Woman Who Inspired Chants of ‘Run Bambi Run’ Dies at 52
Lawrencia Bembenek, the former Playboy Club waitress turned police officer turned famed escaped-convict-on-the-loose, has died. She was 52.
Known as “Bambi” to her supporters, Bembenek became a sort of beautiful folk hero to fans who believed she was framed for the 1981 murder of her cop-husband’s ex-wife. She inspired the chant “Run, Bambi, Run,” when she escaped prison in 1990.
Re-captured months later in Canada, Bembenek maintained her innocence and her story was featured in books, television talk shows and made-for-TV movies.Her death Saturday evening at an Oregon hospice care center closes the book on a trouble-plagued life that she described in a recent television interview as a “2″ on a scale of one to ten. Bembenek, who changed her first name to Laurie, had health problems that included Hepatitis C and liver and kidney failure, her sister, Colette Bembenek, told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.
Although freed from prison in a complicated plea deal, Bembenek was never able to escape her fame or troubles. In the years after her capture, she was arrested for marijuana possession and filed for bankruptcy. She went on to lose part of her leg in a freak accident when she tried to jump out a second-story window before appearing on the Dr. Phil television show.
Most recently, she lived in a small Portland, Ore., home, using her settlement from the talk show and money from her book and film deals to eke out a quiet, though pain-filled existence.
“It’s just not… It’s not right what they did. It’s not right,” she told Milwaukee television station WTMJ in the interview at her home, saying prosecutors refused to listen to evidence that didn’t fit their view of the crime.
Bembenek grew up in a middle-class family on Milwaukee’s south side, the beautiful youngest daughter in a family that doted on her. In high school, she worked as a model and she later worked briefly as a waitress at the Playboy Club.
She joined the Milwaukee police force in 1980, but was fired during her probationary period and filed a sexual discrimination complaint against the department.
In early 1981, she married Milwaukee police officer Elfred Schultz, months after he divorced his wife, Christine. Christine Schultz was found murdered that May, fatally shot with her ex-husband’s service revolver, according to court testimony. She had been tied and gagged in her home, according to the testimony, and one of the couple’s children originally described the suspect as a man.
At the time of her trial, many of her supporters believed Bembenek had been framed and were distraught at her first-degree murder conviction. So when she escaped from prison eight years later – fleeing from a laundry room window – she captured the imagination and support of many.
Her escape was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” and she was found months later in Canada, where she’d been working at a Greek restaurant.
Bembenek’s murder conviction was set aside after her capture and she was released on parole in a deal that involved her pleading no contest to second-degree murder. Now free, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey talk show and her book, “Woman on Trial,” was published by HarperCollins.
She tried using her fame to sell paintings and give speeches, but her celebrity could not sustain her.
“I’m tired of being Laurie Bembenek,” she finally told the local newspaper in 1996. “Any face would do.”
In later years, Bembenek tried to appeal her conviction based on new DNA evidence, but when she pleaded “no contest” she gave up her right to appeal. She more recently filed a petition for a full pardon from the governor, but that petition was not yet heard at the time of her death.
In her recent television interview, just weeks before she entered hospice care, the reporter asked her to rate her life on a scale of one to ten.
Her answer: “Two.”
“It’s been that bad?” the reporter asked.
She responded quietly, with just one word. “Yeah.”
Article comes from:http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/laurie-bembenek-woman-who-inspired-chants-of-run-bambi-run-dies-at-52/19727678
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