his wife's estate $30 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:42.940 ,000. million. $30 million. That is a staggering, 00:27:43.059 --> 00:27:45.180 life -destroying amount of money. It was. It 00:27:45.180 --> 00:27:47.799 was later reduced to $15 million on appeal in 00:27:47.799 --> 00:27:50.940 2008, but the damage was done. Robert Blake filed 00:27:50.940 --> 00:27:53.720 for bankruptcy in 2006. He was financially and 00:27:53.720 --> 00:27:56.000 professionally ruined. So let's look at the aftermath. 00:27:56.339 --> 00:27:58.809 He's a free man, but he's broke. He's a pariah. 00:27:58.809 --> 00:28:00.589 Hollywood wants nothing to do with him. How did 00:28:00.589 --> 00:28:03.809 he spend those final 20 years? Because he didn't 00:28:03.809 --> 00:28:06.029 just fade away quietly. No, the junkyard dog 00:28:06.029 --> 00:28:08.750 still had some bark left in him. He became very 00:28:08.750 --> 00:28:11.829 bitter, very angry. In 2012, he went on Piers 00:28:11.829 --> 00:28:13.950 Morgan Tonight for an interview. I remember seeing 00:28:13.950 --> 00:28:15.690 clips of this. It was incredibly uncomfortable 00:28:15.690 --> 00:28:18.809 to watch. He was a train wreck. He was defensive, 00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:21.769 angry, rambling. He felt he was being interrogated, 00:28:21.769 --> 00:28:23.289 not interviewed. You could just see the resentment 00:28:23.289 --> 00:28:26.230 boiling over. In his mind, he was the victim. 00:28:26.589 --> 00:28:28.930 The victim of a corrupt police force, a gold 00:28:28.930 --> 00:28:32.589 -digging wife, a biased media. He took zero accountability 00:28:32.589 --> 00:28:35.029 for any of the chaos in his life. And then in 00:28:35.029 --> 00:28:37.250 the modern age, Robert Blake became a YouTuber. 00:28:37.589 --> 00:28:39.690 Which is a sentence I truly never thought I would 00:28:39.690 --> 00:28:44.029 say. In 2019, at 85 years old, he launched a 00:28:44.029 --> 00:28:46.069 YouTube channel. And the name of it was perfect. 00:28:46.269 --> 00:28:48.809 Robert Blake. I ain't dead yet, so stay tuned. 00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:52.150 That title. It's so defiant. It's basically him 00:28:52.150 --> 00:28:54.309 holding up a middle finger to the entire world. 00:28:54.450 --> 00:28:56.579 What was he doing on there? It was just him, 00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:59.859 unfiltered, ranting about his life, about Hollywood 00:28:59.859 --> 00:29:02.819 culture, about his hatred of the police. It was 00:29:02.819 --> 00:29:06.660 raw Robert Blake. And it was sad, in a way. This 00:29:06.660 --> 00:29:09.160 man who had once commanded the screen in cold 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:11.799 blood was now just shouting into a webcam in 00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:14.039 what looked like a messy room. And amidst all 00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:15.940 this public noise he was making, there's the 00:29:15.940 --> 00:29:18.200 very quiet tragedy of the daughter at the center 00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:21.319 of all this, Rose Lenore. This is maybe the most 00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:25.000 poignant part of the whole aftermath. Rose Lenore. 00:29:25.420 --> 00:29:26.980 The baby who was in the middle of this whole 00:29:26.980 --> 00:29:30.099 storm grew up. She was raised by Blake's older 00:29:30.099 --> 00:29:32.660 daughter, Delina, completely away from the spotlight. 00:29:32.900 --> 00:29:34.819 But she started to speak out a few years ago. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.960 In 2019, yes. She opened up about visiting her 00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:40.440 mother's grave for the first time and about reuniting 00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:42.640 with her father. That has to be such an impossible 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:45.740 position for a child to be in. The central question 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:48.819 of your life is, did my dad kill my mom? Did 00:29:48.819 --> 00:29:51.180 she ever take a stance on his guilt? She was 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:54.019 very careful and I think very wise for her age. 00:29:54.430 --> 00:29:56.509 She stated that she remains open to the truth 00:29:56.509 --> 00:29:58.750 about the murder if it's ever an option. She 00:29:58.750 --> 00:30:01.190 lives in that ambiguity. She acknowledged she 00:30:01.190 --> 00:30:03.430 had a complicated childhood. She didn't condemn 00:30:03.430 --> 00:30:05.390 him, but she didn't fully absolve him either. 00:30:05.569 --> 00:30:08.849 Robert Blake died on March 9th, 2023 of heart 00:30:08.849 --> 00:30:11.829 disease. He was 89 years old. A long, turbulent 00:30:11.829 --> 00:30:14.650 life. But the controversy followed him to the 00:30:14.650 --> 00:30:17.750 very end and even beyond. Which brings us right 00:30:17.750 --> 00:30:19.309 back to where we started this whole conversation. 00:30:19.980 --> 00:30:23.200 The Oscars. The in -memoriam snub. It's the final 00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:25.480 insult from the industry that literally raised 00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:28.900 him. Host Jimmy Kimmel's joke, that text Jimmy 00:30:28.900 --> 00:30:31.119 Blake line, and the subsequent omission from 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:33.759 the montage. He was also left out of the montage 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:35.619 at the Emmys, even though he was an Emmy winner. 00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:38.220 Talk about being erased. It's like the industry 00:30:38.220 --> 00:30:40.539 collectively decided, we can't take the award 00:30:40.539 --> 00:30:42.920 back, but we can pretend you never existed. It 00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:46.000 is a total erasure. Although there is one last 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.440 fascinating cultural footnote to all of this. 00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:51.180 What's that? Quentin Tarantino dedicated the 00:30:51.180 --> 00:30:53.779 novelization of his film Once Upon a Time in 00:30:53.779 --> 00:30:56.759 Hollywood to Robert Blake. That actually makes 00:30:56.759 --> 00:30:58.839 perfect sense. Doesn't it? The protagonist in 00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:00.759 that movie, Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:03.839 is a Hollywood stuntman who is widely suspected 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:05.700 of having killed his wife on a boat and gotten 00:31:05.700 --> 00:31:08.140 away with it. And he's portrayed as the coolest 00:31:08.140 --> 00:31:10.500 guy in the room. The parallels are undeniable. 00:31:11.140 --> 00:31:14.319 Tarantino loves those dark Hollywood myths. The 00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:17.299 guys who lived on the edge. He clearly saw Blake 00:31:17.299 --> 00:31:20.200 as a relic of a tougher, grittier, more dangerous 00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:23.039 Hollywood. So let's try to synthesize all of 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:25.799 this. We have a life that was completely defined 00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:29.480 by the camera from age six right up to him ranting 00:31:29.480 --> 00:31:32.980 into a webcam at age 89. The tragedy of blurred 00:31:32.980 --> 00:31:35.900 lines. He spent his life playing the tough guy, 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:39.380 the killer, the detective. He plays Perry Smith 00:31:39.380 --> 00:31:42.819 in In Cold Blood, a man who kills an entire family. 00:31:43.390 --> 00:31:45.349 And then he's accused of a crime that looks exactly 00:31:45.349 --> 00:31:46.930 like something out of one of his own scripts. 00:31:47.230 --> 00:31:49.309 It becomes impossible to tell where the roles 00:31:49.309 --> 00:31:52.130 ended and the man began. Was he acting tough 00:31:52.130 --> 00:31:54.269 or was he just tough? Was he acting crazy or 00:31:54.269 --> 00:31:56.750 was he just crazy? And despite the criminal acquittal, 00:31:56.750 --> 00:31:59.569 the civil verdict and the Hollywood snubs suggest 00:31:59.569 --> 00:32:02.069 that the industry and maybe the public made its 00:32:02.069 --> 00:32:04.690 choice. They decided he was guilty or at the 00:32:04.690 --> 00:32:07.410 very least far too toxic to ever honor. It just 00:32:07.410 --> 00:32:09.349 brings us back to that central question, the 00:32:09.349 --> 00:32:11.599 one we touched on earlier. The role of Louis 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:13.720 Goldman. I really think that's the key takeaway 00:32:13.720 --> 00:32:16.079 here. We often think of celebrities as these 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:18.960 powerful, autonomous figures. But someone like 00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:21.400 Blake, with that level of profound childhood 00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:24.759 trauma, the closet, the abuse, and that lack 00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:27.960 of any formal education or socialization, he 00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:30.940 was a raw, volatile element. He needed containment. 00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:34.480 He needed a vessel. For decades, Louis Goldman 00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:37.720 was that vessel. When the vessel broke, When 00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:41.039 Goldman died in 1991, the volatile element just 00:32:41.039 --> 00:32:43.240 spilled out everywhere. If Goldman had lived 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:45.940 another 10 years. Who knows? Maybe Bonnie Lee 00:32:45.940 --> 00:32:48.019 Bakley gets a check in a nondisclosure agreement. 00:32:48.279 --> 00:32:51.539 Maybe she disappears to a condo in Florida. Maybe 00:32:51.539 --> 00:32:54.200 the gun is never bought. Maybe Robert Blake dies 00:32:54.200 --> 00:32:57.319 a revered, if eccentric, elder statesman of Hollywood. 00:32:57.579 --> 00:33:01.259 Or maybe. Maybe the junkyard dog metaphor is 00:33:01.259 --> 00:33:03.599 the right one. Maybe he was always destined to 00:33:03.599 --> 00:33:05.859 break the chain eventually. Maybe you can only 00:33:05.859 --> 00:33:07.980 suppress that much trauma for so long before 00:33:07.980 --> 00:33:10.720 it finally violently explodes. We'll never know 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:13.900 for sure. But it is a sobering thought. Talent 00:33:13.900 --> 00:33:16.460 and fame, in the end, are not enough to save 00:33:16.460 --> 00:33:19.130 you from yourself. Robert Blake had a lifetime 00:33:19.130 --> 00:33:21.690 of the former, and tragically, he just couldn't 00:33:21.690 --> 00:33:24.750 outrun the latter. A fascinating, if incredibly 00:33:24.750 --> 00:33:27.569 dark, case study. Thank you for walking us through 00:33:27.569 --> 00:33:29.630 all the layers of this story. Always a pleasure 00:33:29.630 --> 00:33:31.829 to dig deep. And to you listening, thanks for 00:33:31.829 --> 00:33:34.009 diving deep with us. It's a heavy one, but it's 00:33:34.009 --> 00:33:35.970 an important one. We'll catch you on the next 00:33:35.970 --> 00:33:37.130 deep dive. Stay curious.