Robert Blake's interview with Piers Morgan: Actor gets defensive about wife's murder

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Actor Robert Blake has emerged from seclusion. He vented his feelings about his legal ordeal and the murder of his wife in a rare interview that aired on CNN on Wednesday.

Blake has not done a TV interview in more than a decade. Piers Morgan said he has done nearly 2,000 interviews over 25 years, but he has never done one that was more confrontational or bizarre than this one.

"Do I look like that? You better take that raggedy [expletive] thing out in the yard and bury it," Blake said as he looked at himself on a screen.

That was how he answered the question, "How are you?" It wasn't long before Morgan asked about the 2001 murder of Blake's wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley.

"Tell me where I'm lying," Blake said to Morgan.

"I'm not saying you're lying." Morgan replied.

"But you say you don't know if I'm telling the truth, what the hell's the difference?" Blake said. "I would go out to dinner to kill her, what the [expletive] is the matter with you?"

In 2005, Blake was acquitted of Bakley's murder. But he was found liable for Bakley's death in a civil suit. He told Morgan that happened for one simple reason.

"I was suicidal. I didn't give a [expletive] if I lived or died. And I damn near did kill myself several times," Blake said.

Blake said he never loved Bakley and described her as a con artist. He said he has no idea who killed her.

"Why would I marry her if I was going to kill her? I was worth $25 million. I could have hired somebody to kill her when she was in Tibet or some place," Blake said.

Blake has written a book about his life, and it is not kind to law enforcement.

"I was supposed to die in that cell, wasn't I? But I didn't die. And you didn't get your book deals, you mothers! I wrote a book about you," Blake said as he looked into the camera.

"You can't go through your life feeling like this," Morgan told him.

"Says who? I'm 79 years old. I've been this way since I was born. There's no question that I'm very thin-skinned and I'm frightened," Blake said. "I know I'm still hurt and I may be hurt for the rest of my life. The only thing that will cure that hurt is if I get back on that bull that bucked me off and ride him. If I can go out in front of the camera, making the most beautiful film that I ever made, that's all I really want from life."

Blake said he is broke and all his friends have left him and he's lonely. But he said his fans have always been there for him ever since his career began at age 2.

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