"The f----r is dead. My God, he's dead, he's cold to the wind and he still has power," she complained.. Betty talking about her dead hubby
"I was so entirely invested in my family that when I lost husband, home, and children, there was literally nothing left! Of course, in hindsight, I wouldn't have known how to be anything other than 100% invested in my family. I never made time for me, or did anything on my own. I lost me - but I'm back!"
Dan and Betty, ready for the annual Blackstone Ball
The Christmas Ring
Dan Broderick: I know this isn't the exact ring you asked for, but I liked this one much better.
Betty Broderick: [surprised] You liked it better?
Dan Broderick: Yes. I thought it'd be more of a surprise.
Betty Broderick: [calmly] Yes, you liked it better. And that's what counts, that's what it's all about. You make the money, you spend it on whatever you want.
Dan Broderick: Geez, Bets, it isn't like it cost any less.
Betty Broderick: [becoming ballistic] Exactly! So, why not get me what I *really* want? *You* certainly got what *you* wanted, even though you had to spend an extra 7 grand to get it when you wanted it!
Dan Broderick: [smirking] It's Christmas. If your Mother wants to behave like a spoiled brat, let's let her.
Betty Broderick: What kind of husband gets his wife something she *doesn't* really want?
Dan Broderick: [calmly, while clutching Betty's hand as she holds the ring box] It's a beautiful ring.
Betty Broderick: [screams] *But it's not what I asked for!*! So that makes it a piece of crap!
Meredith Baxter as Betty
Betty tells what she did right before the murders:
Betty said she couldn't sleep thinking about how mean they were to her, so she got dressed, got in her car and started driving.
"When I left my house, I didn't know where I was going," she said. "Sometimes I would go down to the 7-Eleven at La Jolla Shores
(now a Kwik E Mart)
and get a half chocolate-half coffee
and go down and walk on the beach.Betty's beach
I thought maybe I would do that. But then I didn't. I went to his house."
Dan and Linda lived in Marston Hills,
not far from downtown San Diego, and, on that Sunday morning, their house was locked up tight. But Betty went around to the back door, and it was unlocked.
Betty climbed the stairs to the bedroom.
"It was dark in there," she said, although she remembers the sun was up. "Looking back, either I was kooked, or they must have had the drapes closed."
She said she started firing her .38-caliber, five-shot revolver, but she wasn't sure if she'd hit anyone.
"It was such a panicked thing. It was never a thing where I even aimed. I pulled (the trigger) real fast--no hesitation at all," she said
Highlights from the Oprah Show
In 1992, Oprah interviewed convicted murderer Betty Broderick, mother of four, who killed her ex-husband, Dan, and his new wife Linda while they were sleeping.
the real bedroom where Betty shot Dan and Linda
Oprah: I know I often say this on the show, there are no Cleavers, but you married, and for a while, certainly did appear to have the Beaver Cleaver family.
Betty before Dan's cheating
Betty Broderick: I thought we did have the perfect marriage. I took those marriage vows, and I believe he did at the time too, believing that we'd be together, and we'd get through everything. We'd build a life for ourselves and our children.
Dan & Betty's wedding day
Oprah: Was it difficult being supermom? Did you feel you weren't getting enough from your husband?
B.B.: Being a supermom was the only thing I ever wanted to be in life. We had very strict gender lines in our marriage. Dan went out and slew the dragons
and provided for us, and I was home with the children and supported my husband emotionally through the good times and the bad.
Oprah: When did it start to go wrong, Betty?
B.B.: We were very poor in the beginning, and we accumulated tremendous debt. I worked as hard as I could day and night while having my own children. I could not pay for Harvard Law School
and our living expenses. When he got hired by a wonderful law firm for five years, when he first got out of law school, half of those paychecks went every month to
Oprah: To pay back the loans.
B.B.: And now he decides to go out on his own, but we had no income if he quit that law firm. So, once again, we lived entirely on loans until he started realizing some income from his own law practice which takes approximately three years.
Oprah: But you all were living OK. You were living pretty well and had a nice house. The kids are taking piano lessons and soccer and having activities, and so you were doing fine.
Betty's friend, who thought Betty was funnier than any two comedians she could name
B.B.: In the later years, yes, and when the children grew up, we were doing fine, fine by a middle-class standard—which was wonderful and was very happy and the kids were healthy and articulate.
Oprah: When did you sense that it wasn't enough?
B.B.: In 1983, I noticed Dan at a party talking about some girl that he thought was really beautiful. That summer when I took the children camping, I couldn't reach him by phone the whole time. I knew I had a major problem on my hands, and it was Linda Kolkena.
Dan and Linda
Oprah: Did you ask him if he was having an affair?
B.B.: Yes. Totally denied it, and said I was imagining things. I was crazy, and that Linda was a sweet, innocent, young girl and there was absolutely nothing going on, never was and oh, by the way, 'you're fat, old, boring, ugly and stupid' just started coming on the scene then.
Oprah: He said those words to you?
B.B.: Yes it was—to me, it was absolutely a mid-life crisis.
Dan and Linda
Oprah: You did some things that exhibited your frustration, going to your ex-husband's house with the pies, and smearing his closet with the pies. Is that true?
B.B.: I didn't bring a cake there. Linda made a cake.
Oprah: But you smeared the cake all over his clothes?
B.B.: I smeared it on his bed and it was a little eight-inch cake. That's true, I did.
Oprah: You did try to drive the car through the door, did you not?
B.B.: I did purposely and you know. I did drive my car into his door. ... I banged my car into his door the day he sold the family home, the only home we've ever owned that had my name on it and his name on it.
Dan's new Marston Hills home in San Diego where he lived with Linda. Betty drove her Suburban through the front window when Dan refused to talk to her
Oprah: From everything I've heard and read, they felt abused.There was a point where Linda had even asked Dan to wear a bulletproof vest on the day of their wedding and they hired guards. They feared you physically. You just feared them intervening in your life?
B.B.: Intervening in what life? Dan and Linda controlled every cent of the money.
Oprah: So, you went to the house that morning to do what?
B.B.: To talk to Dan. They were threatening to take me to court, threatening to throw me in jail, threatening to keep me from talking to my sons and—
Oprah: Why did you carry the gun if you only wanted to talk?
B.B.: I didn't exactly carry the gun. I did consciously bring it as a way to make Dan and Linda listen to me.
Oprah: Oh, I understand what you're saying, but, Betty, two people are dead.
B.B.: Because every time I went to his house to talk to him, he had me cornered. If he saw me coming, he'd call the police and have me arrested.
Oprah: So you walked into the room and did what? You said, 'I want to talk?'
B.B.: I didn't even have a chance to say that. As I opened the door and entered the room, Linda said, 'Call the police.' Dan went for the phone, and I screamed, 'No,' and the gun went off, and that's as fast as it happened. They never saw the gun. Linda saw me. I didn't see them at all. I just saw movement.
Oprah: The gun went off for five shots?
B.B.: In less than half a second. It was a panic reaction and I had no idea that I hit anyone. ... I grabbed the phone and ran out of the house. I thought he was after me. I was hiding from him.
Betty right after the murders, in court
Betty being led away after the verdict was read (32 years to life), 1992. Her first chance for parole is in 3 years from now
In 2001, nine years after this interview, Betty wrote this note to Oprah:
"I'm so proud of myself, the children, the lives we lead, and the values we keep. My children are still my whole world and they always will be. I even have a beautiful grandbaby born on my birthday. Life is good."
— Betty Broderick
