The Quotable Blake

Actor Robert Blake never spoke a word on the witness stand during his murder trial, in which he was accused of killing his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, yet the three-month proceedings were filled with memorable lines — some delivered in the courtroom, others just outside its doors.

“It was green and appeared to be regurgitated spinach.”

—Homicide detective Steven Eguchi describing Blake’s ?crime-scene vomit

“He said, ‘I’m gonna make this work — I’ll even fuck her if I ?have to.’?”

—Blake friend John Solari recalling Blake bracing for his marriage to Bakley

“Objection — incomprehensible!”

—Prosecutor Shellie Samuels, interrupting defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach’s cross-examination

“?‘Just let them come to my house, let them come over the fence! I’ll shoot them dead and the birds can pick the flesh off their bones.’?”

—Cody Blackwell, Blake’s personal assistant, recalling Blake's words after the pair had spirited away his daughter from Bakley

“I’ve heard he can bore a starving dog off a meat truck.”

—Samuels on Schwartzbach’s long, tedious opening statement

“Here come the hillbillies.”

—CBS radio reporter Steve Fetterman upon the courtroom entrance of witnesses Keith Seals and Donna Lorraine Sharon, who testified about stuntman Duffy Hambleton’s San Bernardino drug-lab ranch

“Well, you know, a lot of people want to strangle their wives, and I thought maybe he was venting his anger.”

—Witness Gary McLarty, answering why he didn’t report Blake’s incessant pleas for the stuntman ?to kill Bakley

“He had me up there for two and a half days, and he could have finished in two and a half hours. My butt hurt.”

—Homicide detective Ronald Ito, complaining about defense attorney Schwartzbach’s drawn-?out questioning

“You’re a lying, two-faced punk!”

—John Solari to Blake, in ?a corridor confrontation after the actor cut off ?their ­friendship

“They never asked me, so I never brought it up.”

—Private investigator and retired LAPD detective William Jordan, explaining why he never told police that his client Blake had once returned to Vitello’s restaurant to retrieve a gun he’d left behind after the two had dined there — an action foreshadowing Blake’s ?crime-scene alibi