Elizabeth “Betty” Broderick, the La Jolla socialite who notoriously murdered her ex-husband and his new 28-year-old wife, has died in prison, authorities said. She was 78 years old.
His story of violent vengeance thrilled and horrified the nation – inspiring several books, a television movie, an LA Times podcast and an eight-episode miniseries.
Broderick died at a hospital at 3:40 a.m. Friday of natural causes, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She was transferred from the California Institution for Women to an outside medical facility on April 18.
Before her notoriety in the late 1980s, Broderick was living the suburban dream.
Married to prominent medical malpractice attorney Daniel Broderick, she maintained a position of influence and popularity in the luxurious La Jolla community, where the couple raised their four children. But their apparent domestic paradise is disrupted when Betty begins to suspect that her husband is having an affair with his younger office assistant, Linda Kolkena.
The couple got divorced in 1985 after 16 years of marriage. The already bitter relationship continued to sour amid a long and bitter legal battle and eventually Dan began dating Kolkena before she even proposed to him.
The Times reported at the time that Betty repeatedly left lewd messages on the newlywed couple’s answering machine, to the extent that Dan threatened to file criminal contempt charges.
Then, in the early hours of November 5, 1989, Betty entered the Marston Hills home where Dan lived with his new wife and fired five shots from a .38-caliber revolver, three of which struck the sleeping couple.
Later that day, Betty turns herself in to the police and is taken into custody. Since then he is in jail.
His first trial ended in a mistrial in 1990 when two jurors were arrested and charged with murder, citing lack of motive. After a second trial in 1991, a jury convicted him of two counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 32 years.
While serving nearly four decades behind bars, Broderick became eligible for parole twice – once in 2010 and again in 2017. Both times the parole hearing board denied his release, saying he showed no signs of remorse.
