Robert the Celebrity Stalker

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Dispersing in nineteen seventy. Robert John
Bardo was born to an American father and

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a Korean mother, and as the
youngest sibling of seven, his childhood was

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a bit chaotic. Robert's dad was
in the US Air Force, causing that

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large family to move states several times
before finally settling down in Arizona when Robert

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was in his early teens. The
frequent moves weren't the only unstable aspect of

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Robert's childhood. One of his older
siblings abused him and he became suicidal,

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causing him to be removed from his
family and put into foster care. Several

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other members of Robert's family were diagnosed
with mental illness, and eventually Robert was

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diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was
only fifteen years old. His emotional state

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was so bad that he was institutionalized. He attended high school up until the

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ninth grade, when he decided to
drop out. During this time, Robert's

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life had been taken over by a
deep obsession with a celebrity, Samantha Smith,

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an activist in her early teens who
had become famous after her anti war

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letter to a Soviet ambassador received international
attention. Robert's fascination with thirteen year old

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Samantha quickly snowballed out of control,
and before long he was actively stalking her.

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He even traveled to Maine in the
hopes of meeting her in person when

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she she returned from a trip to
the Soviet Union, but after a run

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in with police, he lost his
nerve and went back home regardless. Robert

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planned on continuing to stalk Samantha,
but then in nineteen eighty five, bar

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Harbor Airlines Flight eighteen oh eight crashed
with Samantha on board, killing her instantly.

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With the object of his obsession suddenly
dead, Robert was left reeling.

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He tried to focus on a couple
of female pop stars instead, but although

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he became briefly obsessed, he never
ended up stalking any of them. Finally,

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in nineteen eighty six, he found
somebody who made him feel the same

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way that Samantha Smith had, Rebecca
Schaeffer, an actress on the popular sitcom

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My Sister Sam. At the age
of sixteen, Robert watched an episode of

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the series, and he was immediately
infatuated with Rebecca. Quote, she came

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into my life at the right moment. She was brilliant, pretty outrageous.

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Her innocence impressed me. She turned
into a goddess for me, an idol.

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Since then I turned into an atheist. I only adored her. From

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that moment onward, Robert started writing
to Rebecca to express his admiration. Although

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she didn't reply, he still felt
like the two of them shared a close

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bond. The next year, Rebecca
actually wrote a reply to one of his

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letters, sending a short note where
she told Robert, your letter was one

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of the nicest I ever got.
Although it was the only time Rebecca ever

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communicated with him, Robert believed that
the note confirmed his feelings were mutual.

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Desperate to communicate with her in some
way, Robert ended up arriving at the

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set where My Sister Sam was being
filmed, and he tried to locate Rebecca.

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He was holding an enormous teddy bear
at a bunch of flowers, which

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he hoped he would be able to
give her as the next step in their

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romantic relationship. Instead, he was
apprehended by the security team, who refused

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to allow him on the set.
A Warner Brothers policy meant that all actors

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and actresses needed to be informed if
a member of the public was making uninvited

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advances for their own safety. However, Rebecca was never told about Robert's arrival

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on set. Because Robert had cooperated
when he was told to leave, and

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he didn't seem threatening or violent,
the security team decided that it wasn't worth

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worrying Rebecca. In the thick of
his obsession with Rebecca, Robert's emotional state

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was deteriorating. From nineteen eighty seven
to early nineteen eighty eight. His neighbors

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expressed that he made them feel unsafe
in their own neighborhood, and he was

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even arrested several times for disorderly conduct
and domestic violence. He might have left

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without a fuss when he was refused
access to the My Sister Sam set,

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but the incident didn't deter him from
trying to meet Rebecca. Instead, he

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hired a detective to find out the
actress's home address, and using motor vehicle

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records, they were able to find
it. During this time, Robert wrote

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a letter to his sister, telling
her quote, I have an obsession with

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the unattainable, and I have to
eliminate what I cannot attain. He also

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decided to buy a gun, and
when he was denied due to his mental

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illness, he got his brother to
buy one for him instead. On the

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eighteenth of July nineteen eighty nine,
Robert arrived at Rebecca Schaeffer's home with his

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gun. A few years ago,
he might have met her and expressed his

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love and admiration for her, but
now he was no longer viewing her in

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an affectionate light. He had been
infuriated to see that she filmed an intimate

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scene in one of her recent films, causing him to describe her as just

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another Hollywood whore who had lost the
sense of innocence that appealed to him.

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In his eyes, she had betrayed
him. Robert rang the doorbell of Rebecca's

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apartment, told her his name,
and showed her the note she written him

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in response to one of his letters. Rebecca didn't seem alarmed by Robert's presence.

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Instead, she was friendly, shaking
his hand before telling him that she

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had an appointment that she needed to
get ready for. After visiting a nearby

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diner and buying himself breakfast, Robert
decided to visit Rebecca's apartment a second time

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to give her a CD that he'd
bought her. He rang the doorbell,

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and once again Rebecca answered it herself. This time she wasn't as friendly,

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telling Robert to hurry up. Ultimately, Rebecca had no time to react.

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Robert pulled out a shotgun, fatally
shooting her, and then fled the scene.

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He had been carrying a copy of
the book The Catcher and the Rye

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with him throughout the entire ordeal,
and for some reason he decided to throw

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it onto the roof of a nearby
building when he ran away from the apartment.

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He was arrested for the murder after
being found in a dazed state,

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stumbling through busy streets and narrowly avoiding
being hit by cars. At Robert's trial,

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he said that the decision to murder
Rebecca had been influenced by a song

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Exit by the band U two,
which had lyrics that were written to portray

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the thoughts of a murderer. The
song was played for the jury, and

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Robert sat in the courtroom mouthing the
words. Another media influence brought up at

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the trial was the fact that Robert
had been holding a paperback of The Catcher

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and the Rye during the crime.
The prosecution pointed out that this detail was

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incredibly similar to another crime, when
Mark David Chapman fatally shot John Lennon,

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he had been carrying a copy of
the same book. Despite the glaring similarity,

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Robert insisted that the choice of the
book was nothing but a coincidence.

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Later on, Mark David Chapman claimed
that Robert had actually written to him in

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prison before killing Rebecca, asking him
questions about what it was like to be

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in prison. The defense attorneys agreed
that Robert had killed Rebecca, but argued

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that he should have a lighter sentence
due to his mental illness. Psychiatrist and

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criminologist Parke Deets testified about his assessment
of Robert, telling the jury that Robert

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was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which had
caused him to commit the crime despite his

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significant history with mental illness. The
jury found Robert guilty of murder in the

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first degree. He received a life
sentence without parole. The crime caused intense

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public scrutiny of the state Department of
Motor Vehicles because many people were concerned that

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Robert had been so easily able to
obtain Rebecca's home address through her DMV records.

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This resulted in the Driver's Privacy Protection
Act being passed by Congress forbidding the

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state departments from sharing home addresses.
Rebecca's murder also resulted in the United States

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first laws aimed at preventing stalking.
In two thousand and seven, Robert was

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walking from his cell to get breakfast
when he was attacked by another inmate who

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had been convicted of set second degree
murder. He was stabbed a total of

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eleven times with two different shives,
but after a brief treatment at the UC

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Davis Medical Center, he made a
full recovery. Eventually, Robert was moved

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from Mule Creek State Prisons maximum security
units to a medium security unit at Avana

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State Prison, where he will likely
remain for the rest of his life.

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That's ten minute murder for today,
brief and binge able true crime. I'm

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Joe, that's my name. I'm
the host, and thank you for taking

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the time to listen. And I
know what you're thinking. Joe saw Baby

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Reindeer on Netflix, so of course
he's going to do an episode about stalking.

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And that's partial that's partially true.
I did not come up with this

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topic. Someone like one of you
listening emailed me and said, hey,

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Joe, have you heard of this
case? Would you like to cover in

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one of your episodes. I put
it on the list to you to eventually

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get to and then I saw baby
Reindeer, and I'm just like, oh,

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this reminds me a little bit of
the Rebecca Schaeffer story. So I

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went back and found that and then
boom, here we are today. It's

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not exactly the same, obviously,
because the outcomes are very different, but

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they are both about stalking, and
they are both pretty terrifying. And by

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the way, if you've got a
story that you would like for me to

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cover, or if you just want
to send me an email and tell me

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anything under the sun that you want
to tell me, a recipe for a

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cast role doesn't matter. Joe at
ten minute Murder dot com is my email

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address, and I'm kind I'm half
kidding about the cast role. I could

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use a new cast role recipe Joe
at ten minute Murder dot com. But

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I could also use more cases to
cover even more. You can send them

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both if you want, That's fine
with me. That's my email address.

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Ten minute Murder dot com is the
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that's gonna do it. That's your
episode for today. Thank you so much

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for taking the time to listen.
Bye.