Season 2 of Dirty John is introducing us to yet another real-life criminal, and I’m honestly just pumped to have something to do this summer. Like, who needs the beach when there’s true crime, amirite? On that note, meet Betty Broderick, a San Diego “housewife” who killed her ex-husband, Dan, and his new wife, Linda, while they were sleeping. But before we get into what Betty’s up to these days, here’s a quick refresher on the whole…situation.
Straight Up: Betty Went to Jail for Murder
Betty’s crimes went down in the late ’80s, when she suspected Dan was having an affair with Linda—which, to be fair, would piss off most people. But Betty, uh, took Dan’s infidelity pretty badly. By which I mean she rammed her car into his front door, left obscene messages on his answering machine, and burned his Armani suits—all throughout the course of their insane five-year divorce. Dan even had Betty arrested and briefly committed to a mental hospital, and poor Linda was so freaked out by the whole thing that she asked him to wear a bulletproof vest to their wedding.
Obviously, this was never going to end well—and in 1989, Betty took things to the next level by driving to Dan and Linda’s mansion and shooting them to death in their sleep. Interestingly, Betty got a lot of support from women in her wealthy San Diego community, who—according to the Los Angeles Times—wrote to local newspapers saying that “while they didn’t condone murder, they understood the fury that prompted it.” Kay!
Betty ended up standing trial and claimed she was a victim of psychological and physical abuse, but the prosecution brought up her $16,000 monthly alimony, the fancy house Dan bought her, and more “proof” that she was living the life thanks to her ex. The result? A hung jury, a mistrial, a retrial, and an eventual conviction of second-degree murder.
So, Where Is She Now?
Betty was sentenced to a lot of jail time (32 years to life, specifically), and she’s sitting in a cell at the California Institution for Women to this day. She is now 72 years old and has been denied parole three times—most recently in 2017, when deputy district attorney Richard Sachs said, “Betty Broderick is an unrepentant woman. She has no remorse and zero insight into the killings….She just basically said, ‘They drove me to do this.’”
Betty technically won’t be eligible for parole again until 2032, although good behavior could push up that date if she’s lucky…so stay tuned!
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