Remember Betty? A real War of the Roses character?
Betty Broderick, Convicted of Murdering Her Ex-Husband and His New Wife in 1989, Dies at 78 While Serving Life Sentence
Broderick gained national notoriety after killing her husband, Dan Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena, on Nov. 5, 1989.
Betty and Dan wed in 1969 and shared four children. In the early 1980s, Dan began an affair with Kolkena, a former flight attendant whom he had hired to work as his legal assistant amid marital woes with Betty.
Though he denied the affair following Betty's suspicions, Dan eventually left Betty and filed for divorce in 1985, and the two battled over the sale of their family home and custody of their four children.
Dan had been granted custody, and Betty was given visitation rights. Their court dispute often included their children, which drove Betty into a depression.
Dan and Kolkena married in 1989. Later that year, Betty shot and killed the couple in their bed.
Broderick's first trial ended in a mistrial. Betty was officially convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life plus two years for illegal use of a firearm in 1991.
Though she was eligible for parole, she was denied several times.
During an infamous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show shortly after her 1991 conviction, Broderick was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. The talk show host chatted with Broderick again when she was at the Central California Women's Facility eight months later.
At the time, Winfrey spoke with two of Broderick's kids, Kim and Dan Jr. Both were divided about their mother's punishment.
In 2017, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs said Betty was "completely unrepentant" and described her as "defiant."
However, Betty claimed that she met the requirements for parole and should have been released years before.
“I have no one to speak for me. This was a case of domestic abuse: a pattern of coercive control that lasted throughout our marriage until the day I killed them,” Betty alleged in a letter to Murder Made Me Famous producers. “Now I am only a political prisoner. They have no reason to deny my parole.”
She was scheduled to be up for parole again in 2032. She would have been 84 years old.
Born in 1947, Betty was raised in a strict Catholic home in Westchester County, just outside of New York City. She often took care of her four siblings and wrote in her 2015 memoir Telling On Myself that her parents had primed her to grow up to be a housewife. After trying her hand at modeling and working at a restaurant and a department store, she enrolled at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in 1965, where she studied English and early childhood education.
Betty Broderick, Convicted of Murdering Her Ex-Husband and His New Wife in 1989, Dies at 78 While Serving Life Sentence
Broderick gained national notoriety after killing her husband, Dan Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena, on Nov. 5, 1989.
Betty and Dan wed in 1969 and shared four children. In the early 1980s, Dan began an affair with Kolkena, a former flight attendant whom he had hired to work as his legal assistant amid marital woes with Betty.
Though he denied the affair following Betty's suspicions, Dan eventually left Betty and filed for divorce in 1985, and the two battled over the sale of their family home and custody of their four children.
Dan had been granted custody, and Betty was given visitation rights. Their court dispute often included their children, which drove Betty into a depression.
Dan and Kolkena married in 1989. Later that year, Betty shot and killed the couple in their bed.
Broderick's first trial ended in a mistrial. Betty was officially convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life plus two years for illegal use of a firearm in 1991.
Though she was eligible for parole, she was denied several times.
During an infamous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show shortly after her 1991 conviction, Broderick was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. The talk show host chatted with Broderick again when she was at the Central California Women's Facility eight months later.
At the time, Winfrey spoke with two of Broderick's kids, Kim and Dan Jr. Both were divided about their mother's punishment.
In 2017, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs said Betty was "completely unrepentant" and described her as "defiant."
However, Betty claimed that she met the requirements for parole and should have been released years before.
“I have no one to speak for me. This was a case of domestic abuse: a pattern of coercive control that lasted throughout our marriage until the day I killed them,” Betty alleged in a letter to Murder Made Me Famous producers. “Now I am only a political prisoner. They have no reason to deny my parole.”
She was scheduled to be up for parole again in 2032. She would have been 84 years old.
Born in 1947, Betty was raised in a strict Catholic home in Westchester County, just outside of New York City. She often took care of her four siblings and wrote in her 2015 memoir Telling On Myself that her parents had primed her to grow up to be a housewife. After trying her hand at modeling and working at a restaurant and a department store, she enrolled at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in 1965, where she studied English and early childhood education.
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