Robert John Bardo

Robert John Bardo
1989 mug shot of Robert John Bardo
Born	January 2, 1970 (1970-01-02) Tucson, Arizona, USA
Conviction(s)	First degree murder
Penalty	Life imprisonment
Status	Incarcerated at Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, CA

Robert John Bardo (born January 2, 1970) is an American man serving life imprisonment without parole after being convicted in October 1991 for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer on July 18, 1989, whom he had stalked for several years beforehand.

Early life

Robert Bardo was born and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. His mother was a Japanese native and his father was a noncommissioned officer in the US Air Force. The Bardos had seven children, of which Robert was their youngest.

Prior to locking his sights onto Schaeffer, Bardo was fixated with pop stars Tiffany and Debbie Gibson.

Murder

Having previously stalked child peace activist Samantha Smith before her death in a 1985 plane crash, Bardo turned his attention to Schaeffer in 1986. He attempted to gain access to the set of the CBS TV series My Sister Sam, in which Schaeffer was then starring. Ultimately, he obtained her home address via a detective agency, which in turn had obtained it from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. He confronted her at her home, angry at her for having starred in a sex scene in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and thus having "lost her innocence". He visited her at her apartment and told her he was a big fan. She asked him to leave. When he came back, he fatally shot her.

The prosecutor for the state was Marcia Clark, who later became famous as a lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial, though she made her name in the legal profession with her prosecution of Bardo. Bardo was housed in a Sensitive Needs Unit (SNY) for inmates with "sensitive needs", including former gang members, notorious prisoners and those convicted of sex crimes.

Bardo also carried around a copy of The Catcher in the Rye with him when he murdered Schaeffer.^{[citation needed]} He insisted that it was coincidental and that he was not emulating Mark David Chapman, who had also carried a copy with him when he shot and killed John Lennon on December 8, 1980.

Aftermath

Partly as a result of Bardo's actions and his means of obtaining Schaeffer's address, the US federal government passed the Driver's Privacy Protection Act which prohibits state Departments of Motor Vehicles from releasing the home addresses of state residents.

On July 27, 2007, Bardo was stabbed 11 times on his way to breakfast in the maximum-security unit at Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County, California. Two inmate-made weapons were found at the scene. He was treated at the UC Davis Medical Center and returned to prison, officials said. The suspect in the attack was another convict, serving 82-years-to-life for second-degree murder.