MILWAUKEE (AP) - 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 in Oregon. Lawrecia ' Laurie ' Bembenek was 52.
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.
Bembenek's attorney Mary Woehrer says she died Saturday at a hospice care center in Portland, Ore. Woehrer says the cause of death was liver failure.
Back in the early part of the century, 2003, she was slated to go on Dr. Phil. As Yahoo reported then "The strange saga of Bembenek - one of America's most notorious prison escapees - got even stranger last November when she flew to California to appear on the "Dr. Phil" show. The show had agreed to foot the $20,000 bill for DNA tests that Laurie insisted would clear her name in the 1981 murder of her then-husband's ex-wife.
But when Bembenek, 45, and her boyfriend arrived in Los Angeles, her tempestuous life took yet another horrific turn. Dr. Phil's handlers stashed Bembenek in an apartment hideaway that had no contact with the outside world because they wanted to keep her from finding out the DNA results before her TV appearance, according to her lawsuit.
After spending eight years in prison, Bembenek said being confined triggered a panic attack. She tried to lower herself out a window, but plunged 12 feet to the ground. Bembenek suffered a severed artery, plus broken bones in her leg and foot. Eventually, her right leg was amputated several inches below the knee."
Last month Mike Jacobs of TODAY'S TMJ4 in Milwaukee interviewed her. He asked her to rate her life from 1 to 10; her reply was a sad 2.
Prayers.
WFDS
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