Entertainment

LAPD: No Bakley Murder Suspects

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 10, 2001 / 8:30 AM EDT / CBS

An arrest in the slaying of actor Robert Blake's wife is not imminent, the detective heading the investigation said Monday, and he asked the media to back off on reporting rumors about her death.

"At this point we have not identified a single person as the suspect responsible for the murder," Detective Garret Zimmon told reporters at a news conference.

"Contrary to some rumors there is no pending arrest of a suspect in this case," he added.

Zimmon also asked that the media refrain from "tainting" the investigation by reporting on rumors or interviewing potential witnesses.

The statement came shortly after the release of tape recordings Blake's wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, made of herself discussing whether it would be better to claim that Blake or Christian Brando was the father of her newborn daughter.

Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, says he released the tapes to show that Bakely may have had enemies and a troubled past. CBS News Correspondent Manuel Galleugus reports the attorney representing Bakley accuses Braun of "trashing the victim" in an attempt to taint the jury pool.

Blake married Bakley four months ago after paternity tests determined he was the father. She was shot to death May 4 outside a restaurant where the couple had just dined.

"Who would you go for more if you were me — Blake or Christian?" Bakley said in one recorded conversation released by Blake's lawyer. "... I'd probably feel more safe with Blake ..."

In the telephone conversation with a man identified only as Ray, he advised her: "Blake ain't gonna let you hustle him. Blake's too slick." She responded, "You think Blake is like a genius?"

The man replied, "I think he's hip. You ain't gonna get a dime out of him.... He's not a dummy. I think he's going to use you more than you use him."

"What would he use me for?" asked Bakley.

"Just sex," said the man.

Bakley then speculated," For sex he could go get a hooker. Why wouldn't he do a Hugh Grant thing?"

At another point, weighing the advantages of pursuing Blake instead of Brando, she said, "I was thinking (Blake) is a better deal. He's older than Christian and he may not be around as long."

Brando is the son of actor Marlon Brando.

The tapes, which were found among Bakley's personal effects offer, insight into the celebrity-obsessed woman who subsequently found out through DNA tests that her daughter was fathered by Blake.

In the 90 minutes of conversations Bakley taped, the baby is heard gurgling in the background as Bakley mused, "I don't know if the baby is going to work for or against me." She said some men don't like "a kid squalling around" and said Brando might not like having a baby because "they get on your nerves."

"Is it really his baby?" the friend asked, referring to Brando.

"Yeah," Bakley said.

"Are you certain?"

"Yeah."

In another conversation from her home in Little Rock, Ark., Bakley talked about her involvement with Blake and said, "I tarted to fall for him.... I kind of wanted him but kind of didn't.... I thought he was cute when he was younger but I didn't know if I wanted him for the rest of his life. He's going to get older and worse looking."

Her friend finally asked: "Bonny, did you ever try to figure out why you're attracted only to famous people?"

"It's because I wanted to be that myself," she said and described herself as a one-time outcast among her schoolmates because she was poor and didn't dress well.

"You think, 'I'll show them. I'll become a movie star,"' she said. "But it's too hard.... If I'd kept romance out of my life it would have been possible. But I would have had to be like Katharine Hepburn and it was too hard. I kept falling for somebody.

"So I thought, why not fall for a movie star instead of being one. It's more fun."

"I like being around celebrities," she said. "It makes you feel better than other people."

Police also would not comment Monday on a report that investigators found the gun used in the murder.

"We're not commenting on evidence collected or not collected. We are not investigating this in the media" said Sgt. John Pasquariello, a police spokesman.

"This is a sensitive investigation and everyone should understand that."

ABC's "Good Morning America," citing an unidentified source, reported that the gun was found in a trash bin near the shooting site.

Braun told The Associated Press he was not surprised by the report because "a hit man always discards a gun."