Crime & Safety

Robert Blake Talks about the Death of his Wife to Piers Morgan

The CNN exclusive interview has the first interview with Blake since the Studio City homicide occurred.

Actor , a longtime resident of Studio City when his wife was killed around the corner from  spoke in a contentious exclusive interview with Piers Morgan on CNN Wednesday night.

Blake, who was arrested and then acquitted on charges of murder for the death of his wife , pointed out that the shooting occurred shortly after they were married. 

"She had 15 IDs, she had 15 credit cards, no one could ever find her," he said about his wife. "Then they see that she married Robert Blake and ask 'Where does he live?'"

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Blake did not deny any of the familiar accounts of the scene of that night May 4, 2001 when they ate at Vitello's at a familar favorite booth and then he walked her to the car around the corner, near the intersection of Woodbridge Street and Kraft Avenue. He went back into the restaurant to retrieve his gun that he left there, and when he returned, he found her dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

Morgan was interviewing Blake because of a new book, Tales of a Rascal: What I did for Love. The former star of the detective show Baretta and the movie In Cold Blood was also a child star in The Little Rascals.

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Blake said he is always being asked about the night of the murder, whether he is in a motorcycle bar or a barber shop. "It's because I didn't take the stand," he said.

After Morgan wondered out loud if Blake was telling the truth, the former actor grew visibly angry and said: "Well, tell me where I'm lying, because if you don't know I'm telling you the truth, then you must have a little scratch in the back of your head about where I'm lying. Tell me where I’m lying?"

Blake did lose a later civil case in connection to the death of his wife.

Blake added, “I've never allowed anybody to ask me the questions that you're asking. I allowed you to do that because I trust you. And I would have assumed that you and that guy in your ear would trust me. And if you don't, then we'd better start talking about 'The Little Rascals."

Blake also pointed at the camera and blamed the Los Angeles Police involved in his arrest. He said, "I was supposed to die in that cell, wasn't I, you bastards . . .  those rotten, bastard cops that ripped my guts out and left me beside the road to die. I didn't die and you didn't get your book deal, you mothers," shouted Blake. "I wrote a book about you! So you have to go out and rip some other celebrity until he's dead, then you can write a book about him!"

He said the incident was not the most important thing that happened in his life. Beinga young actor and making people laugh was more important. He also said his wife was a con artist.

“I didn't know her well enough to know her," Blake said. "I love her - well, I love you as a human being. You're my brother in arms,” he told the host matter-of-factly. “We're all in this thing together. But we were not dramatically in love or things like that.”

Watch the clip above and click here for more, including a combative dialogue about the night of her murder.

Also see:

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