Photo: abc news
She was only 11 months old when Bonnie Lee Bakley was murdered.
By Samantha Maffucci — Written on Oct 23, 2019
Fans of true crime know that murders in Hollywood are some of the most fascinating and troubling things that can happen. The murders of Sharon Tate/the LaBiancas, Phil Hartman, Nicole Brown Simpson, Ronni Chasen, Rebecca Schaeffer, Lana Clarkson, Marvin Gaye, Elizabeth Short — these people were all innocent victims.
But there’s another name to add to this mix: Bonnie Lee Bakley. Bakley was known for her mail-order business, where she would mail nude photos of herself and other women, to men, as well as her 10 marriages! In 1999, she met actor Robert Blake at a jazz club and soon after, they had a child.
The couple married in 2000, and six months later, in May 2001, Bakley was shot and killed while sitting in her car around the corner from Vitello’s Restaurant, where she and Blake had dined that evening. Before the shooting, Blake claimed he left his gun in the restaurant and while he was inside retrieving it, Bakley was killed. Blake was charged with her murder but in 2005, he was found not guilty.
It’s been almost 20 years since the murder, and now, their daughter is speaking out. Who is Robert Blake's daughter?
Rose Lenore Sophia Blake was only 11 months old when her mother was killed in a still-unsolved murder.
Photo: Getty
In an interview with People, Rose Lenore explained what it was like being raised by her half-sister Delinah and her husband in Sherman Oaks. The last time she saw Blake was when she was five years old. “It was kind of a traumatic childhood at that point,” she said.
After Bakley’s murder, she was subjected to continual media coverage, and eventually developed anxiety and depression. Now, she wants to take control of how the media perceives her: “It’s hard when everyone talks about you and you’re not talking about yourself. I am now.”
She also described an incident when she was a cheerleader in high school. At a football game, she noticed “some guy in the stand was taking pictures of me. I had a feeling it was paparazzi, but I just kept going.” The photos were in a tabloid magazine weeks later and the photographs, according to her, put “distance between me and my classmates.”
Try as she did to have a normal life, Lenore eventually wanted to get in touch with her past, which was shrouded with heartbreak and longing. When she turned 18, she visited Bakley’s grave for the first time. “I kind of didn’t know where she was buried for the longest time. I could have just looked it up, but I didn’t. I just don’t think I was ready. And then when I was 18, I was like, ‘I’m ready. I want to go visit her,’” she revealed.
She also recalled how she reached out to Blake and met him for the first time since she was a young girl: “We talked about my childhood. We talked about his life, what he’s been doing. Just talked about everything.”
Rose also told Inside Edition that Blake, who she refers to as Robert and not Dad, is 86 years old and she wasn’t prepared to meet him until recently. “I haven’t really felt ready until now. As a kid, I had a really private life, and now I am an adult and I think it is time.” The meeting itself was “a lot to take in ... we did not hug.”
In another interview with Good Morning America, Rose opened up about the struggle of growing up without her parents, saying, “I felt a bit like there were two parts of me. One of them is, you know, trying to kind of recover from what happened when I was young and trying to sort through the complicated family that I have. And then one of them is just a normal teenage girl.”
She also asked Blake questions when they met, but didn’t want to know the truth about Bakley’s death: “I specifically asked him not to tell me. I don’t want to know ... not right now, I don’t think I’m ready. That sounds crazy. I feel like anyone would want to know the answer. I think I’ve gone 19 years not knowing. If all of a sudden I knew whether or not he killed her, that would be shocking.”
Rose is now trying to pursue a career in acting, her lifelong dream, and is professionally known as Rose Lenore.
“I love getting to be someone else. Everything I love doing involves performing, acting and dancing. When I was a kid and I took my first acting class, I was like ‘this is so cool,’ because you get to be someone else. You get to let go of everything else, all the nervousness and the anxiety and sadness, and you get to be somebody else. It helps with everything. It makes me happy,” she revealed.
Blake also encouraged Rose to follow her dreams of becoming an actress, with her adding, “I was always entertaining people as a little girl. He knew me up until I was five. I was always singing and dancing and putting on shows and whatever I could do to make people happy. I’ve seen some of the super-memorable scenes that [Blake has] done. I just don’t know why, I’ve never really watched anything that he’s been in. I think it might’ve been overwhelming.”
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.