Betty Broderick Murders

On November 5, 1989, Elisabeth Anne "Betty" Broderick entered the Hillcrest, San Diego home of her ex-husband Daniel T. Broderick III and his new wife Linda Kolkena Broderick using a key she had taken from their older daughter, and shot both as they slept. Daniel, 44, a prominent medical malpractice attorney, and Linda, 28, his former legal assistant, were killed by multiple gunshot wounds from a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.

The case became one of the most widely discussed domestic violence and divorce-related murder cases in American history. It raised complex questions about the psychological effects of a bitter divorce, the legal system's treatment of women in custody disputes, and the line between an abused spouse and a calculated killer.

Betty Broderick, born Elisabeth Anne Bisceglia on November 7, 1947, in Eastchester, New York, married Daniel Broderick in 1969. During their marriage, Betty supported Dan through both medical school at Cornell University and law school at Harvard, working multiple jobs and raising their eventual four children while Dan completed his education. Dan went on to become one of the most successful medical malpractice lawyers in San Diego, earning an estimated one million dollars per year by the mid-1980s.

[The marriage deteriorated after Dan began an affair with Linda Kolkena](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/crime/story/2020-08-26/betty-broderick-dirty-john-real-story), a former airline stewardess who had become his legal assistant, in 1983. Betty discovered evidence of the affair and confronted Dan, who denied it. The couple separated in 1985, and their divorce proceedings became increasingly acrimonious. Dan, an experienced attorney with extensive connections in San Diego's legal community, used his knowledge of the legal system to gain advantages in the proceedings, according to Betty and her supporters. He obtained primary custody of the children and had Betty's spousal support reduced multiple times.

Betty's behavior escalated throughout the divorce. She left obscene messages on Dan's answering machine — many of which were later played at trial — drove her Chevrolet Suburban through the front door of Dan's home, vandalized his clothing, and was jailed briefly for destruction of property. Dan obtained a restraining order against her, and Betty was increasingly isolated from her children.

Dan and Linda married on April 22, 1989. According to Betty and her defense, the marriage and Dan's continued legal maneuvers pushed her to a breaking point. Seven months after their wedding, Betty entered their home in the early morning hours while they slept.

Betty Broderick called her daughter Lee and her friend immediately after the shootings. She then drove to a pay phone and called 911. When police arrived at the Broderick home, they found Daniel dead in bed with gunshot wounds to the chest and back, and Linda dead on the floor next to the bed, apparently having been shot while attempting to call for help on the bedside telephone.

[The case was extensively covered by the media](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909577476/dirty-john-the-betty-broderick-story) and became the subject of a two-part television movie, "A Woman Scorned," in 1992, and the second season of USA Network's "Dirty John" in 2020. The shooting resulted in a national conversation about the psychological toll of adversarial divorce proceedings and the ways in which wealth and legal expertise can be wielded as instruments of control.

Betty Broderick's first trial began in October 1990 in San Diego County Superior Court. The jury deadlocked, with some jurors sympathetic to arguments that Betty had been driven to the breaking point by years of emotional abuse and legal manipulation during the divorce. The judge declared a mistrial.

A second trial began on October 22, 1991. The prosecution argued that Betty had planned the murders, pointing to her prior violent behavior, her acquisition of the gun weeks before the shooting, and her use of a stolen key to enter the home while the victims slept. The defense argued that Betty was a battered woman who had been psychologically abused and legally tormented by her husband, and that the killings were not premeditated but the result of years of accumulated rage and desperation.

[On December 11, 1991, the jury convicted Betty Broderick of two counts of second-degree murder.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/betty-broderick-murders-husband-wife-san-diego/) She was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison — two consecutive 15-years-to-life terms plus two additional years for illegal use of a firearm.

[Betty Broderick has been denied parole multiple times](https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-betty-broderick-parole-denied-20170217-story.html), most recently in January 2017, when the parole board ruled that she still posed a threat to public safety. Her next parole hearing was scheduled for 2032. She remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino, California. She is one of the longest-serving female inmates in the California prison system.

The case remains a subject of debate regarding the legal system's treatment of domestic abuse victims, the psychological effects of contentious divorces, and the boundaries of provocation as a defense in murder cases.