Christian Brando

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Christian Brando
Christian Brando in LAPD booking photo, May 1990
Born April 11, 1958 (age 48)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Occupation Relative
Spouse Deborah Presley
Parents Marlon Brando and Anna Kashfi

Christian Brando (11 May 1958) is the eldest of the offspring of the late actor Marlon Brando. He was convicted of the voluntary manslaughter of his half-sister Cheyenne's boyfriend on 16 May 1990 at Marlon Brando's residence on Mulholland Drive. He was released from prison in 1996.

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[edit] Early life

Brando was born in 1958 in Los Angeles, California, the result of a three-year-long affair between the Hollywood legend Marlon Brando and actress Anna Kashfi. Although claiming to be Indian, Kashfi was in fact born in Wales of Irish descent; she had been born Joan O'Callaghan. Having met in 1955, Kashfi and Brando married in 1958, Brando later claiming he had only married Kashfi because of the pregnancy, and continuing other relationships away from home. Kashfi had a brief film career in movies such as The Mountain with Spencer Tracy, Battle Hymn with Rock Hudson, and Cowboy starring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon.

With Brando's blatant philandering, Kashfi turned to barbiturates and alcohol, the couple divorcing a year after Christian's birth in May 1959. Christian was passed between the two as their relationship became more and more hostile and abusive. The author Nellie Bly claimed that “When the Brandos quarreled, Anna displayed a ‘frightening’ rage,” and that “Anna left baby Christian alone in her car parked on Wilshire Boulevard while she confronted Brando in his office, ‘beating at him with her fists, in a frenzy of rage.” There was a protracted custody battle between Kashfi and Brando until he eventually won custody of Christian aged 13 after an incident when Christian was taken out of school to Mexico by Kashfi without Brando's consent.

Christian had little good contact with his father, being raised by nannies and servants, moving between Hollywood and the private island near Tahiti. A reluctant witness to his father’s sexual exploits and bizarre behavior, Christian complained that:

“The family kept changing shape, I'd sit down at the breakfast table and say, ‘Who are you’”

[edit] Manslaughter

As the eldest child of the family with Brando often away, Christian felt strongly protective to his younger siblings, especially his younger sister Cheyenne. This was to result in tragedy in 1990 when Christian shot dead Dag Drollet, the Tahitian father of Cheyenne's unborn child on Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles. Christian and Cheyenne had returned from dinner at the Musso & Frank Grill, where Cheyenne had alleged that Dag was abusive, which was in fact untrue. Cheyenne was a drug addict and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. She committed suicide in Tahiti in 1995.

[edit] Bonnie Lee Bakley

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Brando became involved in the 2001 Bonnie Lee Bakley murder investigation when Robert Blake claimed that Christian Brando had been involved in the murder of Blake's 44-year-old wife. A voluminous criminal pre-trial motion laid out the theory of his involvement. Blake was however charged with the murder and acquitted. According to trial analysts, Blake's acquittal was a result of his defense lawyer's (M. Gerald Schwartzbach} successful impeachment of the prosecution's "stuntmen" witnesses and suggestions that others could have been involved in the murder. Christian appeared as a witness in actor Robert Blake’s civil trial, but refused to testify, invoking his Fifth Amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination. Although Brando refused to testify, his objectionable behavior in court earned him a "contempt of court" charge and conviction.

Sworn testimony from both the Blake criminal pre-trial hearings and civil trial suggested that Christian Brando had the same motive to have Bonny Lee Bakley killed as Blake may have had, and Brando already had a previous conviction for manslaughter. Bonnie Lee Bakley was dating Robert Blake and Christian Brando at the same time. Letters to Robert Blake from Bakley outlined her true financial motives for the relationships with Blake and Brando. Bakley became pregnant and claimed to both Brando and Blake that they were the father. Bakley named Christian Brando as the father in the official birth certificate and named the baby Christian Shannon Brando. After a DNA test, Robert Blake was proven to be the father.

According to trial testimony, just days before her murder, Bakley sent a letter to Brando with pictures of the baby, still claiming Brando was the father. A witness, Dianne Mattson, testified that Brando became enraged and at one point stated "somebody should put a bullet in that bitch's head!". In a tape recorded conversation between Brando and Bakley, Brando stated, "You’re lucky. You know, I mean, not on my behalf, but you’re lucky someone ain’t out there to pull a bul-bullet in your head”. Bonnie Lee Bakley died with a bullet in her head.

LAPD detectives investigated Christian Brando but found he had an alibi. Brando was in the State of Washington the night of the Bakley murder. However, subsequent witnesses came forward that implicated associates of Christian Brando in the murder that resided in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. According to witnesses, one of those associates was the prosecution star witness, a stuntman named "Duffy Hambleton". Hambleton claimed that Blake tried to hire him as the gunman to kill Bakley, but Hambleton refused. Blake testified that he hired Hambleton for private security to protect him and Bakley from a stalker. Criminal pre-trial and civil trial testimony suggested that Duffy Hambleton was an associate of Christian Brando and he arranged the murder of Bakley to curry favor with Brando. Witnesses testified that LAPD detectives refused to investigate this information because it was contrary to the prosecution's theory of the murder and in fact, implicated Duffy Hambleton (the LAPD and prosecution's key witness) in the murder conspiracy.

Another civil trial witness, Brian Allan Fiebelkorn, testified that he alerted authorities to information that could confirm prosecution witness Duffy Hambleton was not being truthful in his assertions against Robert Blake. More importantly, Fiebelkorn (as well as other trial witnesses) asserted that Duffy Hambleton had an association with Christian Brando, but Fiebelkorn was rebuked by law enforcement. During testimony in the Bakley family vs. Robert Blake civil trial, evidence came to light that LAPD Detective Ron Y. Ito surreptitiously recorded one of the LAPD interviews of Brian Allan Fiebelkorn before the criminal trial, but never turned it over to the defense in discovery (a direct violation of court orders). According to trial witnesses, the tape was played in civil court and documented that LAPD detective Ron Y. Ito intimidated Fiebelkorn by inferring that he was involved in the murder. If it could be proven that Duffy Hambleton did have a connection to Christian Brando, the plaintiff's claim against Robert Blake would be in jeopardy. If this tape was turned over to the Blake defense team before the criminal trial against Blake, the murder investigation may have resulted in others being implicated for the murder.

The civil trial verdict found Robert Blake liable in the death of Bonnie Lee Bakley. Blake's successful criminal trial attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, was so outraged at the civil trial verdict, the misconduct of the jury and by LAPD Dectective Ron Y. Ito's actions against Brian Allan Fiebelkorn, that he agreed to represent Blake once again for the appeal of the civil trial verdict. Although Blake was acquitted in the criminal trial, trial watchers surmised that Schwartzbach would be justified in his anger at the LAPD's suppression of the tape of Brian Allan Fiebelkorn's interview. If that taped interview of Fiebelkorn was turned over in discovery before the criminal trial, it could have helped Schwartzbach present the alternate theory implicating others in Bakley's murder that the Judge refused to allow into the trial. The Associated Press reported on January 19, 2007 that a formal complaint was filed against the LAPD and detective Ron Ito by M. Gerald Schwartzbach and Brian Allan Fiebelkorn.

The appeal's opening brief was filed on February 28, 2007.

[edit] Marriage and spousal abuse

Brando married artist Deborah Presley on October 16, 2004 in Las Vegas. Presley, two years Brando's senior, claims to be an illegitimate daughter of Elvis Presley.

On January 10, 2005, Christian Brando was charged with two counts of spousal abuse in relation to battery of his wife. Pleading guilty, he was sentenced to three years' probation and two months drug and alcohol treatment, and was ordered to complete a spousal abuse prevention program. The couple were divorced in June 2005.

[edit] External links

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