Betty Broderick’s children shared a complex relationship with her, yet they stood by her side during her last moments.
Betty gained national notoriety after she was convicted of fatally shooting her ex-husband, Dan Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena, in 1989. She passed away at the age of 78 while in custody on May 8 at Chino Valley Medical Center.
“She died of natural causes with three of her children at her bedside, while the fourth joined via FaceTime,” shared her youngest son, Rhett Broderick, with The San Diego Union-Tribune. “We all managed to be there for her.”
Over the years, the shocking double murder caused a rift among Betty’s children. Some voiced their support for her, while others believed she should remain incarcerated.
Betty and Daniel “Dan” Broderick III’s marriage began with high hopes. They tied the knot in a grand ceremony in April 1969. Betty supported Dan by working as a teacher while he pursued his medical education, as reported by The Los Angeles Times. As Dan progressed in his career as a medical malpractice attorney, obtaining both medical and legal degrees, they welcomed four children into their family.
The marriage of Betty and Daniel “Dan” Broderick III had began with such promise. After marrying in a lavish ceremony in April 1969, Betty helped support her husband by working as a teacher while he attended medical school, according to The Los Angeles Times. As Dan set up his career as a medical malpractice attorney, earning both his medical and legal degree, they welcomed their four children.
The family eventually settled in Southern California and became a part of La Jolla’s elite social scene. But by the early 1980s, the marriage was falling apart, according to The Los Angeles Times.
In 1983, Dan hired Linda as his legal assistant and began an affair, per the new outlet. When Dan moved out in 1985 a desperate Betty began dropping the kids off at his house one by one, The Los Angeles Times reported, as their divorce grew even more contentious.
Then, on the morning of Nov. 5, 1989, Betty—whose story was once featured on Oxygen’s Snapped—used a key she stole from one of her daughters to enter the home of her ex-husband and his new wife. As the couple slept, Betty snuck into their bedroom and fired a .38 caliber revolver, killing Linda instantly and fatally wounding Dan, according to Los Angeles Magazine.
“He said, ‘OK, OK, you got me,’” Betty told the magazine. “There was no pain, and there was no blood. It was simple.”
She ripped the telephone off the wall to prevent Dan from calling for help and then left the house, later turning herself in to police that same day.
Betty Broderick’s Children Testify During Murder Trial
Although Betty’s first trial ended in a hung jury, she was convicted of second-degree murder in the second trial in 1991 and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison, NBC News reported.
Two of her children—daughters Kim and Kathy “Lee”—took the stand in the sensational trials.
While testifying for the prosecution, Kim told jurors, per CBS 8, that her mother had harbored intense anger against her father for years, once burning his clothes in the yard and another time driving a car into the front of his house.
Kim recounted one time Betty had been planning to visit her apartment and then called her and allegedly said, “I just remembered I hate your guts. You just make me sick and why would I want to come over and visit you?”
Kim questioned why her mother felt that way, testifying that Betty told her it was because she was a “traitor.”
Meanwhile, Lee testified for the defense, recounting the moment her mother called her to report the murders.
“She said, ‘He said it himself that one of us was going to have to die,’” she said, according to the news outlet. “She said also that she felt empty and dead inside and that she was so miserable that she couldn’t go on another day.”
Betty Broderick’s Children Were Divided After Father’s Murder
The children remained divided in their views as the years went on.
Rhett said he hadn’t been surprised that his mother turned to violence that day.
“On multiple occasions [my brother and I] went to my dad,” he recalled to The Oprah Winfrey Show, “and said to him that we wanted to live with my mom, and that not having her kids was driving her crazy—and that she could do something extremely irrational if she didn’t have us.”
In another interview years later, he said he felt his mother should be granted parole.
“Keeping her in prison isn’t really helping her,” he said, according to Oprah Daily. “She’s not a danger to society—the only two people she was a danger to are dead.”
Lee also voiced her support of her mother at parole hearings, according to CBS News, saying in 2010, “She should be able to live her life outside prison walls.”
Yet, at the same hearing Betty’s son Daniel argued that she was still “hung up on justifying what she did.”
“In my heart, I know my mother is a good person,” he said, per CBS News. “But along the way she got lost. Releasing a lost person into society could be a dangerous mistake.”
Despite their differing views, over the years Betty’s children and grandchildren visited her in prison.
She reflected on the relationship she had with family in the 2015 memoir Betty Broderick: Telling on Myself.
“I absolutely adore my children, from the first moment of the day to the last, and still do,” she wrote. “They were my priority and I wanted so badly for them to have a happy childhood.”
How Did Betty Broderick’s Children Feel About Her When She Died?
After decades in prison, Betty’s health took a turn in April after she tripped and broke some ribs, Rhett told The San Diego Tribune.
After the injury, Betty got an infection that turned into sepsis, he said.
In a statement to , the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Betty was brought to an outside medical facility on April 18.
She died at 3:40 a.m. on May 8. The medical doctor treating the 78-year-old determined her death to be the result of natural causes, although the official cause of death will be determined by the San Bernardino County Coroner, officials said.
After her death, Daniel told TMZ that his relationship with his mother had been complicated.
Though he called her actions unforgivable, he said she was also his mother and he chose to remember her in her good moments.
Rhett expressed a similar sentiment.
“We always try to remember her as her best self – an amazingly fun and smart mother – and she will be missed,” he told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “We are saddened that our time with her as our mother was so short.”