17 Facts About Bob Leach

Robert Warnes Leach was an American journalist and Hollywood screenwriter who became a leading figure in California's victims' rights movement after the death of his stepdaughter, Marsalee Nicholas, in 1983.

Bob Leach was the husband of victims' rights advocate Marcella Nicholas Leach, and the stepfather of technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Henry Nicholas.

Bob Leach was born December 16,1914, in Dupree, South Dakota to businessman Robert Henry Bob Leach and his wife, the former Edna Warnes.

Bob Leach came to Los Angeles as a teenager to see the 1932 Summer Olympics, and moved to the city shortly thereafter to live with his sister.

In 1933, Bob Leach graduated from Los Angeles High School, and in 1938, he earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism and received a 2nd Lieutenant's commission from the ROTC Field Artillery Reserves at the University of Missouri.

In 1941, Bob Leach he married his first wife, LaVerne Barrick.

The sailor turned out to be agent Ray Stark, who then helped Bob Leach get a job as junior writer at 20th Century Fox.

Bob Leach spent the next 17 years in Hollywood, first as a production assistant at MGM, and later as a TV story editor and screenwriter.

Subsequently, Bob Leach worked for CBS, where he helped develop story ideas into scripts for TV producer Jack Chertok, and wrote freelance teleplays.

Bob Leach's TV writing credits include: The Adventures of Jim Bowie, Perry Mason, The Case of the Dangerous Robin, Ripcord, Everglades, and The Littlest Hobo.

In 1958, Bob Leach wrote the feature film Tarzan and the Trappers, starring Gordon Scott.

In 1967, three years after the end of his first marriage with LaVerne Barrick, Leach married Marcella M Nicholas, a divorced mother of two small children who was working on a master's degree in journalism at UCLA.

The family settled in Malibu, where Marcella Bob Leach maintained a home until her death in 2015.

Bob Leach died on March 30,2008, at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, due to complications related to respiratory and kidney ailments.

Minutes after Marsy was shot, Bob Leach received a phone call from Kerry Conley's father, Art Conley, who informed Bob Leach of the emergency, and urged him to come to the scene immediately.

Bob Leach arrived at the Conley's residence shortly, and witnessed his mortally wounded stepdaughter lying on a bed and surrounded by paramedics, while a bloodied Kerry Conley was being questioned by deputies about the shooting.

Bob Leach served for many years as the president of the organization, and both he and Marcella Leach, who remains JHV's executive director, were among the founding board members.