Having previously stalked child peace activist Samantha Smith before her death in a 1985 plane crash. Bardo turned his attention to actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1986.

 

After writing numerous letters to Schaeffer, Bardo attempted to gain access to the set of the CBSTV series My Sister Sam, in which Schaeffer was then starring. Ultimately, he obtained her home address via a detective agency, who in turn tracked it via California Department of Motor Vehicles records. He confronted her at her home, angry at her for having starred in a sex scene in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and thus having "lost her innocence". He visited her at her apartment and told her he was a big fan. She politely signed an autograph. She went back into her apartment and he left. About fifteen minutes later, Bardo returned and again rang the bell to her apartment. Schaeffer, who had been waiting for a film script to be delivered and thought it was the messenger, was somewhat surprised that it was Bardo again. She told him that she was somewhat busy and politely asked him to leave. This provoked Bardo, who had come to "rescue her", and he pulled a gun he had purchased only days before out of a paper bag, pointing it at her chest and shooting Schaeffer. Per Bardo's testimony to police, upon being shot, Schaeffer screamed out, "Why?" and collapsed to the ground. Brought to the hospital by paramedics, Schaeffer was pronounced dead on arrival. Bardo was later arrested when he was observed walking aimlessly in traffic.

The prosecutor for the state was Marcia Clark, who later became famous as a lead prosecutor in theO. J. Simpson trial (although she made her name in the legal profession with her prosecution of Bardo). Bardo was housed in a Sensitive Needs Unit(SNU) for inmates such as gang members, notorious prisoners, and those convicted of sex crimes. During the trial, Bardo claimed the U2 song "Exit" was an influence in the murder, the song played in the court room as evidence (with Bardo lip-synching the lyrics.

Bardo carried a red paperback copy of The Catcher in the Rye when he murdered Schaeffer, which he tossed onto the roof of a building as he fled. He insisted that it was coincidental and that he was not emulating Mark David Chapman, who had also carried a copy with him when he shot and killed John Lennon on December 8, 1980.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_John_Bardo