Rebecca Schaeffer is perhaps not a reputation that several individuals would acknowledge off the bat in terms of their Hollywood history. For those within the true crime community, the case of Rebekah Schaeffer is nothing wanting a tragedy.
A proficient young actor bogs down along with her career on the cusp of high status. along with her murder, however, came America’s initial anti-stalking law.
What happened to Rebekah Schaeffer? What junction rectifier to her tragic murder at the age of twenty oneMy Sister Sam? The story will certainly frighten you, particularly if you had a concern about stalking to start with. It’s conjointly a warning for those on the cusp of high status themselves. watch out for what varieties of fans you act with.
A star on the increase
21-year-old Rebekah Schaeffer was on the cusp of one thing huge with a capital B at the time of her murder. The young actor worked onerous in each acting & modeling so as to urge noticed. Her initial break came in 1986 once she was given a prima role in CBS’s My Sister surface-to-air missile. She marked opposite Pam Dawber’s (Mork & Mindy) titular surface-to-air missile as younger sister Patti.
Rebecca Schaeffer undoubtedly created herself celebrated within the solid. whereas My Sister surface-to-air missile was canceled once 2 seasons (partly because of the 1988 WGA Strike, partially because of falling ratings), Schaeffer wasn’t down for long.
She appeared within the films Radio Days and Scenes from a category Struggle in the metropolis. Her biggest break, however, was progressing to AN audition for The Godfather half III that was, apparently, her role to lose.
Unfortunately, this was once her life was restrained.
Stalked
Rebecca Schaeffer was unaware at the time, however, she was being pedunculated by a person named Henry M. Robert John Bardo. The 19-year-old was an admirer of Schaeffer’s since initial seeing her on My Sister surface-to-air missile. He wrote various letters to Schaeffer,
WHO answered one, and traveled to LA in 1987 to aim to envision her. Security, however, turned Bardo away. A month later, he came with a knife, and security guards turned him away once more.
While Bardo lost specialize in Rebekah Schaeffer once a jiffy, it came with retaliation in Scenes from a category Struggle in the metropolis. within the film, Schaeffer’s character seems in bed with another character. It happens all the time to a lot of actresses as a result of, again, this is often her job. Bardo, however, failed to like this in the slightest degree. He believed that Schaeffer was currently “just another Hollywood whore” and for that? She had to die.
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Bardo took inspiration from the crimes of Arthur Richard Jackson in 1982 wherever he pedunculated & injured actor nun Saldana in 1982. Jackson used a PI to seek out out her address. Bardo did an equivalent.
The PI he employed was ready to get Schaeffer’s address from the DMV. thus Bardo obtained a gun and visited LA to kill Schaffer. He saw her double on the day he killed her. Schaeffer was anticipating the script for her Godfather audition.
The first time they met face to face, Rebekah Schaeffer was, reportedly, terribly polite. She talked with Bardo for some minutes, gave him AN signed image, and with courtesy asked that he not return to her personal home once more. Bardo then visited a diner before returning to Schaeffer’s home wherever she was still anticipating that script. This time, however, he shot her within the chest at point-blank vary.
The aftermath of Rebekah Schaeffer’s death
Bardo was in remission the ensuing day in Tucson, Arizona wherever he was found running through traffic. He like a shot confessed to killing Rebekah Schaeffer. Marcia Clark, best celebrated for her add the O.J. Simpson trial, prosecuted the case wherever Bardo was guilty of capital murder in an exceedingly bench trial before being sentenced to life in jail while not the chance of parole.
In the aftermath of Rebekah Schaeffer’s murder, a federal law was passed concerning the discharge of knowledge through the DMV. In 1990, CA would pass the primary anti-stalking laws within the United States, that “makes it a crime to cause another, or their family, to be in affordable concern for his or her safety and carries a prison sentence.” The law is presently utilized in all fifty states.
