Betty and Dan Broderick - Part 2 of 3

0:00 Hi. I'm Tina, and I'm Rich. If there's one thing we've learned and over twenty years of marriage, it's. That some days you'll feel like killing your wife. And some days you'll feel like killing your husband. Welcome to love, Mary Kill Hi Rich, Hi Tina. How are you? I'm doing good? How are you? I'm great? We recorded yesterday, so I really don't have anything, sati. It's Tuesday, Taco Tuesday. I didn't make tacos. No.

0:40 Did you make tacos? No? I didn't make make something for. You, though I am excited about whatever it is you made, because you worked hard on it and you gave me a little taste of it. It did one component of it which I don't even know what it was, but it tasted really good. I'll tell you now. It was pastry cream. I've never made pastry cream before. What do they call it on The Great British Bakeoff? I have no idea crumb patisserie. Oh okay, I just butchered that word, didn't I How would you say it? I think you said it right. Okay, Well, I have good news for you. This is really exciting news, and I feel like as a society, this is going. To help all of us. Really, The Great British Bakeoff is returning in September.

1:20 That is so good. I think it's shoe. We do need that as a society. I think collectively most people can agree that that's a really just heartwarming Sueet show. It's all so positive. It's a competition, but everyone is nice to each other and everyone helps each other, and yeah, it's just a really nice show. Yeah it does make you. It's just instant dopamine, and it just came to me. I think they call it like crumb pat for short. Anyway, I'm excited to share our snack with you. But before we get to that, I also wanted to mention that there is a new movie coming in December that you were going to be really excited to see. Okay, Downton Abby, the final Chapter.

2:01 It's just com for it. I was out in the kitchen and there was a commercial that I was. Like, oh boy, I didn't realize that they were making like a final one. And that show also just warms my weird little heart. I really love it. I don't really like period pieces, but it's just a really heartwarming show also and just really funny Maggie Smith has passed on, and she was really just the funniest character on that show. So I don't know if she'll be replaced or if maybe she filmed it before her death. But I have really good news for you, okay, because there's another movie coming out that you're going to be really excited about, and that is the sequel to Spinal Tap is coming out. Oh, that's exciting. It's a funny. You really loved Spinal Tap.

2:45 I really loved it. Thought it was you know, pretty, it's funny. Yeah, such a ringing endorsement. It's funny. I have one more show that I'm again embarrassed to tell you guys that I'm watching. But the podcast sometimes it's like a confessional, you know, like you have to tell everyone what you're up to. I've been watching a show called You've probably never even heard of it. It's called The Summer I Turned Pretty. It's an Amazon and it's really for people like forty years younger than No, not for you know, it's for a bunch of younger people. But is this a reality show or this is no? But I feel like the people who watch Love Island are probably also turning into tuning into the summer, I turned pretty.

3:29 Okay, but guilty pleasure. Yeah, A lot of people messaged us after I've talked about Love Island. If you are watching the summer, I turned pretty I kind of need to talk to someone about it because we The nugget is there's this young woman named Belly and she has well Isabella, and she has been friends with these two men, these two boys brothers, for her whole life, and you know, essentially it's like a love triangle, like which brother is she going to choose? And I have opinions, but I don't want to do any spoilers anyway. Yeah, do you want to see your snack that. I've been Yeah? Please, okay, here, hold on, I made a Boston cream pie today.

4:11 Wow. Have you ever had Boston cream pie? No, not like a real I think I've had. I don't know. I've had something called Boston cream pie, but it doesn't look like that. So I wasn't sure if I would have time to make this today. So I did buy you know, like it's in a like a little box like a Hostess fruit pie like you. But I was going to try to make one if I had time, and I decided to just do it today. So it's not a pie, it's a cake, and then there's the crem petisserie in the middle, and then there's like chocolate ganash on the top. It looks really good. Do you want to give it a try? Yes?

4:52 What did you think of the Boston cream Pie? Was really really good? What would you rate it? Ten out of ten? I can't tell you why I made Boston cream Pie, but we're going to get. To our case. It is definitely related to our case today. I also thought it was really good, and I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty proud of this one. You should be. I never know how much I should talk about recipes when I make them, but I'm going to give anyone out there who is a baker a tip. We didn't have any cream, and I didn't really feel like going to the store, so we had skim milk. So I just put some butter into the skim milk and that kind of makes it into cream. I was nervous to do that because I've never made pastry cream before, but I think it turned out really good.

5:35 Yeah, I think so too. Well, let's get back to Betty. If you haven't listened to part one. Go back and do that. You are going to give us a brief synopsis. But before we have you do that, I'm going to give a content warning. This episode contains harsh language. Today is extra harsh language and discussion of suicide, so please listen with care. Betty and Dan Broderick were married in nineteen sixty. From the beginning, they both harbored doubts about their marriage, but coming from strong Catholic families, they were committed for better or worse. They had struggled through some lean years as Dan finished first medical school and then law school, while their family expanded to four children, two girls and two boys, kim Lee, Dan Junior, and Rhett. Betty had always dreamed of having a big family and threw herself into motherhood and lamented that Dan was often busy working and had little time to spend with the family. After relocating to the La Joya area of San Diego, Dan started his own law practice. The Brodericks were thriving financially and enjoying the spoils of their riches. When we left off, Betty was nearly certain that Dan had tired of their marriage and began an affair with his young assistant, Linda Kulkena.

6:51 In part one, we talked about the beginning of the Broderick's marriage. In episode two, we'll talk about the unraveling of their marriage. In part one, I didn't do a very good job talking about La Joya. Lahoya is an enclave of San Diego. It's where the wealthy people live. It's the part that has the ocean views. Very exclusive. Yes. At twenty one, Linda Bernadette Kulkna began working as a receptionist in the same building as Dan Broderick's law office. Linda was born in June nineteen sixty one, the youngest of four children of Dutch immigrants, Everdena and A J. Colkna. She was raised in the Salt Lake City area in a close knit but financially modest family. To help pay tuition for the Catholic school the children attended, AJ took on part time janitorial work there. When the expense became too much, the Kolkina children moved to public school. When Linda was eleven, tragedies struck. Her mother died of breast cancer at just thirty six years old. Only six months later, her father married a Dutch widow. After graduating high school, Linda held a string of odd jobs before becoming a Delta Airlines flight attendant at age twenty. The job lasted just eight months. She was dismissed for conduct unbecoming of a Delta employee while an off duty flight headed to a ski holiday, during which witnesses claimed she sat on a man's lap, kissed him, and later disappeared with him into the lavatory.

8:20 I'm pretty sure that's a no no if you're a flight attendant. The flight attendant on duty asked Linda her name, and she supplied a false name, used course language, and then continued to carry on with the male passenger. When Dan hired Linda as his legal assistant, she was twenty one and he was thirty eight. Linda had only brief experience in a law office and little relevant training. Betty was shocked to learn her husband's new hire didn't even know how to type. When she confronted Dan, he dismissed her concerns, saying typing wasn't part of the job description. Friends of the couple couldn't help noticing that Linda bore a striking resemblance to a younger version of Betty. Their voices even sounded the same. So I've looked at a hundred pictures of Betty and Linda and Dan, and they definitely have a very striking resemblance to each other. Yeah, not in the older at Betty's older years, but yeah, in her younger years, definitely, And they were both like tall, you know, striking blonde.

9:21 Wid Yeah, so Dan definitely had a type. Yeah. Betty issued an ultimatum. Dan had one month until October first to replace the bimbo, as she called Linda, or she would leave him. The date came and went, and Linda was still in Dan's employee. He made it clear that he would hire whomever he wanted. Betty's opinion be damned, and if anyone's going to leave his house, it would be her. Betty had issued ultimatums before, but Dan ignored them all she held little leverage in the marriage. Dan continued to gaslight Betty. He insisted there was nothing going on between him and Linda. I think sometimes people get confused about the definition of gaslighting, but this is one of the clearest examples of gaslighting I've ever seen. Yeah, right, because he's obviously having an affair and he's telling his wife, no, there's no affair going on, right, nothing to see here.

10:14 When Betty found out later that Dan had bought Linda a car, a Kado and paid her orthodontic bill, she said, I should have divorced him then, before all the rest happened, before I let him convince everybody I was crazy that he was justified in what he was doing, because at that point I still had my reputation and my sanity and my children. Linda's friends and family came to her defense. She was no bimbo. She had only been with a handful of men in her life, and she deeply loved Dan. She knew the affair was wrong. The guilt nodded her. When he began, she was still dating her boyfriend Steve Kelly. Suspicious, Kelly confronted Dan directly, asking him if he was involved with Linda. Dan denied it. Kelly later said he never liked Dan, he found him cold, aloof and dismissive. Linda urged Dan to end his marriage long before he finally did, at one point even giving him an ultimatum.

11:11 Dan's gut, like a lot of ultimatums coming out. Definitely Dane had been unhappy with Betty for years, and by all accounts, he probably would have divorced her eventually, with or without Linda in the picture. Still, their relationship wasn't without friction. Linda often grew frustrated with Dan, especially when she felt that he was too lenient with Betty and theirs wasn't a torrid love affair. Linda complained to friends that Dan rarely wanted to have sex with her. Linda's friends begged her to leave Dan. One friend said, quote, Linda was so stressed out she lost weight. She used to carry maylocks in her purse at twenty six, twenty seven years old, her nails were bitten to the quick.

11:51 She said, Betty was driving them crazy, and she couldn't do anything to please those kids. The emotional battery in this case was never against Betty, it was against them. On November seventh, nineteen eighty three, Betty's thirty seventh birthday, she made a gourmet dinner and purchased a Baskin Robin's cake, the kid's favorite. When Dan didn't come home or call, Betty was bereft. Later that night, in a moment of despair, she tried to take her own life by swallowing pills and slitting her wrists. I never wanted to dismiss anyone's attempt of suicide, but in this case, Kim, Betty's daughter, said in her book that it was a faint hearted attempt.

12:32 When Betty awoke the next morning, Dan bandaged her wrist and told her that she was crazy. There was nothing going on at the office. Betty went about her day as she always did, pretending everything was okay. She decided to see a psychologist, but quit after only a few sessions. Her girlfriends gave her better advice than the therapist. She was adamant that Dan needed help, not her. Weeks later, on Dan's birthday, Betty got dressed up and stopped by a office, which she rarely did. She had roses and a bottle of Don Parignon in her hand. Finding balloons, the remnants of a birthday cake, and both Dan and Linda gone for the day, Betty was overcome with sadness. Enraged, she poked her head into Linda's office and saw a picture of her and Dan together. She was also shocked at the posh furnishings of Linda's office. It was lavishly decorated and considering her role as Dan's assistant, it was a little over the top. Well, and she had a picture of you know, it was Linda and Dan, just to make it clear. Yeah, that's pretty bold, Yeah for sure.

13:36 And I said that Betty poked her head into the office. In all likelihood, Betty probably rummaged through everything in the office yet looking for proof and details. Later, Betty said it was the worst pain I've ever felt. I didn't want to believe it, but I believed it. Once home, she tore every piece of Dan's prized wardrobe from the closet, curled it into the back, soaked it with gasoline, and said it ablaze. If you remember from part one, Dan's image and his clothing was all very fancy. He'd loved to dress, and even before they had money, he bought designer labels and had custom suits and dressed the very best.

14:18 So this was, you know, a really good way of showing him how she felt. When the fire had burned down to embers, Betty poured paint over the charred remains. Her only regret was that the children had witnessed it. They cried and begged her to stop. To add to Betty's humiliation, a fire truck pulled up to the house after a neighbor had called seeing the rising dark smoke. In the years that followed, this particular act would be remembered as one of Betty's tamer displays of vengeance. Oh boy. Dan was still denying the affair to Betty and would for two more agonizing years, but he and Linda were openly a couple among Dan's circle of friends and colleagues. Why do you think he denied it for so long when it seen like it was so obvious, and you know, it seems like he was pretty committed to his new relationship.

15:06 That's a really good question. And I don't have an answer for you other than I think that he didn't want to get divorced then or maybe remember like they were accumulating a lot of wealth and he might have been like setting things up for a divorce. Okay, so maybe just trying to take his time, lay the groundwork. And yeah, but maybe early on he didn't think he wanted a divorce, Yeah, but later on he did. It would be really tough being married to a lawyer and having a bad marriage or having it go south, because absolutely, just in such a bad position, like you just know the lawyer is going to be able to, you know, do whatever they want and take you for a ride if they want well. And that is one of the key factors in this case.

15:48 And if your husband is Dan Broderick, who was known as just an excellent lawyer, it made it even harder. Yeah, Dan Broderick was indeed a legal mastermind. No one can dispute that he had been planning the exit from his marriage for years, and unfortunately, his plan was to leave Betty with as few resources as possible. California, even in nineteen eighty five, was a community property state, but there would be no equal division of assets in the Broaderick marriage. Dan would make sure of that. When their family home had a cracked foundation, they were forced to move out for several months. During the repair, they rented a house on the beach, but later Dan moved back into their house on Coral reef Avenue. As if to stake his claim, he sold Betty's Jaguar and leased her another car. This left Betty with no equity. Despite his affair with Linda, Betty remained hopeful that Dan would come to his senses and feel compelled to keep their family intact.

16:47 Betty was sure that Dan would tire of his mistress. She was pretty, but boring, and nowhere near as smart as Betty. Dan needed a partner who could challenge him, go toe to toe with him. Linda didn't have a college degree and couldn't even type. I read a lot of different articles with quotes from Betty at a lot of types. She said she couldn't even type, so I wanted to save it a few times in my script, gotcha. Betty did everything she could to keep her family together and her husband. Interested facials, expensive hair salon treatments, and even visiting the plastic surgeon for several procedures. She read books on midlife crises found even more creative ways to spend time with her kids. Every waking moment of Betty's day was filled with thoughts of self improvement and saving her marriage. But Dan continued to gaslight her, insinuate she was crazy and insists he wasn't having an affair as he continued to withdraw from Betty and their family. In a last ditch effort, Betty went to see a doctor about reversing her tubul ligation to have another child. Dan seemed excited at the idea of expanding their family. Betty wishfully thought that maybe Dan wasn't really having an affair.

18:02 Dan later said that he continued to lie to Betty because she was mentally unstable and he was afraid of her. Here's Betty talking to Oprah. Did you ask him if he was having an affair? Yes, And he totally denied it and said I was imagining things, and I was crazy, and that Linda was a sweet, innocent young girl and there was absolutely nothing going on, never was. And oh and by the way, your fat, old, boring, ugly and stupid just started coming on the scene. Then he was unhappy with everything in his life. He told you that you were fat and old and boring and stupid. He said this word. And he didn't like our home, and he didn't like our children. And it was to me, it was an absolute classic midlife crisis. And I devoured every book on the subject.

18:47 To the point of even he got the red corvette. Is that true? Got the red corvette, the risky business sunglasses, the scarf around his neck, the leather jacket. I told him he was the American joke. Thanks to a special correspond on an Oprah Winfrey for that interview. Forgot that Oprah was on our payroll. Thank you. We've gotten better about using clips, and I hope that this doesn't get tagged because it's like a thirty year old interview, so it'll probably be okay. Yeah, I know we haven't talked about exactly what's going to happen yet, but I think everyone can see the writing on the wall. Even in this brief clip, you can tell that Betty is not willing to take any accountability for what happened in their marriage.

19:28 Yeah, she definitely seems like and. She's angry, very angry. Yes. How long after whatever happened happened did this interview take place? Was it a year? More than just one year? Okay? But if you asked Betty the same questions today, she would respond in the exact same way, I believe. Yeah. Kim Broderick, in her book Betty Broderick The Mother the Murderer, wrote that during this time her mother was quote difficult and course and even though in years past she could be loads of fun, that mom was gone and had been gone for some time. Overcome with her own life and circumstances, she lashed out at every opportunity, and we, being the only ones around, ended up being the unintended recipients of her fury. In November nineteen eighty four, Betty planned an elaborate five day fortieth birthday party for Dan.

20:21 She flew in family members and booked them all hotels. Upon arrival in San Diego, everyone was handed a printed and demanding schedule. Each moment of the next five days meticulously planned, they went to SeaWorld Tijuana and a usc Notre Dame game. The weekend culminated in a lively party with all of Dan's friends and family, where laughter and celebration filled the night. Betty had a true flare for the birthdays and holidays. She knew exactly how to make every gathering sparkle. We'll be back after a break.

21:01 A few months later, on February twenty eighth, Dan came home and abruptly told Betty he was leaving her, not necessarily permanently, but he needed time apart to think things through. He moved back to their Coral Reef home that was under construction, which may have been a defensive move on his part from preventing Betty from getting the house, but on Saint Patrick's Day. After a day of drinking, Dan showed up at Betty's. He must have been feeling sentimental as an Irish Catholic, it was his favorite holiday. He and Betty had sex, and for a brief moment she again thought that she might win him back for good, but that hope evaporated quickly when the rental home became infested with rats. Betty called Dan for help, only to be told to deal with it herself. Now she was seething with red hot anger. How dared Dan walk away, leaving her with four children in an army of rats chewing through her designer gowns without ever once checking in on them. This described in Betty's book was pretty harrowing.

22:03 Like there were rats like running around, and like the kids were scared, And. That sounds awful. It does sound awful. Betty's close friend Candy Westbrook later said, you literally couldn't ask Betty about the weather without her finding a way to bring the conversation back to Dan and Linda. It was all she would talk about. She just didn't want it to be. Betty was planning a trip to New York for her father's seventy fifth birthday. Before leaving, she dropped the children off at Dan's house without telling him. When he came home to find them sitting alone in the dark, he was shocked and furious. But Kim, the oldest Broadery sibling, remembers the incident differently.

22:44 It was easter. I asked her to drive my friend home and she lost it. She said, pack your bags. When Betty dropped Kim off at dance, no one was home, and she waited hours on the doorstep for Dan to return. A few days later, Danny arrived the same way, follow by RHTT and Lee a month and a half later. So one by one she sent the kids to Dan's house and she was just she couldn't deal with them. Yeah, kimra called. The boys were hysterical, holding on to her, crying and screaming, crying hard. Don't leave us here. It was awful, she said, I'm leaving. Your dad's not going to get away with this. Other than the murders she'd later commit, this decision would haunt Betty for the next three years and beyond. Later, in a session with the therapist, Betty fumed, you know what that fucker did, He just kept them. Betty convinced herself that once Dan had the children full time, he would finally realize how much he needed her, that after experiencing firsthand the work she put in, he would beg her to return. But Dan was not the kind of man to admit such things. With the money to hire an army of people to care for the children, he didn't need, Betty. The real tragedy was that caught in the middle of all this bitterness, the children were left feeling as though neither parents truly wanted them.

24:02 Betty was able to see and talk to Kim Lee, Danny, and Redd, but she never regained full custody of them. And it's really sad. I can see how they would feel that way, Like, yeah, mom drops us off because she doesn't want us, and then Dad just hires a bunch of help and he doesn't really want to spend time with us either. Yeah, it was very hard on the children. Betty accused Linda of sending her a photo of she and Dan together before he filed for divorce. The typed posted attached to the photo said, it must kill you to see these two happy people together. Eat your heart out, bitch, While. In caps seems unnecessary soon. After, ads for weight loss products and wrinkle cream followed.

24:43 Linda's friends adamantly denied that she would torment Betty in this way. It simply wasn't her style. I don't think Linda sent these things to Betty either. Do you think Betty made this up? I think that she did it to herself. She had proof, But remember Linda can't type, and it was typed on a post it note and adhered to the picture. Even someone who can't type could type, you know, a few words out of post it hope, but. Oh sure, Always defending Linda no no. After losing full custody of the children, Betty began a slow descent into erratic and self destructive behavior. In the months of Betty's absence from Coral Reef Avenue, Dan had redecorated their family home, repainting and adding new furniture and flooring. When Betty walked in and saw the changes, she was furious. She called her response the beginning of her fits. She went to the store, purchased black spray paint, and did her own redecorating.

25:40 Friend's voice concerns for her mental health, but Betty insisted she wasn't crazy. She was angry, and she had every right to be. So she took this black spray paint and she like Spraye. She graffited all over the wall. Of the house. Yeah Yeah. When the lease of the rat infested rental house was up, Betty put one hundred and forty thousand dollars down on a large, six hundred and fifty thousand dollars home in the Hoya with ocean views. Dan gave her the money. They'd been looking for a house with no success for years. The house needed major renovations, but Betty was hoping that she and Dan could do it together and have a fresh start. When Dan gave her the money, she took this as a green light. During this time, he limited Betty's access to their children as much as possible, but one afternoon, while visiting them at his house, Betty spotted a cake on the counter or a Boston cream pie, Dan's favorite. She had baked that cake for him more times than she could count. What a shitty little pie, she thought out loud. When it hit her that Linda had made it, something in her snapped. She stormed upstairs and began hurling pieces of the cake through Dan's bedroom bathroom, and closet, smearing custard and chocolate over his beloved clothes he had neatly arranged in rainbow order. In response, Dan filed a restraining order against Betty. In her book, Betty admitted only that she smeared some cake on the bedspread.

27:09 How much damage can you do with one crabby little cake? Even if you are really really angry, and I was, Betty had a way of diminishing any of her trespasses as minor transgressions. I have to say I'm a little bit relieved, because where I thought you were going with that was that she was going to put something in the cake. Oh, and then I was going to be worried that you would put something in the cake that you had made for me. But that's the only thing I put in that cake. Rich was love. Two days later, she returned to the house despite the restraining order and opened the refrigerator. She found a bottle of champagne, grabbed it by the neck, and heaved it through one of the windows, shattering the window. Instantly, Dan knew that the best weapon in his arsenal, the one that he knew best, was the legal system. This infuriated Betty every small request resulted in a letter to her in legal ease, and he insisted she put every request to him in writing as well. Whenever Betty stepped out of line, even in small ways, Dan marched into court and filed what's called in order to show cause, or an OSC. Each OSC required Betty to stand before a judge and explain herself to attempt to defend her behavior again and again. Over time, her file grew thicker, a public record of her unhidd behavior and the death of a marriage. Dan also devised a system of finding Betty, but we'll get to that in a minute later. During their divorce trial, Dan recited these incidents in a cold,

28:42 meticulous inventory. You pounded a nail in the wall with a hammer. You smashed the answering machine. You shattered the sliding glass doors. You spray painted the wallpaper even over the fireplace. You broke the television, You cracked the plexiglass cover of the stereo. You hurled a toast through the front window of the house. Some were pre petty, almost trivial, but others were serious and costly. But this inventory painted a picture of a woman unraveling and of a man determined to document an exact revenge for every misstep. The OSCs curtailed Betty's destructive era to an extent, but she still had a lot to say and a lot of hurt to work out. The media was captivated by the Broadericks, and their bitter, high profile divorce came to be likened to the War of the Roses. Historically, the War of the Roses was a series of English civil wars fought between fourteen fifty five and fourteen eighty seven for control of the throne. The conflict was between two rival branches of the Royal House of Plantagenet, the House of Lancaster symbolized by the Red Rose, and the House of York, symbolized by the White Rose. It ended when Lancasterian Henry Tudor defeated Yorkist King Richard the Third at the Battle of Bosworth, and he it became Henry the Seventh, founding the Tudor dynasty. The Battle of Taunton in fourteen sixty one is one of the bloodiest ever fought on English soil, with an estimated twenty eight thousand casualties.

30:12 Here I thought that the War of the Roses was just a movie with Michael Douglas. And oh, Danny DeVito was in that movie. Now Michael Douglas and Kathleen. Speaking of roses, Dan sent Betty a bouquet for her thirty eighth birthday. Whether it was meant as a gesture of goodwill or a snarky reminder of their own private war of the roses is anybody's guess. The card read, Dear Bets, I know the circumstances will make it impossible for you to have a happy birthday this year, but I wanted you to know that the kids and I are thinking and hoping that you start to feel better soon. Dan. Wow, that's like it feels like twisting the night. You think so, But yeah, it feels that way. I like to think that it's a sincere gesture, but you think it was snarky.

30:56 Maybe it was sincere, but it certainly could have been taken by Betty as being kind of snarky. I guess thee I hope you're feeling better soon. No, that was that was kind of snarky. The OSCs piled up each month for years. Many of them were for phone messages she'd leave for Dan or the children. But we'll get to that soon. It would be impossible for us to list all of the offenses, but there were a lot, a lot, a lot. In May nineteen eighty seven, an exhausted judge sentence Betty to twenty five days in jail for five charges of contempt of court. She spent six days in jail before she apologized to the court. If she had directly apologized to the judge, she'd likely have been spared jail time. Here's the best apology she could muster, Judge Joseph, as per your request, I promised to change my ways. I will never again call my children as long as they are living with their amoral, alcoholic, abusive father. This whole thing has been excruciatingly painful for the children and for me.

31:57 They come to me as they should, with all their heartbreaking troubles. I thought it was my duty, and I know it is my right as their mother to be there for them always. But I will let the self important Harvard lawyer president of the Bar beat us all he obviously loves beating women and children. I will do anything to escape this escalating madness, the letter went on. So this was supposed to be an apology to the judge for contempt of court charges. Yeah, not the best attempt at an apology I've ever heard. Well. Also, Betty accuses Dan of beating women and children, and that is not true. Yeah, it wasn't much of an apology, but the judge set her free. Upon her release, she wrote a lengthy letter rescinding her apology and calling the judge biased. There were several more OSCs waiting for her when she returned home.

32:48 When friends sympathized with her experience in jail, Betty said, it wasn't so bad. I made some new friends. A lot of times in this case. Like you said it earlier, how Betty had been treated fairly when Dan was president of the San Diego Bar Association and he knew all the judges, and he was really good at what he did. But then you look at this case and it does sound like the judge was somewhat tolerant of her bad behavior sometimes. Yeah, she definitely didn't do herself any favors. No, By the fall of nineteen eighty seven, the judge, so exhausted by the Brodericks, refused to hear any more OSCs. One of the most surprising parts of Betty's story is that she started dating in the summer of nineteen eighty five.

33:33 His name was Brad Wright, a handsome, rugged fellow six years Betty's junior who owned a fencing company. He was pretty hunky, was he. Yeah. They had an adventurous relationship, traveling and sailing together. Betty was coy about their relationship. She seemed embarrassed by his blue collar job, although he was successful and had a degree from usc He was a very nice man, but Betty was used to the constant sparring with Dan, and she missed that. She denied any intimacy with him, citing her conservative values and the fact that it would have been unseemly because she was still technically married. She even told some people that Brad was her gay companion. Quote.

34:15 I felt so stupid and failed and old. Here I was getting fat in my ugly matron's dress with this young hunk, this sweet guy. But he was a nobody, and I didn't want to be the other half of a midlife crisis joke. I felt like a fool, and everybody acted as if we didn't even exist. I went overnight from front row tables to the back of the room. I think this is kind of an important quote here, because you can tell that part of the reason that she didn't want to be divorced is she like the status of being with Dan Broderick. Yeah. He was very smart, very successful, and they had a lot of status too. Yeah. Well, in the fact that she refers to this guy as a nobody, I mean that goes to that same thing that she really didn't want to be with somebody she considered like lower.

35:02 Yes, it seemed like he was a very sweet guy who really did support her a lot. She saw other men too occasionally, but Brad was smitten with Betty and was there for her, even for the hard parts that were yet to come. Dan filed for divorce soon after. In September nineteen eighty five, he sat Betty down and told her what he should have told her three years earlier. He admitted that he had been having an affair with Linda since nineteen eighty three. He was in love with her and wanted to marry her. He had no plans to reunite their family. It was also cruel to Betty, she said, quote that was my job, and I was fired without cause I hadn't done anything wrong.

35:43 It wasn't fair, Betty sobbed NonStop for days before she tried to piece herself back together. Her first step was to hire an attorney. Betty remembered back to the promise Dan had made in nineteen seventy six when they attended a marriage retreat. He wrote her a touching letter that she had hung her hopes on for years. Quote, I have always thought about next summer, next year, after I make partner, after I am earning enough money to be able to afford trips, boats, etc. Even now, I believe that our lives together will be much happier when money ceases being a problem. It will enable us to do a lot of things, like travel to Europe that will be shared experiences we will, I hope, enjoy and never forget.

36:27 I want to be able to take you and the kids to South Bend every fall for a game without thinking twice about it. To buy a piano if Kim wants one, to buy you a ring, a motorbike, a microwave, a camera, whatever you want, when you want it. I honestly believe that having this ability will make me happy and secure, and will make me a more loving and more lovable person. Things don't make you happy, Dan. No it really seems like they are like or he is, at least in this note putting a lot of stock in material possessions being the key to happiness. He was now breaking the promise he had made to her and the children, and it shattered her. Unable to express her pain directly, Betty's hurt instead erupted as rage and acts of violence. Dan had shipped all four children off to summer camps, and Betty had freedom, and she did her best to enjoy that. In between missing the kids. She still had access to Dan's credit cards and used them with reckless abandon spending as much as possible. It was the only thing that made her feel better. Her house was filled with shopping bags from high end retailers that were never opened. They sat in corners for years. At the end of the summer, Dan told her enough and put her on a budget of nine thousand, thirty six dollars a month twenty seven thousand dollars today, or three hundred and twenty four thousand dollars for a year.

37:50 I would take that budget, yeah, it would take on. It same, although she seldom received the full amount. Dan had devised a system of finding Betty without core approval, deducting money to punish her for what he deemed bad behavior, one hundred dollars for every curse word, two hundred and fifty dollars each time she stepped on to his property uninvited, five hundred dollars if she entered his house, and one thousand dollars whenever she took the children without his consent. One month. The deductions were so hefty that Betty ended up owing Dan thirteen hundred dollars. I don't know for sure. What I'm just guessing was a lot of this because of her language. Like she she liked to swear a lot, didn't.

38:31 She she really did. Betty was fined one thousand dollars for using offensive language ten times, fifteen hundred dollars for trespassing outside Dan's house six times, and twenty five hundred dollars for trespassing inside his house five times. When Betty showed up at his house demanding an explanation as to why she owed him money, he told her to leave. When she refused, he had her arrested for violating the restraining order. Betty asked the court to reconsider her alimony, requesting thirty thousand dollars a month, about a third of what she believed Dan earned each month. He countered with seventy three hundred dollars, down from nine thousand dollars, but a judge sided with Betty sort of and increased her alimony to twelve thousand, five hundred dollars a month. This pushed Betty into a higher tax bracket, so the taxes on the new payment meant she actually received less than the previous nine thousand dollars. Upon the court's request, Betty submitted an itemized list of her nineteen eighty six expenses, which totaled over two hundred and twenty thousand dollars can.

39:38 You remember multiply that times three, right. And asked for her alimony payment to be set to at least twenty three thousand, six hundred dollars a month. The judge decided on sixteen thousand, one hundred dollars. Imagine the judge like, that's so much money. Obviously, her alimonia payments are more than the judges making, and probably more most lawyers in the room. So I just must have seen somewhat absurd, Yeah, to the judge and a lot of other people. Right when Betty tried to hire a divorce attorney in San Diego. She couldn't find anyone who was willing to do battle with Dan Broderick, so she went to Los Angeles and hired Daniel Jaffey, who was also a very good attorney. So confident after their first meeting, she treated herself to a new fifteen thousand dollars maroon Jaguar. Although Jaffy soon tired of Betty's shenanigans. Here's an excerpt from a letter he sent to her. If you can live within the guidelines, I will continue to represent you, but I want to spend my time on finding out what happened to the broaderick moneies and getting you some of them, rather than spending my time keeping you out of jail.

40:46 He closed by suggesting she seeks psychiatric treatment. Their relationship was short lived. Betty went through five attorneys in the coming years, eventually representing herself. Can you believe that eventually she's going to be defending herself? I can. She seems like the kind of person who would want to defend herself, So yes, I can do a. Very bad idea. But this Joffe guy actually sounded like a pretty nice guy. Years later, when he heard that she was defending herself, he contacted the judge and told them that this was unfair and outrageous, that Betty was in a very difficult situation. She was finding against Stan in a San Diego courtroom. So he was one of the people. It was just like, this woman is not going to get justice because you know, of all the extenuating circumstances.

41:33 Yeah, that was very nice of him, and he had he didn't have to do that. Always cash strapped, Betty once resorted to giving an attorney the ten thousand dollars necklace from around her neck as a retainer. Betty finally agreed to see a psychiatrist after the prodding of everyone remaining in her life. The doctor called her the angriest client she had ever met. She called Dan to caution him to be careful with Betty because she believed she could be homicidal. This might sound like a violation of doctor patient confidentiality, but it's called a terrasof warning. It's when a therapist determines a client possesses a serious threat of danger to an identifyble individual, they must take reasonable steps to warn the potential victim, law enforcement or both.

42:19 The doctor contacted Dan after her second meeting with Betty too, so the doctor contacted Dan again like a second time after the second meeting. I think it had to be done each time. Oh okay wow. But their relationship was short lived that he didn't return after the third session. Quote, I'm not coming back because you're too good. You make me forget how much I hate him. We'll be back after a break. If there was one thing that truly drove Betty over the edge, it was the custody of her and Dan's four children. She had practically been a single parent, present for every milestone an important moment in their lives. She'd volunteered, organized school events and poured herself into their upbringing, only to have Dan arrange for her to be banned from their schools. From the day that she'd dropped the children off at Coral Reef Avenue. Dan had restricted her visitation. Yet, even with the children, Betty sometimes felt conflicted, once telling the psychiatrist why I'm not going to be the single parent of four kids. He'll die first. The less I see of them, the better. No kids, no bother you'll see. Oh, that's really harsh, isn't it.

43:35 I guess I'm not sure exactly what she's saying here. I think she's saying that she really doesn't want to be a single parent of four kids. Okay, Like if she and Dan can't do it together, she doesn't want to. Okay, Yeah, that pretty harsh. Well. Dan liked to communicate with Betty via carefully worded letters. For the official record, Betty preferred to pick up the phone. She took to leaving blistering messages on Dan's answering machine, sometimes just nasty, other times so wildly obscene. They bored it on creative. Those calls didn't just fuel their feud, they landed her in serious trouble. In nineteen eighty seven, Betty spent six days in jail on a contempt of court charge, punished for what came out of her mouth.

44:18 Here's an example of just one day's messages. Warning, these messages are very explicit. Okay, I don't mind swearing, but there is one word in here that I am uncomfortable saying, but I'm going to say it. It's to see you next Tuesday. Works. So I know Australia are friends in Australia don't mind and are friends in Great Britain, but here it's it's a pretty bad one kind of taboo. But I'm gonna let it rip because Betty did. Okay. I'm here for authenticity, gotcha. This is a message to fuckhead and the kunt. You have one hell of a nerve dumping the kids here on the sidewalk and zooming away without making any attempt to communicate me about my plans for the weekend. Me sick, both of you. I have a good mind to dump the kids back on you and drive away. Call me we have a lot to talk about, asshole, and come pick up your ford children that you're working so hard to have custody of. Congratulations, you can have them. A few minutes later, fuckhead, come get the kids. I want to get rid of them, but I don't like driving to your shitty neighborhood. Hurry up and come get the asshole. An hour later, fuckhead and the cunt come get the kids and her last call of the day. I actually love this machine because then I can really just say anything I want. Tell the kids that you don't think it's wrong that you're skewing the cunt in the hall, that has her legs wide open for anybody who comes by. And you paid for it. God, you got a sense of humor. I love it. You're all fucked. So Betty's favorite word or

45:49 name for Linda was see you next Tuesday. I gathered that. Yeah, thank you got that. Yeah. There was also a teenline at Dan's house with another answering machine. Dan frequently turned off the ringer, letting the calls go straight to the answering machine, where Linda's voice Herkiley gave the greeting. In response, Betty left dozens of propane messages, often highlighting her favorite word, see you next Tuesday. Quote hunt, what is your voice doing on this machine? If it's the Broaderg's residence? That assumes you're a broaderick and you're nothing but a cunt. Anyway, where are my darling children? Here's a clip of one of the calls.

46:29 What's this? Wing? Can't come to the phone. You're not supposed to come to the phone at the house. You're supposed not the house to the phone. So those bleeps were swords and other things. Yeah, exactly. So Betty was so infuriated by Linda's voice on the machine. A judge told Dan get the girlfriend off the machine. In general, I don't think that Linda purposely tormented Betty, but on this occasion, why would she have left the message on the kid's answering machine like it was taunting Betty? They shouldn't be surprising that Dan saved the tapes and had them transcribed and use them against Betty in court. And she did threaten to kill him more than once on these tapes. Here's another message, bucket, who do you think you're kidding? Look in the mirror and tell me who do you think you're kidding? Jesus Christ, you're like a slug with the fancy tie on, too load a kick and too wet to step on. Just that ring a bell? Love to the cunt.

47:28 Well. I think some of these messages are very funny. This was the answering machine that the kid's answering machine, and they were subjected to hearing these messages on a daily basis. Fun Dan brought the messages to a judge and Betty's visitation privileges were temporarily paused, but even that didn't stop her. Betty said, I was entitled to explode, and the truth is I loved leaving those messages. All I ever had was my tongue, and I did it for the shock value. And every time I used that language on his machine, I felt a little bit better. For a while, I couldn't stop from doing it. Just picturing what Betty would be like if she lived in an era of social media.

48:09 Yeah, she would be tough to deal with. So this next part is heart wrenching. Dan even went so far as to record Betty's phone calls with the children. One of these tapes, later known in court as the Danny Tape, captured a heartbreaking thirty minute conversation between Betty and her ten year old son. Here's a short clip some Danny. He's absolutely. He's seated and lied and man, there's nothing. Don't you think being mad for two years is enough of them? We were so happy, so happy.

48:50 I know the Lord you love her happy. Here, if you just stop saying God. Words, well you had a crime by what I mean right now? You very stop. Oh that is. Heartbreaking to hear. It breaks my heart. Literally, Yeah, it's it's really sad. And I have to say, like Danny's kind of wise beyond his yours, saying like, isn't two years enough? To do. Absolutely, it's probably time to, you know, try to think about moving on. And Bella Stumbo's book. Until the twelfth of never, the entire transcript of the call is revealed. The feud between Danny's parents clearly took a heavy toll on him. It must have devastated all the children, robbing them of the safety instability every child deserves. Danny comes across as wise beyond his years, forced to grow up far too quickly.

49:44 Betty spoke to him as if he were an adult, like a confidant. Yeah. Well, he repeatedly begged her to stop using foul language so he could come live with her. That's really what both of the boys wanted. They wanted to live with her, but she couldn't, you know, put her behavior, yeah, and the language beside, you know, long enough to put their best interest first. Betty did this with all of the children. She shared far too many adult details with them and pitted them against Dan and Linda. The tape ended with Danny saying, so you want to be mad for another two years, and after that four years, and then maybe another six years. Like you said, Danny is so bright and perceptive. Betty has often claimed that she lived for her children and was the best mother, but Kim recalls it differently. She remembers a childhood mark by neglect, with parents too observed in their own battles to provide supervision, discipline, or emotional support to her. Betty may have been physically present, but she had checked out mentally and emotionally when her children needed her the most. In her book, Kim talked about the younger years of her childhood, and she said they were very good, and Betty was great then, which was the soccer coach, And you know they took great family vacations. But you know, once the affair happened, something just changed.

51:06 Yeah, it seems like she was fixated on that. In nineteen eighty seven, as Christmas approached, Betty was going to take the kids skiing. She asked Dan for an extra five thousand dollars for the trip. He countered with two thousand dollars. Betty refused to go unless he gave her five thousand. When Dan denied the money to Betty, she decided to go to Pasadena instead to spend the holidays with Brad Wright's family. Dan and Linda took the kids skiing. Annoyed at the thought of paying someone to tend after the family's two small shitsus that she'd been stuck with. She tied red bows around Topsy and muffins necks and entered Dan's house illegally once again, and left the dogs there for the week unattended.

51:49 Oh boy, right, I mean, I don't know if there was a doggy door, but still. Yeah, it's not going to be good. That Christmas, Betty mailed out cards to friends and family, but instead of a cheerful holiday update, she included a long, bitter letter cataloging her grievances against Dan over the past three years and the unraveling of her marriage. The woman who had once been so polished and image conscious was gone. Betty no longer cared about appearances or about what people thought of her. What mattered now was bringing Dan down with her. She wanted to expose into the world as a narcissistic adulterer, an alcoholic, and an abuser. Betty left for a week to Tahiti after the New Year. She couldn't afford the trip, but needed a change of scenery. When she returned home, she found her home trashed. Someone had discharged a fire extinguisher in the living room, ruining her floors and furniture.

52:45 Lee sixteen, the second oldest Broderick child, the child that Betty said was most like her, was going through a hard time. Her coping mechanism was to party with a new group of unsavory friends. She ran away and remained missing for six months, checking in with her mother only occasionally. She was living on the beach, refusing to come home and making choices that terrified Betty. Meanwhile, Dan disowned her and formally wrote her out of his will. At the time, Lee thought he was bluffing, but a few short years later she would learn that Dan was a man of his word. When Lee finally resurfaced, Betty took her to a rehab facility, but she checked herself out after just three days. Her rebellion continued. Lee racked up so many speeding tickets that her license was eventually suspended, not surprising at all that someone of her age would act out this way after what she'd been through.

53:40 Yeah, Unfortunately, kids were collateral damage. Dan proposed to Linda on bended knee on June twenty sixth, nineteen eighty eight, her twenty seventh birthday, with an impressive diamond and emerald ring. This may have also been a dig at Betty. I think the last Christmas that the Broaderks were together as a family, Betty had made many hints to Dan that she wanted like this emerald ring, big emerald ring. And when she didn't get the emerald ring, Kim and her book said that she'd never seen Betty angrier, and she made a huge fit and ruined Christmas over it. So when I saw that Dan bought Linda, you know, yeah, an emerald ring, I was like, well, that's sort of things like that. Yeah.

54:25 The story made the San Diego Union newspaper quote the earnest looking fellow down on one knee on the floor at Dobson's the other night was attorney Dan Broderick asking his paralegal Linda Coulkeena to marry him. Much too public a proposal to turn down. They will marry in April. The onlookers at the restaurant smiled and cheered after the proposal. Linda and Dan told friends they wanted at least five children together. When Dan and Linda married at their mansion in the spring of nineteen eighty nine, he hired two security guards to watch over the festiv Linda wanted him to wear a bulletproof vest, but Dan didn't think Betty would kill him because he was the golden goose. Linda begged him to install a security system or at least get a guard dog, but Dan balked he knew that no matter what precautions he took, Betty would find a way to circumvent them. Here's Dan toasting his new bride.

55:22 As is a monster. Her best quality. She has the most wonderful, pleasant, sweet disposition of any woman I've ever known. I really knew that I put the cart before the horse there a little bit, But by this point Dan and Betty were divorced, so he was not. He wasn't a big amiss then, okay, gotcha. Betty tried to move on after she began dating Brad the younger man. She went to a plastic surgeon for several more procedures, a forehead lift, eyelid surgery, and a tummy tuck. Later, she admitted it only made her feel better for about an hour. Nothing seemed to bring lasting happiness anymore. Betty sank into a deep depression from nineteen eighty five to nineteen eighty nine and nothing could pull her out of it.

56:09 According to Betty, the sale of their family home on Coral Reef Avenue was the ultimate betrayal. Dan had told her that he planned to sell it, but only after he'd already purchased a grand, five bed, six bath Georgian style mansion near a Bilboa Park for four hundred thousand dollars. It was priced so low because the house was oddly placed in a modest neighborhood. The first two offers on the Coral Reef house fell through when Betty rejected them without much thought or explanation, but when the third offer came in, Dan didn't breathe a word of it to her. Instead, she says that he used his legal knowhow to push the sale through without her consent. Betty was in the middle of making a delightful roast be for her visiting parents and sons when her newest attorney called her to tell her that her formal family home had been under contract.

57:02 She snapped. She cheerfully told her parents that she had an errand to take care of and that she'd be right back. Fueled by rage, she climbed into her Chevy suburban and drove straight to Dan's new home. He refused to talk to her, and he slammed the door in her face. She drove to the Coral Wreef house, found a can of gasolene in the garage and began pouring it through the house, but quickly came to her senses and returned to Dan's house. She didn't park on the street. Instead, she floored the accelerator drove through the gate, with her tires ripping across the manicured lawn. She pressed the brake after she crashed into the front door. Two of her children were inside the house when Dan came rushing out. Furious, he yanked open the suburban's door, pulled her out, and punched her in the chest. Stunned, Betty fell to the ground, shocked that Dan had hit her. It was the first and only time that he'd ever hit her. There were also rumors that there was a knife in her suburban.

58:04 My don't think she threatened him with it, but later she said, oh, I'd just been out shopping that day and bought a knife. Okay, here's a clip of Betty talking about the incident to Oprah. You did drive try to drive the car through the door, did. You not I did purposely, And you know, I did bang my car into his door. I didn't try to drive it through anything. I banged my car into his door. The day that he sold the family home, the only home we've ever owned that had my name on it and his name on it. He sold it in court without notifying me in any way, shape or form. And I went to his house and said, how did you do that? You can't do that, and he told me I had ten seconds to get off his property.

58:45 So then you got in the car, and I. Looked at that house as the only asset it was, indeed, the only asset that had my name on it. Nothing else did. Ever. Once again, it seems like she is not willing to take any accountability for her own action. Not that Dan is perfect, didn't. No, absolutely. Definitely antagonized her. Yeah, but she just seems like she can't take own up too. That's a normal response, right. Yeah, Well of course I did that because of this and this and this. Yeah, like I stopped at the door, right yeah, but you know, the door was damaged, for what it's worth. The confrontation ended before anyone was hurt, but Betty's fury was palpable. When the police arrived, they put Betty into a straight jacket. Within hours, she was admitted to a mental hospital, where she spent the next three days, another explosive chapter in a divorce that was already spiraling out of control. But she insisted to the psychiatrist that it was Dan who was crazy, not her. Betty's parents caught the next flight available home after they found out that she'd been institutionalized. Embarrassed and horrified by her actions, they never visited her at her home again. Betty told the La Times quote, their darling got the big D word and they couldn't handle it. All my life, I tried so hard to be a good daughter, a good wife, a good neighbor. My husband on zips's fly and screws the bimbo, and I lose all that. My mother is a peach. If you called home at midnight and you

1:00:15 had a flat tire, she'd lie in bed and have people bring her tea and crumpets while she worried about you, and you'd still be out on the freeway. What she doesn't understand is she only had one choice, his funeral or mine. I hate to tell you, she would have preferred mine. My daughter killed herself is more acceptable than my daughter stood up for herself. During her stay at the mental hospital, Betty received a diagnosis borderline personality, histrionic and narcissistic. Dan paid Betty one hundred twenty seven thousand, seven hundred eighty four dollars from the sale of the Coral Reef House and ponied up an additional forty thousand dollars towards remodeling her new home. He must have been feeling guilty over his recent actions. Upon Betty's release from the hospital, he offered to pay for a week long ski trip for her and the kids. She begrudgingly accepted.

1:01:11 Betty's reputation around town was in tatters. People whispered behind her back, calling her crazy Betty. She did her best to hold her head up high, using her quick wit to brush off the gossip and lead with the smile. No matter how awkward the encounter. She felt no shame for her behavior and her mind. All the blame belonged to Dan and Linda, never to herself. Betty still tried to keep up appearances, meeting friends, volunteering, even working briefly at an art gallery, but her circle was shrinking. She wanted to move forward, yet wasn't sure what she was qualified to do anymore. And for those who stuck around, conversations with Betty inevitably circled back to the same theme how Dan had wronged her. Many grew weary of her bitterness, and one by one they drifted away and chose Dan's side over hers. But Betty still had a close circle of friends, and they were deeply worried. To them, she no longer seemed capable of rational thought. They urged her to get help, but she refused to hear it. Once admired for her excellent parenting, Betty was so consumed by her war with Dan and Linda that her kids took a back seat. Her appearance suffered. She gained weight and was unable to wear her designer clothes. Bills went unpaid, and the house she'd bought remained half renovated and largely unfurnished and infested with rats. Betty didn't have energy for any of it. She wasn't fun to be around anymore.

1:02:41 Friends described her as bitter, mean, vindictive, and angry, and whenever someone suggested she needed help, Betty only dug her heels in deeper and her mind her rage was justified. She was the one who'd been wronged. She began to write a book she titled What's a Nice Girl to Do? A story of white collaredmestic violence in America. That book was never published, but she did go on to write another book that I read, called Telling on Myself. So Betty joined a group called Halt Help Abolish Legal Tyranny. They are a subversive group who charged that lawyers intentionally make the legal system more complicated than it needs to be, which limits access to the average American. They believe that all Americans should be able to handle their legal affairs simply, affordably, and equitably.

1:03:31 Sounds like a pretty good idea really, I mean, anyone who's ever read a contract can say that, yeah, this is way more complicated than it needs to be. Betty found new supporters within this group who guided her decision making. Dan tried to settle the divorce out of court back in nineteen eighty five. He offered joint custody, likely to avoid paying child support, along with nine thousand dollars a month in alimony and a share of the legal settlements he'd earned during their marriage, but his formula was complicated. For example, from a six hundred thousand dollars settlement win, Betty's share, after expenses and deducting the support she had already received, would shrink to about sixty five thousand dollars. Betty admitted, I didn't know what the hell it meant, but I did know it sounded like I was getting royally screwed. Still, this was the best deal that Dan would ever put on the table, and Betty turned it down. She would continue to turn down every offer he made for years, and they declined in value.

1:04:32 She was sure he was being dishonest about his earnings and holdings. I think there is evidence that he did have money hiding in different places, not surprising. Does that sound like a bad deal to you? Like, out of a six hundred thousand dollars settlement, she would get about ten percent of that. Yeah, I mean seems like it would be pretty good. Frustrated by the lack of settlement, Dan moved for a bifurcated divorce. We've had at least one other case that did this. Remember, no, I don't so. A bifurcated divorce means that you split the legal process into two parts, dissolving the marriage first and dividing the assets later. So that's what Dan had done. So that's when he married.

1:05:13 Linda had been divorced for I think at least a year. Betty struggled to find an attorney she trusted and refused to appear in court without representation. On July sixteenth, nineteen eighty six, Dan stood before a judge alone and was granted both the divorce and full custody of the children. And that's when Betty's rage escalated. Her messages on the answering machine grew more vicious by the day. In response, Dan came up with a new punishment for every offensive word she left on the machine. He find her we already talked about this part. By late nineteen eighty seven, negotiations had stalled again until Betty came back with her own proposal. She requested one million dollars in cash, plus twenty five thousand dollars a month for the next ten years, whether she remarried or not. She wanted the title to her house and car, a one million dollar life insurance policy with herself as the beneficiary. Through the life insurance policy for Dan, much of the furniture they owned together, and for Dan to cover her legal fees altogether, this would have added up to about four million dollars. Was surprised many people was that she didn't ask for custody of the children. She only wanted visitation. She admitted she had no interest in being a single parent and felt too emotionally unstable to take on four children full time.

1:06:38 Dan flatly refused her offer. By the end of nineteen eighty seven, Betty's financial situation was dire. She had over two hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt. Betty said, the only time I felt halfway normal was when I was either eating or signing charges. Those things I could do alone, and they made me feel like everything would still be okay. On December twenty seventh, nineteen eighty eight, their eight day divorce trial began. Betty represented herself. At times she held her own but at other times she couldn't keep up. The final divorce judgment between Betty and Dan Broderick was both complicated and devastating. After years of bitter court battles, the millions of dollars in community property the couple had built between nineteen sixty nine and nineteen eighty nine were reduced to just over twenty eight thousand dollars for Betty. This figure came after Dan undervalued their community property and his law firm and applied more than one million dollars in Epstein credits, which reimbursed him for community debts he claimed to have paid with his own money after their separation, effectively wiping out much of Betty's share of their marital estate. On top of that, she was ordered to cover five thousand dollars in legal fees and even half of Dan's Harvard loans presented in court as their educational expenses. On paper, Betty would still receive monthly spousal support of sixteen thousand dollars, but to Betty

1:08:10 it felt hollow compared to the fortune Dad had amassed during their marriage and the life of luxury that she had once known. The settlement left her responsible for a heavy share of the community debts while granting her almost nothing from the assets that she'd helped create. To her, the judgment underscored how the courts and Dan's legal maneuvering had minimized her sacrifices, leaving her with little financial independence and a sharp sense of betrayal. That sound like a pretty brutal settlement. Absolutely, I mean she should have walked away with at least a million dollars in cash. I feel like I just want to talk about Epstein credits for a second because it's really confusing. But Epstein credits are a California divorce rule that comes from a nineteen seventy nine case called in Remarriage of Epstein. In terms, they allow one spouse to be reimbursed for certain payments they make after the couple separates, but before the divorce is finalized. If, for example, one spouse uses their post separation income to pay community debts like the mortgage, property taxes, or car payments, they can ask the court to credit them back for those amounts when the assets are divided. The reasoning is that those payments benefit both spouses, so the paying spouse shouldn't be stuck covering the other person's share. But there are exceptions. If the payments were intended as spousal support, or if the paying spouse was the only one using the property, the court might deny the credit. In Betty

1:09:42 Broderick's case, Dan used Epstein credits to shrink her settlement claiming reimbursement for expenses he said he covered after their separation. It was one of the several ways that he chipped away at the final amount that she would receive. And he really did screw Betty over royally with this settlement. Yeah, it sure sounds like it. So since nineteen eighty three, all, you know, all of those years, every single time that he paid for something, right, you know, he took that he gave her money for her house preparers. Yeah, and you know he shipped that away, and every vacation that you know that he gave her money for he took, you know that out of the settlement, right, But all just made the final settlement smaller.

1:10:24 Yeah. Well that's what we're going to end for today. Still no crime, well, a few crimes on Betty's parties. Crimes on both of their parts, really true. I have some questions for you. Was it possible for Betty to receive a fair settlement in the San Diego court system where Dan was a skilled and accomplished attorney. I mean, that's hard to say. It would have been very difficult for her, I would think. But at the same time, she just the way she approached the whole thing really didn't do herself any favors. She could have gotten a much better settlement if she had. I think, you know, tried hard to do what. Should have had an attorney with her during a divorce trial, for sure. I think up to that point she was treated pretty fairly. What effect do you think the answering machine messages had on the children?

1:11:18 Not a good one. I'm you know, it's just terrible to put your kids through that. Like just having your kids even hearing you, you know, fight bitterly and say nasty things to each other. That's not a good thing. But when you call and leave a message on their machine that you know they're going to hear. I want to say it was an episode of Oprah. I could be wrong. I used to watch Oprah all the time when I was like a kid. She said once, when you fight in front of your children, it changes who they are. And I've always remembered that we're not perfect. But we don't really fight in front of our kids. I don't think we ever. We have a couple of times one time, we don't fight often. I believe we fought in front of maybe our son when he was really little, and he might have said, are you guys getting divorced? Oh, no, it's just to fight. It's okay to fight. But when you never fight and you do fight and your kids here and you know, that can be bad. Yeah, but the kids in this case were definitely used to their parents, really bad for them. Was Betty's anchor justified or did it cross the line into obsession?

1:12:24 Yes, and yes I think it was just I mean, she was certainly justified in her anger, but at a certain point you got to move on. When you're destroying who you are, the fabric of your being, you definitely need help. Yeah, it just seemed like she was obsesseding, couldn't couldn't let it go, and couldn't focus on anything else. What could Dan have done differently, Well. He could have not gaslighted her for years absolutely and acts like he wasn't having an affair. He could have definitely been more upfront about it and you know, just made a clean break earlier when he realized that he wanted to be with someone else. Do you get the sense that part of the reason he was gaslighting her because he was moving money around and you know, doing seedy things like that.

1:13:10 Maybe like maybe he was trying to prepare for, you know, the divorce at some point, but it's hard to say. Do you think that Betty should have gotten fifty percent of all of his assets? I mean kind of yeah. I think in a situation like that, that seems sort of fair. And it seems like Dan almost had unlimited potential, like financially, and he could have remade that money. I think that's what a lot of people point to this in this case, is like, you know, he could have given her that money easily. Yeah, still would have had plenty of money, yeah, I think, and left her with some dignity. Right, I think he Yeah, he probably should have been a little more generous. And just if I was him, I'd be like, I just want to get this done with that. I want to move on, and the easiest way to do that is going to be by giving more money.

1:14:00 And so yeah, before we go, I have some questions for you. Do you remember James Lipton? Of course I did inside the actor's studio. Yes, we'll rest in peace, James Lipton. I believe that he has passed on. I believe. So do you remember the questions? I don't remember them, but I do remember he asked the same questions. About supposed to be rapid fire, and I will answer them too slightly unfair because. Right you've had a little more time. Yeah, what is your favorite word? Well, first word that came to my mind was the sea word. But that's really not my favorite word. See you next Tuesday. I never used that word, so it's not but my favorite word love.

1:14:50 But you sold that one honey cookie cookie, sea word cookie or snack. That's probably I don't I really don't know. That's kind of a weird question question. Yeah, okay, what is your least favorite word? Okay, well, first of all, I want to go back to my favorite word because this is what happens. My brain is too slow. My favorite word is discombobulated. That's a nice word. My least favorite word, I'm going to go with puke. Really, it's just the first thing. My least favorite word is diarrhea, so that's a bad word too. What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally. I think when someone is really like passionate about something and really good at something. I'm just I'm I'm blown away by people that are just like really really into something and really passionate about.

1:15:40 It, like me, yes, just bad because I'm not passionate about pretty much anything. Being in nature is what I would say. Or taking a shower, do you feel like when you take a shower and like all your good ideas come in the shower, like literally, really so much happened to you? No, but nature? For sure? That that is very true for me too. What is a turn off for you people who are like selfish? I just think I just don't like people who are selfish. My answer is racism, close mindedness, and lack of empathy. What sound or noise do you love? Time for lunch, time for breakfast, time for dinner. That's fun, It's a wonderful life.

1:16:22 Oh my favorite sound is your voice? Oh, thank you? And also the ocean. What sound or noise do you hate? I'm going to go back to puking. Oh that's a good one. That is that is true? That's such a horrible I feel kind of. Bad, and I hope our neighbors aren't listening. But mainly and you know this because I'll text you like the hack our neighbors outside in their pool when we're like, yeah, I have every right to be out there, but that can enrage you. It does me I do. I feel bad again, Like it's just our window. It's been so hot, yeah, and our windows have been close. Was like most of the summer the air conditioning's on, but like it's been a little cooler, so I've been opening the windows. And then when I have to hear the joyful sounds of children.

1:17:09 It's just that it's all. It's always, it's all the time. Yeah it is. Yeah. What's your favorite curse word? I like the F word. The F word. Come on, rich, you can do it. I actually really like motherfucker. Yeah, it just kind of rolls off the tongue. So I know people think we don't swear, but we do, and I really really it's very cathartic for me to say fuck. It really is. Apologies to our listeners who don't like to hear swear words on our podcast. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? You know, this podcast has made me want to be a lawyer? I really interesting.

1:17:49 Yeah, I think it would be It would just be an interesting profession. Like I think, what kind of lawyer? There a lot of different avenues. The part the thing is very interesting. The thing that would be interesting would be to be a criminal lawyer, either prosecuting or defense. I think that's a I think that's a lot harder than you think. Oh yeah, I'm not saying it would be easy. I think it would be very hard, and it would be hard morally. Like if you're a defense lawyer having to defend someone that you know in your heart is guilt. Everyone you know should yeah, exactly is entitled to it. You know, a good attorney for sure. All right, last question? Wait, what is what is your answer? Doctor? I think that I wish that I would have, you know, been a little more aggressive in my education, but I probably wouldn't have had the attention span for you know, doctor, I think, yeah, if heaven exists, well, would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

1:18:40 I would like to hear God tell me. And I had a friend of mine had this theory that heaven is like a It's like a giant database that you can see anything that ever happened, Like if you went up there and you were like, I want to see what happened with JFK, Like was there was there a second assassin? And then God would be like, yeah, sure, here's. Our audio visual guy up in heaven. No, it'd be like a Google like you have Google, but you could look up anything from any time, anywhere and see exactly what happened. I think about things like that sometimes, and I'm like, I need to try harder, because someday, if I have to see the tape of this, I'm gonna be horrified. Yes, that's true. I would like to hear God say love your podcast.

1:19:24 Sure, God's a big fan of our podcast. We'll put a fork in us because we are done. We are done. We have to come back to part three. Right, but we are empty nesters now, so we can have cake for dinner. Oh yeah, more Boston, more BOSTONI. Sounds good to me. Well, if you'd like to hear part three of this case right now, please join us on Patreon dot com slash Love Mary Kill for five dollars a month. You get early ad free access plus a monthly bonus episode. Thank you all so much for listening. We love you and we appreciate your support more than we can ever express. Please rate, review, follow and subscribe, find us on social media, or send us an email at lovemrykilat gmail dot com.

1:20:11 Until next time, don't kill your wife and don't kill your husband.