He played a cop on television, but the real-life murder case Robert Blake has found himself at the center of has more twists and turns than an episode of "Baretta."

Nearly a year after he was seen crying at the scene where his wife of four months, Bonny Lee Bakley, was shot and killed, Blake was arrested and charged with her murder.

Bakley's checkered past as a con artist, Blake's handyman-turned-bodyguard and a web of celebrities with whom Bakley was thought to have been involved gave police much to investigate before arresting the 1970s television star 11 months after the crime.

Starstruck

The 44-year-old Bakley, who went by several aliases, had been married numerous times — so many in fact, that several of her former husbands don't know how many marriages she's had or whether she was even divorced when she remarried.

Bonny Lee Bakley

She also made a living running a lonely hearts scheme, sending provocative pictures of herself to men with the promise of visiting them if they sent her money. After receiving money, she would never show.

By the time she died she had accumulated an estate that included three houses.

Bakley's past was further checkered by a criminal record. She had been convicted in Arkansas for possessing false identifications.

Bakley also had a history of pursuing celebrities. She claimed to have had an affair with rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis and borne his child, a girl she named Jeri Lee, but DNA tests later proved he was not the father. Lewis has denied having a relationship with Bakley.

Tapes of Bakley's phone conversations reveal that she was starstruck and bent on marrying someone famous.

"I like being around celebrities," she said on one tape. "It makes you feel better than other people."

Bakley and baby Rose

Initially, Bakley believed the her fourth child, a baby girl, was fathered by Christian Brando, son of Marlon Brando. Bakley claimed to have become involved with him after he was released from prison after serving half of a 10-year sentenced for manslaughter for killing his half-sister's boyfriend in 1990.

She named her daughter Christian Shannon Brando, but later told Blake she wasn't sure if the baby was Brando's. When a DNA test determined that it was Blake, not Brando, that was the father of Bakley's youngest child, Blake agreed to marry her.

Marriage of Convenience

Bakley and Blake

A month before their marriage, in October 2001, the couple signed a legal agreement stipulating that Bakley would have to cease her business practices.

The document also stated that the two would live on Blake's Mati Hari Ranch in Studio City, but in separate houses on the property. It even said that Bakley couldn't have friends or family visit without Blake's written permission.

Finally, the agreement said that whoever backed out of the impending wedding would lose custody of the little girl. The two were married, and the baby was renamed Rose.

But despite the agreement, Bakley continued her money-making scheme while living at the ranch, according to Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun. After the murder, Braun turned over documents to police reportedly containing threatening letters written by men Bakley allegedly bilked out of money.

In the weeks before her murder, Blake said, there was a suspicious man in his early 20s with a crew cut that was spotted watching the ranch from a black pickup truck.

Earle Caldwell

For her protection, Blake claimed, he carried a handgun and hired Earle Caldwell as a bodyguard. Caldwell was Blake's handyman, having done some work around the ranch and installing a car stereo for him.

Scene from an Italian Restaurant

Blake had frequented a nearby Italian restaurant several times a week, so often that the menu of Vitello's featured a dish named after him. Blake, who never made a reservation at the eatery, usually had the valet park his car in the lot behind the restaurant and sat at the same corner table.

But on May 4, 2001, Blake called ahead to make a reservation and requested a different table. At about 7:30 p.m., he parked a block and a half away from Vitello's. With Bakley in the front seat, he pulled his 1991 black Dodge Stealth behind a Dumpster, which sat in front of a construction site.

Vitello's Restaurant

The two walked to the restaurant, where he introduced Bakley to staff as his wife. Restaurant employees later said they hadn't been aware Blake was married.

Bakley ordered a seafood dish and wine, while Blake ordered the pasta dish named after him. In the middle of dinner, according to one patron, Blake was seen in the men's room vomiting. He returned to his table, however, charged the meal to his credit card and left with Bakley at about 9:30 p.m.

A few minutes later, he returned to the restaurant, claiming he had forgotten his handgun, which he was licensed to carry. The restaurant owner said Blake appeared "flustered." The actor asked for water, and after drinking two glasses he left.

According to Blake, he walked back to his car to find his wife in his car shot dead.

He ran to a nearby house, owned by filmmaker Sean Stanek, who called 911. Stanek and Blake returned to the car. By some accounts, Blake returned to the restaurant again to seek medical attention for his dying wife while Stanek tried to stop the bleeding.

While waiting for paramedics to arrive, witnesses say, Blake was sitting on the curb crying.

Bakley was rushed by ambulance to a Burbank hospital, but later died.

Bakley was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, but was pronounced dead there at 10:45 p.m.

Days later the murder weapon, a Walther PPK, was found with its serial number partially filed off in the Dumpster 6 feet from where Blake's car was parked.

Media Frenzy

In the days following her murder, reporters camped out in front of Blake's Mati Hari Ranch. Braun gave the media plenty to write about, publicly discussing Bakley's shady history.

Blake's lawyer Harland Braun

"Apparently she's had some criminal history," Braun told the media. "So it could be any number of people that had it in for her."

Even O.J. Simpson, the football hero who was tried but acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, publicly rallied to Blake's defense.

"As far as I'm concerned, this man is innocent until a jury comes back and calls him guilty," Simpson said on national television, advising Blake to refuse to take a lie detector test and suggesting he avoid watching television reports.

The media converged on the story in the days following Bakley's murder.

"Murder is usually a highly motivated thing, but here we have a woman we don't know a lot about," Braun said. "Someone took that opportunity to kill her when Robert left the car. She was very vulnerable."

But while the defense was outspoken about Bakley's shady dealings, her brother said in an interview with a Memphis television news reporter that Blake had threatened his sister.

"He was making a lot of verbal threats," Peter Carlyon told WMC-TV.

Carlyon claimed Blake told Bakley in a heated argument that she didn't need to worry if life was getting her down because he "already had a bullet with her name on it."

Los Angeles police chief Bernard Parks also spoke out against Blake's spin on Bakley's character.

"The media has been given a platform to desecrate the memory of the victim," Parks said. "Whatever her character was, she did not deserve to be a homicide victim."

Blake even canceled Bakley's funeral when reporters converged on the scene, and rescheduled it for the following week.

At her funeral, Blake held his 2-year-old daughter and paid tribute to Bakley as the mother of his child.

Blake holding baby Rose at Bakley's funeral

"It's because of Bonny that Rosie was born. It was her will, her conviction, not mine, her dedication that brought Rosie into this world, and for that I thank God and I thank Bonny," he said.

But conspicuously absent from the funeral were Bakley's family, who boycotted the service because they suspected Blake of her murder.

Bakley's family weren't the only ones. Though police, who said there were "few clues" in the crime, told reporters that Blake had been interviewed as a witness, not a suspect, investigators embarked on a rigorous probe, interviewing more than 150 witnesses in 20 states and examining more than 900 pieces of evidence.

Back in the Spotlight

Much like Blake's career, the case seemed to fade into obscurity.

Robert Blake, being led off in handcuffs by police following his arrest

But nearly a year after the murder, police arrested Blake and Caldwell on April 19. The Los Angeles district attorney's office accused Blake of pulling the trigger himself and charged him with murder. Both Blake and Caldwell were charged with conspiracy.

According to prosecutors, months before the May 2001 murder Caldwell and Blake began plotting Bakley's demise. The original plan called for Blake and Caldwell to take Bakley on a trip from Arizona to California and kill her during the journey. Prosecutors also say that Caldwell prepared a list of supplies needed to pull off the murder, including old rugs, Draino and pool acid.

Blake, who is being held without bail, in the same prison where O.J. Simpson was held before his acquittal, posted $1 million bail for Caldwell.

Robert Blake as 1970s cop "Baretta"

Blake was also charged with two counts of solicitation to commit murder. Though prosecutors remain tight-lipped regarding who Blake allegedly approached about killing his wife, Braun said that two former "Baretta" stuntmen, Gary McLarty and Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton, are expected to testify that they were offered money by Blake to kill Bakley.

Braun swiftly questioned the credibility of McLarty and Hambleton.

"The problem with these witnesses is, if this is true, why didn't they call the police?" Braun asked. "Often these kinds of witnesses have some problem in their history or they want to jump on a big case to be in the spotlight."

Though prosecutors had the option of pursuing the death penalty if they win a conviction of the 68-year-old actor, they issued a statement saying that they would not, instead opting to seek a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Bakley's family has filed a wrongful death suit against Blake and Caldwell, asking for unspecified damages for Bakley's four children.

Delinah Blake, the actor's 34-year-old daughter by his first wife, actress Sondra Kerr, has petitioned for custody of Rosie while her father is held without bail.

No trial date has yet been set.