A car through a front door, suits set on fire, and the wildest self-defense claim
San Diego had ever seen. Betty Broderick’s true story is crazier than any made-for-TV movie.
Betty Broderick was thrust into the spotlight in 1989 when she
committed the harrowing double murder of her ex-husband Daniel Broderick and his new wife,
Linda Kolkena. But at one time, the Brodericks were just a normal couple.
Betty and Daniel married in 1969, but their relationship quickly started to fray. Speaking
to the Los Angeles Times, Betty alleged that Dan stopped putting effort in before their
honeymoon was even over. When she got home, Betty was forced by her mother to move all of
her belongings into Dan's tiny Cornell dorm room. Betty soon threatened to leave Dan,
but she put that idea to rest when she found out she was pregnant.
Betty tried to hide her pregnancy and worked as a third grade teacher until the day she gave
birth. Not long after daughter Kim was born, Dan got into Harvard Law
School and the couple moved to Massachusetts. Betty felt isolated, and decided she wanted a
divorce. However, she once again found herself pregnant and chose to stay.
In an account of her marriage obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Betty wrote,
"I went from being accomplished, well connected and free to being isolated from
family and friends… and trapped with two children for whom I was 100% responsible."
Within their community of La Jolla, Daniel was somewhat of a local celebrity. Per the Los
Angeles Times, the malpractice attorney, who had degrees from Harvard Law School
and Cornell School of Medicine, made $1 million a year at the height of his career. Meanwhile,
his wife Betty cared for their four children, who went to prestigious private schools, and she also
planned the family's extensive list of activities. The couple held two country club memberships, and
they were also members at a private resort that served as a hotspot for San Diego's upper crust.
The Brodericks' lifestyle was no accident. When they met,
Betty and Dan shared the same vision for the future, which included money,
status, and children. Describing her former husband, Betty told the Los Angeles Times,
"He was very ambitious, very intelligent and very funny. And I am those three
things. We were from the same kind of background. [...] He promised me the moon."
​​"We had a lot in common. We had common goals. I wanted a large
Catholic family and he wanted to be very successful."
Betty Broderick's marriage further unraveled after Dan Broderick hired a new legal assistant,
a 22-year-old former flight attendant named Linda Kolkena. Per the Los Angeles Times,
Betty quickly became fixated on a possible affair,
which she later chalked up to a midlife crisis when Dan purchased a stereotypical sports car.
Fearing the worst, Betty asked her husband to fire Linda, but he refused, denying the alleged
affair. However, things became harder to ignore when Betty tried to surprise Dan at work for his
39th birthday. The receptionist revealed that both Dan and Linda had been gone for most of the day,
and the remnants of a party suggested a celebration had already taken place.
Angered by what she'd seen, Betty threw Dan's bespoke outfits out into the yard
and set them on fire in front of their children. In fact, Betty was reportedly plagued with anger
issues throughout her marriage, and once allegedly threw a stereo at her husband.
"I had no control over any aspect of anything. I was completely at Mr. Broderick's mercy."
Betty Broderick's divorce didn't come as much of a shock to anyone, especially as she'd
threatened to leave so often. The couple's daughter, Kim, told the Los Angeles Times,
"I was dying for dad to divorce her. I'd say to dad, 'Just take me the day you leave.'"
Dan eventually filed for divorce a few months after Betty reportedly smashed
the mirrors and graffitied the walls of their Coral Reef home. The divorce battle,
which went on for five years and saw Betty cycle through five different lawyers,
quickly devolved into what's now known as the most acrimonious divorce in their county.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Betty wouldn't sign over her half of
their Coral Reef home, even though Dan had already bought her a different $650,000
property. He eventually went in front of a judge, who signed over Betty's portion.
When their former home was finally sold, Betty was reportedly so upset
that she rammed her car into the front door of her ex-husband's new house.
According to court documents, Dan claimed that Betty grabbed a butcher knife that was
hidden under the front seat of her car. As a result, she was briefly held in the
San Diego County Mental Health Hospital. Betty later told the Los Angeles Times,
"I have never had emotional disturbance or mental illness — except when he provoked a
'disturbance.' [...] My 'emotional outbursts' were only a response to Dan's calculating, hateful way
of dealing with our divorce. He was hammering into me and everyone else that I was crazy."
"A lot of this was my fault because I was old and fat and ugly and boring and stupid."
Dan also filed a restraining order against his ex,
which she allegedly broke on multiple occasions. Once the divorce was finalized,
Dan quickly remarried, tying the knot with his assistant Linda Kolkena in 1989.
After the divorce, Betty Broderick was receiving $9,036 a month in spousal support. Despite this,
she still continued to harass her ex, the Los Angeles Times reported. As a result,
Dan reportedly took matters into his own hands and decided to penalize Betty by
fining her for each alleged infraction.
Per the Los Angeles Times, Dan would dock Betty's spousal support by $100
every time she used an obscene word. She'd lose $250 each time she trespassed on the property,
and $500 each time she entered his home. The biggest infraction was taking their children
without notifying him beforehand, and for this, Dan reportedly docked Betty's support check
by $1,000. She claimed that one month, she had racked up so many fines that she owed Dan money.
"In November '86, my monthly check said that I owed him $1300, because he had fined me."
As it turns out, Dan's system isn't actually legal, and a judge soon upped
Betty's spousal support payments, first to $12,500 a month, then to $16,100 a month.
Betty Broderick had threatened her ex-husband's life numerous times,
and Dan's new wife Linda suspected Betty was serious about it. As a result, Linda and Dan
employed a security team when they got married. However, Dan seemingly didn't expect Betty to ever
follow through on her threats, and he refused Linda's suggestion to wear a bulletproof vest.
In November 1989, Betty reached breaking point on a Friday after receiving more legal papers.
For Betty, the non-stop legal battles felt like torture, and she just wanted it to stop.
So before the sun rose on Sunday, she took her daughter's house key,
and drove to Dan's home in La Jolla Shores. After creeping into Dan and Linda's bedroom,
Betty shot the sleeping pair with a .38-caliber revolver. Linda was shot in the neck and chest,
and died instantly. Dan died shortly after a bullet fractured his rib and punctured his lung.
Fearing he'd call the police, Betty disabled the phone before fleeing the scene.
"I just couldn't, couldn’t stand it another minute."
Betty Broderick's first trial ended in a hung jury, but she was ultimately
convicted of two second-degree murders and sentenced to 32-years-to-life in prison.
As reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune,
Betty claimed that she never intended to kill her ex-husband or his new wife. According to Betty,
she was acting in self-defense in an attempt to end the psychological attacks
Dan allegedly orchestrated against her. As she told the Los Angeles Times in 1990,
"My lawyers hate it, because there's no law that says I can defend myself against his
type of onslaught. [...] He was killing me — he and she were still doing it — in secret."
During her initial parole hearing, the consensus was that Betty Broderick showed
little remorse. Per NBC News, the Board of Prison
Terms Commissioner Robert Doyle delivered the decision, telling the mother of four,
"Your heart is still bitter, and you are still angry. You show no significant progress in
evolving. You are still back 20 years ago in that same mode. You've got to move on."
In 2017, Betty was denied parole a second time. Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs
told News 10 San Diego that the mother of four still seemingly blamed her victims:
"She was unrepentant, unremorseful, and callous."
"Banging her fist calling him an SOB… apologizing to his friends,
and saying 'I'm sorry you lost your drinking buddy.'"
Betty will next be up for parole in January 2032, though that date could change.
The Broderick siblings don't seem to share a consensus on their mother's crimes.
Both Rhett and Lee Broderick have advocated for their mother's release,
while Kim and Daniel Broderick Jr. have helped keep their mother behind
bars. Their division was never more apparent than during Betty's parole hearing in 2010.
Kim refused to write a letter supporting her mother's release,
while Daniel Jr. told the court that his mother continued to defend her actions,
so it would be a mistake to release her. Conversely, Lee pushed the courts to free
her mother, and she even committed to housing the felon upon her release.
However, it would seem that Betty might blame some of her kids for her incarceration.
Testimony from the trial revealed that Betty had a rocky relationship with her eldest daughter. Betty
allegedly asked for Kim's loyalty on multiple occasions, both before and after the killings,
ultimately believing that her daughter betrayed her. In 1992, Betty's daughter Kim told People,
"​​When she gets upset, she has said, 'If it weren't for you,
I wouldn't be here.' [...] But I think she's handling it better now."
As reported by The Los Angeles Times,
Kim claimed her mom would regularly cut her down, and would tell her,
"You are a traitor. You make me sick. The sight of
you makes me want to throw up. I wish you were never born."
While her relationship with Kim may have been rocky, Betty reportedly felt much closer to
her youngest daughter, Lee. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Lee was actually removed from Dan
Broderick's will prior to his death, when the relationship between them broke down.
Instead, his estate was divided between the other three offspring.
Regardless of their differing opinions, Betty told the San Diego Reader that all
of her children have visited her in prison, where she currently remains.