Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret.
Have you heard of Wondery Plus? With ad-free episodes and one week early access, it's like having an all-access pass to our lighthearted nightmare.
So come join us on the dark side and try Wondery Plus today.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.
Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.
Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive changes in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being.
Audible has an incredible selection of over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals all in one easy app.
Find the genres you love and discover new ones.
Explore bestsellers like my sister's title. new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time.
I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk, and I am absolutely loving it.
I I love Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen.
Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.
Visit audible.com slash morbid. Some cases fade from headlines.
Some never made it there to begin with. I'm Ashley Flowers and on my podcast The Deck I tell you the stories of cold cases featured on playing cards distributed in prisons designed to spark new leads and bring long overdue justice.
Because these stories deserve to be heard and the loved ones of these victims still deserve answers.
Are you ready to be dealt in? Listen to The Deck now. wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.
The mini-sode. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid.
Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid. It's a mini episode and it's Ash-centric.
Woo! Welcome to another mini-sode, guys.
I know, we've done like a lot of mini-sodes now.
I know, it's fun. It is fun. This has been fun.
I'm glad we added these onto our repertoire.
Our repertoire. Exactly. so mine well i think it's gonna be long but i talk fast so who really knows i was thinking now when you said it's gonna be long i was like i bet it's gonna be like half what she thinks it's gonna be because she talks so fast That's always what happens.
I just, like, I talk so quickly. That's good, though.
I can't help it. Yeah, you get it out. Yeah, you know, just, like, get into it.
So do you want to just, like, go right into it?
Yeah, this is a mini-sode. We don't have any shit to talk about in this.
We just go right into it. We got no business.
We're going to thank our Patreons next week.
Exactly. So let's just fucking do this. Let's do this.
All right. So my mini-sode this week, I'm going to see if you can guess it before I say anything.
I know, because I'm excited. This is so fun every week.
It's so fun. So do you know what my favorite Lifetime movie is? like lifetime movie based on a real crime case oh that's a tough one what just take like a guess Is it one about like a cheerleader being murdered?
Shut up. No. i was being serious she wasn't murdered she robbed the bank sorry um you can have one more guest Okay, one more guess.
I'm having trouble because I'm thinking of the ones that I've seen.
Is it one about a call girl? No. Okay, cool.
Betty Broderick. Oh. Was born Elizabeth Ann.
Basiglia, I think. I don't really know how you say her original last name, but it's not important.
It's not important. It's fine. She was born on November 7th, 1947. she grew up in east chester which is a suburb of new york city and she was the third of six children a lot of children Yeah, but it was like pretty regular, like blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring.
So she says that she was quote, raised to be a housewife from the day she was born.
Oh, that's no good. Which, like, no thanks.
I mean, if you decide to be a housewife, that's great.
But if you're raised to be one, I feel like that's not good.
Never good. She also put it that she was raised to go to Catholic school, be careful dating until you find a Catholic man.
Support him while he works and be blessed in your later years with beautiful grandchildren.
Woof. Or as I like to say, fuck that. I was not raised that way.
Nope, definitely not. Hashtag no thank you.
Nope. So Betty was just living her life, doing the damn thing.
She went to college. And she met Daniel Broderick III in 1965 when she was at a party at Notre Dame.
She didn't go to Notre Dame, but her and her friend, like, took a road trip and went to Notre Dame.
Good for her. Went to a party. Yeah. You know, living the college life, going to college football games, and then parties following them.
Yeah. Living that Catholic life. Hell yeah.
Go Jesus. Go Jesus. He was a freshman and he was a senior and he introduced himself to her by writing his name on a napkin.
So on the napkin, he wrote, Daniel T. Broderick, MDA.
And he told her that MDA stood for medical doctor almost. wow which is like really if if somebody did that i would be like i have to go real quick See you later.
My Uber has actually been waiting, and I really can't afford a one-star review, so I'm going to go now.
So we have to go. I know that it's 1965 and you don't know what Uber is, but I'm from the future.
And then you zap their mind clear of the experience.
I created Uber for this. this very moment right here yeah because you know what super cool that you're gonna be a medical doctor and like totally brag about it in different ways but like don't do that Yeah.
Yeah, do it in different ways, but not this one.
And also, it's like, you're pre-med. Like, settle down.
You have about 400 more years left before you're an MD.
But he was on the right path. He had just been accepted to Cornell Medical School in New York.
So he's doing the damn thing. Let's do it.
He was doing the damn thing. Yeah. So the story goes that the two met and Dan, after they met, was already telling people that he was going to marry Betty someday.
That's sweet. Like, she was it. He thought she was so beautiful, so pretty, and that they'd make a successful power couple.
I mean, that's what you look for. I mean hell yeah.
Four years later they got married in April of 1969.
Nice. Probably right when he was graduating medical school.
Exactly. So Betty became pregnant during or shortly after their honeymoon, and she gave birth to their oldest child, Kim.
Nine months after they got married. Damn.
Or nine months after their honeymoon. Just moving right along.
Yeah. The couple had five children together.
Two daughters, Kim and Lee. Two sons, Daniel and Rhett, I think is how you say it.
It's R-H-E-T-T. Yeah, that's Rhett. Sounds like a rich name.
Yeah. And they also had another child that was a boy, but unfortunately he passed away like two days after he was born.
Oh, that's terrible. Which is really sad.
Yeah. But Dan finished medical school and then he actually attended Harvard Law.
And became a lawyer. Jesus. Yeah. And he was doing all this, like, going to medical school.
Like, that's too much. It's a lot. It's a lot, Dan.
That's a lot, Dan. So he was going to medical school and...
Then he attended Harvard and Betty was like taking care of all the kids in the house, supporting the family, like working multiple jobs.
She was like... She was doing a lot. She was a little tired.
A little tired. Yeah. So in 1973, Dan accepted a job at a really prestigious law firm in San Diego.
But he made a shit ton of money working on medical malpractice suits.
Ooh, that's where the money is. Well, and he knew, too, because, like, he had medical background and law background.
Oh, yeah. So he made so much money that he started calling himself... count da money i mean i'm i'm gonna need that to be erased from history because he dan was really smooth Dan just needs some time.
He needs some time. He needs some space.
He needs some more nutrients. I don't know.
Like something's going on with Dan. That's no good.
Well, maybe he needed a nose job. Which he bought himself with all the money that he was making.
Hey, I mean, I have a deviated septum. I would love to get that fixed.
I get that. He started making all this money, started calling himself Countamoney.
Countamoney. Got a nose job. bought like hand-tailored suits and they were just like living their best fucking life i wonder if he just like stood there with his money sometimes it was like One hundred dollars.
Because he was count the money. I'm screaming.
But now he was making enough to support them all, so Betty was able to quit her job slash jobs.
And she was basically like a stay at home mom.
She was just supposed to take care of the kids and like focus on that and being a wife.
And just get that money. Yeah, so her husband can count the money.
So they became, like, very well-known socialites in San Diego.
Betty was known in the community as a super mom.
Parents loved her. The neighborhood kids loved her.
They people thought her and Dan were so fabulous and like they had it all.
It's never good when that happens. I feel like it never leads anywhere good.
Nope. But they bought a home in, I think you say La Jolla, California?
I think so. Sounds good. It looks like La Jolla, but I bet it's not La Jolla.
Yeah, I think you're right. It's La Jolla, I think.
So yeah, they bought a home there. They had a membership at an elite country club and more money than they even knew what to do with.
People said Betty would go on shopping sprees and there was like no budget whatsoever.
She could just spend however much money she wanted.
I can't. My brain won't even compute that.
I don't even know what I would do with all that.
Like, I would be so well dressed. It would just be great.
I feel like people like that aren't well dressed because they have too much money.
So they just like it just it swings the pendulum to the other side.
And when you have that much money, you start dressing like a trash bag because it just becomes too much.
It looked like they had everything, but they really didn't.
And beneath it all, the couple started to have a lot of issues.
I'm shocked. And they had issues pretty much from the start.
There isn't a lot known about the child that Betty lost after childbirth, but she also suffered from two miscarriages after that.
Oh God. And not to mention like the whole time that Dan was in school, she was supporting their entire family.
Yeah. And that's a lot. Well, yeah, that's the thing.
She said that he spent hours out like after work drinking with his coworkers.
And he would say that it was networking and that he was climbing like a legal ladder.
And this is just what he had to do. No way, man.
No, you're out with your friends and I'm home with your kids.
And it's like she's been home all day with like five kids or four kids, however many it is.
She's working like how many jobs and you can't even come home and like relieve her.
Because you're quote-unquote climbing the legal ladder.
Yeah, that's ridiculous. So they fought constantly, and sometimes it actually got violent.
On one occasion, she threw a ketchup bottle at him.
And then on another occasion, he got so pissed that he threw an empty aquarium over the second floor balcony of their home holy shit Which, like, also, who just has, like, an empty aquarium?
I was just gonna say, did he just, like, find one?
Or did he, like, conjure one? What happened?
Maybe they got a new aquarium and the old one was just like the perfect thing to throw across the fucking yard.
Yeah. He is count of money. Who knows what special powers he has.
Count of money. Count of aquariums. Yeah.
Count it all. But their oldest daughter Kim said that, quote, mom was always kind of weird.
Mom would always get mad at dad all the time. once mom picked up the stereo and literally threw it at him whoa and she locked him out constantly Jesus.
So they were like volatile. I'd say so. Yeah.
Betty threw threats of divorce at Dan like all the time, but she didn't actually want a divorce.
She just used it as an empty threat because like without him, She wouldn't have this picture perfect life of like the stay at home housewife.
And like that was her identity. Yeah. And that was what she was raised to be. yeah that's what she was raised to be that's all she knew and also they were both catholics and they took their vows like really seriously yeah that whole thing Yeah, and they were both raised Catholic, so it's a big deal.
Because that brings guilt into it. That's not just like... we love each other and we want to stay together.
It's like, oh no, God will smite us if we don't.
Literally. That's like real serious. because like I take my vows real seriously but I don't bring smiting into it or anything yeah I'm all set with that shit so things were about to get worse oh on november 22nd 1983
Betty went to Dan's office with a bottle of champagne and a dozen roses and I know that sounds really great.
It does. It's gonna be awesome. I think it's gonna be great.
It's gonna be fucking awesome. I can't wait for you to hear what happens.
So it was Dan's 39th birthday and she planned on surprising him, hoping that it would kind of salvage their marriage.
She was like doing a nice gesture. But when she got to the office, she didn't find Dan there.
Uh-oh. Instead, she found an empty office with remnants of a chocolate cake. an empty bottle of wine, two glasses, and birthday decorations everywhere.
Oh, child. So she asked one of the office secretaries, like, where the fuck is my husband and who drank this bottle of wine with him?
And the office assistant told Betty that Dan had left around lunchtime with his assistant, Linda. oh linda linda linda linda linda oh man so i feel betty's rage right now i feel it yeah Wait until you hear what she does.
The assistant that Betty had speculated Dan was having an affair with for the past few months was Linda. so god damn linda yeah no bueno no so betty waited in the office like all night for dan to come back and he never did so that's so sad oh yeah like i'm just don't worry i'm just thinking of that though like sitting there with champagne and like roses and roses just waiting for him to come back and he's not coming back because he's with linda she wasn't about to get sad though she was about to get even So she drove home and she went inside and she gathered all his pants and all his suits and all his nice clothes. and she put them in the front lawn and she set them all on fire hey that's what you do i see nothing wrong with this so far In the Lifetime movie, I literally made Annie watch it with me the other night, and she was like, this is incredible.
This is incredible. As she strikes the match, she goes, liar, liar, pants on fire.
Oh. Tosses the match onto the clothing.
Even if that didn't happen, it happened.
Like, that happened. Because that is phenomenal.
I literally wrote in my notes, I really hope this actually happened.
Because you know if she didn't really say that as she threw that match, she's like, shit.
Missed opportunity. She said that, literally.
That was great. The Lifetime movie is incredible.
I gotta see this now. But anyway, Dan denied and denied and denied that he was having an affair with Linda.
He told Betty that she was crazy, that she was imagining things.
Of course. Whenever a dude says you're crazy and imagining things.
You're not crazy and you're not imagining anything.
Everything you think you think is thought and right.
Yeah, exactly. So according to Betty, he was growing bored of her and often called her old, fat, boring, ugly, and stupid.
Oh, my God. Which is really sad. She says that it was all part of a methodical campaign to drive her insane.
So eventually the marriage became unsalvageable to Dan and he moved out of the house in February of 1985.
He left Betty with the kids. Oh. So he just abandons his children.
Cool. Fuck you, buddy. And she dropped the kids off at his house. thinking that he would finally see how much work went into raising them and that he'd have like a newfound respect for her oh betty but it's not how that works like that yeah Dan realized that this was an advantage for him because now he had the kids, which she voluntarily turned over, and he could use that against her.
Yep. That was a dumb move, Betty. Also, apparently she, Dan is like, he sounds like a dick in the beginning of this, but Betty is like batshit fucking crazy.
Well, yeah, and if you're just going to leave your kids with this dude, you're using your kids as leverage and pawns and stuff.
That's messed up. Well, listen to how she dropped them off.
She dropped off the oldest one, Kim, on Easter After Kim had asked her to drive like her friend home, like her friend must have been over.
And she was like, hey, can you drive my friend home?
And Betty literally like just lost her shit and was like...
No, like, blah, blah, blah, like, freaking out and literally went, pack your bags.
So Kim packed her bags and Betty drove her to her dad's house.
And he wasn't there. And she just left her on the doorstep and she literally had to wait like hours and hours for her dad to get home.
That is the worst thing I've ever heard.
I hate Betty now. This is such a rollercoaster.
So that happened on Easter. Then a few days later.
How old was Kim? Do you know? Like how old the kids are?
She was like around like. 16, I would say.
She was the oldest. 16 or 17. Dani arrived the same way a few days later and he was young he was probably like maybe like 10 when this happened oh my god And then Rhett and Lee came a few months later.
Kim says they were hysterical, holding on to her, crying and screaming.
That's literally the worst thing I've ever heard.
It's really awful. This kind of stuff makes me so mad.
It's like... Yeah, because, like, don't use your kids as a pawn.
And people, like, ruining their children's psyches for just selfish reasons.
It's like, I can't understand you. It's messed up.
Ugh. So like I said, Betty thought that if she stopped being like the quote, perfect housewife that dan would see that she meant business and like somehow gain more respect for her So delusional.
Yeah, she was very delusional. Yeah. And obviously that didn't go to plan.
And she kind of just went on a downward spiral very, very quickly.
You don't say. In June, she went to the family home and trashed Dan's bedroom.
She shattered mirrors and spray painted black paint everywhere.
Wow. So then on September 23rd, Dan filed for divorce.
It's about time. After that, he said Betty returned to the home two more times.
One time she took a Boston cream pie, which I don't know if this is true or not.
This part that I'm about to say in the movie, Linda baked the pie.
I don't know if she actually did or not.
But this part is true, that she went and took the pie into the master bedroom, like, Dan's room, and smeared it all over his clothes and all over his, like, furniture. just like smeared the pie everywhere well that's just that makes me mad because boston cream pie is great and like that's just psychotic how dare you waste one so she just like ruined all this shit what it's like dude you lit his clothes on fire move on like you did what you had to do you got it out This is like giving him ammo.
Of course. You're never getting your kids back again.
Just chill. So that happened. And then the second time that she broke in.
Oh my god. How did I suddenly get to be on Dan's side in this?
I'm all confused. It's very wishy-washy.
Yeah, my emotions are just everywhere. They will.
So, at this point, Dan gets a temporary restraining order, which orders Betty to stay 100 yards from the house, his car, and his office.
But that didn't mean shit to Betty. And she violated the order by swinging an umbrella through a large picture window and broke into their house and smashed their brand new toaster. why because she was mad like was she like now you get no toast I think it was more like, you're toast, buddy.
You don't need a toaster. You're toast. I like it.
The whole thing is that... she thought that he was having an affair with linda for all this time and that like he was trading her in for, like, a younger model.
Because if you look at pictures, actually, Linda does kind of resemble Betty when she was younger.
Oh, yeah. which is like no bueno and he was 40 and he had just bought like a red corvette and she was like yeah you're having like a midlife crisis like so she's like your midlife crisis wife Yeah, but he was like, yeah, you're having like a midlife episode and I think you need to be committed.
It's like you literally need to be somewhere.
Yeah. But she's doing all this stuff with her kids around.
It's like, you're really messing your kids up for life here.
Oh, yeah, her kids. Actually, I didn't get a chance to watch this yet, but they are on Oprah.
There's like an interview with them and Oprah and I'm going to watch it directly after this. oh damn and i suggest you all do the same After you watch the Lifetime movie.
Of course. So in February 1986, Dan sold the family home against Betty's wishes.
He did this by using like some law procedure, which obviously like he knew about, but it was like a very like not well-known procedure. that permitted a judge to sign over Betty's half.
Wow. So Dan claimed that he did this after Betty refused to sign papers two times, even after he followed her advice in choosing the real estate agent.
And after he literally bought her a home and... What did I say it's called?
La Jolla? Oh yeah. La Jolla for $650,000.
Whoa. He bought her a $650,000 home. It's like, okay, Betty, time to move on.
So? Take that house and just move on. Yeah.
But she was pissed when she found out that Dan had sold the home without her consent.
I mean, which like I'd be mad. I get that.
But then I would just drive to my $650,000 home and get over it.
And it's like, you're not really displaying behavior. that, you know, makes it easy for us to work with you here.
Right. just wait because she drives to the home to confront dan and dan's like yeah i don't want to talk to you please get off my property so she does what any rational girl would do She drives her Chevy through the front door of his mansion.
Yeah, I mean, what other option was there?
Literally no other options. What other option did she have?
There's nowhere else to go. You just go straight.
Her fucking car through his house. And I'm pretty sure her kids were home.
They were in the Lifetime movie. And how did she know that the kids weren't in front of the door?
I mean, she could have literally just killed all her kids at once.
When I was watching the movie, all the kids are home and Dan is like yelling at them at Also, Dan is played by the father of Seventh Heaven, which is like no bueno because he's a child.
Yeah, I was just going to say that's really no bueno.
He's yelling at all of them to go upstairs.
But that's what I thought. I was like, how did you not know if your kids were there?
Yeah, you don't know if your kid was just walking out the front door or was close to it.
But she was just past the point of rationality.
She's just blind insanity. So after she drove her car through his front door, he like flipped out and like went to pull her out of the car.
I don't know why, but he wanted to. And as he was doing this, she reached under the passenger seat and pulled out a large butcher's knife.
Jesus. Somehow he restrained her. The police were called and she was apparently taken away in a straight jacket.
So she was like so out of control that they had to restrain her with a straight jacket.
Jesus. That's a lot. And after that, she spent only three days in a San Diego County mental health hospital.
That doesn't surprise me. which just because how because of how mental health is treated yeah it's true but like you literally drove your fucking car through your children's home whoa Whoa.
So then, in July 1986, Dan and his attorney go to court to finalize the divorce. um betty didn't have a lawyer because she claimed that no one in the area would represent dan broderick's ex-wife but through the whole process of like their divorce and everything She hired five lawyers and fired all five of them.
There's probably very good reason for each one.
Yeah. Very sane, very solid reasons. So the divorce got finalized and Dan got sole custody of the children and Betty received no formal visitation rights.
Good. yeah so if she wasn't pissed before she was super pissed now Yeah.
She called Dan's house repeatedly leaving like really crude messages on his answering machine using like really gross nicknames for Dan and his new girlfriend. who was linda she called her the c word on like multiple occasions called her like the office whore Like, really awful things.
So, Dan was paying, at this point, he was paying Betty...
$16,000 a month in alimony. Wow. Yeah. So he started to fine her for all the shitty things that she was doing.
He wrote her a letter and said that for every obscene word, he was charging her $100, $250 for every time she stepped foot on his property.
$500 for every entry into his home and $1,000 for every time she took one of the kids without his permission.
Oh my god. I can't believe he even had to do that.
So one month, Betty claimed that Dan fined her so many times that her total alimony was negative $1,300.
Wow. Like she fucked up that many times.
I believe it. I believe it. But Betty says that Dan and Linda were equally as awful...
She said she once received a photo of Dan and Linda with the caption, eat your heart out, bitch.
So she thought that Linda sent that. And she also said that she was like getting all these flyers for like skin serums and like weight loss medicines.
And she thought that like it was Linda's doing. oh my god like she was like you're old and fat can you imagine it really does sound like a fucking like beverly hills housewife competition it does Like, this is bonkers.
Linda's friends deny that Linda was evil or mean in the ways that Betty was.
But Kim, Betty's oldest daughter, the one from Easter, confirms that Linda did refuse to return Betty's wedding china after Betty requested it.
Ooh, and that's low. Yeah. So she definitely stooped to her level at some points.
So Linda's a bit of a bitch herself. I guess.
But her and Dan were happy together. And friends of the couple say that Linda brought out a softer side of Dan.
They got engaged in June of 1988, but at this point, Betty was still calling herself Mrs. Broderick and refused to give up her married name.
Oh, damn. And she was still leaving, like, really obscene messages on the answering machine.
So this is a phone conversation that she had with her son, Danny, who was 11 years old at the time.
So she was like in the middle of picking up or she was in the middle of leaving a message on the phone and he picked up and said... you guys are separated, mom, and he likes somebody else now.
He doesn't like you anymore. And I mean, if you got, you gotta stop saying the bad words. and then betty says why doesn't he like me anymore to her 11 year old stop talking to your 11 year old And Danny's like crying throughout this whole conversation.
Oh, my God. And he says, because you've been...
He's sick of you because you guys get in all these fights.
And Betty goes, why do we get in all these fights?
Oh my god, she's literally making this kid spit it out.
And then Danny goes, I don't know. And Betty goes, because he was fucking his secretary.
Like, this is recorded. Are you kidding me?
Literally, you can hear the conversation between the two of them.
And Dani goes, even before that, you got into fights, mom. and then betty goes i don't think so danny see you didn't know he was fucking his secretary for the last years that we were married And then Danny says, we want to live with you, but you're just making it harder for all of us that want to live over there.
If you stop saying bad words, everyone will be happier.
At least I know I will. Oh my god, that just hurt my soul in so many ways.
That ruined my life. It's so sad, but don't worry because later on they use it to prosecute her as a trial.
Good. Because I'm horrified right now. So after that, Betty claimed that Dan and Linda were ruining her children.
Oh, yeah. It's them who are like your children.
You definitely have a hand in stirring the pot, too.
Yeah. Their younger daughter, Lee, dropped out of high school.
And Dan disowned her and formally wrote her out of his will.
Whoa. that's all that's known about business he also asked kim to move out when she turned 18 but later he like chilled out and paid her college tuition That's pretty chill.
It seemed like all the kids had a rocky relationship with both parents.
Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. They grew up with like all this crazy violence in their house.
Exactly. That's why I'm so interested to watch them sit down with Oprah.
Yeah. But Betty was mostly focused at this point on getting custody of Rhett and Danny because they were 11 and 14, respectively, like, at this point. okay um and they seem to gravitate toward their mom a friend of the family says that in between visits with their mom they always stayed in contact through the phone So after Linda and Dan got engaged in April, they got married in April of 1989 in the front yard of Dan's mansion.
He hired private undercover security guards, but he refused to wear a bulletproof vest like Linda had request.
Like, she literally was worried that he was going to get shot on their wedding day.
I would be, too. Well, news had spread that...
Betty had bought a revolver. Oh, yeah. Then I'd be like, you're wearing one.
And she'd been threatening time and time again to kill them all the time.
Oh, yeah. But Dan told his friends that he doubted Betty would kill her, quote unquote, golden goose.
Which I guess means like the dude that like pays all her shit.
Yeah. So, but Linda wasn't quite sure. She had asked a lawyer on numerous occasions to prepare papers to get a restraining order against Betty, but Dan wouldn't let her file them.
So his friend Ned Huntington said she was the mother of his children and he really didn't take the strong measures he could have taken.
He didn't want... to he didn't want the guilt of being punitive toward her so he let her get away with a lot of atrocious acts he just wouldn't punish her Oh, see, that's your mistake, man.
So seven months after the wedding, for some reason, Betty finally hit her last breaking point.
She drove to Dan's house at 1041 Cypress Ave and entered the home using a key that she'd stolen from her daughter, Leigh.
She quietly snuck upstairs to the couple's bedroom and shot Linda first in the head and then the chest.
And then shot Dan who was hit in the chest as he was searching or as he was reaching for the phone.
Dan was 44 and he was only 17 days shy of his 45th birthday.
And Linda was 28. What? Yep. And also, it was two days before Betty's birthday.
Oh, my God. So before she left, she unplugged the phone from the wall and fled the house.
But later that day, she turned herself into police.
Wow. She said that she went there... Because she wanted to talk to them and she wanted to kill herself in front of them.
But that Linda had like rolled over. But then she was like.
And she got startled. Oh. Yeah, I definitely buy that.
Nope, not true. Nope, you definitely went there to murder them.
Yeah. So during the first trial, Betty's lawyer, Jack Early, represented her as a battered woman who'd been pushed to the brink after years of verbal and emotional abuse.
The prosecutor Carrie Wells portrayed Betty as a murderer who planned to kill her husband and was the very opposite of a battered woman.
She'd been getting $16,000 a month in alimony and was living in a $650,000 home that the victim had bought her.
Seriously. Like, you're not a battered woman.
Like you're doing okay, Betty. And Betty's whole thing was that like she was so battered and he just wanted to ruin her life and like her life was nothing.
But she had a boyfriend and they were doing, like, this trial thing where Rhett and Danny were, like, living with her.
Like... like as a trial like he yeah he was going to give her custody of them So the two sons were at her house at the time that she killed their dad and Linda.
Oh my god. So, the first trial ended with a hung jury. because two jurors held out for a conviction of manslaughter as opposed to second-degree murder.
Because they didn't think that she planned the murder.
They thought that because... To me, it's like, just the fact that she stole the key...
From her daughter in order to get in the house.
Gives me all I need to know. Because she wasn't willing to set up a meeting with them.
She was going in the dead of night. right when they didn't know it was when they were at their most vulnerable Yeah, when you're at your most vulnerable.
And then she also unplugged the phones when she left.
So they couldn't even call for help. And that she was looking to kill them.
And that's what they used to is like her unplugging the phone.
Yeah. Because the whole thing was that these two jurors wanted to convict her of manslaughter. since they didn't think that she planned the murder because i guess second degree murder has to come with premeditation Second-degree murder, you don't need premeditation.
You need ballast of forethought. Oh, so what does that mean?
So premeditation... is for first degree murder, but malice of forethought is when you have intent.
So for second degree murder, you would need intent there, but you don't necessarily need preparation. okay a mistrial was declared and betty was retried a year later with the same prosecutor and the same defense lawyer This time she was convicted on two counts of second-degree murder, and she was sentenced to two consecutive years of 15 years to life. plus two years for the illegal use of a firearm.
So she's in prison for 32 years to life.
Good. She's been incarcerated since the day that she committed the murders.
Okay. And her first request for parole was in January of 2010, and it was denied because she, quote, did not show remorse and did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.
So that bitch is still hanging on to like, yeah.
Oh my God. Literally, you can watch tons and tons of interviews with her and she is not sorry at all.
Like she does not give a fuck. That's so fucked.
Because her whole thing is that she's like a battered woman.
But there's just like so much evidence that like she was also like fucking bananas.
Like the fact that she like drove all her kids away. to his house and left them there.
And then I also read on one occasion that she, her older, or excuse me, her younger daughter, Lee, was like kind of like a brat growing up apparently according to the older daughter kim and she one time was like oh like your spankings don't hurt like when i get in trouble so she was like oh like never say that yeah literally also like maybe don't spank your kids but yeah personal i don't agree with that at all with spanking kids but i don't either you know But apparently she was like, okay, well, then next time you get in trouble, I'm going to hit you with a fly swatter.
So she chased her around the backyard. And the like the fly swatter, like the screen of it fell off.
So it was literally just the wire thing.
And she was literally beating her with like the wire thing.
Oh my God. And she had like waltz all over her.
Oh, that's awful. So Betty was fucking crazy from the start.
Seriously, she was the worst. And the kid said that she would pick fights with Dan all the time.
Yeah, I'm totally on Dan's side now, which I did not think was going to happen in the beginning.
Yeah, like they literally said that she would like get all dressed up for them to go to like some socialite event.
And then at the last second, she'd be like, I'm not going.
Just make a fight happen. Yeah, exactly.
Like just to be a bitch. Oh my God. So I don't buy that she was like a battered woman at all.
I also don't buy that Dan was like super great either.
No, I don't think either one of them were like shining their halos anytime soon.
But he definitely did not deserve to get shot.
No. And then... And especially even if he did have an affair, it's like, come on.
Like, people have affairs all the time at fucking...
Yeah, it's awful, but move on, man. Move on and be there for your kids.
That's what you need to do. You can't fucking kill people just because you feel like it.
And I don't know if this is as much as we all want to.
You can't. I don't know if this is true.
I read it on Wikipedia. So like not positive because you can write like anything in there.
But apparently she was pulling the phone out of the wall.
He looked up at her and he was like, like, OK, I'm dead.
Like, that's what you wanted. That was his last words.
Oh my god. You know what? It probably was.
Yeah. Like that would make sense. That'd be savage.
Like you got what you wanted. Yeah. Because he probably knew all along that this was how it was going to end.
I think he probably knew it, but he didn't want to believe it.
Oh, yeah. You never want to, but I'm sure he was like, oh, she's definitely going to be the end of me.
That is for sure. Also, more supporting evidence that she was a crazy bitch in between, like, her... the mistrial and her regular trial, this videotape surfaced of her in prison.
And I don't exactly, it's on American Justice, which is on A&E.
You can find it on YouTube. But this video of her in prison surfaced and it was like...
I don't know if she got into a fight with somebody or what happened, but she was literally like going crazy.
And she had to, like they were dragging her away as she's like kicking and screaming.
And then apparently she was like put in like solitude or whatever, whatever it's called.
Solitary confinement. Yes, thank you. Solitude.
She was put into solitude. And she defecated. and smeared her defecation all over the walls.
Oh, so this bitch is like, she has bought the farm.
Like, she's a cuckoo nut lady. Yeah, she's a cuckoo nut lady.
Like, if you're smearing your shit places, you've lost it.
Yeah. You've crossed over. Like, sayonara, bitch.
I think we have all the information we need just from that.
Yeah. That's Betty Broderick. That is bananas.
It's like my favorite, favorite Lifetime movie in the whole entire world.
Please watch it and tell me what you think, everybody.
That's crazy. Yeah. Betty is something else.
I wonder if everyone else went on the rollercoaster of emotions that I did, being like, oh my god, Dan's the worst, yeah, Betty, like, do the damn thing, light his shit on fire.
And then being like, oh my god. Betty's the worst.
I went on that emotional rollercoaster. Yeah.
It really is the best when she lights his pants on fire.
That's the only thing I stand by her in.
That, I'd be like, okay. Like, I stand behind it, light his pants on fire.
It's a nice little, like... symbolism i like it yeah i like it all especially that is where it ends liar liar pants on fire I mean if she said that like as she was putting the match on there Yeah, if she just flicked the match onto the thing while she said that, I'd be like, chef's kiss.
That would be wonderful. I wish there was a gif of her. her doing it because she literally lights it and goes liar liar pants on fire flicks it onto the thing and like spins around and walks to the front door and he's just standing there like the child molester from seventh heaven on the front lawn like bloop He doesn't know what to do.
Well, that was a good one. Thank you. Good job, Ash-centric episode.
Thank you. And in the meantime, you can go follow us at Instagram.
Or on Instagram at... It's been a long day.
Morbid Podcast. You can send us a tweet.
Amorbid Podcast. You can send us a mail on the Gmail.
At morbidpodcast at gmail.com. You can join the Facebook page. morbid colon a true crime podcast and find our little group on there which I don't know how to find it but find it And you can go check out our website that my lovely co-host so greatly designed at... morbidpodcast.com I wish you could all see the weird like jig that she did to that I did some shoulder shimmy in there.
And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you Keep it weird.
But not so weird. weird that you let your husband's pants on fire and say liar liar pants on fire but then like drive your suv into his home and then like you like kill him and his new wife and then like it just gets really bad and then you fucking put your shit on the walls your literal shit i was so hoping that that was how it was gonna end I was like sending you vibes through the screen being like, end it on that.
Mention the shit. Mention the shit. Go there.
Mention a defecation. oh yeah bye now Thank you.
If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com.
The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery+.
Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondery app.
