Reading this today, Betty Broderick seems like Luigi Mangione...right cause, wrong method, much sympathy, unable to forgive such an act.
And the severity of her punishment really shocks me. Although murderers are often given very long sentences, this sentence, for this crime, viewed in its totality, is freaking ridiculous. We still have a long way to go. No justice was served by her serving more than 37 years in prison. Nobody was helped by her 20th to 30th year, or years 30 to 37.
My attorney is the same age as myself - 70 - and was married for 17 years to his ex-wife, with whom he had 4 children...a singleton and a set of triplets. According to news stories, they have an "amicable relationship."
He is now "engaged" to "Brittany" whom I met at my trial last summer. She's 34 years old, has professionally-dyed long blonde hair, is very pretty, has Osmond teeth, and has very large breasts. She's very nice but also dumb as dirt. I asked her if she knew she was named after one of the most beautiful places on earth, but she had never heard of Brittany, France, nor did she have any idea where France was located.
But I guess intelligent conversation is not what he wants from Brittany.
The first time I met this attorney 2-1/2 years ago he had Brittany's photo on his desk and I thought it was his daughter, but he corrected me and said she was his fiancée. I asked when they were getting married and he gave me a sly, side-eye and said "Well, now, I didn't say we were getting married."
The last time I talked to this attorney was 1 month ago, and I asked how Brittany was. His response was to bitch about how "she wants to get married" in a very annoyed voice.
Brittany reminds me of what my mother told me when I was 14: "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
As the saying goes, the first wife makes the husband's career and the career makes the second wife. She was not the first one who worked to put her husband through college only to be dumped. I think the trigger was how heinous he was to her and also she most likely had some unaddressed mental issues for which she was unable to get help due to being completed destitute after the divorce.
I know a guy in my industry with a similar story. His father, a real grinder, had a nice little business in Santa Maria, Calif, a small town in Central Coastal California. He went to UCLA, which he used to make him think that he was a big fish in a small pond. His father died & he got the business. We did business with him & I eventually found out what a skeeze he was. He lived way beyond his means. His first wife, he probably drove crazy and he had her committed. He married her best friend. He built a real nice house, drove a Porsche, acted like a real big shot. And pulled the same shit on his 2nd wife . She got fed up & keyed his precious Porsche. Evidently he had a gambling problem. He came back from Vegas one time, he must have lost everything there. They probably had a big fight and he shot her twice. When the cops came, he told them that she committed suicide. He eventually got a really short sentence & did only a couple of years in jail for her murder and got out. He came back to work , for somebody, in the same industry, was just as sleazy. Bad guy.
I have wondered how the current crop of tradwives are doing the math on the premise that "it's just natural for older men to want to be with younger women." Because someday their husbands will be older, if they're not already, but they won't be getting younger, even if they can make goat cheese and sweet potato pie.
My favorite aunt (no longer with us, unfortunately) went through a similar story, spending years working to put her husband through law school while raising the kids, and then getting unceremoniously dumped. She didn't kill him, though.
TWO trials, because the jurors' essential attitude was, "Why'd she wait so long to shoot him?" Nobody disputed what she did, just whether or not she should have. And it was split pretty evenly along gender lines: "He had it coming!" "He was still giving her plenty of $$$$!"
I only learned about it during the pandemic. My partner and I watched it, and he was like, "Why was he allowed to get away with all that shit?" He's younger than I am and I was just like, "Oh, you sweet summer child." He had no idea. :(
I'm not surprised that Dan Broderick used his influence in legal circles to make it impossible for Betty to get capable representation. It's something you see a lot in legal circles when lawyers divorce or fight over custody. We had a case like that a couple years ago in Las Vegas - lawyer representing his son in a bitter custody case pulled out a gun during a deposition and shot his son's ex-wife and her attorney (who was also her new husband) before turning the gun on himself.
What the fuck? There isn't more to the story? Because it certainly sounds like there has to be. When did this happen? Do you remember their names? (I'd like to read a little more.)
Thank you! I tried googling a couple of times with the info in your first comment, but nothing came up. That's why he killed her? But he also killed her husband. It seems... off. I'll watch it, then see if I can find anything else about it. Thanks again, Spotts.
First things first: the Lifetime movie, “A Woman Scorned: the Betty Broderick Story,” starring Meredith Baxter, is a CLASSIC. The sequel is also terrific. RIP Betts.
Regarding the “trad wife” movement: My mom and dad married in the early 60s, just a couple years out of high school. My mom was the perfect “trad wife” - she quickly popped out two kids, cooked fabulous meals every night, kept the house so clean we could have eaten off the floors, always looked pretty and put together, and still worked full-time to help supplement my dad’s income as he rose through his company’s ranks. She had so much on her plate, it’s unlikely she ever thought about herself or her “wants and needs.”
But no matter what she did or how hard she tried, it didn’t keep my dad from being a philandering narcissist from day one. My dad was the only man she’d ever dated, the first man she ever loved, and she lived in chronic fear of losing him. And year after year, he gaslit her into believing he’d quit cheating if only she’d do a better job at being a wife.
No need to recount more of the ugly details of their 20-year marriage; just suffice it to say, no one came out of it unscathed, including my brother and I whom were frequent afterthoughts amidst the chronic dysfunction.
Most of my friends also had moms whom tried to emulate June Cleaver. And most of them had part- or full-time jobs because kids and home ownership were expensive then, too. Not surprisingly, most of them wound up getting divorced as soon as their kids had flown the coop, because the myth of the almighty “trad wife” is exactly that. A myth.
honestly, that the wife did everything unprompted and was perfect and together etc etc without the husband feeling like he had to do anything, this was just his right as a man, contributes to the philandering
who needs to feel lucky when you can just take it for granted, and then take it again?
Robyn, thanks. Great obituary.
Reading this today, Betty Broderick seems like Luigi Mangione...right cause, wrong method, much sympathy, unable to forgive such an act.
And the severity of her punishment really shocks me. Although murderers are often given very long sentences, this sentence, for this crime, viewed in its totality, is freaking ridiculous. We still have a long way to go. No justice was served by her serving more than 37 years in prison. Nobody was helped by her 20th to 30th year, or years 30 to 37.
What a damn shame. For everyone.
My attorney is the same age as myself - 70 - and was married for 17 years to his ex-wife, with whom he had 4 children...a singleton and a set of triplets. According to news stories, they have an "amicable relationship."
He is now "engaged" to "Brittany" whom I met at my trial last summer. She's 34 years old, has professionally-dyed long blonde hair, is very pretty, has Osmond teeth, and has very large breasts. She's very nice but also dumb as dirt. I asked her if she knew she was named after one of the most beautiful places on earth, but she had never heard of Brittany, France, nor did she have any idea where France was located.
But I guess intelligent conversation is not what he wants from Brittany.
The first time I met this attorney 2-1/2 years ago he had Brittany's photo on his desk and I thought it was his daughter, but he corrected me and said she was his fiancée. I asked when they were getting married and he gave me a sly, side-eye and said "Well, now, I didn't say we were getting married."
The last time I talked to this attorney was 1 month ago, and I asked how Brittany was. His response was to bitch about how "she wants to get married" in a very annoyed voice.
Brittany reminds me of what my mother told me when I was 14: "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
There's more than one reason why nuns live so long.
“Now, everything she went through wasn’t an excuse for a double murder”
Doesn't sound like you believe that, RP.
Good for her. That is all.
Her reaction was unusual, but her circumstances were certainly NOT. RIP.
As the saying goes, the first wife makes the husband's career and the career makes the second wife. She was not the first one who worked to put her husband through college only to be dumped. I think the trigger was how heinous he was to her and also she most likely had some unaddressed mental issues for which she was unable to get help due to being completed destitute after the divorce.
I know a guy in my industry with a similar story. His father, a real grinder, had a nice little business in Santa Maria, Calif, a small town in Central Coastal California. He went to UCLA, which he used to make him think that he was a big fish in a small pond. His father died & he got the business. We did business with him & I eventually found out what a skeeze he was. He lived way beyond his means. His first wife, he probably drove crazy and he had her committed. He married her best friend. He built a real nice house, drove a Porsche, acted like a real big shot. And pulled the same shit on his 2nd wife . She got fed up & keyed his precious Porsche. Evidently he had a gambling problem. He came back from Vegas one time, he must have lost everything there. They probably had a big fight and he shot her twice. When the cops came, he told them that she committed suicide. He eventually got a really short sentence & did only a couple of years in jail for her murder and got out. He came back to work , for somebody, in the same industry, was just as sleazy. Bad guy.
Not really a ‘big fish in a small pond’, just the pond scum.
Well that is a tragic story.
I have wondered how the current crop of tradwives are doing the math on the premise that "it's just natural for older men to want to be with younger women." Because someday their husbands will be older, if they're not already, but they won't be getting younger, even if they can make goat cheese and sweet potato pie.
My favorite aunt (no longer with us, unfortunately) went through a similar story, spending years working to put her husband through law school while raising the kids, and then getting unceremoniously dumped. She didn't kill him, though.
I think of the movie "The Burning Bed", with Farah Faucet.
Lizzie Borden.
And, again, this goes back to the fucking Wife of Bath. If not Eve herself.
The penis cut off. I can't remember their names.
Lorena Bobbit.
Thank you!
I don't condone murder; however, her former husband sounds like one worthless son of a bitch.
I think she was mentally unstable at that time. They broke her mind. She should have been in a mental hospital, IMO.
TWO trials, because the jurors' essential attitude was, "Why'd she wait so long to shoot him?" Nobody disputed what she did, just whether or not she should have. And it was split pretty evenly along gender lines: "He had it coming!" "He was still giving her plenty of $$$$!"
Whoa! Didn't know that.
I didn't know this story. God, it's like a combination of Helter Skelter and a particularly dark Ibsen play.
Is there a "light" Ibsen play?
I only learned about it during the pandemic. My partner and I watched it, and he was like, "Why was he allowed to get away with all that shit?" He's younger than I am and I was just like, "Oh, you sweet summer child." He had no idea. :(
I'm not surprised that Dan Broderick used his influence in legal circles to make it impossible for Betty to get capable representation. It's something you see a lot in legal circles when lawyers divorce or fight over custody. We had a case like that a couple years ago in Las Vegas - lawyer representing his son in a bitter custody case pulled out a gun during a deposition and shot his son's ex-wife and her attorney (who was also her new husband) before turning the gun on himself.
What the fuck? There isn't more to the story? Because it certainly sounds like there has to be. When did this happen? Do you remember their names? (I'd like to read a little more.)
eta: edited for clarity.
Here's the local news story - apparently dad thought his former daughter-in-law was evil and that his son was a "good father".
https://www.8newsnow.com/crime/las-vegas-police-release-report-on-deadly-summerlin-law-office-shooting/?ipid=promo-link-block1
Thank you! I tried googling a couple of times with the info in your first comment, but nothing came up. That's why he killed her? But he also killed her husband. It seems... off. I'll watch it, then see if I can find anything else about it. Thanks again, Spotts.
First things first: the Lifetime movie, “A Woman Scorned: the Betty Broderick Story,” starring Meredith Baxter, is a CLASSIC. The sequel is also terrific. RIP Betts.
Regarding the “trad wife” movement: My mom and dad married in the early 60s, just a couple years out of high school. My mom was the perfect “trad wife” - she quickly popped out two kids, cooked fabulous meals every night, kept the house so clean we could have eaten off the floors, always looked pretty and put together, and still worked full-time to help supplement my dad’s income as he rose through his company’s ranks. She had so much on her plate, it’s unlikely she ever thought about herself or her “wants and needs.”
But no matter what she did or how hard she tried, it didn’t keep my dad from being a philandering narcissist from day one. My dad was the only man she’d ever dated, the first man she ever loved, and she lived in chronic fear of losing him. And year after year, he gaslit her into believing he’d quit cheating if only she’d do a better job at being a wife.
No need to recount more of the ugly details of their 20-year marriage; just suffice it to say, no one came out of it unscathed, including my brother and I whom were frequent afterthoughts amidst the chronic dysfunction.
Most of my friends also had moms whom tried to emulate June Cleaver. And most of them had part- or full-time jobs because kids and home ownership were expensive then, too. Not surprisingly, most of them wound up getting divorced as soon as their kids had flown the coop, because the myth of the almighty “trad wife” is exactly that. A myth.
what happens to the first trad son that snaps because his parents replaced him with a younger model?
Re: The Lifetime Movie, wasn't the actor who played her husband accused and eventually admitted to sexually abusing minors ?
yep. Stephen Collins.
The ultimate in typecasting.
He’s so good in the role of Dan Broderick. In hindsight, it made perfect sense.
honestly, that the wife did everything unprompted and was perfect and together etc etc without the husband feeling like he had to do anything, this was just his right as a man, contributes to the philandering
who needs to feel lucky when you can just take it for granted, and then take it again?