Blake’s Wife to Be Buried in Hollywood Hills Plot

Actor Robert Blake’s slain wife is to be buried at a Hollywood Hills cemetery today, three weeks after she was shot to death while sitting in their car on a quiet street in Studio City, family representatives said.

Blake plans to attend the funeral for Bonny Lee Bakley accompanied by the couple’s infant daughter, his adult daughter from a previous marriage, and about a dozen relatives and friends, said his lawyer, Harland W. Braun.

Bakley’s relatives, most of whom live on the East Coast, do not plan to attend the funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park and Mortuary Hollywood Hills, said Braun and Bakley family lawyer Cary Goldstein.

“It’ll be brief, but it is the kind of thing that has to be done,” Braun said. “Robert is extremely saddened.”

Braun said a Catholic priest will preside over the service. Blake is paying for interment, he said.

Last week, a memorial at a funeral home near downtown Los Angeles was canceled by Braun after a crush of media and onlookers surrounded the Armstrong Family Mortuary, where Bakley’s body was taken after it was released by the Los Angeles County coroner.

Plans to have Bakley’s body flown to her home state of New Jersey for burial also were changed, partly because media surrounded the funeral home there. Bakley’s family agreed to have her buried in Los Angeles, Goldstein said.

Goldstein said the decision to make the funeral arrangements public was necessary to “prevent the mayhem” that might have occurred if a private ceremony was discovered by the media.

Goldstein said Bakley’s relatives, many of whom distrust Blake, were not planning to come to the ceremony. “They are reluctant to attend in the presence of Mr. Blake,” Goldstein said.

Blake and Bakley married last year after paternity tests showed that the 67-year-old actor was the father of Bakley’s child. Bakley and Blake lived in separate homes on Blake’s property in Studio City.

Family and friends have said the couple had a strained relationship.

Goldstein has said Blake, best known for his portrayal of a detective in the 1970s TV series “Baretta,” kidnapped the couple’s daughter and kept her from Bakley.

Braun has said Blake and Bakley had a formal agreement regarding custody of their daughter, which Blake respected.

Los Angeles police have said Blake told them that the evening of May 4, Blake found Bakley, 44, shot in the head in Blake’s black Dodge Stealth. The car was parked on a residential street a block away from Vitello’s, an Italian restaurant where the two had dined.

Police said Blake told them he had walked to the car with his wife, then realized that he left a .38 caliber handgun in the restaurant and returned for it. When Blake got back to the car, Braun said, Bakley was nearly dead. Blake, licensed by Culver City police to carry a concealed weapon, said he had the gun because his wife feared for her safety.

Since Bakley’s slaying, detectives have interviewed Blake, describing him as a witness, and have searched the actor’s property twice. Authorities have retrieved guns and weapons, among other items.

Detectives also have gathered mounds of paperwork and documents from Bakley’s personal belongings. Some documents appear to show that Bakley was involved in an elaborate scheme to bilk men out of money in exchange for nude pictures and alluring promises.

Los Angeles police said Thursday that their investigation into the slaying was continuing. They have not identified any suspects.