March 9, 2026

Best of Season 1: "ROBERT BLAKE: How to Murder Your Wife and Walk Free in Hollywood"

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter examines the 2005 acquittal that proved celebrity murder is legal in Los Angeles. Robert Blake, star of Baretta and In Cold Blood, shot his wife Bonny Lee Bakley outside Vitello's restaurant, left her to bleed out while he had dinner, then convinced twelve Angelenos he was innocent. From his eighteen different story versions to hiring hitmen who testified against him, this is how Hollywood royalty gets away with murder. Twenty years later, Blake's acquittal remains the blueprint for celebrity justice: delay the trial, confuse the jury, cry on cue, and walk free while your victim rots.

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WEBVTT

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Celebrity Trials is kicking off season two with a new

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host and new name. Hey, I'm Garrett Fisher, and starting

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March sixteenth, I'll be the new host on Daily Crime

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and Justice. It's the same great show, now with extra

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crime and extra justice in the meantime. Please enjoy this

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encore performance of one of Celebrity Trials classic episodes. See

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you on March sixteenth. We'll miss you, Read Carter and

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wish you the best.

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Callaroga Shark Media, Good morning, I'm Read Carter. Saturday, September sixth,

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twenty twenty five, Today begins our two part weekend special,

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The two Tier Justice System. How celebrities literally get away

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with murder while regular people get life for selling weed.

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We start with Robert Blake, the BARRETTA Starr who shot

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his wife in a car, claimed he was getting his

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gun from a restaurant, not the gun that killed her,

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a different gun, and somehow convinced a jury this made sense.

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This September marks twenty years since Blake's civil trial began,

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where a different jury said yeah, he definitely killed her

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and awarded thirty million dollars. He never paid. Two juries,

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two verdicts, zero prison time, Welcome to Celebrity Justice in America.

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This is Celebrity Trials. May fourth, two thousand and one.

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Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City, California. Robert Blake, star of Bretta,

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star of in Cold Blood, Hollywood Royalty since age five,

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takes his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, to dinner. They eat pasta,

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they drink wine. They leave around nine thirty pm. Blake's

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car is parked around the corner on a dark side street,

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not in the restaurant's well lit parking lot, around the corner,

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in the shadows. He'll later claim the lot was full.

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It wasn't. They get in the car. Then Blake suddenly remembers, oh, no,

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he left his gun in the restaurant, his gun that

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he needs. At nine thirty pm, after dinner, he goes

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back to retrieve it, leaves Bonnie in the car alone

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on a dark street. When he returns, shock, Bonnie's been

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shot once in the head, blood everywhere. Blake runs to

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the nearest house, pounds on the door, screams for help.

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My wife's been shot. Someone killed my wife. Bonnie Lee

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Bakeley died in that car, slumped over, blood pooling beneath her.

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Here's Blake's story. In the two minutes he was gone

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two minutes someone randomly approached his car on this specific

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dark street and shot his wife, then disappeared. No witnesses,

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no evidence, Just a mystery shooter who knew exactly where

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to find Bonnie Lee Bakeley at exactly the right moment.

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What are the odds? But wait, let's talk about the

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gun Blake went to retrieve. Not the gun that killed Bonnie.

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That was a Walter P thirty eight found in a

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dumpster nearby. Blake's gun was a Smith and Wesson thirty

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eight special, a different thirty eight that he carried to

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dinner and left behind. So Blake carried a gun to dinner,

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forgot it, went back for it, and while he was

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retrieving his gun, someone else shot his wife with a

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different gun. Make it make sense. Here's what actually makes sense.

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Blake had two guns. He shot Bonnie with one, ditched

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it in the dumpster, then used retrieving the other gun

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as his alibi. The prosecution would later prove Blake tried

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to hire two different hit men to kill Bonnie. Both

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testified against him. Stuntman Ronald Duffy Hambleton said Blake offered

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him ten thousand dollars to snuff Bonnie. Another associate, Gary McClarty,

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said Blake tried to hire him to kill her. Blake's response,

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these men were drug addicts and liars. Right, Multiple people

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independently lie about the same murder solicitation. But here's what

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sealed it for me. Blake's behavior after the murder. He

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didn't cradle his dying wife, didn't try CPR, didn't even

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check if she was alive. He ran away, knocked on

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a door, and let strangers deal with it. When police arrived,

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Blake was pacing, muttering, but not crying, no tears. His

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wife of six months was dead in his car, and

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he couldn't produce a single tear. The first responder, officer

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Todd Larson, testified that Blake kept saying, I should have

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never come here. I should have never come here. Not

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who did this? Not is she okay? But I should

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have never come here, Like he knew what was going

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to happen, because he did, because he planned it. Because

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Robert Blake murdered his wife and thought being famous would

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save him. Now, let's talk about Bonnie Lee Bakley, because

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the defense certainly did. Bonnie wasn't a saint. Let's be clear.

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She was a con artist who specialized in lonely men.

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She'd placed ads in Lonely Hearts magazines, built relationships through letters,

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scammed money. She had been married multiple times. She had

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a history of fraud. She'd pursued celebrities, specifically, her previous

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targets included Jerry Lee Lewis and Dean Martin. She collected

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autographs and nude photos. She was obsessed with fame when

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she met Blake. She was also involved with Christian Brando

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Marlon's son. When she got pregnant, she didn't know who

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the father was. DNA tests proved it was Blake's baby,

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so Blake married her, not out of love, out of obligation,

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or more accurately, to get custody of the baby. The

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defense painted Bonnie as a grifter who had countless enemies.

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Anyone could have killed her. Look at all the men

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she scammed, look at all the people she'd wronged. This

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is what we call the she had it coming defense,

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and it worked because the jury looked at Bonnie Lee Bakley,

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con artist, schemer, gold digger and decided she wasn't worth justice.

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But here's the thing. Being a bad person doesn't mean

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you deserve to be murdered. Being a con artist doesn't

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mean your husband gets to execute you. Bonnie was a mother.

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Blake's daughter, Rose was eleven months old when her mother

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was murdered. She's now twenty four, raised by Blake's older

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daughter from another marriage. Because Blake lost custody, that baby

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lost her mother, because Robert Blake decided marriage to a

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con artist was worse than murder. The prosecution presented overwhelming

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evidence that Blake tried to hire two hitmen. He isolated

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Bonnie on a dark street. He left her alone in

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the car. Gunshot residue was found on Blake's hands. He

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had no emotional response to her death. He talked about

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wanting Bonnie dead for months. But the defense had something

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more powerful, Robert Blake's fame. This was the little boy

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from Our Gang, the star of Bretta, the acclaimed actor

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from In Cold Blood, where ironically he played a killer.

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The jury couldn't believe Mickey from Our Gang was a murderer,

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even though the evidence screamed otherwise. March sixteenth, two thousand

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and five, after eleven days of deliberation. The jury acquitted

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Robert Blake of murder eleven days. That tells you there

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was serious debate. This wasn't an easy acquittal. The jury struggled,

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but in the end reasonable doubt. One the problem this

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was Los Angeles, the same city that acquitted Oj Simpson,

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the city where celebrities don't go to prison. Blake's lawyer,

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Gerald Schwarzbach, had successfully painted the lapd as incompetent. They

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hadn't tested the restaurant for Blake's DNA to prove he

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went back inside. They hadn't canvassed for witnesses thoroughly. They'd

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focused on Blake too quickly. But the real vicar was

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character assassination. Schwarzbach destroyed Bonnie's character so thoroughly that the

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jury forgot she was the victim. He called her a grifter,

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a scammer, someone with countless enemies. He suggested Christian Brando

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might have killed her, or any of the hundreds of

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men she'd scammed. The jury foreman later said they couldn't

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convict because the prosecution's witnesses, the men Blake tried to

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hire as hitmen, weren't credible because they were drug users.

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So let me get this straight. Blake tried to hire

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drug addicts to kill his wife. They said no and

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testified against him. But because they were drug addicts, Blake

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walks free. That's like saying you can't convict someone of

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trying to buy drugs because drug dealers aren't credible witnesses.

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Blake cried when the verdict was read. Finally found those

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tears he couldn't produce when Bonnie was dying. But here's

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the kicker. In November two thousand and five, a civil

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jury found Blake liable for Bonnie's wrongful death, awarded her

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children thirty million dollars, same evidence, same witnesses, same case,

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but a civil jury said, yeah, he definitely killed her.

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Blake declared bankruptcy, never paid a dime. Bonnie's children got nothing.

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So Robert Blake murdered his wife, beat the criminal case,

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lost the civil case, and faced zero consequences. He lived

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another twenty years in freedom. Died in twenty twenty three

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at age eighty nine, in his own bed, surrounded by family.

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Bonnie Lee Bakeley died at forty four, shot in the head,

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slumped in a car, murdered by a husband who thought

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she wasn't worth keeping alive. Two tier justice system. If

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you're famous, you can literally murder your wife in cold

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blood and walk free. If you're a regular person, you

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get life for selling drugs. Blake proved that in Hollywood,

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murder is just another performance, and if you're a good

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enough actor, you can convince twelve people that obvious guilt

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is reasonable doubt. We're back with more. In just a moment,

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Robert Blake's acquittal became a blueprint for celebrity murder defendants.

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Here's the playbook. First, delay the trial as long as possible.

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Blake's trial didn't start until two thousand and four, three

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years after the murder. Memories fade, evidence degrades, witnesses disappear. Second,

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destroy the victim's character. Make the jury hate them more

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than they care about justice. Bonnie was a con artist,

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so she deserved to die. Third, hire the most expensive

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lawyer's money can buy. Blake spent one point five million

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dollars on his defense. That's one point five million dollars

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worth of reasonable doubt. Fourth, attack the police investigation, Find

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every tiny mistake and magnify it. They didn't test for

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DNA here. They didn't interview this person. Make incompetence equal innocence. Fifth,

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provide an alternative theory, no matter how absurd. Christian Brando

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did it, a random stranger did it? Anyone but the

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obvious suspect. Sixth, use your celebrity. Remind the jury of

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your beloved characters. You're not a murderer. You're Bretta. You're

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Mickey from our gang. This blueprint has been used again

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and again. Ojay used it, Phil Specter tried it. Casey

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Anthony modified it, and it works because juries don't want

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to believe celebrities are killers. They want to believe the fantasy.

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Twenty years later, we look back at Blake's acquittal as

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a turning point. It proved that celebrity justice isn't just different,

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it's completely separate from regular justice in the real world.

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If you try to hire hitmen to kill your wife,

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that's conspiracy to commit murder. In celebrity world, that's inadmissible

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because the hit men did drugs. In the real world.

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If your wife is shot while you're conveniently apt as

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you're the prime suspect in celebrity world, you're the victim

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of police harassment. In the real world. If you show

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no emotion when your wife dies, that's suspicious. In celebrity world,

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everyone grieves differently. Robert Blake got away with murder, plain

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and simple. He shot Bonnie Lee Bakeley in the head

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and convinced twelve people that being famous meant he couldn't

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be guilty. And somewhere other celebrities took notes, learned the blueprint,

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realized that in America, fame isn't just power, it's a

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get out of jail free card, even from murder. That's

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Celebrity Trials For Saturday, September sixth. Tomorrow, we continue our

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two tier Justice System special with a compilation of celebrity

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assaults that ended in nothing. Chris Brown nearly killed Rihanna

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got probation. Mark Wahlberg blinded a man in a racist attack,

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served forty five days. Christian Slater's multiple violent incidents community service.

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Nicholas Cage's domestic violence charges dropped. Notice a pattern. Regular

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people go to prison, celebrities get probation. Robert Blake proved

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you can kill your wife and walk free if you're

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famous enough. Tomorrow's celebrities prove you can beat, blind, and

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brutalize people as long as you have a publicist and

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a good lawyer. I'm reed.

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Carter.

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Robert Blake died peacefully at eighty nine. Bonnie Lee Bakley

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died at forty four with a bullet in her brain.

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One was a murderer, One was murdered? Yes, which one

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the justice system protected? This is your two tier justice system,

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where fame is the difference between freedom and life in prison.

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See you tomorrow.

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The proceeding was for entertainment purposes only. All information was

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obtained from public sources and media reports, which may contain inaccuracies.

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Views expressed other those of the host. Callaroga Shark Media

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disclaims responsibility for all statements made.