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Betty Broderick, a former socialite from Southern California who gained national infamy for the 1989 murders of her ex-husband and his new wife, has passed away at the age of 78 while serving her prison sentence.
SAN DIEGO — Betty Broderick, once a prominent figure in La Jolla, California, has died in prison. Known for the shocking 1989 double murder of her ex-husband and his new spouse, Broderick was 78 at the time of her death.
Since 1992, Broderick had been serving a life sentence for second-degree murder at the California Institution for Women located in Corona.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed that Broderick died of natural causes at 3:40 a.m. on Friday. The San Bernardino County Coroner is tasked with determining the precise cause of her death.
The tragic saga began with a tumultuous affair and a contentious divorce, culminating in a violent act of murder. More than three decades ago, Betty Broderick, then a San Diego socialite, shocked the nation by fatally shooting her ex-husband and his new wife while they slept in their home on Cypress Avenue, near Balboa Park.
Who was Betty Broderick?
It began with an affair followed by a bitter divorce and ended in a brutal murder. More than 35 years ago, Betty Broderick, a San Diego socialite, brutally gunned down her ex-husband and his new wife as they slept in bed at their home on Cypress Avenue near Balboa Park.
The notorious killer was denied parole three times.
“He used to say, ‘If she wants to get me, she’s going to get me’,” said Lorraine Kimel-Hennessy, who covered the cases as a reporter for News 8 in 1989. Kimel-Hennessy also knew the victims personally.
The case shocked the community and captivated the nation.
It had all the elements of a human drama: infidelity, wealth, an elegant home and a suburban mom turned admitted killer, who showed no signs of remorse.
The exes had four children together.
Prosecutors portrayed Broderick as a jilted ex-wife, hell-bent on getting revenge after her husband, a prominent San Diego attorney, left her for a younger woman.
“She was a very angry and bitter woman that the only thing that would satisfy her is getting to take it out on the people that stole [her] life,” Terry Degelder said.
Degelder was the lead detective on the case for the San Diego Police Department’s homicide unit.
“It was very cold-blooded and calculated,” he said.
The crime would turn out to be as controversial as it was brutal.
“There are still people out there that believe it was Dan’s fault,” Kimel-Hennessy said.
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Who did Betty Broderick kill?
It all unfolded in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 1989.
Investigators say Betty, using a house key she stole from her daughter, snuck into the couple’s home and shot Linda in the head at point-blank range and then shot Dan in the chest as he jumped off the bed.
“Which did not kill him immediately, so he was reaching for the telephone, and she pulled the phone out of the wall so he couldn’t get it,” Degelder said.
That infamous scene and other examples of Betty’s spiraling rage were later played out in a CBS made-for-TV movie.
“There were these stories about this woman who’d driven her car into her ex’s house and she burned his clothes in the street, she left obscene messages on their phone machine,” Kimel-Hennessy said.
During the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of a scorned woman, set on revenge, who had tormented the couple in the years since her divorce.
Kimel-Hennessy said to simply put it, “She was out for blood.”
Betty maintained she was an abused wife, driven to kill.
“There was a lot of women who sympathized with her, but they didn’t know the facts,” Degelder said.
Betty felt she was the victim. She told jurors she financially supported her husband through medical school and law school, and then when he became successful, he discarded her for someone younger.
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