Laurie Bembenek, former police officer and Playboy bunny convicted of murder, dies at 52
Laurie Bembenek, a former Milwaukee police officer and Playboy Club bunny who gained national notoriety after she was convicted of murder and then escaped from prison, has died. She was 52.
Bembenek died Saturday at a hospice care center in Portland, Ore., said her attorney, Mary Woehrer. The cause of death was liver failure, she said.
Bembenek was convicted in 1982 of fatally shooting her police detective husband's ex-wife and sentenced to life in prison. She escaped in 1990 and fled to Canada.
Supporters cheered her flight, selling "Run Bambi Run" T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Bembenek was captured but later released after pleading no contest to second-degree murder. Her story was made into a TV movie starring Tatum O'Neal.
-- Associated Press
Photo: Laurie Bembenek in 1992. Credit: Associated Press
[For the record, 2:18 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Bembenek as a Playboy Club model.]
She died of a liver failure??
In this day and age.
Int he US if you can't afford it you can't live is more likely.
Posted by: wikiriwhi | 11/21/2010 at 03:50 PM
Laurie Bembenek WAS FRAMED.... where was her justice.....Jesus will give it to her now....
Posted by: VIV | 11/21/2010 at 03:56 PM
Wow. There's a name from the past. One of those stories at the time that tantalized the sheep.
R.I.P.
Posted by: Richard Vales III | 11/21/2010 at 06:17 PM
The slogan rang forth, "Run, Bambi,Run." From trouble, hurt and strife. Then your rough, long race finally reached a place of peace. And the Lord sayeth to this hurt woman, "You can rest here, Laurie. Blessed with love and everlasting life.
Posted by: Sheldon L. McCormick | 11/21/2010 at 06:19 PM
Soooo, what did she die of?
Posted by: My opinon means nothing | 11/21/2010 at 06:24 PM
Run, Bambi, Run!!!
Posted by: Chris Miss | 11/21/2010 at 08:45 PM
well, she lived a pretty wild life!
Posted by: none | 11/21/2010 at 08:54 PM
/another one bites the dust!!RIP
Posted by: yolanda dupree | 11/22/2010 at 08:26 AM
Bembenek was never a cop...she was a party girl masquerading as one. She liked the sleazy scene, all that it entailed, and lived it. She was part of the problem and not the solution.
Her then associates were likewise. Milwaukee paid the price.
She was not a cop in the sense that a molester priest is not a priest...just an opportunist masquerading as one.
Posted by: Mike McGuire | 11/23/2010 at 10:18 AM