Betty Broderick, the California socialite whose bitter divorce and deadly revenge killings captivated the nation and inspired books and films, has died while serving a life sentence in prison. She was 78.
Broderick, whose full name was Elizabeth A. Broderick, died May 8 at 3:40 a.m. local time, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The department said Broderick had been transferred from the California Institution for Women to an outside medical facility on April 18 for a higher level of care. A physician determined her preliminary cause of death to be natural, while the San Bernardino County Coroner will make the official determination.
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At the time of her death, Broderick was serving a sentence of 32 years to life with the possibility of parole after being convicted in 1991 of two counts of second-degree murder and firearm enhancements.
USA TODAY has reached out to the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office for additional information and comment.
From La Jolla prominence to national infamy
Before the killings that made national headlines, Broderick appeared to embody affluent Southern California life.
She and Daniel Broderick III married in 1969 and raised four children while Dan built a successful career as a medical malpractice attorney. According to the Los Angeles Times, the couple were well-known figures in the wealthy La Jolla community, where Betty maintained a reputation as a prominent socialite and homemaker.
Their marriage unraveled in the 1980s after Betty began suspecting Dan was having an affair with Linda Kolkena, a former flight attendant who later became his legal assistant. Dan filed for divorce in 1985, igniting a years-long legal and custody battle that became increasingly hostile.
As Dan’s relationship with Kolkena progressed, Betty reportedly left vulgar and threatening messages on the couple’s answering machine, prompting Dan to threaten criminal contempt action, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Dan and Kolkena married in 1989.
The killings and trials
In the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 1989, Betty Broderick entered the Marston Hills home Dan shared with his new wife using a key she had obtained from one of her daughters.
Armed with a .38-caliber revolver, she fired five shots into the couple’s bedroom, killing Dan, 44, and Linda, 28, while they were in bed.
Later that day, Broderick turned herself in to police and was taken into custody. She remained incarcerated for the rest of her life.
Her first trial ended in a mistrial in 1990 after jurors deadlocked, with two jurors reportedly favoring manslaughter convictions rather than murder. A second jury convicted her in 1991 of two counts of second-degree murder.
Though she became eligible for parole, Broderick was denied release in both 2010 and 2017. Prosecutors argued she lacked remorse, with San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs describing her in 2017 as “completely unrepentant” and “defiant.”
Oprah interview and lasting pop culture legacy
Shortly after her conviction, Broderick appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in a widely watched interview with Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey later interviewed her again from prison at the Central California Women’s Facility.
At the time, Broderick’s children were publicly divided over whether their mother deserved leniency.
The case remained a fixture in American true-crime culture for decades, inspiring books, movies and the 2020 limited series Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story starring Amanda Peet as Betty and Christian Slater as Dan.
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@usatodayco.com, or on Twitter @athompsonABJ
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Betty Broderick, convicted in infamous SoCal double murder, has died
