Execs Knew About Rebecca Shaeffer’s Killer
Schaeffer was best known for acting alongside Pamela Dawber in My Sister Sam, which ran from 1986 to 1988. At Bardo’s trial, Burbank Studios security chief John Egger said uninvited fans coming to the set was very common, as he estimated 100 people had done so in 12 years working at the studio, and roughly 500 letters were sent there in that span. In fact, Egger had turned Bardo away from the studio years before he killed Schaeffer.
Egger recounted how on June 2, 1987, a guard alerted him to Bardo, who wanted them to deliver a large bouquet and a 5-foot teddy bear to Schaeffer. Egger testified that he had staff bring Bardo to his office because he “had called numerous times, [and] had been referred to us by the production company of My Sister Sam because he called them so many times.”
Egger said he tried to steer the conversation to Bardo’s psychiatric history, but Bardo insisted on talking about meeting Schaeffer because he was in love with her. Despite this, Egger said Bardo appeared so non-hostile and unthreatening that he made the unprecedented move to have Bardo driven back home to Tucson.
“He was one of the most lucid and intelligent types of people I’ve dealt with,” Egger stated, comparing Bardo to other fans who had come to the lot unsolicited.
Phrases like “star gazer” or “star struck” were used during Bardo’s trial, arguably downplaying the nature of the stalking that led to Schaeffer’s death.
“Police, prosecutors and the courts really didn't look at stalking as something serious. It was the Schaeffer case that changed that,” Darren Stocker, professor at Cape Cod Community College and Security Expert at the Kolins Security Group, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “A big misconception regarding high-profile people is that they're inaccessible and surrounded by protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's not necessarily true.”
A Stalker Motivated by Anger
Bardo had not only taped every episode of My Sister Sam, but he also sent a trove of letters to Schaeffer. According to The Los Angeles Times, Schaeffer said in a personalized note to Bardo that his letter was the nicest she has ever gotten. Schaeffer’s friends reportedly dissuaded her from doing so, believing it would only heighten Bardo’s obsession with her.
“It's difficult at times for stalkers to fully comprehend why the victim would not want to be associated with them. They can't separate the emotional part of how they feel about things, how they see things and what their viewpoint is from the harm that they're causing by stalking that person,” Stocker says. “There is an inability to balance their need to be around the victim and see the potential harm in what they're doing. They believe if they can just ‘convince’ their victim, then the victim will understand.”
While the defense portrayed Bardo as a schizophrenic man who acted impulsively, prosecutors were tasked with proving that Schaeffer’s slaying was premeditated and fueled by hatred. The year he killed her, Bardo's infatuation with Schaeffer transformed to rage after seeing her in a love scene in Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, which he perceived as an alarming shift from her family-friendly roles.
Bardo visited Schaeffer twice at her apartment on the morning he shot her. The first time, he talked to her about the letter she sent him. She thanked him, shook his hand and told him to “take care,” Bardo said in a taped jail interview. Bardo was walking away when he remembered he had a CD and a letter he wanted to give to her, so he returned.
"It was like I was bothering her again. 'Hurry up, I don't have much time.' I thought that was a very callous thing to say to a fan,” Bardo revealed to psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz from Men’s Central Jail in September 1991.
A video of Bardo’s discussion with Dietz played at his trial. In it, Bardo showed Dietz how he pulled a .357 magnum from a shopping bag and shot Schaeffer in the chest.
Bardo recalled, “She was going, ‘Why, why?’ I was still fumbling around, thinking I should blow my head off and fall on her.”
Robert John Bardo’s Conviction and Aftermath
A day after gunning down Schaeffer, Bardo was found running into traffic in Arizona while confessing to killing the actress. Bardo opted for a bench trial over a jury trial, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Arthur H. Mackey found him guilty and sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole.
Bardo’s actions led to the 1990 passage of Penal Code 646.9, which imposes criminal penalties for stalking.
“That's been amended a few times to keep up with technology,” personal injury attorney and Callahan & Blaine CEO Edward Susolik tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “The courts are much more sophisticated now in understanding all the different ways that stalking—especially cyberstalking—can occur.”
While California was the first state to pass laws criminalizing stalking, Schaeffer’s death also sparked the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994. The federal law bars the Department of Motor Vehicles from disclosing someone’s personal information without their authorization.
She told The Oregonian, “I just hate to have her life defined by her death.”
