Twenty-one-year-old fresh-faced beauty Rebecca Schaeffer was co-star of the popular 1980s sitcom My Sister Sam. Schaeffer quickly climbed the Hollywood ladder of success before a crazed fan, 19-year-old Robert Bardo, viciously accosted her. Bardo had been writing Schaeffer love letters for months. The actress was so thoughtful, she personally responded to each one of her fans, including Bardo.
On July 18, 1989, Schaeffer was prepared to meet director Francis Ford Coppola to audition for a role in Godfather III. Simultaneously, Bardo tracked down Schaeffer’s home address and decided to pay her a visit in West Hollywood.
With his obligatory copy of The Catcher in the Rye in hand (the same book found in the possession of John Lennon’s assassin Mark David Chapman), Bardo staked out Schaeffer’s apartment building. He rang her direct intercom, but since it was broken, she came down to see who was there.
As Schaeffer opened the front door, Bardo plugged a single bullet into her chest and casually strolled off. The young actress died at the hands of her No. 1 fan.
It was learned later that Bardo obtained Schaeffer’s address from a Tucson, Ariz., detective agency, which paid $250 to retrieve the address from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
After he murdered Schaeffer, Bardo hopped on a Greyhound Bus and headed back home to Tucson. Instead of returning to his house, he literally played on a freeway. Bardo, who seemed intent on killing himself, was arrested and ticketed for jaywalking.
While Bardo sat in a Tucson jail cell, a relative of his contacted the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) when she heard news of Rebecca Schaeffer’s murder. The relative informed police that the day before the murder, Bardo told her he was going to Los Angeles to visit the actress. She then told LAPD that Bardo lived in Tucson.
The young executioner was soon extradited to Los Angeles and tried for the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer. District Attorney Marcia Clark successfully prosecuted Bardo for first degree murder and he was given a sentence of life without parole. Afterward, California Gov. George Deukmejian signed a law that would give individuals the ability to prevent the DMV from releasing their personal home address.
