Blake Attorney: Actor Target of Probe
May 9 -- Robert Blake's attorney says police are focusing too intensely on the actor in their investigation of his wife's shooting death, ignoring leads from the victim's shady past and the lonely hearts she allegedly bilked out of money.
"By ignoring the possibility that someone came from her past, they're overemphasizing Blake as a possible suspect," attorney Harland Braun told the Los Angeles Times.
Police have questioned Blake twice and searched his house twice, but said the star of the 1970s cop show Baretta is not considered a suspectin the death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, 45.
Bakley was shot in the head Friday night as she sat in a car outside a restaurant, waiting for Blake, 67, who said he had gone back to the restaurant to get a gun he had forgotten in the eatery.
The actor owns numerous weapons and has a permit to carry a concealed handgun. He told police he was carrying one Friday night because he feared for his wife's safety.
Housekeeper: Actor Worried About Security
Braun has hired a private detective, Scott Ross, to try to find the killer. Ross has learned that a man with a crew cut in his early 20s had been watching the actor's house for a couple weeks, sitting in a black four-door pickup parked across the street, Braun said.
Speaking with reporters outside the actor's home in Studio City, Calif., Blake's housekeeper said the actor was aware of the surveillance.
"He always says 'keep the gate locked,' and that's what I do," Lydia Benavides said. "I know he was afraid about something, because he says, 'Keep the gate closed. Don't leave it open.'"
During their searches of the Blake house, police seized two 9 mm handguns, more than 100 rounds of ammunition and credit card receipts, according to the Los Angeles Times.
An Unusual Marriage
In letters obtained by the New York Daily News, the couple alternated between threats, insults and affection as they tried to resolve differences over Bakley's past — which allegedly included bilking lonely men out of money for plane tickets to visit them and selling naked pictures of herself — and over her accusations that Blake was unfaithful.
