Rose Lenore — who was just 11 months old when her mother was shot to death in 2001 — has gone viral after breaking her silence on the case that made her father, actor Robert Blake, one of Hollywood's most notorious figures.
TikTok/@rose.lenoreRose Lenore Sophia Blake has been speaking out about her mother’s murder on TikTok.
The daughter of Bonny Lee Bakley and actor Robert Blake said her life was meant to turn out differently.
“Sometimes I think about how I was born to be a nepo baby but then my bio dad (actor) had my mother murdered so now I’m just here,” the TikToker, Rose Lenore Sophia Blake (@rose.lenore), says in the text overlay of a viral video that has racked up over 900,000 views.
She follows that up with a “story time” video laying out the broad strokes of a case that captivated America in the early 2000s. Her biological father, she explains, was a well-known actor named Robert Blake, best remembered for his role in the 1970s TV crime drama Baretta.
Her mother, Bonny Lee Bakley, was fatally shot on May 4, 2001, while sitting in Blake’s car outside Vitello’s, a restaurant in Studio City, California, after the couple had dinner.
Rose Lenore was 11 months old at the time. Blake was arrested for the murder, tried, and acquitted in 2005 but was found civilly liable for Bakley’s death and initially ordered to pay her family $30 million. He died in March 2023 at age 89.
Rose Lenore says that whoever actually pulled the trigger is likely still alive, which is why she states she won’t publicly share her theories — “That would not be safe.”
One Of Hollywood’s Most Sensational Unsolved Murders
Blake was originally a child actor who appeared in the Our Gang comedies in the 1930s and ’40s before growing up to star in the acclaimed 1967 film In Cold Blood and later winning an Emmy for Baretta.
Public DomainRobert Blake starred in Baretta in the mid-1970s.
He met Bakley, a New Jersey woman with a complicated past, at a Los Angeles jazz club in 1999.
Bakley had been married as many as 10 times and had a reputation as a con artist who used aliases to scam men she met through classified ads. She had pursued relationships with Jerry Lee Lewis and Dean Martin and had been romantically involved with Christian Brando, the son of Marlon Brando.
When Bakley gave birth to a baby girl in 2000, she initially named Brando as the father, but a DNA test revealed the infant was Robert Blake’s daughter. He married Bakley because of the child, but with that kind of start, it’s not surprising that the couple’s relationship was allegedly troubled from the beginning.
Courtesy Harland Braun via ZUMA Press WireBonny Lee Bakley was murdered in 2001, but the case officially remains unsolved.
On the night of May 4, 2001, the pair had dinner at Vitello’s. Blake later told police he had left Bakley alone in their parked car while he went back inside to retrieve a gun (for which he had a legal permit) he’d accidentally left at the table. When he returned, he said, he found her slumped over with two gunshot wounds. A bystander called 911, but Bakley later died from her injuries at the hospital. She was 44 years old.
It took 11 months for the police to arrest Blake on murder charges. The criminal trial that followed lasted three months in early 2005 and became one of the era’s biggest courtroom dramas.
Two stuntmen testified that Blake had tried to hire them to kill Bakley before her death, but the defense attacked their credibility based on their histories of drug use.
While gunshot residue was found on Blake’s hands, a defense expert argued the quantity was far too small to indicate he had fired a gun. The murder weapon, a pistol with its serial number filed off, was found in a nearby trash bin, but the owner could never be traced.
In the end, the jury voted 11 to one to acquit Blake on the murder charge. The jury said the prosecutors didn’t prove the gun was in Blake’s hand. As such, the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley remains officially unsolved.
A Case That Still Has No Answers
During the trial, Blake’s defense team pointed fingers at Christian Brando, who had been recorded warning Bakley, “You’re lucky somebody ain’t out there to put a bullet in your head,” CNN reported in 2002.
Police PhotoBonny Lee Bakley was shot twice in Robert Blake’s car outside of Vitello’s restaurant.
Brando was not in Los Angeles the night of the murder and was never charged. He died in 2008, taking whatever he knew with him.
Blake’s acquittal didn’t spare him from financial repercussions. A civil jury did find him liable for Bakley’s death and ordered him to pay $30 million to her children. He declared bankruptcy, and that amount was later slashed to $15 million by an appeals court.
Blake ultimately spent his final years out of the spotlight. He uploaded a series of reflective YouTube videos between 2019 and 2020 and reconnected with Rose Lenore, who had been raised by Blake’s older daughter after her mother’s murder.
In a 2019 television appearance, Robert Blake’s daughter Rose Lenore said she called him “Robert,” not “Dad,” and that she hadn’t pressed him for answers about her mother’s death. “I don’t choose a side because I don’t know any better than anybody else,” she said at the time.
@rose.lenore Like what am I even doing #robertblake
Rose Lenore Sophia Blake declined to comment on the matter.
After reading about Robert Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley’s daughter Rose Lenore Sophia Blake, learn how comedian Phil Hartman was killed by his wife. Then, go inside the disturbing story of Blake Leibel and the murder of model Iana Kasian.
