Socialite Betty Broderick denied parole in murders

♦ 01/21/2010 ♦ 1 Comment

Written by Janet

One time socialite Betty Broderick was denied parole for fatally shooting her ex-husband and his new wife more than 20 years ago, with a two-person panel saying she remains angry and unrepentant over her crime.

The decision took 5 hours in which her children, all four, were divided on whether she should win her freedom….two said no.  

Board of Prison Terms Commissioner Robert Doyle, who delivered the decision to Broderick, told her he had never seen an inmate who had made so little progress in acknowledging what she had done.  Broderick, 62, was convicted in 1991 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison for the slayings. Her story became the subject of a book and two TV movies. She has maintained she was driven to kill by a bitter divorce and custody battle.

Deputy Commissioner Carol Bentley said if released Broderick could commit murder again.  The denial was for the longest term possible — 15 years — although Broderick could reapply in three years if she makes progress.  Broderick delivered a rambling commentary during the hearing. She claimed she didn’t intend to kill anyone when she went to the San Diego home of her prominent lawyer ex-husband, Daniel Broderick III, and shot the couple in their bed in 1989. But she said she had violent thoughts as she approached the home.

Betty married Daniel Broderick in 1969, and they had four children. In the late 1980s, Daniel began an affair with another woman, Linda Kolkena Broderick, whom he eventually married. His divorce battle with Betty lasted four years.  Betty Broderick told the board her “whole world fell off its axis” when her husband left her and won custody of the children.

At her trial, Betty Broderick admitted firing the gun that killed her 44-year-old ex-husband and his new wife. She portrayed herself as the victim of a heartless man who discarded her for a younger, slimmer woman, then used his legal skills and clout with the local judiciary to gain unfair advantages in the divorce and child custody cases.

Broderick said she bombarded him with obscene telephone calls, smearing a Boston cream pie on his clothes and driving her truck through his front door.  It took two trials to convict her. The first ended in a hung jury, and the foreman was quoted as saying of the shootings: “We just wonder why it took her so long.”

1 Comment

  1. nancybee
    10/03/2010 – 2:20 pm

    It was an ugly case where a successful married man (dan broderick) was having an affair with a ruthless young woman determined to bust his marriage up and a long suffering wife at home with four young children.

    After several years of Dan Broderick and his ‘new’ wife Linda degrading Betty and mentally torturing and taunting her, she snapped and with the keys to their house (which she had stolen from her daughters purse) she snuck in the house supposedly to ‘talk’ to them and ended up shooting Linda twice (head and chest) and Dan (1 bullet to his back). Men have been known to do this all the time down through history. There are actually cultures that accept a man killing his wife for cheating on him. But anyway if you are interested, read “Until the Twelth of Never”. Excellent book on the case.

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