Betty Broderick, widely known for the 1989 murder of her husband and his new wife, has died while serving a life sentence. She was 78 years old.
Broderick, whose real name is Elizabeth A. Broderick Hay, died at 3:00 am local time on Friday, May 8. People.
Three weeks before her death, Broderick was moved from the California Institution for Women to an outside medical center “for a higher level of care,” the CDCR said. Details of his health condition are unclear.
CDCR also said that the San Bernardino County Coroner will officially rule on her cause of death at a later date, although a medical doctor ruled her initial cause of death to be natural.
Broderick was transferred to the California Institution for Women on February 26, 1992, and before that, she was incarcerated in San Diego County after being convicted of second-degree murder with aggravated use of a firearm.
She was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole when she died, the CDCR said.
Broderick gained national notoriety after the November 5, 1989 murder of her husband, Dan Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena.
Betty and Dan married in 1969 and had four children.
In the early 1980s, Dan begins an affair with Kolkena, a former flight attendant whom he hired as his legal assistant when he was going through marital crisis with Betty.
Although he denied the affair after Betty became suspicious, Dan eventually left Betty and filed for divorce in 1985.
After a battle between the two over the sale of their family home and custody of their four children, Dan was awarded custody, while Betty was granted visitation rights.
Their court disputes often involved their children, causing Betty to fall into a depressive state of mind.
Dan and Kolkena married in 1989 and later that year, Betty shot and killed the couple in their bed.
