The gun Blake said he left at dinner — and the staff who never saw him return

🚨 THE GUN HE LEFT AT DINNER — AND THE STAFF WHO NEVER SAW HIM RETURN

The gun was left at the table, or so Robert Blake told police.

On the evening of May 4, 2001, he said he returned to Vitello's Restaurant to retrieve the handgun he had forgotten.

When he came back to the parked car, his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was slumped over, shot in the head.

She was 44, and they had been married less than six months.

He told police he had left the .38-caliber revolver at dinner.

The restaurant staff said they did not see him return.

That is the detail that splits the story in two.

Either Blake walked back inside for the weapon, or he did not.

The record does not settle it.

Staff accounts contradict his claim, and no footage or receipt from that night establishes his re-entry.

The murder weapon itself was found days later, in a dumpster near the restaurant.

Ballistics matched it to the bullet that killed Bakley.

A theory circulating online holds that the forgotten gun was a staged alibi, a prop left behind to explain his absence.

That theory is not a fact established by the record.

It is a story that fits the gaps, but the gaps remain gaps.

Was he in the restaurant, or was he at the car?

Did he find her dead, or did he know she was dying?

The staff never saw him return.

The gun was found in the trash.

The case would hinge on what happened in those minutes between dinner and the 911 call.

The record offers conflicting accounts and a weapon found days later.

That is all it offers.

THE COUPLE — SIX MONTHS MARRIED

Robert Blake, born Michael James Gubitosi, was an Emmy-winning actor known for the 1970s TV series *Baretta*.

Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, was his wife of less than six months.

They married in November 2000, after Bakley gave birth to a daughter, Rose, whom Blake believed was his child.

A later paternity test confirmed Blake was the father.

Bakley had a history of running mail-order scams.

She had been involved with other men, including actor Christian Brando, who had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a separate 1990 shooting.

The lead detective was LAPD Detective Rob Helton.

The district attorney's office was led by then-Los Angeles County DA Steve Cooley.

The exact nature of Blake and Bakley's relationship at the time of the shooting is not detailed in the record.

It is a marriage of six months. It is also a marriage with a newborn daughter.

It is a marriage that ended with a body in a parked car.

The case would hinge on what happened in those minutes between dinner and the 911 call.

The record offers conflicting accounts and a weapon found days later.

That is all it offers.

MAY 4, 2001 — DINNER AT VITELLO'S

They sat at a table inside Vitello's, a neighborhood Italian spot on Ventura Boulevard.

The evening was ordinary, the kind of dinner a couple has on a Friday night.

Then the meal ended.

Blake told police he walked back into the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he had left at the table.

A .38-caliber revolver, forgotten like a wallet or a set of keys.

When he came back to the parked car, he said, Bakley was slumped over, shot in the head.

She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The exact time Blake left the restaurant and returned to the car is not specified in the record.

It is a gap that the case never quite closed.

Restaurant staff said they did not see Blake return.

They saw him leave, they said, and they did not see him come back.

Not because the restaurant was empty.

Because the staff remembered the evening differently than he did.

The table was cleared.

The gun was gone.

The car held a dying woman.

Blake's account placed himself inside the restaurant at the moment Bakley was shot.

The staff's memory placed him outside it.

The record offers both versions.

It does not resolve them.

A weapon found days later in a dumpster near the restaurant would add ballistics to the timeline, but not clarity.

For now, the night of May 4, 2001, rests on a simple question: did he go back in, or didn't he?

The staff said no.

Blake said yes.

That is all the record establishes about those minutes.

THE 911 CALL AND THE FIRST ACCOUNT

The 911 call itself is not detailed in the record.

That is the first thing to know about that night.

Police initially treated Blake as a witness.

Suspicion turned quickly.

Investigators noted that Blake told conflicting accounts of his movements after the shooting.

The exact nature of those conflicts is not specified in the record.

Blake claimed he had gone back into the restaurant to retrieve the gun he left at the table.

Restaurant staff said they did not see him return.

The staff said no.

Blake said yes.

That is all the record establishes about those minutes.

Was he inside, grabbing the weapon?

Was he outside, at the car?

Was he somewhere else entirely?

That would require evidence the record does not provide.

Police also found no gunshot residue on Blake's hands.

Not because the test cleared him.

But because the absence of residue proved nothing either way.

A gun fired from a distance leaves no residue on the shooter.

A gloved hand leaves none.

A wiped hand leaves none.

The record does not say which, if any, applied.

It says only what the test did not find.

Blake was a witness that night.