Blood Cold

The riveting true account of the 2001 murder of Bonny Lee Bakley, starring Robert Blake—the Hollywood icon accused of killing his wife in cold blood

In May 2001 Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death in a car parked on a dark Hollywood side street. Eleven months later Robert Blake—her husband, the father of her child, and the star of the classic film In Cold Blood and the popular 1970s TV detective series Baretta—was arrested for murder, conspiracy, and solicitation. Did Blake kill his wife? Did he hire someone to do the job for him?

Award-winning journalist Dennis McDougal and entertainment-media expert Mary Murphy recount a real-life crime story more shocking and bizarre than any movie, chronicling the parallel worlds of Blake and Bakley, from their troubled youths to their sham of a marriage. By the late 1990s Blake was coasting on his past success. Bakley was a con artist who concocted online sex scams and victimized unsuspecting men, netting big money and dangerous enemies.

In true noir style, McDougal and Murphy lay bare the stories of two violent people whose lives collided in a tragic tangle of abuse, betrayal, and love gone horribly wrong. 

Dennis McDougal is the author of eleven books, including Dylan: The Biography, The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood, and the true-crime books Angel of Darkness and Mother’s Day. He is also a coauthor of Blood Cold: Fame, Sex, and Murder in Hollywood. Formerly an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, McDougal began covering movies and media for the same newspaper in 1983 and, more recently, for the New York Times. His journalism has won over fifty honors, including the National Headliners Award and the Peabody Award.

Mary Murphy, a coauthor of Blood Cold: Fame, Sex, and Murder in Hollywood, is a senior lecturer at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She is a contributor to the syndicated shows Entertainment Tonight and The Insider and has been on the staffs of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Los Angeles Times, and New York, Esquire, and TV Guide magazines. Murphy has also reported for USA Today Sunday Magazine, the New York Post, and the Hollywood Reporter.