Read an Excerpt
Exploring Forensic Astrology
The Secrets Behind Famous Family Murders
By B. D. Salerno iUniverse
Copyright © 2016 B.D. Salerno
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-9272-8
CHAPTER 1
Mariticide: Till Murder Do Us Part
Mariticide is the murder of one spouse by the other. The tendency to commit spousal murder is described by the qualities of the planets and stars in the birth horoscope of the murderer, as well as in the event horoscope of the crime itself.
In forensic astrology, spousal murder is difficult to determine because the seventh house, which represents the offender in a crime chart, also represents the victim's spouse. But not all spouses kill their partners — even though that delightfully wicked idea may cross our minds from time to time!
So how do we differentiate between the two when analyzing a crime chart? The cases discussed in this chapter provide some answers.
In murder cases, the Ascendant and Descendant rulers represent the victim and murderer, respectively. But in spousal murder cases, we must also consider the traditional rulers of husband and wife — the sun and the moon.
I've found that the sun as male figure, husband, and father, and the moon, with her domicile over the mother, home, and family, figure prominently in the horoscopes of mariticides. As a natural ruler of women, Venus also contributes to the narrative.
The nativities of the parties involved in spousal killings indicate afflictions to the seventh house, its ruler, and the sun and moon. And the fixed stars and Arabic Parts tell their own stories of tragic destiny at the hands of one's spouse.
The essential dignities of the planets — rulership, triplicity, exaltation, detriment, fall, and term — also play a significant role in telling the story behind the events portrayed in the event chart.
Please refer to the Dignity section of the appendix in the rear of this book for more precise definitions on the essential and accidental dignities.
House placement is also significant in the crime chart. The victim's significator or the moon in the seventh house can suggest a spousal relationship if other strong connections between the parties are present.
With all of these astrological tools at our disposal, we can narrow down the field of likely suspects to the spouse or significant other of the victim.
In the following cases of spousal murder, the planets representing victim/husband/wife and offender/husband/wife share multiple connections by virtue of their essential dignities. When the planets are connected, so are the people that they represent.
Some well-wishers have challenged the point of my research: "We already know that Phil Hartman was shot by his wife! So what?" It's a valid point, but they are missing a more important point — that the astrology of the crime supports the facts of the case.
So, if we hadn't known that the wife did it, we could have drawn inferences from the crime chart that would have pointed us in her direction.
Many of her fans still wonder about the untimely death of actress Natalie Wood. Does the forensic horoscope of her drowning emphasize a purely random accident or the tragic result of domestic violence?
The reader is also invited to review the chapters on JonBenet Ramsey, Dr. Sam Sheppard, and Bob Crane, murders that, sadly, went cold long ago. The crime horoscopes in these cases offer viable clues to the real perpetrators of the crimes, who got off scot-free because of misguided or incomplete investigations.
Forensic astrology can't indict or convict anyone of a crime, but it offers us a way to obtain clues to the identity of the killer, and in so doing, it provides law enforcement with leads. Just ask any frustrated detective working a cold case of the value of a fresh lead!
The renowned seventeenth-century French astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche, also known as Morinus, tells us that nothing happens in the life of an individual that is not revealed by the nativity. So it is useful to have the birth data of the victim and killer on hand whenever possible.
In the following cases of Bonnie Lee Bakley, Natalie Wood, Phil Hartman, and Laci Peterson, the sun, the moon, Ascendant, and Descendant rulers are connected by rulership, triplicity, exaltation, term, or house placement, indicating that victim and offender were known to each other and shared some connection. The forensic charts point to involvement by the spouse in these tragic deaths. The natal horoscopes also depict difficult marital relations with the potential for violent endings.
In the case of Sam Sheppard, whose wife was murdered, there were no astral correspondences to suggest spousal murder. The court of public opinion judged him guilty, but forensic astrology showed otherwise. So did the actual killer's confession, which came too late to make a difference.
Let's explore these cases to see how all this works.
Bonnie Lee Bakley: Death by Baretta?
Venus and Mars are at odds. They make men unsteady and weak of mind; they cause rivalry and murder ... and plotters of murder by poison ... [they cause men] to be wronged by women and because of them to suffer crises, upsets and debts.
— Vettius Valens, Anthologies, Book I
On May 4, 2001, Bonnie Lee Bakley, the ex-wife of actor Robert Blake, was gunned down as she sat waiting for him in her car in the parking lot of a restaurant where they had just dined. Blake was tried for the crime and acquitted, but many believed that he got away with murder — especially the witnesses who testified at trial that he had asked them to kill her.
Blake's behavior leading up to the shooting was suspicious. The two had dined at a favorite Italian restaurant in Studio City. Just after leaving the restaurant, he realized that he had left his pistol in the booth and returned to the restaurant to retrieve it.
While waiting in the car, Bonnie (whose name has variously appeared in print as Bonny) was shot at point-blank range in the head and chest. Blake returned to find Bonnie fatally wounded, and ran to neighboring houses to call for help. Witnesses reported that his panicky behavior seemed staged and insincere.
Blake maintained that a random murderer had appeared on the scene, approached the car, and shot Bonnie at the precise moment he had left her alone. It was not a robbery or a carjacking, so a darker, more personal motive may have been in play.
Bonnie Lee Bakley's history with men was the stuff of pulp novels. Always on the lookout for wealthy, well-connected older men, she conned her way through ten different marriages in search of fame and financial security.
After meeting Robert Blake in 2000, she quickly became pregnant, but since she had also been involved with Christian Brando, a DNA test was conducted to determine the father's identity. When the test confirmed that Blake was the father, he married her.
But it was a marriage in name only, and an unhappy one at that. The two never lived together; Bonnie and baby Rose shared a separate guest house on Blake's property.
The couple had agreed to a divisive prenuptial agreement: if one partner divorced the other, that partner would automatically default custody of the child. Blake was concerned about Bonnie's questionable influence on the baby, but he knew that a divorce would cost him custody of the child. Was this catch-22 a motive for murder?
We can determine certain facts of the crime by studying the event chart for the shooting, which took place at approximately 9:40 p.m., on May 4, 2001, in Studio City, California.
The Ascendant is at ten degrees of Sagittarius. Bonnie, as victim, is represented by the Ascendant ruler Jupiter, which is on the Descendant in Gemini, sign of its detriment. Pluto, in retrograde motion, is rising in exact opposition to Jupiter. This powerful aspect is exact to the minute, clearly portraying a deadly scenario.
For details on the shooter, we look to the seventh house and its ruler. This is one of the challenges of forensic astrology. In astrology, the seventh house is the house of open enemies — it rules the perpetrator of the crime.
But it also rules the marriage partner, the business partner, and other professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The spouse is usually the first person of interest in a murder, but we can't assume that the spouse is always the killer. So what do we look for in the astrological portrait that will show that they are one and the same?
Besides considering the seventh-house ruler, we need to examine the qualities and placement of the sun, which rules men, and the moon, which rules women and marriage.
In the crime horoscope, Bonnie (Jupiter) has these connections to Robert (Mercury):
• Ruled by seventh-house ruler, Mercury (Robert)
• In triplicity of Mercury (Robert)
• In seventh house of partner
• In partile trine with the moon (wife, mother), also representative of marriage, which is in Libra, sign of relationships
• The sun and Venus, representing male and female, are in mutual reception
• Mercury is in exaltation and triplicity of the moon (wife, mother)
In addition to Jupiter's trine with the moon, there is a wide grand trine between Jupiter, the moon, and Neptune, suggesting deception on a grand scale.
In the crime chart, Blake's planet is Mercury at twenty-eight degrees of Taurus, in the exaltation and triplicity of the moon. A planet in the late degrees of a sign is about to enter the next sign, reflecting that the situation at hand is about to change.
Mercury is in the sixth house, which defines situations that we feel unable to free ourselves from, like a loveless marriage to an unscrupulous partner.
Venus is the ruler of the planetary hour and so takes on special significance. In the chart, she is in detriment in Aries, where she can be self-serving and demanding. She is also in the fourth house, which rules endings, as well as fathers.
Baby Rose was a source of dissension between the couple. The Arabic Part of Daughters here is exactly conjunct Saturn, expressing the misfortune that surrounded the child. Saturn rules death and loss. The mother was murdered to prevent the loss of the daughter.
The gun used in the commission of the crime was not the same gun that Blake went to retrieve. But having played the role of detective in the television crime series Baretta, Blake was aware of the importance of the murder weapon. He would not have been so naive as to use the same gun that he left at the restaurant. The fact that he even left a gun at the restaurant came across as a contrived attempt to manufacture an alibi for the time of the shooting.
I do not believe this was a random act of murder committed at the precise time that Blake happened to momentarily step away. I believe the chart shows that Bonnie knew her killer and was closely connected to him.
Mercury is in the term of the fifth-house ruler: the killer is concerned over the child's welfare. The loss of the child in a custody battle is often a motive for spousal murder, and this formed the basis for the prosecution's case.
The purpose of the trial was to bring Bonnie's killer to justice, but it also aired her dirty laundry for all to see, and the details of her sordid past fed the tabloids for weeks on end. Her natal horoscope gives us remarkable insight into the desperate world of a woman intent on survival yet destined for murder (June 7, 1956; Morristown, New Jersey; 10:40 a.m.).
Bonnie's sun is at seventeen degrees of Gemini, a degree of murder. (See "6. Critical Degrees" in the appendix.) The sun rules her seventh house of the partner — were partner and killer one and the same?
Bonnie's tight moon-Mercury conjunction in Gemini formed a square to her Piscean Mars, giving an aggressive, reckless edge to her behavior. She was clever and knew how to advance her own agenda, but her sharp tongue was more than capable of provoking anger in others.
The ancients did not favor these combinations in the nativity. Ancient astrologer Vettius Valens remarked:
Mercury and Mars are not good. They cause hostility, lawsuits, reversals, malice, betrayals, wrongs from superiors or inferiors ... They resort to forgery in order to embezzle, steal, and loot, and having fallen into debt and expenses, they bring on themselves infamy and hot pursuit.
Italian astrologer Jerome Cardan was more fatalistic about Mercury-Mars. In his aphorism number 15, he states:
Mercury mixing his beams with Mars, is a great argument of a violent death.
With Capricorn rising and Saturn in the tenth house of career, Bonnie's social status was extremely important to her — and a constant source of anxiety. Saturn is in Scorpio, sign of the partner's finances, and trines the seventh-house Uranus in late Cancer; she gained status through her partners but divorced many times.
Jupiter conjunct Pluto in the seventh also reveals that there were many partners, affluent ones, who fell prey to manipulation for financial gain.
The moon rules Bonnie's partner and is in the double-bodied sign Gemini, indicating multiple marriages. The moon, in square to the second-house Mars, shows stress between partner and finances, and is close to the South Node: she would repeat emotional patterns throughout her lifetime by marrying again and again. Her last marriage sowed the seed of her destruction.
The seventh-house Uranus depicts a volatile partner, and a desperate one, as it occupies the critical last degree of Cancer. Also called the "divorce planet," Uranus is in square or stress aspect to Neptune, which does not set the stage for a stable relationship. Neptune rules fantasy and deception, and Bonnie was adept at turning both to her advantage.
The nativities of both Bonnie and Robert feature a seventh-house Uranus, and both had been divorced. In Robert Blake's nativity (September 18, 1933; Nutley, New Jersey; 8:30 a.m.), we note that his natal moon conjoins Neptune — a useful aspect for an actor, but not so for a marital partner. This moon-Neptune combination forms a stressful square aspect to Bonnie's volatile moon-Mercury-Mars combination, putting both partners' emotional needs at odds, with the potential for violence.
Robert's Venus in Scorpio completes a grand trine with Bonnie's Venus-Mars trine. There was initially a strong sexual chemistry between them, but that alone couldn't guarantee a solid basis for the relationship.
In Robert's chart, Mars rules the seventh house of the partner and is located in his second; his partner's interests were money and security. Mars, in the critical fifteen degrees of Scorpio, also forms a hard square to Saturn, an indicator of intense difficulties through the partner:
Saturn and Mars are hostile, productive of reversals and ruin. They bring family quarrels, disharmony, and hatred, along with treachery, plots, malevolence, and trials.
Robert Blake was acquitted in a court of law, but many people still hold fast to the belief that he got away with murder. The astrology of Bonnie's voracious life and violent death justifies their suspicions.
Phil Hartman: Murder by Wife
Phil Hartman, one of Canada's foremost comedians and a favorite on Saturday Night Live, was shot to death by his wife, Brynn, in the bedroom of their Encino, California, home in May 1998. Some hours later, after calling friends to report the shooting, Brynn turned the gun on herself. The murder left behind their two small children, who had slept through the tragic shootings, only to awaken to the nightmare of being orphaned overnight.
Their marriage had been in trouble. Hartman, upset over his wife's abuse of prescription drugs, had threatened divorce if she did not come to terms with her addiction. In a desperate bid to keep him from leaving, she shot him in the neck, head, and chest while he slept.
In the crime chart (May 28, 1998; Encino, California; 2:30 a.m.), twenty-nine degrees of Pisces is rising, signifying a crisis. Hartman is represented by Jupiter, and his wife, the perpetrator, is shown by Mercury. The sun and moon, as ruler of man and wife, also figure prominently, as well as Venus, natural ruler of women.
Venus and Saturn, partile conjunct in late Aries in the first house, describe a desperate situation borne of deep-seated frustration. Both planets are in the term of Saturn, ruler of suicide. Classical astrologer Vettius Valens describes only a temporary benefit from Venus-Saturn contacts:
Saturn and Venus ... promote success with respect to entanglements and marriage, agreeing and beneficial only for a time, not to the end. Indeed they cause abuse, divorces, inconstancy and death ...
Saturn in Aries shows violence by gunshot, and Aries rules the head. Phil was shot in the head, neck, and chest. Phil's ruler, Jupiter, is in the twelfth house of sorrow and hidden enemies, and his coruler, the sun, conjoins Mars and opposes the eighth-house Pluto.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Exploring Forensic Astrology by B. D. Salerno. Copyright © 2016 B.D. Salerno. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
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