So Cal Slaughters's Podcast
Three friends. One region. Endless murder stories.
Join Joey, Rachel, and Bri in the Podcasket on So Cal Slaughters, a true crime podcast covering murders that took place across Southern California. Each episode breaks down a case while pairing the story with a themed cocktail—and a mocktail alternative—so you can sip along as we explore the darker side of the SoCal sunshine. 🔪🍹
So Cal Slaughters's Podcast
Betty Broderick Part 2 (Season Finale)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The Season 1 Finale is here.
In Part 2 of the Betty Broderick story, we pick up where we left off and examine the tragic events that culminated in one of Southern California’s most infamous murder cases. We break down the night Dan and Linda Broderick were killed, the investigation that followed, and the courtroom battles that captivated the nation.
As the case unfolds, we explore the arguments from both sides: Was Betty Broderick a calculated killer, or a woman driven to a breaking point after years of heartbreak, betrayal, and escalating conflict?
Decades later, the case continues to spark debate and divide public opinion.
Join us as we take a closer look at the evidence, the trials, the verdicts, and the lasting legacy of a case that remains one of the most controversial true crime stories in California history.
Thank you for joining us for the Season 1 Finale of SoCal Slaughters.
We’ll see you next season. 🔪❤️
🎙️ Subscribe to SoCal Slaughters for new episodes covering Southern California’s most infamous crimes, mysteries, and killers. New episodes every Sunday.
Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast kit. I'm Joey.
SPEAKER_07I'm Bree. I'm Rachel.
SPEAKER_02And this is SoCal Slaughters. This is our part two of our season finale episode. Um, welcome back. Yeah. Yeah, welcome back to this sorted tale. Yeah, very sorted.
SPEAKER_06Sorted into crazy and crazier.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's gonna get a little bit crazier yet.
SPEAKER_00I can't wait.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna pretty much jump right into it. Uh I hope that if you have not watched part or listened to part one, that you go back and that you get caught up. But you won't be disappointed. Yeah, definitely not. Uh, but it's gonna get into some media uh media action here.
SPEAKER_06You might get disappointed in humanity. Correct. Well, yeah. Not in the content though.
SPEAKER_02Um, okay. So back into uh Betty Broderick. Uh at this point, uh, we're at February of 1986. Um we had uh already established the fact that uh the marriage between Betty and Dan is over. The divorce has been filed and has already begun. The affair with Linda is no longer a secret, right? And Betty Broderick has just driven her vehicle directly into the home where Dan is building a new life without her, right? So a neighbor called the police and Betty was arrested. When police questioned Dan about what happened, they questioned him about her mental state. Obviously. And Dan was like, yeah, you know, I'm absolutely concerned about her mental state. I feel like she's had mental problems for a while. So as a result, Betty was transported in a strait jacket to Claremont, which is a county mental health facility for a 72-hour hold. Okay.
SPEAKER_07A straight jacket sounds awful. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like in front of your daughters.
SPEAKER_06You could have just killed them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Just you know what? Yeah. Tie her up. So after a couple of days, just it's a 72-hour hold, right? So after just two days, the doctors determined that she could be released.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Uh, but Betty refused to sign the paperwork to release her. Um, in fact, she refused treatment there altogether. So they didn't decide that she could be released because she's fine, she's good, she's healthy, she's ready to rock. They like said that she could leave because they're not they can't do anything with her. Yeah. Like, she's not gonna talk to you. She refused counseling, she refused any care, and she even refused her meals. Okay. I mean, it's hospital food, so I kind of get it. But like, what are they gonna have? We're gonna keep her here another day for her to not do anything, you know? Um, so obviously at that point, they were like, get out. But I, again, mini speculation of Joey. Um, I think that uh she wanted to stay for the 72-hour hold because I think that it's a better story for her to tell when she gets out. Sure, sure. I could say she is like determined to make him look like the bad guy. And a story of her saying I had to stay there for three days on a 72-hour hold. Yeah. Um, and they took me away in a straitjacket because Dan called the police and had me uh sent to an insane asylum is worse than uh the police thought that I was um maybe going through something because I ran my car into his front door. Um, and they thought I should take a little mental health break, and I got released a day early. Like that doesn't sound too bad on Dan, you know? No. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_06Again, I don't know how you spin that. That is a spin to not have it. She was into that.
SPEAKER_02That was what she did. She did it and she did it on purpose. She did she had a history of doing things like this on purpose to try to make him look bad. So obviously she was discharged after the 72 hours and resumed war. So now we're in springtime of 1986. Okay. By now, Dan and Linda's relationship was public knowledge. Yeah. Okay. And Betty had stopped using their names altogether. Like those, they don't have names anymore. Linda became the C word. To see you next Tuesday. Yes. I I don't, I mean, out of all the words you use, I think that's the one we can't, like for real for sure. You can't? I don't think so. You can't. They can't. Um, and then Dan became the asshole. Okay. And the divorce was all she talked about. To friends, to family, to freaking strangers. Yeah, I could see this. And unfortunately to her children. Uh, everything eventually came back to Dan and Linda. Of course. This was also the period when Dan installed an answering machine. Okay. This is like new hot tech on the scene. It really was. Oh my gosh. Oh, doing the outgoing message. Oh, yeah. Yo, we lived for that in my house. And like, he has to have the best of everything. He's gotten all he has all the new stuff, the new whatever work. He's on top of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So answering machine arrives, installed, ready to rock and roll, right? And it's like a that's a very practical decision to do to do, to get. But it actually became one of the most important pieces of evidence in the entire case. Really? Yeah. Betty called this answering machine constantly.
SPEAKER_07Is the restraining order still in effect?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So constantly calling this answering machine, the messages became threatening, profane. She loved curse words. I mean, that was her jam. Yeah. Uh sometimes they were incoherent.
SPEAKER_07Okay, like she's just drunk.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, or just like not even drunk. Yeah, just like I I don't even know what she's doing. Manic. But like becoming really frightening.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know? And so Dan recorded them all. Of course. Her children begged her to stop doing it. Dan's attorneys asked her to stop doing it. And eventually judges ordered her to stop doing it. But nothing worked. Oh my god. And then things got even worse. What? Because suddenly Linda's voice became the outgoing greeting on the machine.
unknownOh shit.
SPEAKER_02Linda didn't even live there. Okay.
SPEAKER_07So was it strictly to piss her off? Linda's peeing on her territory.
SPEAKER_02Literally, like Betty felt like this was taunting. It really was.
SPEAKER_06It's like the guys that write alimony checks to their ex-wives, and it's a picture of them and their new wives. Exactly. And it gets so next level petty. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But they want her to stop. Yeah. Yeah. But they don't want her to stop. Dude, this is toxic.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, pretty bad. Yeah. She thinks this is just to full on like humiliate her. Um, and and so the messages just completely intensify here. Yeah. Uh Dan eventually drafted a legal agreement imposing financial penalties for every message that she left.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02But the calls continued anyway.
SPEAKER_06Change your number and don't give it to her. What's problem fucking solved? Same thing with that one fucking mom. I can't. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's listen to a couple of these messages. Oh, so juicy. Let's go. All right. Bear with us. All right. Ready?
SPEAKER_04Every day off, and I would really like to use the boat, my boat. How do I get the keys? Where are the keys? Can you make another set and deliver them over here so that when I want to use the boat, I can use it? Thanks, sweetie.
SPEAKER_03You better damn well be a friend of me if you tell a chip on that.
SPEAKER_05Now you're gonna be damn afraid of me. I have to love this machine. Um tell the kids that you don't think it's wrong, but you're still on the current call to have the right line open for anybody who comes by. And your pain call. Ah, he got a country, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And very important to ask you for making me mad. I'll kill you.
SPEAKER_05You can make a choice today about staying with me, staying with a cook sucker.
SPEAKER_02So that last one was to her son Rhett. Yo. What? Exactly.
SPEAKER_07Such language to your son.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So this was a normal thing. Like, was you know, her calling for the boys um and leaving them messages very similar to that, um, and talking about Dan and Linda and referring to them in their names. Um, so yeah, this was a big, big deal. And that's only a few. I mean, there's hundreds.
SPEAKER_06Wow. Why didn't they just change their phone number?
SPEAKER_02I I like tell me, Joey. He's this is I it this is his, I mean, he's a businessman. I don't know. Maybe he had some kind, you know, he's just you give out the number again.
SPEAKER_06Like, sh I I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I don't know the guy, you know. Um, again, I don't know the guy, but ultimately, yeah. I mean, that would have been a very good uh way to keep that from happening any longer. But regardless, the fine system came into play.
SPEAKER_06Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Every time that she left a message, she would get fined.
SPEAKER_01Do you know how much?
SPEAKER_02Um, there's speculation. Okay. Um, but there's not a like a definitive amount. Um, but that won't be the only thing that gets fined as things progress here. So where is she getting this money? This is all like It's from the money that he gives her. So it's getting docked. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_07Oh.
SPEAKER_02So in the summer of 1986, uh, after the battle over the coral reef house, Dan Jaffe quit. Okay, okay. Yeah. And Betty once again found herself without legal representation. And unable to secure another attorney, she frequently just failed to appear in court. Smart. Smart. Okay. She thought that like if she didn't have a lawyer and she didn't show up, that like nothing would happen. That's not how it works. That's so not how it works. Like, you're the wife of a lawyer. Like, what what are you talking about? Like, I don't get it. Anyways, the consequences were devastating. I'm gonna give you a little legal ease, if you will. Okay. California law allows something called bifurcation. Yep. Okay. Bifurcation is a legal process that allows a marriage to be terminated before every issue involving property, support, and custody has been resolved.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Is that for like extreme cases?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, she's not showing up. She has she can't fight for herself, she can't oppose it, you know? So Dan and his lawyers pushed for this. Yeah. And the divorce became official.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh, even though, of course, many of the battles were still ongoing. And meanwhile, Betty continued violating restraining orders. So continuing the messages, continuing confrontations, continuing acts of vandalism now on, you know, on his home. And Dan responded by creating an even more finite fine system. Every insult had a cost. Wow. Every violation of the restraining order had a cost. Every trespass had an even greater cost.
SPEAKER_06How is that possible? He can't be the one that decides these things.
SPEAKER_02In normal, it's this is very unheard of. Like it is very rare for like the court system to allow for like an actual, you know, one of the two people in the divorce to draw up an agreement like this. Yeah. But Dan was Dan. You know? So it's a boys club at this point. It really is. So the money would simply be deducted from her monthly support payments. So now we're in fall of 1986. And by this point, every single month she's been obviously like violating these. So she's had a lot of money being deducted from her monthly support payment payments. And this time around, she had accumulated so many penalties that she exhausted her entire allowance and she actually owed Dan money. Do we know what her allowance was? Not at this moment in time. But um she got the letter, like with the bill. That's funny.
SPEAKER_07Dude, that's messed up.
SPEAKER_02So she like flips out, you know, and she goes to Dan's house, which is like, okay, here's a check that you owe me for money from violating the risk rating order and the trespassing orders that I have against you. But let me trespass. Yeah, yeah. And come over and like talk to you and completely like do exactly what you are finding me for doing. Yeah. Um, and this is the day that happened to be um the same day as the Blackstone ball. Um, so the Blackstone ball was like this like hoity-toity, uh, you know, legal, like legal, like, but yeah, ball. Like it's a ball. It's a gala. Yeah. Um, so she goes over there and he's like getting ready. So he's like, it is tux. Yeah, like getting all dolled up and stuff. So she's that makes me even more mad because she's attend or he's attending the Blackstone ball that she attended with him previously. And this year she's not going. And he's obviously taking Linda. You know, Linda's not there, but he's taking her. So she demanded a confrontation with him in his tux, refused to leave. So Dan had to enforce the restraining order and have her arrested. Yeah, right. So at this point, again, we're gonna do a little bit more uh it's like a medium size, Joey speculates wildly for this one. Um for her, so for her phone call, her one phone call when she got to uh jail. Oh my god. She contacted her friend Gail Forbes. Okay. I thought you were almost like I thought you were gonna say she contacted him. No, so um, so this confrontation, like it it seems like it she forced a confrontation here and she forced the arrest. Okay. So in then she goes and she makes her one phone call to this friend Gail Forbes, right? And what she tells Gail, she is she instructs her to call the newspapers and tell them that Dan Broderick, the president of the Bar Association, oh gosh, had just had his wife arrested before attending the Blackstone Ball with the office Seaward. The this divorce is no longer private.
SPEAKER_06They're gonna make headlines of that.
SPEAKER_02That's what she wants. She again, she wants to turn flip the narrative here, you know. Um, so the divorce is no longer private at this point, and it's like now it's on it's theater. Uh so it's 1987. And at this point at this point, finally Betty obtained new legal representation. Um, so now the courtroom can war can, you know, can can keep going. But she still had no court-ordered visitation with the children.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh in March of 1987, both sides finally agreed to meet with a mediator, Dr. Ruth Roth. Okay. Yeah. Um, the hope here was to create a custody arrangement, like a legal custody arrangement, you know. Um, but instead, poor Dr. Ruth. Uh, she encountered something or Dr. Roth, Ruth, Ruth Roth, whatever. You know what I mean. She encountered something in the unexpected. Whenever discussions turned toward the children, which was the point. Yeah, Betty redirected the conversation toward Dan and Linda. Yeah. So Dr. Ruth would testify that Betty made statements like this quote, I'm not going to be the single parent of four kids. He will die first. And quote, the less I hear from them or see them, the better. No bother, no kids. What? Yeah. So Dr. Roth later concluded that like Betty didn't just simply want the children. Yeah, no, she doesn't. She wanted everything. Yeah. Like she wanted the marriage back, the house back, the family back, the life back, or she didn't want the children at all.
SPEAKER_06So it's all or nothing.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_06How could she want a marriage back with this guy? She hates him. So say, just say Linda was like, I'm done with this situation. I don't want to be with you. And he was like, you know what? Give me another chance. You're gonna take this fool back.
SPEAKER_02Again, I refer back to the pr the if even if he gave me a million dollars. Yeah. It's not about that, it's about the principal. It's not about anything else here. It's about her getting what she feels she's owed. She's owed a padded room. Well at one point, Betty talked about Dan and said, quote, the little fucker was mine and he will stay mine.
SPEAKER_04Ew. What?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Dr. Roth would testify that Betty was the angriest person she had ever encountered. So the mediation obviously failed, and no custody agreement was reached here.
SPEAKER_06I would hope that the custody agreement is let's keep her as far away from these kids as possible.
SPEAKER_02I don't understand how more people didn't like see that and think about step in. Yeah. So May of 1987, uh, the answering machine messages finally caught up with her. Okay. Good. Betty was sentenced to 21 days in jail for harassment.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02But the judge also ordered Linda's voice be removed from the answering machine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But even as these legal battles intensified, there's another painful pattern that emerged here, having to do with the failed custody mediation. Okay. Dan repeatedly agreed to allow Betty time with the children and revoked it.
SPEAKER_06Oh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So on there was Easter. She what he she was supposed to go pick the boys up from school early and like they were supposed to on Friday and they were supposed to have Easter weekend together. She shows up and Dan's pulling out with them.
SPEAKER_01What?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. There was a Hawaiian vacation that she won a trip from some auction. And they were supposed she wanted to take the kids to Hawaii. She'd never been to Hawaii. The kids had never been to Hawaii. She was like super excited about it. It was like almost all expenses paid, I think. Yeah. And the morning of the flight, he can't, he said no, they're not going.
unknownAnd
SPEAKER_02And then another Thanksgiving came around. She had all of her relatives in from the East Coast. And the boys were supposed to come over to like see their family. And again, no, they're not coming. And then finally, again, Christmas, uh, they were supposed to go to a party. Like they got invited to a party, and like all the boys' friends and like, you know, buddies were gonna be there with their parents. Um, and again, he said they're not coming. And that's the third year in a row that she would not see her children on Christmas. So each cancellation here is like deepening resentment and just it's chipping away at that brain of hers. So by February 1988, Betty had fired her fourth attorney and she began representing herself.
SPEAKER_06I get why are they allowed to do this? Yeah, seriously.
SPEAKER_07I always think of Ted Butney representing himself.
SPEAKER_02I mean, she immediately had legal background. Yeah, that's yeah, that's true. Literally. Um still made of ass of himself. But well, I mean, he wasn't ass. He was commended by the judge, to be honest. But I digress.
SPEAKER_07Um that's a story for another day.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it is. So she's not very doing very well, she didn't do very well, you know. Uh, she was found guilty on eight counts a contempt for violating restraining orders.
SPEAKER_07Only eight?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then in May, uh, she stopped attending mandatory custody or custody hearings altogether. And she wouldn't even read the court documents that were sent to her anymore at all. Like, period. So then in December, she demanded a trial. I think at that point in uh May, she, when she stopped going, she decided it doesn't matter anymore. I don't care. It doesn't matter if I come to these or not, we're going to trial. I think she decided in May she was gonna that they were gonna go to trial. So she's like, until it's time for us to like go to trial, I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna worry about it. So the date of the trial was set for December 27th, 1988. So right after Christmas.
SPEAKER_06Okay. When she wouldn't see him again.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Still representing herself, by the way. Um, and this is what she wanted. She wanted to go to trial, not for this custody hearing. She wanted to go to trial because she was representing herself, and she could call Dan to the witness stand, and she could finally, because he's under oath, yeah, she could make him have to admit everything that had happened, right? Yes. I mean, yeah. That's what she went for. That's what she wanted. So for days, she questioned Dan on the witness stand, not about custody, not about the children, about the marriage and the affair, and like any other old grievances she can freaking pull out.
SPEAKER_06But wouldn't the judge overrule these at a certain point? He did.
SPEAKER_02Time and time again. She was like getting just completely overruled with relevance because this isn't about that. And also, by the way, we're now it's it's a no-fault marriage now. Uh after 1970, it changed over to no fault marriage. So an affair has nothing to do anymore with a divorce.
SPEAKER_07You can't, you can't get a divorce based on it. It's not.
SPEAKER_02It's not, it has nothing to do with it.
SPEAKER_07What?
SPEAKER_02So no matter what happens here, it doesn't matter. But she always did this because she was like, Well, you have to know the whole story to know where I'm at and what I'm doing. And they're like, No, we don't. No, we don't. We don't even care. Yeah, actually. So obviously the ruling came down and she was denied custody again. I mean, she can't even talk about the children. All she can talk about is this. It's like, how are you gonna get custody of your children when you don't even talk about them? You know?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02How much do you actually care? Right.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So in January of 1989, uh, Betty decided that she was gonna go get a job. She wants to like take, we're gonna try try another angle here, you know?
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna become like the girl that he knew before. You know, I'm gonna start working. I'm gonna start being this other, you know, woman and become this like person, and then he's gonna see me in a new light, right? Yo, she has just lost it. Yes. So then on January 30th, the final financial settlement was announced from the trial. So it was for both. It was for the custody and it was for the financial settlement. So obviously she'd lost on custody already, and the money thing was a disaster in Betty's eyes. Okay. The court ordered her support payments, and she just did not think that they were anywhere near enough, and it was a it was atrocious, it was an atrocity. Okay, because they only ordered her approximately sixteen thousand one hundred dollars a month. That is horse shit. That is that is nearly $200,000 a year, okay? But what is this? And this was in $89? Does it matter at this point? I don't even care. Like, she all right, it's the reason why he has. I understand, but like at the same time, like it this is over. Like, stop. Like, just take the money and fucking run, bro. Like, no, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_06It's what she went through, but she's still going through it.
SPEAKER_01She's going freaking crazy.
SPEAKER_06She is, but I still get it because she kept them afloat.
SPEAKER_02I get it. But that's like and keep having my kids. But that's that that happened already, you know. Like, I'm sorry, I still want I I still I get I mean, but see, this is the good thing because this is where this is what happened to America. Yeah, okay. This is what happened literally, they were just and to the jury. Okay, so most people would consider it generous. I don't say I'm not saying it's not generous. Yeah, I just think she's coming from. Uh, but Betty did not. No, no, yeah. Um but let me just put this into perspective for you really quickly, okay? Betty is still purchasing fur coats. See, she had a fur.
SPEAKER_07Her and Dolly could have their own attic together.
SPEAKER_02$10,000 luxury watches, okay?
SPEAKER_06Dude.
SPEAKER_02A jaguar. Okay. Taking vacation. She took vacations all the alone because she didn't have the kids. She has no. She took vacations all the time to freaking Tahiti, to freaking Colorado with the to the ski lodge, like all the time. Yes, exactly to veil. So, like, it didn't feel sufficient to her because she wasn't gonna stop this lifestyle. Yeah, okay. And then on top of the fines.
SPEAKER_06My God, the fines.
SPEAKER_02My god, the fines. Um, but the reason again, again, I go back to it doesn't matter if you gave me a million dollars. Yeah. Because this had never been about the money.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was about Dan having more and Linda getting to share it and not her.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Yeah. It's the truth. Which she's allowed to be upset about.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_07So now she's embarrassing herself. It's bad. It's getting now.
SPEAKER_02Like now? It's gotten really bad. It's getting, it's, it's gonna get worse. So February of 1989, okay, Betty hired another attorney to appeal the divorce. Okay. Around this time, friends noticed something pretty disturbing. The conversations that they've been having, although had always gone back to Dan again with the name. Why can't I never remember his name? Dan and Linda. Um, this time she was talking more seriously about killing Dan and Linda.
SPEAKER_07So you're supposed to keep those thoughts to yourself.
SPEAKER_02Right? Friends later testified that they were concerned about this behavior, which obviously who wouldn't be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But they're like, the divorce was over. The settlement was over. Like that's where I where I was at, you know? Things should have been calming down in this at this point, you know, but instead they seem to be escalating. Then a newspaper published a photograph. Oh no. Can I guess? Can I guess what the photo is?
SPEAKER_07You want to guess what the photo is? Do I want to guess? You can I mean Was it a marriage announcement for Dan and Linda?
SPEAKER_02Of the photograph of the man kneeling on one knee with a ring proposing marriage.
SPEAKER_07Ah. Yeah. Okay, so it was an engagement announcement.
SPEAKER_02That was Dan and the woman was Linda. Yeah. Yeah. So March of 1989, Betty goes by the house to pick up the kids, right? And she's pulling up like she's supposed to do away from the house. But she sees like an envelope or something on the front. Don't touch it.
SPEAKER_07It's yours. That's a federal, that's a federal crime.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So naturally, naturally, she goes on the property, which she's not supposed to do, and picks up this envelope and opens it up and looks inside. Why not? Why not? Why wouldn't you do that?
SPEAKER_01It's fine.
SPEAKER_02It's absolutely for her. Um, and discovers that it's Linda's wedding guest list. And it was sitting outside because somebody else was supposed to come and pick it up. So she took it.
SPEAKER_06At the same time that Betty's picking the kids up. Yeah. Get your shit together, Linda. Like seriously. Get your shit together.
SPEAKER_02She's too excited. Um, but yeah, so she takes it. She took it home, you know. And uh according to Betty, it felt like confirmation of everything she's believed coming up to now. I mean, you know, she's just been completely thinking that like all of this legal, the boys club thing, you know, the reason that all of these legal things are happening to her are because of all the ties that Dan has to the legal community. He's the president of the Bar Association. Precisely. Not like that, she's not showing up in court or anything. Yeah, no, no, no. Um, but on that wedding guest list were the child psychologists that the boys were seeing who testified against her to lose custody, Dan's accountants, who helped him screw her out of what she thought was her fair share. Dan's attorneys, who she felt were laughing at her, and several of the judges. The judges?
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So Betty looked at it like it was a celebration, like a thank you for helping me fuck over my crazy wife party.
SPEAKER_06You know what it is. I mean, it could be both. You're insane, and we're gonna celebrate you.
SPEAKER_02Well, she went and bought a gun. As one does, yeah. Uh, she went and bought a 38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver and three boxes of ammunition.
SPEAKER_07Three boxes?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So in the store, like they have the gun purchasing side and then they have the range, so you can shoot the gun. Yeah, that you make sure you want to buy it, right?
SPEAKER_06So much fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So she took that gun straight across the hall to the range.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_02Right then and there, and she shot an entire box of bullets.
SPEAKER_07It doesn't take that long. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So she but that was the rate, like that was her going hard on it there. And so then, you know, the waiting period, whatever, blah, blah, blah. So she came back to pick it up. And when she left the store, she doesn't remember how, or if she asked for it, or if she loaded it, or if the guy from the store loaded it, or I don't know. What kind of bullets they were. She wasn't eating she doesn't recall. But somehow she left with that gun loaded full of Hydro Shock bullets. Brie, do you know anything about Hydro Shock bullets?
SPEAKER_06As a matter of fact, I do. So, part of Brie's forensic briefs.
SPEAKER_07Let me get out of your way.
SPEAKER_06Okay, so the ammunition the Betty had loaded in that gun has a bit of a history. So, specifically, the infamous 1986 Miami shootout, this was a bank robbery that turned into a fiery shootout between the robbers and FBI agents. So, during which one of the robbers, Michael Platt, was shot. A hollow point bullet, which is the standard at that time for FBI service revolvers, hit Platt in the arm. It then entered his chest cavity and stopped just short of his heart. So this allowed Platt to, although he was mortally wounded, he was still able to remain in that fight. As a result, two FBI agents were murdered and five more were injured. So after this, a custom engineered ammunition was created, the Federal Hydroshock Bullet. It's a highly specialized type of jacketed hollow point gun ammunition designed to meet strict FBI ballistic standards. So, unlike traditional hollow points that feature an empty cavity, Hydroshock bullets use a patented center post design. The center post is a solid lead post that sits directly in the center of the hollow point cavity. And while traditional hollow points, they just have this hollow cavity at the nose. So instead of being closed off, you can look right into the tip of the bullet. It directs fluid into the cavity upon impact, and that forces the bullet to then expand uniformly.
SPEAKER_07Wow.
SPEAKER_06So while traditional hollow points rely on a hydraulic pressure force for the bullet to move outward, this new center post and the fluid in that cavity changes that the expansion rate. So it can be relied on, and it's just it's higher quality. So next is the notched jacket of this bullet. It's an outer copper jacket with a distinct uh notches or a serration that control how the bullet peels back upon entry and it like mushrooms out rather than staying intact. Uh, there's the non-bonded core, which is a lead core. It's not molecularly fused to the jacket. So it allows for a quick, dramatic entry transfer upon hitting a soft target, namely body tissue. So prior to the Hollow Point bullet becoming the standard, the traditional ammunition of choice for FBI service revolvers was the full metal jacket. So the yeah. Now we I'm understanding this movies and whatnot. Uh so the main flaw of this bullet was that it wasn't designed to expand upon impact. And that caused the bullets to just penetrate either too deeply or they would do a through and through, which rather than stopping once they hit a soft tissue, they would go right through the person, oftentimes injuring an innocent bystander behind them or somebody else that is trying to get trying to be protected. Right. The standard hollow point bullets were designed with expansion in mind. The design flaw, though, was when they hit heavy clothing like denim or leather, that fabric would sometimes clog that that cavity and it would turn it into a solid bullet that over penetrates without expanding. That makes sense. Yes. Or in some cases, they would expand too quickly and they couldn't penetrate deeply enough. The hydroshock center that post prevents this clogging. It uses hydraulic pressure, a fluid entry in uh entry to force the bullet walls outward, ensuring predictable expansion and stopping power while reducing the risk of hitting bystanders behind the target.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So okay, so basically um that uh but we don't know how we don't know how those got what how did those amazing bullets get put in this gun? I don't know. I didn't ask for the I didn't ask for those bullets. I don't even know. Why would I what how would those get? I don't know. I'm not sure. That's that was her response, but I do believe she kept referring to them as the good bullets. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Oh my gosh. I mean they are. She was designed with quality in mind.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Um, all right. So April 1989, Dan and Linda get married. Okay. Isn't that the month? Yeah. They got married in the same month as Dan and Betty got married.
SPEAKER_07Wow. So there were 11 other months they could have chosen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dan and Linda did hire security guards for their wedding. The wedding was at the house.
SPEAKER_07That's probably.
SPEAKER_02They had the wedding at the Marston Hills house. So, I mean, she's already banned off, like, why wouldn't you come on this day, you know? So they hired security guards. Uh, Linda actually wanted Dan to wear a bulletproof vest.
SPEAKER_06Wow. You know, that could be all helped if they didn't have the wedding at their house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But he did not wear a bulletproof vest. Holy gooses. Because he's he's on the mindset of like, not that she's not gonna do it. You're not gonna kill the golden goose. What are you gonna do for money? You know, that's that was his mind state. So he did not, but they did have a special uh like security guard from the team park outside of Betty's house, and he was required to follow her every move that day. Okay. I mean, that's that's smart. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So, um, but also one of Betty's friends, Helen Picard, stayed with her throughout the day for support. But realistically, she had put together a beeper warning system with one of the guests in case Betty were to go there. Oh where's that straight jacket at? But Betty never did. She didn't go. Oh, but you know, while she didn't go, her anger just festered and intensified because now Linda wasn't just Linda Kolkina, she was Mrs. Daniel Broderick, and that's who she was.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So September of 1989, for the very first time in years, Betty had felt hopeful because another custody battle was in full swing, and she had thought that she was gonna get the boys for the school year, but she was denied again. And the boys would remain with Dan.
SPEAKER_07As they should.
SPEAKER_02And now the answering machine once again featured Linda's voice because now it was her legal right. Yeah, the house belonged to Linda, and so did the answering machine.
unknownOh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02So Betty decided defeatistly that she doesn't need this big house if she doesn't have any kids, right? I mean, it's true. Yeah, what is she doing? I'm not getting the kids uh for the school year, I was gonna hold out, whatever. But so she's like, it doesn't matter, like whatever, you know? So she decides that she um is gonna purchase a two-bedroom condo in La Jolla and put Kaya Day Cielo on the market. It's now October 1989. Friends at this point notice dramatic changes in her appearance and in her demeanor. She was very depressed. Like again, she had just like that defeat. It's like almost defeatist after getting that final, like last.
SPEAKER_06Someone else is raising her kids and married to her husband.
SPEAKER_02Holy shit. Yeah. Um, she was stress-eating and overweight. She constantly looked disheveled. And this is a woman who looked put together at all times prior. Um, they would describe her as looking exhausted and old. Then came the annual Notre Dame football game. Oh, we circled back. The same tradition that had connected Betty and Dan from the beginning and for decades after. She didn't even go to Notre Dame. But they went every year. She doesn't even go here. But they did go. I mean, this was a it's a Broderick tradition, more so. So they, you know, they went every single year. Other people in broad the Broderick family um went to Notre Dame prior to him. So they it was a tradition in their family. So Dan had previously attended for years with Betty and the children. And now this year, Dan and Linda would attend, and also he flew the children out. And for the first time in a long time, a lot of the other Broderick family was also going. So it's gonna be like one of the big ones, you know? And of course, Betty did not. And for her, it felt like she was cut out, you know, and she was uh upset that the fake Mrs. Broderick would be. There living her life basically. So Friday, November 3rd, 1989.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02A letter arrives in the mail informing her that the custody hearings from this point would be postponed indefinitely.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02Because Dan was resisting. She didn't read the whole legal document. She just skimmed it and got like the basic gifts. Yes.
SPEAKER_06Because that's how you read legal documents.
SPEAKER_02But again, at least she read skimmed this one. She wasn't reading half of the other ones.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_02So um she's upset, you know, but she she goes on to continue her day. Lee came over and the two of them went shopping together. And then it was Betty's weekend with the boys. So she picked them up from school.
SPEAKER_07The daughters are adults now. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah. Um, so she picked the boys up from school, and then uh they spent Friday night attending a football game at Danny's high school.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02And then they went to dinner in Old Town.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02So seems like although upset, pretty normal, you know, day. Well, she's getting to see your kids. Yeah. So that's she's she's that's good. It's a good thing. Yeah. Saturday, November 4th, 1989. Helen Picard stopped by the condo that morning, and she later testified that Betty seemed extremely agitated due to some legal document that she'd received.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02But Betty took the boys to their soccer game. Uh, then they went grocery shopping, and then Betty cooked dinner for the boys at the Calle De Cielo house because they still had it. It was, it hasn't been sold yet. And when she had the boys, she did like to stay at the house because it was just more comfortable and bigger. Um, and then they watched television and they went to bed around 9:30. Okay. But Betty would later claim she remembered none of this. According to her, she had no recollection of cooking dinner or watching TV, and that she was in bed by six.
SPEAKER_06So I don't know.
SPEAKER_02How early did they eat dinner?
SPEAKER_06I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_02For real. But like you have the boys. Why are you going to bed at six o'clock? What are they doing? Sunday.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02November 5th. Okay. 1989. Okay. Okay. I know what you're thinking. All right. Chargers Eagles game.
SPEAKER_06I was thinking. I was saying it's my brother's birthday.
SPEAKER_07I was gonna say a day that lives in infamy.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah. Yeah. Even though it's remember, remember the 5th of November.
SPEAKER_02Well, Guy Fox Day. Many do as the massive upset that took place in the Chargers Eagles game in favor of the Chargers, 20 to 17. Okay. The Chargers were three and six, and the Eagles were six and three. So they were not expected to win that game. But a 49-yard field goal by Chris Barr with four seconds remaining. Took it. That's exactly what I was thinking. How did you go? All right, all right, all right.
SPEAKER_06Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02All right. So Sunday, November 5th, 1989. Before sunrise, Betty awoke. 13-year-old Danny was asleep. 10-year-old Rhett was asleep.
SPEAKER_06And of course, she woke up before sunrise. Bitch fell asleep at six o'clock. Apparently, if she fell asleep at six.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So she went down to the kitchen and she picked up a newspaper, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw the legal letter. Okay. Oh. And this time she decided to read it word for word. She said the letter was warning her that Dan was filing for contempt charges again because she had been leaving messages for the boys calling Dan and Linda names and using vulgar language again, and another jail sentence will be imposed.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_02But what it actually said was that if she didn't cease and desist on the messages, then they would file contempt charges and a jail sentence could be imposed. Okay.
SPEAKER_07So it was a warning letter.
SPEAKER_02Yes. But along with the custody hearing being pushed off and more jail time looming, just seemed to Betty like she was making no headway on getting the boys back, and there was no end in sight to this circle of hell that she was living in. She's obviously already been depressed. Obviously, she's, you know, had this defeatist mode. So she decided to give up. This woman is so dramatic. Very always. Yeah. It's like she wrote a suicide note and left it on the kitchen table.
unknownDrama great.
SPEAKER_02It read, quote, I can't take this anymore. Three things I can't take anymore. Number one, Linda Kolkenna, the C-word, interfering with what little contact I have with my children. She's been doing it for years. We have litigated continuously. Number two, the constant threats of court, jail, contempt, fines, etc., which is very scary to me. And no matter what the evidence, I will always lose. Because that's how she felt. All the it was always sucked, the odds were always sucked against her with Dan.
SPEAKER_06Well, yeah, dude, you're not subtle.
SPEAKER_02Number three, them constantly insinuating I'm crazy. You see, the last sentence of that legal letter said, quote, her emotional disturbance and mental disease are not improving. Unquote. But then instead of unaliving herself there in the kitchen, she got in the car and started driving.
SPEAKER_07I would like to point out real quick before we move too far past it, um, when she mentioned Linda, she maiden named her instead of she could have just said Linda. Yeah. She had to put her maiden name.
SPEAKER_02Maiden name, not she would never refer to her as Linda Broderick.
SPEAKER_07She said Linda, but she had to put the maiden name in to reiterate.
SPEAKER_02It's all, it's one, it's a lint Linda Colkenna, the C. It's what it's literally what it's there's no spaces. It's one word. Yeah. But she gets exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Sorry.
SPEAKER_02It's 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_07And this is Monday morning now?
SPEAKER_02No, it's Sunday.
SPEAKER_07Oh, this is still Sunday morning. Because she was, it was she woke up before it's Friday night. She went to the house.
SPEAKER_02Get up, have some coffee and take your medicine. Oh my gosh. So it's 5 a.m. At some point on this drive, she'd made a decision. Okay. But did she or did she make the decision days earlier when she took Kim's keys? We'll find out. This key ring of Kim's contained the keys to Dan and Linda's house. Yes. Kim would even tell her that they'd gone missing and they would look for them. And she acted like she didn't know anything about it. So again, made the day of, or the day she took the keys, or the day she bought the gun.
SPEAKER_06That's what I was gonna say. Before she bought the gun.
SPEAKER_02Because she remembers getting in the car to unalive herself at the beach. That's where she was headed. But somehow she arrived at the Marston Hills home. But she grabbed the keys before she left.
SPEAKER_06Maybe the key to go to the beach.
SPEAKER_02Oh God, here they are. Yes.
SPEAKER_06Crazy.
SPEAKER_02What we do know is she chose to take that gun out of her purse and carry it inside. She chose not to use the front door, even though she had a key. You see, Dan and Linda's bedroom was at directly at the top of the stairs and might have woken him up. So she chose to walk around the house and enter through the back door. When you open the back door, on your right is a kitchen. She walked through the kitchen, and then she would take a hard left down the hallway. And then she had to go towards the front door and up the stairs. Okay. And at the top of the stairs, as I mentioned before, is the door to Dan and Linda's bedroom. But she saw that and she decided not to enter because if she entered through the front, that first one, she would be head on. So she chose to go into the second door to the bedroom, which is actually through the TV room. She goes in there, and there she is. This put her right next to Linda's side of the bed. According to Betty, Linda woke up and yelled, Call the police.
SPEAKER_07How freaking scary.
SPEAKER_02Right? Yeah. And Dan reaches for the phone on the nightstand. And without hesitation, Betty opened fire.
SPEAKER_07Wow.
SPEAKER_02She fired her revolver five times. Brie, do you know where those bullets landed?
SPEAKER_06I might just. Okay. So the first bullet struck Linda in the chest, and the bullet went completely through her body and into the bed underneath her. The second struck Dan in the middle of his back and he fell to the floor. The next shot went right into the wall. It seems she thought he might stand up and that shot would have gotten him directly in his chest. But it did not. Linda attempts to roll away. So Betty fired twice more. One missed and went right past Linda's head into the nightstand. The last one was right on target, hitting Linda directly in the back of the head. Wow. Five shots. Five shots is all it took. Those Hydro Shock bullets did their job.
SPEAKER_02Well, at this point, she realizes that Dan is still alive. The wound had gone into his chest, as you described, and it pierced his lung. But he still struggled toward the telephone. Betty later, in her own words, said that she could hear him gurgling in his own blood. She walked around the bed, grabbed the telephone, and ripped it from the wall. Again, in her own words, so he couldn't save himself. So there's also another version of this story that's less widely told. Um, Betty claims that she has no recollection of what happened when she walked into that bedroom. She claimed that she went there to just talk to them.
SPEAKER_06With a gun.
SPEAKER_02With a gun. Yeah, why not? Yeah, right? While they're sleeping. Yes. At five, yeah, at five o'clock in the morning. Then she claimed that she went there to um unalive herself in front of them. Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, and she definitely mentioned several times that she only brought the gun because she thought it would make Dan finally listen to her if she had it. Um, but ultimately she doesn't have any recollection of what happened in that room after that gun went off and it was just an explosion. She doesn't recollect pulling the trigger five times because this is a revolver, you know? You have to pull the trigger each time. I know I have one. Yeah. But in some another, like, you know, cited story, uh, but I think people like to recall it because it's more dramatic. She did say that when she walked around the bed, he said to her, okay, you shot me. I'm dead. And then she ripped the phone from the wall. But for me, I I'm not really, I mean, it seems like that's kind of like one or the other, because if you're gurgling in your own blood, he can't talk. But I guess maybe not medically like impossible, but no, he's drowning. Yeah, at that point. He's drowning. But he's still reaching for the phone. If he's gurgling in his own blood, either story, he's still reaching for the phone. So if he's girl, maybe he had he could talk and he intended to talk when he called 911. Yeah, yeah. So it's hard to know. But also that so that one is less like of a and that one was not in the court case. That's from some other different-sided uh research that I did.
SPEAKER_06But she still recollects pulling the phone from the pulling the phone from the wall.
SPEAKER_02So that's ripping it.
SPEAKER_06Snap too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Um, so she dumps the phone at the top of the stairs and leaves. Linda died in bed, obviously after that shot to the back of the head. But Dan was left to essentially suffocate in his own blood on the floor, which could have taken anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So after this, Betty drove to a gas station in Claremont and used a payphone to call her daughter Lee. Gotta love those payphones. Yeah. As we know. She told Lee what she'd done and said she needed to come over. And Lee said, Yes, come. The cops will be waiting for you when you get here, mom. So she said that she called Lee and wanted to go to Lee's house specifically because she was worried that Dan was still coming after her. She didn't think that Dan was like down and dead. Like she thought that he was like on the chase and that Dan was gonna was gonna come and get her. Okay. So she said that she called Lee and went there because Dan didn't know where Lee lived. But in reality, nobody knew where Lee lived. So except for her.
SPEAKER_06Except for Lee.
SPEAKER_02So Betty? Except for Betty. So basically, I I another small Joey speculates wildly. Um, I think she probably went to Lee's because she knew that if people were to hear that Betty did this because she made several other phone calls to tell people about it, um, that they wouldn't ha know where to send her to go get her because nobody else knew where Lee lived. So the police couldn't go there. Got it.
SPEAKER_06You know, I mean, that does that's yeah, it seems right. Yeah.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_02Um but um basically, uh again, yeah, she did call like a couple of other friends and told them what she had done, also. Like, I killed the bastard, you know, that kind of stuff. So she goes to Lee's. Um, and when she got there, I guess somewhere on the drive between the payphone and Lee's house, um, she was resolved. Um, she instructed Lee to go to the Kaya Day Cielo house and be with the boys. Um, because at this point she's like, well, if any of these other people that I've called and told did in fact call the police, they could be at the house looking for me and the boys would be there and scared. So she said, go be with the boys. And then Betty removed all of her jewelry and turned herself into the police.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_07I didn't see that coming. I didn't either.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So obviously, like there was never any real dispute about someone.
SPEAKER_07She's calling all these people. Yeah, Janelinda. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And she was also never in any danger of committing of unaliving herself. Because if she was, she wouldn't be like, oh, let me take my jewelry off and turn myself in. The people that don't care whether they live or die, yeah, aren't going to do anything but run or hide or something, you know? But turning herself in, it's because she values her own life. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02She did uh plead not guilty. So I mean, she clearly is insane. So I mean so that would be the question that would dominate the next several years was why and was she, you know? Um, was she a calculating murderer? Or was she a woman who had finally snapped after years of emotional warfare?
SPEAKER_07No, I'm not buying it.
SPEAKER_02Yes, to both. Let's see what the jury says.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_02Betty's murder trial began in 1990, and prosecutors painted a picture of premeditation. They reminded the jurors about the years of threats, the hundreds of phone messages, the vandalism, the restraining orders.
SPEAKER_06Violated restraining orders, the car through the front door. Oh, I forgot about this.
SPEAKER_02The gun purchase months before the murders, and the fact that Betty had taken Kim's keys days earlier. The prosecution argued this wasn't a sudden act, and it was the final step in a years-long plan. Okay. The defense told a different story. They argued Betty had been psychologically destroyed, humiliated, manipulated, and discarded. They described a woman pushed beyond her limits by an affair, a bitter divorce, custody battles, and a legal system she believed was stacked against her. It's all true. It's all true. Yeah. So after weeks of testimony, trust me, the jury could not agree. Yeah. They were deadlocked. Hung. Ten to two. Really? Yeah. So there would be no verdict, and we would go again. The second trial began in 1991. This time, prosecutors narrowed their focus and concentrated on intent. Okay. The gun, the key, the planning, the phone ripped from the wall, the months of escalating threats. And jurors here heard how Betty had repeatedly talked about killing Dan and Linda. Their friends testified that they had been concerned. And the defense against argued that Betty's emotional state had deteriorated to the point that she was no longer thinking rationally. But this jury reached a decision, and Betty was found guilty on two counts of second-degree murder.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Huh. Okay.
SPEAKER_02The judge sentenced Betty Broderick to 32 years to life in prison when she was 43 years old. Betty settled into prison life, and over the years, she gave interviews and maintained that she had been treated unfairly. She continued to argue that Dan manipulated both the legal system and the people around him. While she often acknowledged pulling the trigger, many critics felt she never fully accepted responsibility for the murders themselves. Rachel, do you have anything to add here by any chance? I do have some fun facts for you. Do you? Wonderful.
SPEAKER_07Rachel's fun facts. Some fun facts for you. Well, starting in uh February of 85, right after their initial separation, Betty actually started a relationship.
SPEAKER_01Hmm.
SPEAKER_07With a man named Bradley Wright. Get out. Yeah. So whilst all these threats, all these showing up at the house, these voicemails, she's she's. You mean somebody wanting to date this?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_06The whole time. The whole time? Yes. Look at an eye. The whole time. I can't get a date.
SPEAKER_01Oh no.
SPEAKER_07So Brad was a businessman who owned a fencing company and he was six years younger than Betty.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_07So that morning that she pulled those triggers, and how you mentioned that she called her daughter Lee and she called several other people. One Of those people called Brad.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_07Okay. So he, along with the family friend, actually went to the house and climbed through the window and saw the bodies.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_07And the wound that Dan suffered was strikingly similar to the same that almost killed Ronald President Ronald Reagan. However, because Ronald Reagan was able to get to the surgeons in time, he was saved. But Dan had no phone.
SPEAKER_02He couldn't get that chance. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So now, Brad has definitely spent decades trying to distance himself from this situation. He did, however, stay in contact with Betty while she was in prison and put money on her like financial support for her, like on her commissary and financial support to her kids.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, she was probably flying him everywhere, going on those vacations.
SPEAKER_02They were probably going on those trips together.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I they did. I knew that.
SPEAKER_07So October 2020, Brad uh mistakenly stopped paying for the storage fee. So the storage unit, the place auctioned off stuff that was, you know, the possessions inside the storage unit.
SPEAKER_06Oh my gosh, we should see if we should get we can get some.
SPEAKER_07And among those possessions were love letters from Betty from Oct from 2003 to 2006.
SPEAKER_02Oh, in prison. 2003 to 2006, dude. That's so far.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. But not, it wasn't to Dan. It was to No, they were to Brad. They were to Brad. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. And uh between the first and second trial, after that mistrial, and then, you know, the second one, um, there was some reportedly some um jailhouse misconduct. And I clutched my pearls.
SPEAKER_06Wait a minute. What does misconduct mean?
SPEAKER_07Um, well, it is alleged that she attacked three of the guards and smeared feces all over herself for them to clean up.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Mrs. Broderick. She's just really getting she's going to cut.
SPEAKER_07Try to tell me she's not crazy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02She's getting full into it there. That's for sure. Oh my gosh. Yikes. So it didn't stop. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07It didn't. It didn't. She's crazy. Yeah. She is crazy. Dan was not a good person, but she is she's 100% responsible. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I agree completely.
SPEAKER_06But bitch is crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, as the years passed, Betty became eligible for parole. Oh. Yeah. But the hearings would reignite old wounds, and family members were once again asked to revisit the worst period of their lives. And some of the children supported her release while others opposed it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It was like half and half.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, parole boards repeatedly focused on one question. Did Betty really understand what she had done? Or was she still blaming everyone else for her actions?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, because don't you have to admit to the parole board? You have to take responsibility for whatever it is that you've done.
SPEAKER_02Again and again, concerns were raised that she remained focused on Dan's behavior rather than her own decisions. So parole was denied, then denied again and again.
SPEAKER_07Good.
SPEAKER_02For decades, Betty Broderick remained one of America's most famous female inmates. She spent more than 35 years in prison.
SPEAKER_07Oh then I didn't realize it was that long.
SPEAKER_02On May 8th, 2026, just over a month ago, Betty Broderick died while serving her sentence, and she was 78 years old.
SPEAKER_06Wow.
SPEAKER_02It didn't have to be. With her death, a marriage that began with a borrowed pen at a college football party in 1965 ended as one of the most infamous true crime cases in American history. But the debate never did. As we've been debating it multiple times, nearly four decades after the murders, people still argue about Betty Broderick. Again, destroyed by betrayal, victim of a system that favored wealth, status, and power, or simply a murderer who refused to let go.
SPEAKER_07I can't change my mind.
SPEAKER_02The answer depends largely on who's telling the story. And with that, it's time to raise your glasses.
SPEAKER_07Sorry for my perfect vision.
SPEAKER_06Rude. Offense. Offense. You're like, yeah, these on and I can see you.
SPEAKER_02So there were many adaptations of the Betty Broderick story made over the years. Immediately after the murders and then during the trials, the case dominated national television. Betty appeared or was discussed on shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oh my gosh. 2020, hard copy. Yes, hard copy. In 1991, an episode of Law and Order was partially inspired by the Broderick Murders and Trial.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02In 1992, the first true crime book was written called Hell Hath No Fury.
SPEAKER_06I've wanted to say that like five times during this whole show, and I did it, and that's pretty funny.
SPEAKER_02By Brina Tubman. The first television movie called A Woman Scorned, the Betty Broderick story, premiered on March 1st of 1992, starring Meredith Baxter as Betty. And this was the version that cemented the case in American pop culture. Meredith Baxter was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Betty. On the lifetime true story. November 1992, the sequel to that movie, Her Final Fury, Betty Broderick, the last chapter.
SPEAKER_00Her final theory. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02This makes me so happy.
SPEAKER_06I really do believe that we should watch these movies.
SPEAKER_02That premiered on November 1st of 1992. Okay. Um, and this focused on the murders and the trials. And that also starred Meredith Baxter.
SPEAKER_06And then the final, not without my theory.
SPEAKER_02Um, in 1993, um, another book, Until the 12th of Never, The Deadly Divorce of Dan and Betty Broderick by Bella Stumbo came out, and she had extensive access to Betty in prison. So that was a major one.
SPEAKER_06I just see, do you do you guys see? Have you guys seen Death Becomes Her? Yeah, of course. So long time. Like literally all I envision for Betty Broderick is sitting around talking about her husband. Like she goes, I want to talk about Madeline Ashen, and everybody's flipping out because that's how this woman is. That's like exactly how I would probably describe it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Another major book published that same year uh was called Forsaking All Others, the real Betty Broderick story, um, by Loretta Schwartz-Noble. Um, and then in 2015, Betty's own book came out. Oh. Called Telling on Myself, a self-published memoir, obviously, in which Betty told her version of events, which I kind of want to read it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I'm not reading it, but I kind of want to read it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then 2017, a television documentary episode of Murder Made Me Famous. Um, and then in 2018, a podcast came out of my favorite murder.
SPEAKER_04Oh.
SPEAKER_02Um, episode 103. They told this story on a live podcast in front of a live studio audience in San Diego. Oh, oh.
SPEAKER_07I probably listened to that because I used to listen to my favorite murderer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, I never had listened to that podcast before. And I did listen to this one. Um, and honestly, like it's awesome. You should definitely check it out. Um, and then spring 2020, another podcast called It Was Simple, the Betty Broderick Murders. Um, this is arguably the best podcast source on the case. Till now. Um, but I will say I did listen to that one like eight times. It's four episodes, I believe. Okay. Um, and uh, they're like 30-ish minute long. Okay. Um, but it is very good also. Um it actually includes inner like actual interviews, court recordings, um, family perspectives, and uh extensive original reporting on the case. Oh, nice. Uh, then June and July of 2020, the biggest modern adaptation, which we already discussed um in part one of this, uh, but we will bring it up again. Uh, Dirty John, season two, the Betty Broderick star uh story. This starred Amanda Pete as Betty and Christian Slater as Dan.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I remember this all of the incredible casting.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. All the actors. Do we know who played Linda?
SPEAKER_02Uh I do, I do not. Okay. Um probably Claire Danes. But no, it was not. I would know. I would not be watching. If Angela Chase is playing Linda Golkan, like I would know. Um, but uh this it was it was it's a great, it's so good. It's really, really good. Uh and then in July of 2020, uh obviously, of course, an episode of Snapped. Um and then you love Snapped. Everybody loves Snapped. Uh and then in 2023, uh a book, another book came out uh called She Gave Her Pearls. And that was written by Betty's daughter Kim. Oh, okay. Oh, wow. Okay, I would read that one. Yeah. And that's it, ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_07Conclusion of our first two-part episode.
SPEAKER_02And our first season. Yes, our season finale. Yay! That was awesome. That was really thanks you guys for appeasing me.
SPEAKER_06We didn't bring is our champagne.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, we didn't bring our champagne. It was free, it was free drink. Uh what did what were we saying it was called? Free drink day. Free drink. It's not Friday.
SPEAKER_06No, we said free drink.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. We called it something cool and then we can't remember.
SPEAKER_06It's been a long day. It's been a really long day, really, really. Yeah. Um seven hours. Seven hours, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Seven uh and a half hours, but it was worth it. We had a blast. Yes. Yes. It was a really great show. And it was a good story. I did my I did my best to to do what I could. You did an amazing. I and I know like a lot of um podcasts on this are much shorter, but I I mean I watched that trial, and I had to I had to include it.
SPEAKER_07You couldn't cut a lot of things.
SPEAKER_02It's just too much because how are you gonna know what she like, you know, where how like how she got there, you know? Yeah, I guess in a way.
SPEAKER_06I want I want that dude. Um, what is her boyfriend's name? Brad? Yeah. Where's his book? I know from the from the inside.
SPEAKER_02He he I forgot to mention, I have another little fun thing, not really like um that big of a thing, but uh be because I watched the trial, Brad was there, you know. He was he was he did testify in the trial, um, but he was also in the uh uh audience. Um the audience what is it called? I don't know. Uh he was in the courtroom.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_02And he sat with uh her daughters the uh the whole time. And they're still they were still together to essentially during this time because they didn't they kept dating all the way through uh her conviction. Um and so technically, I know, yeah. So technically they were still together. And during a point where the Brad got brought up um in the testimony, and she's Betty's on the stand. She this is these are her words about Brad. Um, she basically still like somewhat like diminished their relationship. And um sitting there supporting her. The camera cuts to him sitting with his with her daughters, and um there's a point where it says that she referred to him as her puppy.
SPEAKER_07Ew.
SPEAKER_02And they laughed, all three of them, and then the daughters like pet his head like a puppy.
SPEAKER_06Oh, get out. Yeah. The humiliation like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Bye. Well, I mean, he is something. But he was comfortable with his role because why would somebody that was self-respecting stay in a relationship with a woman that's fighting to get back into another relationship?
SPEAKER_02Completely emotionally still charged on another, you know, yeah, relationship. Um, but yeah, I mean, I thought that was a little bit funny though.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. I mean, sad. Yeah. It's sad, but like we didn't have to be there. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. For sure. For sure. But yeah, you know, that's Betty. Betty. Well, are we ready to close the tab on this season?
SPEAKER_06Till next time. Till next season. Yeah. Yeah, till next season. Don't get 86.