It’s time to check in with the Betty Broderick Story. I think she is finally gonna kill Dan and that homewrecker Linda tonight! YAY! But first they need to go to divorce court. Hopefully it will be both of them this time. Not that I think it matters. He always seem to get what he wants. Speaking of which, Betty is getting out of jail for her over the top harassment of the two assholes we saw on the last episode. As she is being discharged she sees a pamphlet from an attorney who is fighting against “legal tyranny.” Sounds like she might actually get some help? Then, a reporter who seems to be sympathetic approaches her for a story and gives her a card.
They Just Keep On Poking The Bear
She gets home to lots of mail including an envelope that is probably from Linda that has a newspaper clipping of her engagement announcement. “Eat your heart out, bitch,” was written in giant red letters across the clipping. Some of Betty’s friends don’t think it fits Linda’s MO. Betty needs better friends. The conversation moves on to what to wear their kids graduation. Betty wonders if Linda is going to show up to her daughter’s graduation. I’d say that is a definite. Later, she is served the court date for her property settlement. She calls the reporter and says she wants to run the story before the court date. I’m not sure that is wise. She should have called that attorney.
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Of course Linda came to Betty’s daughter’s graduation. And of course all Betty could talk about to her kid was Linda. Betty also followed Dan and Linda around the venue taking photos. She was very out in the open about it and it intimidated Linda to the point where she wanted a home security system. Hell, they should have already done that! Her daughter reported all of their conversations to her dad and Linda. Also Betty asked for the wedding…something? I couldn’t figure out what Dan was saying. Whatever it is Linda doesn’t seem to know where it is. Dan just wants to give it to her if they find it.
Betty Makes New Friends
Next, we see Betty at a HALT meeting. HALT is the legal ground to stop legal terror. It looks kind of like an AA meeting so I am less hopeful that they will be much help. Betty gets a chance to address the group and they seem very welcoming to her. So at least she has some support. They seem like the new friends I was hoping she would find.
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Betty goes off the to the property hearing where she is stupidly acting as her own attorney. The press was in the courtroom. So, Dan asked to have the meeting closed to the public. The judge himself strong armed Betty into agreeing. So clearly, he is on the payroll. She doesn’t even have an opening statement. Of course, Dan says that Betty didn’t support him at all through his college years or at the beginning of his practice. He painted her as a greedy wife who was only interested in shopping and who was never satisfied. Betty’s pro se performance makes it very clear she was never a trial watcher. The judge makes it clear he is in Dan’s pocket. Betty did well with her closing statement. But it is not going to matter.
Dan Continues To Call All The Shots
The reporter never published the story that Betty gave him because Dan threatened to sue him for invasion of privacy. The writer backed down even though Dan would not have had a case. He probably would have kept him tangled up in legal proceeding forever. Betty got a job as a teaching assistant at a preschool. But when she tells one of her “friends” you can tell that isn’t going to happen either. Ah, the friend says that her lawyer told her that the reason the divorce hearing was closed was because Betty is a child molester. Betty would probably have never killed anyone if she had just made the decision to make the hearing public so that reporters could have witnessed the obvious bias. Betty’s own mother refuses to come support her.
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WHAT! The judge rules that Betty owes Dan, $787,062?!?!?? He deducts that from the ridiculously low-balled estimate of his company. This leaves Betty with a one time payment of $28,606.02. My blood is boiling. I’m amazed she didn’t just kill him, his lawyer and the judge right there in the courtroom. He got sole custody. She got every other weekend and holiday. She gets $16,000 a month in spousal support until remarriage OF EITHER PARTY. There is absolutely no one with her in the courtroom. No one.
Betty Broderick Reaches Her Breaking Point
Oh it was the wedding china that Betty wanted. One of her “friends” asks Linda about it while out at some event with the enemy probably to celebrate the divorce being final. She says she is not going to give it back. She says maybe she will break it. Meanwhile Betty buys a gun and some ammo. Only two more episodes left. I hope she kills them early in the next scene so we have more time for the trial.
That Dan is really horrible. He takes no responsibility. And Betty had beautiful clothes but she was rail thin in this. Why do they keep showing her eating?
I think they keep showing her eating because she’s going to look heavier in the next coming episodes. I know they were horrible to her and would send weight loss ads and called her “The Beast.” I can only imagine that’s why they keep showing her shoving food in her face. Ugh this makes my blood boil too!
Ok that makes sense. What a terrible thing to do to someone. She was being tortured.
I couldn’t even read to the end of this recap.
Thank God I wasn’t pushed to this extreme! But I was hurt and angry beyond belief and did crazy shit things that were wrong. But kinda funny now that I think about it. I had an office of girl’s who where behind me…Now that I think about it, um, I’m glad I did finally figure things out, took me years.
Hope he’s happy. Know he’s not, we do share a daughter….sad really, I did love him.
I remember the case very well because my aunt lived next door to Betty Broderick in LA Hoya way back then. Now we days she probably would have gotten out of jail in 2 years. I think this is a case where although she is a murderess and she did do wrong she was pushed quite a bit. Her contributions to her marriage will completely overlook, And her case occurred for women really got to use and abuse situation in their defense. Same thing with Jean Harris, Another woman who will probably lot in jail when she would on her release do no harm whatsoever. These were post crimes of Passion and crimes involving men who were abusive and used these women until they didn’t want them anymore and felt they could easily be replaced.
Wait. So when Dan gets remarried he gets to stop paying her?! I thought I heard that but I thought I was misunderstanding. This show, the entire situation is so infuriating. He takes way too much joy in torturing her.
That’s a misunderstanding. It only stops if Betty remarries. It’s in the family code.
I would have baked Dan a lovely iced gingerbread with the added addition of llaburmum.
Disclaimer – I am not advising that this is a sure-fire why to commit murder however if you get the correct dosage, Dan The Man autopsy would have been heart attack.
No – I will not be posting the recipe so please do not ask.- Hypothetically if Italian linen sheets came into the equation then who knows.
furiously searching internet for fine Italian linen sheets…..:-)
Step One. Mortgage your house.
Step Two Increase your credit card limit.
Step Three Go here. http://www.linoto.com/
I wish my dog didn’t destroy my sheets or I would so find a way to get those
:=)
Thanks for the tips
PS. The spelling error is deliberate just to cover my own back.- Maybe I am being a tad to Irish and should have kept that quiet. Feck It.
I hated Dan Broderick when this happened. I hate him even more now. Those two accounts he cleaned out? That money was half hers. Not to mention half of everything else — community property state. Fucking president of the bar. His ego knew no bounds.
And the file that “disappeared”. She couldn’t catch a break. At least she got to see his previously smug face right before she shot him. He and Linda were despicable people. If anyone ever needed killin’…
I can not remember a show/movie ever giving me this much anxiety.
I cant imagine living it. I would have snapped a lot earlier than Betty did. Bless it!
I actually stopped watching 2 episodes ago and I am happy that TT is re-capping this show.
Dan the Man has been dead for many years and I want to go and dig the B*stard up so I can kick the shit out of him…so best that I stopped watching….Christian Slater who I adored in True Romance gave me to much anxiety.
Poor Betty regardless of her faults of which there are many perhaps due to medical reasons – untreated postpartum psychosis- depression – menopause and depression- no-one deserves to be treated that way.
I still believe Dan played Betty & Linda against each.
Linda was also at fault – did she deserve to die – No
I wonder if this show will make a difference and they give her an earlier parole date as i doubt she will make it to 2032 and that is so heartbreaking.
I feel as if she is staying in prison so she can blame a dead man for continuing to feck up her life as she still refuses to take any responsibility.
Does she have a prison counselor.?
Betty why the feck are you still in prison?
It seems as though Betty is one of those persons for whom the principle of the matter is what counts. She NEEDED to have her contributions to the family and Dan’s success acknowledged. The world was being told she was just useless dead weight all of those years and it drove her bonkers. She was her own worst enemy and could not stop herself from calling and stalking and hurling abuse.
Her devout Catholicism played a huge role at first. She thought if she refused to acknowledge and agree to it, the sale of the house and the divorce could not go through.
Then she was unable to get proper legal counsel because of Dan’s position as President of the Bar Association. No other attorneys wanted to take him on out of fear for their careers? Dan made sure she had no funds to pay anyone. She thought just explaining to the judge how their lives were and how she was wronged would work to get her what she deserved.
All this, but. I wonder if she had also had difficulty getting legal representation because she was a difficult client. That female lawyer she had seemed like she was really going to help Betty but Betty sabatoged the custody psych eval by saying she wanted to kill Dan. She refused to sell the property so that the lawyer could get paid and she went chewed the lawyer out for talking to Dan without her approval. Betty was a difficult person to deal with. Lawyers arent Judges. They have need some cooperation from clients to build their case. Umm….Betty reminds me alot of Sheree Whitfield when she was divorcing Bob.
Oh, Betty. I remember this case so well, being in So Cal. At first it seemed like Dan and Betty were just two jerky people whose jerkiness got out of control one night, leading to a crime-of-passion tragedy. But then I remember reading the LA Times Magazine article about them, and Dan really was diabolical in his treatment of Betty. He just railroaded her in every way possible, and tormented and humiliated her. If he had a brain in his head, he would’ve treated her decently and split everything down the middle. He and Linda would be alive today. His actions got Linda killed, too, and upended the lives of his children. Dan deserved what he got.
This wasn’t a crime of passion. What surprises me is that she was convicted on second degree murder when all signs pointed to first degree murder. So at least she caught a break somewhere.
I would never advocate murder but this sure makes you understand it. I wonder if she has contact with her kids today
She is close with all of her children still. They visit her often with her grandchildren
From what I understand its possible Betty wouldve been granted parole by now but she refuses to say she is remorseful for the murders. 2 of her children support her and 2 don’t. One daughter was open to having Betty live with her but one of the sons said she should stay in prison because she is a threat to people. I could absolutely see Betty shooting herself in the foot by not saying she regretted her actions.
Yes, I also feel that Betty is shooting herself in the foot which is another reason I stopped watching as I want to shake her….
The Broderick divorce makes for a great movie but I hate that its a true story and real peoples lives were tied up into it. Dan was an asshole. I even loathe the actress and actors that plays Dan and Linda. They are too good at it. I wonder what was the relationship with Betty and her family? Why did the parents say they didnt want to be a part of it? Bettys mother didnt like Dan and didnt want her to marry him so I wonder what their relationship was like. I too thought the paper clipping that said “eat your heartout bitch” was from Linda but,after they said that wasnt her style I wonder who could have sent it. Some of Betty friends seem like frenemies and possibly mean girls. This was California the land of fakeness and jealousy. Maybe they sent it? Or possibly Lindas friends or sisters? Lindas sister still post online tributes about “who is gonna remeber Linda? ” I can only imagine the hate being directed at those Linda Kolkena tributes right now. I had read that at first Dan wouldn’t leave Betty so Linda started dating someone else to make Dan jealous. Linda also was fired from her airlines stewardess job for sexually inappropriate behavior. Whew, she was a tramp and it ran deep. Yes I am slut shaming Linda.I also doubt this was Dans first affair on Betty, though.
It seemed to be implied that it was DAN that sent the clipping. Not Linda. In a later scene where Dan and Linda where interrogating the graduating daughter, he kept asking her if she said anything about the wedding. He seemed frustrated she had not. I think that is why another one was sent later without the nasty words. He was trying to be sure she read the announcement.
Hey! I don’t know who sent the clipping, but in a flashback is shows Betty opening the envelope and there if has no writing in red on the clipping, but there is clearly a red marker/pen near Betty. She did it herself, I think they are showing her mental and emotional deterioration
That is true. The movie did hint at that.
Love your site TT I’ve been a long time reader but always afraid to comment lol. I can’t wait for the episode she kills both of them. I just can’t get over this episode she tried so had but its obvious they were in Dans pocket. I hate all of them she should have killed that judge and lawyer too.
In what will go down as one of the most memorable years of all our lives – this show will definitely remembered for all its greatness!!!!
I’m hopeful that I will have a How Stella Got Her Groove back year with some young foreign hottie who mistakenly thinks I have a lot of money.
Then you can go on 90 Day Financee. That would be a hoot.
Not while we are going Mad in Morocco I hope, Fully up for ” How Stella Got Her Groove back and it would be great to see a 90 Day Fiancee from Spain or France…I am liking Oopsey’s thought process.
You could then dish the dirt on the other couples due to inside information!!
Betty was crazy. Even her real life friends confirmed this. She loved her life and Dan’s money. I don’t blame him for leaving her. She murdered two people. Hope she is in prison for life.
#FREEBETTYBRODERICK
Christian Slater’s character reminds me of Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny
Dan was a master gas-lighter. Free Betty!