Solicitation Letters In Victim's Home

Form letters seeking money and plane tickets from lonely men were found in the home of actor Robert Blake's wife after she was killed, his lawyer said.

Some of the letters, released by Blake attorney Harland Braun, offered the men nude pictures in return. Braun suggested Tuesday the letters may have played a role in Bonny Lee Bakley's death.

"I don't have anyone to spend the holidays with, do you? My family lives too far away, could I spend them with you?" reads one letter signed "Miss Leebonny Bakley."

Bakley, 45, was shot to death Friday night while sitting in a car near a restaurant where she and Blake had just dined. Police have declined to release any details. Autopsy results remained sealed.

Police said the star of the 1970s television series "Baretta" is not a suspect.

Blake, 67, was in seclusion at his home while Braun and a private investigator sifted through Bakley's cottage behind Blake's house.

"Someone out of her past may have come and killed her," Braun said. "We're looking for anything that might indicate motive."

The attorney said documents showed Bakley would rent post office boxes using different names, place ads in personals columns of newspapers and suggest she was available for sexual relationships. She would send respondents a form letter often saying she was down on her luck and needed rent money.

Bonny Lee Bakely    (AP)SIZE>

"If you can't afford this, please send me a Christmas gift and a $10 or $20 bill to help me out. I'll send you some nudie shots of me, of course, in my next letter then."

Bakley kept "meticulous" records of her alleged schemes, Braun said. Usually the amount she received was less than $100, but at least one man sent her $2,500.

Lt. Horace Frank, a police spokesman, said authorities were focusing their investigation on who killed Bakley, not her past.

"It's kind of unfair," Frank said. "Here's a person who's been murdered and now they start painting her as a bad person."

Meanwhile, Bakley's half brother, Peter Carlyon of Barlett, Tenn., said the woman told her family that Blake had threatened her and armed himself.

"She did not want him carrying the gun because he had been making threats against her," Carlyon said. "She told the entire family that if anything happened to her, he was behind it."

Braun said Bakley asked Blake to carry the gun because she feared for her life. Blake told police he went back to the restaurant to retrieve the weapon at the time she was shot.

Friends have said Bakley was obsessed by celebrities. She claimed a child by rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis and a sexual liaison with Christian Brando.
Braun has said Blake married her only after DNA tests showed he fathered her 11-month-old daughter. Blake learned about his wife's alleged con after he married her last fall, Braun said. He apparently never notified police.

Tuesday, a private investigator said a stranger began showing up in front of the actor's Studio City home a few weeks before Robert Blake's wife was murdered.

The man was described in his early 20s with a crew cut and would watch the property from a black four-door pickup, said Scott Ross, a private investigator hired by Blake's lawyers. Police refused to comment.

Authorities searched a construction site Monday near the shooting scene and an investigator was seen dusting for fingerprints on a blue recycling can. A bag was reportedly removed from the site.

Results of Bakley's autopsy were sealed at the request of homicide detectives, coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said Monday. Toxicology tests and microscopic tissue studies were pending.

Details on Bakley's brushes with celebrities and the law emerged Monday.

Bakley and Blake married after DNA tests confirmed that her 11-month-old daughter, Rose Lenore Sophia, was fathered by Blake. She had originally named the girl Christian Shannon Brando, thinking the father was actually Christian Brando, the son of actor Marlon Brando.

Bakley also has a 7-year-old daughter named Jeri Lee Lewis whom she said was fathered by rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis.

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