Inside Betty Broderick’s Life After Killing Her Ex-Husband and His New Wife

The woman has spent more than 30 years behind bars after confessing to murdering her ex-husband and his wife. While she detailed her story in a memoir and even had it televised, she still continues to appeal her conviction.

It's been more than three decades since Betty Broderick decided to walk into her ex-husband Dan Broderick's bedroom and open fire on him and his new wife, just mere months after the couple tied the knot.

Before the shocking double homicide, Betty lived a seemingly perfect life with Dan. The pair had first met while Betty was on a trip to Indiana to watch a football game at the University of Notre Dame. They met at a party, where Dan introduced himself to her.

At the time, she was 17, while he was in his early 20s, preparing to enroll at Cornell University. When Dan eventually moved to New York to begin his studies, the two reconnected and began dating shortly thereafter.

"He was very ambitious, very intelligent and very funny. And I am those three things. We were from the same kind of background. We both wanted the same things in the future," Betty told the Los Angeles Times in 1990.

"All I wanted to be was a mommy. He promised me the moon. The guy asked me to marry him every day for three years," she said. After graduating from Mount Saint Vincent, Betty got a job as a teacher.

She and Dan eventually married and began having children. However, their relationship grew strained and deteriorated further when they relocated to Somerville, Massachusetts, while she was pregnant with their second child.

When she became pregnant a third time, their baby died shortly after birth. After Dan eventually graduated from Harvard, the family moved again to San Diego, where he got a job at a law firm. The income eased their financial burdens, and Dan soon started his own practice.

The couple also became ingrained in the city's social scene, and things seemed picture-perfect on the outside. Betty claimed, however, that Dan wasn't an active parent. Even when she got a job as a real estate agent, he allegedly refused to help out with the kids.

Amid their marital struggles, Dan met Linda Kolkena, whom he hired as his legal assistant at his firm. Betty had known about Linda, and had long harbored suspicions about the nature of their relationship. However, Dan reportedly always denied being unfaithful.

Still, it is understood that he and Linda had an affair. In 1985, he and Betty separated, but things only escalated from there. That June, after he had moved out, Betty allegedly entered the family home, trashed the bedroom by shattering its windows, and spray-painted the walls, curtains, and fireplace.

Meanwhile, Dan took over care of their four children as Betty began dropping them off with all their belongings at his new residence. What followed was a tumultuous divorce, where Betty continually lost court battles and lashed out in frustration.

In early 1989, the divorce was finalized and Betty lost custody of her children. Still, she was set to receive $16,000 in spousal support and a $28,000 cash award. Months later, in April 1989, Dan married Linda.

Then, in November, Betty received two letters from Dan's legal team where they expressed concerns regarding her custody proposal and threatened legal action. Those letters reportedly sent her over the edge and she began contemplating suicide.

But instead of ending her own life, she decided to go straight to Dan and Linda’s house. She managed to enter the home using a key she had obtained from her daughter, headed straight for their bedroom, and opened fire.

Both Dan and Linda died. Betty then contacted one of her daughters to tell her what had happened, and handed herself to the police. She was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive terms of 15 years.

She was also sentenced to two years for illegal use of a firearm. Betty has since been in prison at the California Institute for Women and has been up for parole several times but has been denied on every occasion. She will be up again for parole in 2032, when she will be 84 years old.