Media Swarm a Distraction in Probe of Bakley Slaying

More than two weeks after actor Robert Blake’s wife was slain while sitting in their car on a quiet street in Studio City, police caught in a media whirlwind appear no closer to finding her killer.

“This is, obviously, a difficult investigation,” said Sgt. John Pasquariello, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. “We have a lot of interviews to conduct. We even have investigators traveling around the country to interview people. You’ve got to look at everything.”

Indeed, the swirl of activity surrounding the case has not helped the police.

Lawyers and family members have granted numerous interviews about the strained relationship between Blake and his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Tourists and others with a curious nature have dropped by Blake’s property in Studio City. And now some consider Vitello’s, the restaurant where Blake and Bakley dined the night she was killed, a new attraction.

The spectacle has been so intense that the family decided to cancel plans to bury Bakley in her home state of New Jersey after media swarms surrounded funeral homes on both coasts.

As a result, detectives in the Robbery-Homicide Division, the LAPD unit that investigates most high-profile cases, have had to contend with an unusual number of distractions. They receive dozens of media requests daily, as well as phone calls and letters offering tips, all pushed by the attention the case has received.

What’s more, said Pasquariello, the 24-member division has had six new cases since Bakley was killed May 4.

“They’re swamped,” Pasquariello, who declined to elaborate about the Bakley investigation, said Friday. “But they are being very thorough. We are going about this methodically and carefully.”

At the same time, Blake and Bakley’s lawyers, friends and loved ones seem to be everywhere.

For almost anyone who turned on the television in recent days, there was Blake’s lawyer, Harland W. Braun, criticizing Bakley while touting his client’s virtues. At other times, there was Bakley’s mother, her half brother or her sister.

At grocery stores and newsstands, the same cast of characters was gracing magazine and tabloid covers.

When family members did not suffice, others willingly stepped to the microphone. Blake’s bodyguard, one of the actor’s best friends and others, some supporting Bakley, had their turn.

On Friday, interest in the case took a peculiar turn when a psychic held a news conference to declare that he had predicted Bakley’s death a year ago and that he had conjured up a vision of the killer: a slight, brown haired man with blue eyes.

For LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, the case has resulted in reporters camping out by the parking lot behind police headquarters in the hopes of capturing a juicy sound bite from him.

Parks criticized the media and Blake’s lawyers last week, saying they were focusing on the case’s most salacious aspects.

Braun has said Bakley’s background may have had something to do with her death. Bakley had a history of legal run-ins and operated a business to bilk lonely men out of money in exchange for nude pictures and promises of sex, he has said.

Not to be outdone by Parks, Braun quickly hit the airwaves, sniping back and suggesting that Parks should send him “a letter of thanks” for helping detectives.

No Suspect Yet Identified, Police Say

Police maintain that they have not identified a suspect. Blake and Bakley were last seen together at Vitello’s, just blocks from the actor’s home. Blake, who is licensed to carry a firearm, told police he was carrying a .38-caliber gun because his wife feared for her safety.

Braun has said the 67-year-old actor told police that after walking Bakley to the couple’s car, Blake realized he had forgotten his gun at the restaurant and went back to get it. The actor later told police that when he returned, Bakley, 44, had been shot in the head and was barely breathing, according to Braun.

Some restaurant workers have said they do not remember Blake returning to the restaurant for his gun.

Over the last week police have refused to comment on what evidence they found during a search of a lot near where Bakley was shot. A truck driver asked by police to move a dumpster from the site said officers told him they had found a discarded handgun in a trash bin near the crime scene.

LAPD documents show that detectives seized two 9-millimeter guns and more than 100 rounds of ammunition, as well as clothing, audiotapes and documents, from Blake’s small compound about half a mile from Vitello’s.

Some of those who knew them said Blake and Bakley lived in separate homes on the compound. The couple married recently after DNA tests proved Blake was the father of Bakley’s infant daughter, Rose, they said.

Bakley’s family has admitted her involvement in scams, but they don’t feel that it led to her killing.

“Most of this stuff was just petty,” said Bakley’s half brother, Peter Carlyon. “I mean, who’s gonna kill someone because they’ve lost out on $200? That doesn’t make sense.”

Lawyer Cary Goldstein, who represented Bakley before she married Blake in November, also came to her defense

“People need to realize she was a good woman.”