Latest / True Crime California / TCC #28: Betty Broderick

Transcript

TCC #28: Betty Broderick · True Crime California

0:04
Speaker 1: Dark Cast Network. Out of the shadows come the best
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indie podcasts. Hello. Hello, I'm Courtney and this is The
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Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast based out
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of New Jersey. For those looking for a podcast that
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focuses on the victims and who they were, or cases
0:30
where the family is directly involved in the telling of
0:32
their loved one stories. Each chapter of this podcast is
0:37
dedicated to the victim the feature. Here you can find
0:41
cases you may have never heard of, or interviews with
0:45
experts that have dedicated their lives to protect and serve,
0:49
and occasionally hear from the victim themselves. So get comfortable,
0:54
grab a drink, and settle in for another chapter of
0:58
the Book of the Dead.
1:10
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to True Crime California. I'm your host, Cindy,
1:15
and I'm glad you're here. Hey everybody, Wow, it is
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that five months since I've recorded. That is crazy.
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Speaker 3: It's just been crazy. Too much work.
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Speaker 2: My boss was on maternity leave for a really long time,
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which is awesome for her, Like everybody should get a
1:41
whole year off, I think obviously I would think something
1:45
like that. So while I fully support it, it made
1:47
my life really hard in terms of having extra time.
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Speaker 3: For things like recording my podcast.
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Speaker 2: But she's back now, and I've just decided that I'm
1:55
gonna have to find the time, no matter what that means,
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missing other things, reprioritizing.
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Speaker 3: That's what it's going to.
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Speaker 2: Have to be, because I'm sick of not recording, and
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I've had enough people reach out and ask me if
2:07
I'm going to make more episodes that I feel like
2:09
this is something that people actually enjoy listening to, which
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is insanely flattering and super super cool, and yes, I
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am going to record, and I'm recording right now. So
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here we go. I'm actually going to do a case
2:23
that I started researching I think back in like December,
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and I just never finished it because I just kind
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of ran out of time do this stuff. But what's
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really interesting is that there's been an update in the
2:35
case since I started my research, and so it's kind
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of cool. I get to sort of like close the
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loop on the case a little bit more than I
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would have had I actually recorded this when I intended to,
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So you know, there's our silver lining for me being
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gone for so long. Did I say this is true
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crime California, I'm Cindy, this is true crime, California. The
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world is on fire. Everything sucks, but at least I'm
3:00
finding time to do this.
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Speaker 3: So there you go.
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Speaker 2: I'm actually going to cover the case of Betty Broadick.
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This is a very well known case in California. If
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you're like a big true crime person. If you're not,
3:13
you probably still heard of it. It's one of those
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ones that kind of everybody knows about. And there were
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a lot of like social implications to this case. It
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became famous for, in my opinion, kind of the wrong reasons.
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And I think it's a big part of why it's
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so famous is because of the way that Brett Betty
3:32
was seen after everything that happens happened, And obviously I'm
3:37
going to tell you about that, but I did want
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to just call out that I think the reason that
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this is such a popular case and so well known
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is because it was kind of a sign of the times.
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I don't know, it was just kind of like Betty
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became every scorned wife kind of thing. And I know
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I'm jumping the shark a little bit by saying that,
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but again, it's a pretty popular case, so most people
3:59
kind of already know that story is going and if
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you don't. I spoiled it a little, But what's wrong
4:03
with a little spoiler. I love being spoiled. I love
4:06
knowing the end before it comes. So if you're like me,
4:08
you're welcome. If you're not, I apologize. Still a really
4:11
good story, So stick in here with me, and I'm
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going to just jump into it right now. Okay, let's see.
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Betty Broderick was born Elizabeth Ann Bisselia in Bronxville, New York,
4:24
in nineteen forty seven. Now, real quick, Bronxville is not
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the Bronx It's not in Manhattan. It's about, I think,
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like fifteen miles north of what we all think of
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when we think of like New York. There's you New
4:37
York State and New York City. Most people when they
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think of New York, they think of the city. This
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is upstate, just a touch in the state of New York.
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And in fact, Bronxville is officially considered a village, as
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it's only about one square mile and less than has
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less than ten thousand residents. Even now, can you guys
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tell I'm rusty at recording?
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Speaker 3: I sure can't.
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Speaker 2: So anyway, it's a tiny, quiet town despite its proximity
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to the big city, and I might be wrong that
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it's only fifteen miles. I'm actually taking that guest in it.
5:09
I could have looked it up, but I'm actually just
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taking it from like what I remember when I drove
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from Manhattan up into upstate New York, and I remember
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passing Bronxville like pretty quickly and being like, wow, this
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is actually very close to the main city. Or I mean,
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Manhattan's so big though that like, even when you're still
5:27
in Manhattan, when you're way way way up, it doesn't
5:30
feel like you're in the city anymore. Anyway, I digress.
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It doesn't matter. People who are from New York are
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probably like, yep, I know what you mean, and everybody
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else is like, why are you're still talking about this?
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Speaker 3: So anyway.
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Speaker 2: She was born and raised in a tiny, quiet town,
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a village in fact, very near New York City, but
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definitely not in New York City by any stretch. Betty
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was the third of six kids born to an Irish
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American mother and an Italian American father, which is funny
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because my family is Italian and Irish. We have a
6:00
good amount of German though, But I remember when I
6:02
read that it like resonated with me. Like her last
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name Bisalia, it's bs ce g Lia. My mom's last
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name was Stromalia, so the glia is like very very Italian.
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I recognized it right away. Anyway, Her family was very strict,
6:20
very traditional. Her mother didn't work, She stayed home to
6:23
raise the children, and her father, Frank, ran a plastering
6:26
business with their extended family. Now. Betty later recalled that
6:30
she was raised to be a housewife. Quote from the
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day I was born.
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Speaker 3: The family is.
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Speaker 2: Pretty wealthy, and Betty was treated like a little princess
6:37
and was for want for nothing, but also expected to
6:40
focus on being a little lady, making herself attractive to men,
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not focusing on a career. It was all about growing
6:47
up finding a man to take care of you. So,
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you know, it's one of those things like she didn't
6:52
mind her upbringing when it suited her, but when she
6:55
could use it as an excuse to make her look
6:57
like a victim, she certainly did so. And you'll kind
7:00
of see this coming out. So like when she was younger,
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she probably loved having, you know, being daddy's little girl
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and having everything she wanted, having money, not being expected
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to work. Like, yeah, she was going to go to college,
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but I think it was basically to find a man.
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But then later on she used it as a like
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as if she's like super oppressed by her parents. Right now.
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Betty attended Catholic high school but ultimately graduated from a
7:23
public school, then went to a Catholic all women's college
7:26
in the area. I think going to college again, like
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I said, was about meeting a man as much as
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it was about getting an education, at least in Betty's mind,
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and it definitely worked out that way for her because
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while in college, Betty and a friend either went to
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see a football game. I think they went to see
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a football game and visit a friend at Notre Dame
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College in Indiana, And I've seen both stories, but I
7:48
think I remember in an interview with her where she
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kind of said it was both and it doesn't really matter.
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What does matter is that while she was there, she
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met a student named Dan Broderick. Dan Broderick, like Betty,
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was raised in a strict Catholic household, but unlike Betty,
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came from a much more working class background. When they met,
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Dan was a senior in college, three years older than
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Betty and was about to head to Cornell for medical school,
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which meant he had big plans for himself, which I'm
8:15
sure Betty took note of. Now that being said, when
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she first met him, she said she wasn't very impressed
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and talked about how skinny he was and how his
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glasses made him look like a dork, saying his vibe.
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Speaker 3: Was quote geek City.
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Speaker 2: But I do think in the back of her mind
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she was thinking medical school. And I just have that feeling,
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and I think as we get to know her a
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little bit more, you will come to agree with that.
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With that feeling of mine, I also want to call
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out that whatever Betty said to make it sound like
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she wasn't interested, Dan was a really good looking man,
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and like even in high school or not high school
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but college with his big dorky glasses, like he was
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like Clark Kent. Okay, like he he you know, it's
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like a movie star where they try to make him
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look dorky by putting glasses on him and then they
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take him off and that's all it takes for there
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to be this great transformation. Yeah, that's Dan Broderick. Anyway,
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they met and like I said, Betty wasn't impressed. But
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Dan sure was now. For as handsome as Dan was,
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Betty was also very beautiful.
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Speaker 3: She was tall, she was.
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Speaker 2: Blonde, she had a great smile, and Dan fell hard. Now.
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After Betty went back to her home in her college,
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Dan wrote her letters multiple times a week and basically
9:20
just pursued her until she could no longer resist him. Finally,
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after several months, the two began dating, and after just
9:27
a few years, they were married in a small ceremony
9:30
in New York in nineteen sixty nine. And when they
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returned from their honeymoon, Betty was already pregnant with their
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first daughter, Kim. So you know whether or not her
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assertion that she was basically trained to be a housewife
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is true. It certainly worked out that way for her,
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and pretty darn quickly. Now that being said, it definitely
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wasn't all fun and games for Betty, and her lifestyle
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had to change quite a bit in the beginning of
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their marriage. I said, they got married quickly, she became
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pregnant immediately. This means meant that Dan I was still
10:00
in medical school when they were married, and he was
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so busy in school that he wasn't able to work.
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So Betty planning on being a housewife, instead had to
10:10
take all sorts of odd jobs to support their ever
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growing family. And when I say ever growing, what I
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mean is Kim was born in nineteen seventy, quickly followed
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by Lee born in nineteen seventy one, Daniel Broderick fourth
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born in nineteen seventy six, and later on Rhtt born
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in nineteen seventy nine. So they had four kids over
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nine years, but those first two years were back to back,
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and also while Dan wasn't able to work because Betty
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had a small child and another on the way during
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the time Dan was in school, she had to take
10:44
on jobs as a babysitter or nanny so she could
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take her kids with her or be pregnant while she worked.
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She also resorted to selling tupperware and avon, which didn't
10:53
have the same connotations it does now with all the
10:55
MLM out there nowadays, but it was still not something
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she probably ever saw herself doing and probably felt a
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little degraded by having to do that. Times were very
11:05
tough obviously during these first few years, but however, she
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felt Betty never once wavered in her dedication or Catholic
11:13
duty to support her husband whatever he chose to do.
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And this continued when Dan decided that after medical school,
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instead of getting a job, he would then immediately, without
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ever training or working as an actual doctor, go to
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law school so that he could become a medical malpractice lawyer.
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Betty again stayed true to Dan and worked to support
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the family for three more years while he went through
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law school. In total, Betty supported the family for four
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years while Dan studied full time until finally, in nineteen
11:45
seventy three, Dan graduated and began working for a law firm. Now,
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I do want to call out that also at this time,
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Betty suffered at least one miscarriage, so they were I mean,
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they were still like trying to have more kids. Her
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body was going through all of this trauma, her you know,
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emotional trauma of losing a baby, having two young kids.
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I mean, this, to be fair, is a lot, and
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I think this part of the story that I'm really
12:10
focusing on right now is why she's viewed the way
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that she is later on. And it's not completely unfair,
12:18
I will admit it's it's this part of the story
12:22
you feel for Betty from here. After Dan graduated and
12:26
began working for a law firm. The family moved to
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La Jolla, California, which is a very affluent suburb of
12:32
San Diego. While they were here, they had their last
12:35
two kids and quickly began living a very high end lifestyle.
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By nineteen eighty, Dan was making a million dollars a year,
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which at that time was a fuck ton of money,
12:48
and Betty having, you know, feeling as though she had
12:51
earned it, which I agree. I mean, she worked her
12:54
ass off while he went to school, made sure she
12:57
was always decked out in the most high end des
13:00
in her fashions, finally achieving the lifestyle she worked so
13:04
hard for and, like I said, the one she knew
13:06
she deserved because it was how she was raised after all.
13:10
Now their four children were also super well taken care of.
13:13
They were in all sorts of sports, music, lessons, and
13:16
the family was well known among the most influential social
13:20
circles in the area. So from the outside looking in,
13:23
they were the perfect couple, the perfect family, the perfect life.
13:29
Betty was a soccer coach, boy scout volunteer, She was
13:32
on the PTA, she was just the perfect mom, and
13:36
Dan was the handsome breadwinner, allowing the family to take
13:40
lavish vacations, attend high end parties, putting the kids in
13:44
any and every extracurricular activity they wanted to, and being
13:48
there anytime he could. However, there's always however to these stories,
13:55
or we wouldn't be here right. So, However, the couple
14:00
really wasn't very happy and fought very often, pretty much
14:03
from the time that they were married until the day
14:05
they got divorced, which does eventually happen now. Beyond the
14:09
obvious financial stressors, from the beginning of their relationship, both
14:12
Dan and Betty are die hard narcissists, which is pretty intense.
14:18
Like one narcissist in a relationship is quite enough, but
14:21
both people like that is a recipe for disaster. There
14:24
was no way this relationship was going to end up
14:27
anyway than how it does now. Like I mentioned, Betty
14:30
was pampered from a very young age, and despite her
14:32
few years of struggling and working while Dan went to
14:35
law school, for the most part, she had everything she
14:37
wanted all the time. Like that was just a brief
14:41
sort of you know, just a moment in time. It
14:45
was not her normal life trajectory. It was just a detour.
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And I think being raised that way, and being raised
14:51
with those expectations really fucked her mind up, to be honest,
14:55
and Dan was the same. Now he wasn't used to
14:58
having money, but he was raised to have women be submissive, right,
15:02
And so from the moment they were married, Dan expected
15:05
Betty to bend, do his will, to work while he
15:07
went to school, to have his babies, to do his laundry,
15:09
all of those things simultaneously in fact, so both were spoiled,
15:13
and both also took advantage of each other and felt
15:17
entitled to anything and everything they wanted, including each other's
15:20
time and hard work. And from Betty to Dan money
15:24
and from Dan to Betty.
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Speaker 3: You know, service.
15:27
Speaker 2: Their relationship ended up being more transactional than anything as
15:30
that was sort of you know, the limit of each
15:32
of their emotional depths from what I can tell, Like
15:35
if they only cared about what people could do for them,
15:38
which they did, then this definitely included each other. And
15:42
their personality flaws were far from the only thing wrong
15:44
with this relationship. Like I said, you know, Betty became
15:47
pregnant with another baby, a boy who was born.
15:50
Speaker 3: It actually wasn't a miscarriage.
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Speaker 2: I forgot. He was born and died very quickly after,
15:55
and this really messed them both up. Like it's easy
15:58
for them to blame each other or themselves.
16:01
Speaker 3: It's just not a good thing.
16:02
Speaker 2: But again, because neither Betty nor Dan were emotionally mature
16:05
in any way, nobody really ever dealt with this trauma
16:09
or did anything to help move each other or themselves.
16:12
Pasted it as a couple or as individuals. Now. Another
16:15
thing was that, despite looking like the perfect couple, Betty
16:19
and Dan actually spent very little time together. And this
16:22
began while he was in school and never really changed,
16:24
which totally makes sense. Like when my dad went to
16:27
law school, I barely saw him for those three years
16:29
that he was going to school. So and then to
16:32
actually go to medical school first, then law school and
16:35
then work as a lawyer. Like the time you spend
16:38
in school is just setting out for how much you're
16:39
going to work, right, So it's a lot of work
16:42
and a lot of time. And then for Dan when
16:44
he finally graduated, you know, he was making millions of dollars,
16:46
but he was doing so, like I said, by working
16:48
sixty plus hours a week, which meant very little time
16:51
at home. So the two had very separate lives, and
16:53
when they were together they thought about anything and everything.
16:56
It's like they had it all, but they just couldn't
16:59
allow themselves to enjoy it. Betty was always the victim
17:02
and Dan was always too busy for his family. Now,
17:08
going back in time just a little bit here, in
17:10
nineteen seventy eight, Dan opened his own medical malpractice firm
17:14
to great success. But again this meant many many hours
17:19
building his clientele, working cases, doing everything to get the
17:22
practice up and running. After a few years, it was
17:26
very successful, and in the fall of nineteen eighty two,
17:30
Dan hired a new secretary. Here we go. This secretary,
17:36
then twenty two year old Dutch American named Linda Calkena
17:40
or Calcana, I'm not sure, was model level beautiful, like
17:43
you see her and you think she's in movies, which
17:45
is kind of what I said about Dan earlier. So
17:48
they're a good match. Betty was also beautiful, obviously I
17:51
mentioned that, but at this time she was also almost forty,
17:55
and Dan's narcissism meant that he needed the latest and
17:58
greatest version of everything, including his wife. Now, Dan was
18:02
also thirty eight at this time, by the way, So
18:04
Betty's like, what thirty five, but.
18:07
Speaker 3: Linda Linda's twenty two.
18:10
Speaker 2: Linda was a pretty wild choice for a secretary, as
18:12
it said, she didn't even know how to type when
18:14
he hired her, and her previous jobs included being a
18:17
flight attendant, and yet somehow she got the job. Before
18:23
Linda was hired by Dan, she was actually known in
18:25
the area and people would openly comment on how much
18:27
she looked like Betty when Betty was young, which to
18:31
me isn't entirely true, but also isn't super far off either.
18:34
They're both tall, thin, pretty blonde. All the big boxes
18:39
were ticked and in a younger package to boot. Within
18:42
a year of Linda being hired, Betty was sure Dan
18:45
was having an affair. The two began fighting even more
18:48
than normal, like knock down, drag out fights, yelling, screaming,
18:52
the whole bit. And while they had always fought, it
18:55
was starting to feel different to Betty, like Dan was
18:58
finally getting close and closer to being done with her,
19:02
which is fair. According to the kids, Betty would regularly
19:06
threaten to leave Dan, she would throw things at him
19:09
just act completely crazy anytime they fought, so it's fair
19:12
for him to eventually, you know get over that Betty
19:15
wasn't the only person who suspected something, by the way,
19:18
as Dan and Linda weren't exactly careful about things, which
19:22
to me, that's another sign of Dan's narcissism. He felt
19:25
he could get away with anything and didn't care who
19:27
saw his actions because he was doing what he wanted,
19:30
and in his mind, what he wanted and what he
19:33
deserved were one and the same. Now, I think that
19:35
could definitely also be true for Betty, But I want
19:38
to point out I think that most of the time,
19:41
I don't know. Often I think when this case gets covered,
19:44
it's covered with one feeling or another, like there's always
19:47
a side, and I have a side for sure. But
19:50
I also wanted to really try to be as fair
19:52
and balanced and as much of a hater towards both
19:54
of these people apparently as I could be, but honestly,
19:58
like I think they both had some really big personality
20:00
flaws that contributed to everything you know that happens now,
20:04
it was very possible that Betty's suspicions actually came from
20:07
some of their shared friends, as this was basically an
20:10
open secret, and as you can imagine, Betty was not
20:13
happy about it at all, not just because she didn't
20:16
want to lose Dan, but probably because she didn't want
20:19
to lose her lifestyle, and she just didn't want to
20:22
lose to another woman period. In a hail Mary attempt
20:26
to fix their marriage, or at least start the process,
20:29
Betty went to Dan's office on his birthday in November
20:32
of nineteen eighty four. Now remember he hired Linda in
20:35
nineteen eighty two, so we're two years in to whatever's
20:39
going on. So Betty shows up, She's brought Dan flowers.
20:44
She's come by his office to take him to lunch,
20:47
but when she arrives, he's not there. Instead, there's evidence
20:51
that a celebration has already taken place, with an empty
20:55
wine bottle and two glasses in Dan's office and Dan
20:58
and Linda nowhere to be found. In fact, Dan didn't
21:02
come home that night, so instead of celebrating, Betty took
21:06
all of his clothing and belongings, dumped them on the
21:09
lawn and set them on fire. She did this in
21:14
front of her children. So whatever you say about Betty,
21:17
she did not fuck around one bit. Now, after this,
21:22
everything came out, while Dan continued to try to deny it,
21:27
the affair was all but confirmed, and things fell apart entirely.
21:31
By February of nineteen eighty five, just what four months later,
21:35
Dan had filed for divorce and moved into a new
21:37
place with Linda. Meanwhile, Betty was losing her shit in
21:42
a major way and acting like a complete fool because
21:46
as always, Betty was the victim. And I'm not saying
21:50
what Dan did was okay, and Linda was culpable too,
21:52
for sure, but I just think everybody here sucks like truly.
21:56
Of course, Betty started using their children as weapons against Dan,
21:59
which all explain, but meanwhile she was doing everything she
22:02
could to garner sympathy from their shared friends and community.
22:06
Speaker 3: See.
22:06
Speaker 2: Dan left Betty in their old house and left the
22:09
children there as well, at least at first. Betty, who
22:12
did not work and was receiving money a monthly from
22:15
Dan despite the impending divorce, decided she would punish Dan
22:19
by dropping the children off with him one by one,
22:22
making him take care of them, because to her, that
22:25
was a punishment, let him in his bimbo, which she
22:28
loved to call in to deal with them, basically, because
22:31
kids are only a burden, right, they just get in
22:33
the way of living your real life. I mean, that's
22:35
how Betty felt about it, and like fuck her, which
22:37
I want to stop here and comment on how funny
22:40
it is that again, while trying to play the victim,
22:42
she blames her upbringing for this misfortune, right, like I
22:45
was raised to be a mother and a housewife by
22:48
my strict parents. Like if that were true, the kids
22:51
would have been the most important thing here and would
22:53
have always come first. And yet here they are being
22:56
used as pawns and as a punishment instead of being
22:58
protected and loved while their parents separate. And the way
23:02
she did this was also super narcissistic and terrible as well.
23:06
Of course, now, when she dropped the kids off, she
23:09
started by leaving Kim on Dan's doorstep after Kim asked
23:13
Betty to take her friend home from somewhere. That's literally
23:17
all it took, and there are interviews with Kim where
23:19
she recounts this situation. Apparently, this request was too much
23:24
to handle, and Betty freaked out, screamed at Kim, and
23:28
dumped her on Dan's door, leaving her there alone because
23:31
Dan and Linda were not home at the time and
23:33
didn't know she was coming. And also no cell phones.
23:37
Kim ended up waiting for hours until Dan finally came
23:40
home and let her inside. Betty then went down the
23:44
line one after one with the kids, always finding some
23:46
excuse to leave them with Dan, until finally they all
23:50
lived primarily with him, though of course they also spent
23:53
time with Betty, because how else would she legitimize getting
23:55
a monthly payment from Dan for her living expenses. So
24:00
Betty was a major asshole at this time, taking it
24:02
out on our kids and just being abusive and crazy.
24:04
And remember Dan is a lawyer, and he used this
24:08
against her later in their court case as a way
24:10
of getting full custody of the children with Linda's full support,
24:15
because while Linda was only seven years older than Kim,
24:18
she was seen very quickly as like a supportive kind
24:22
of mother figure in the children's lives, like she was
24:25
super like, maybe more like a big sister, at least
24:28
to the girls because she was closer in age to them,
24:30
but to the younger boys she was definitely like later
24:34
seen as a mother figure, which I think also drove
24:37
Betty nuts. Anyway, So I'm going to switch to kind
24:42
of going back and forth, just kind of talking about
24:46
everything that happens, because after this divorce is put in motion,
24:50
shit goes crazy. Shit just completely fucking hits the fan,
24:55
right as you can imagine. Now, if you know the story,
24:58
you probably, like I said, no one version of it
25:00
or the other. On the one hand, Betty is often
25:03
painted as a heroic figure for women who are just
25:05
fed up and have had enough of their lying, cheating
25:07
husbands who leave them for younger women, And so I
25:11
think a lot of what she does during this divorce
25:14
is seen as understandable. People are sort of sympathetic or
25:18
even like empathetic towards her, kind of saying like, well,
25:21
I'd probably have done the same thing, like Dan is
25:24
really painted in this particular light. But to be sure,
25:29
Betty got pretty fucking wild in the months and years
25:33
while their divorce was taking place and after their divorce
25:35
was finalized. Now. For example, she spray painted horrible things
25:40
on the walls of Dan's new home, and while she
25:43
was arrested for this, she spent only a few days
25:45
in prison and had a temporary restraining order against her,
25:48
which she promptly ignored with no repercussions. She would call
25:53
their house daily weekly for months and years even after
25:58
their divorce was finalized, leaving the most horrific, like awful messages.
26:05
She was calling Linda a cunt. She was, I mean,
26:08
they were just horrible messages and like her children would
26:14
hear these, right, and she didn't give a shit because
26:17
she just wanted Dan and Linda to hear them. She
26:20
just wanted them to know how much she hated them.
26:23
So again, no regard for her children whatsoever. And in fact,
26:28
there was one instance where her seven year old son, Rhett,
26:31
picked up the phone and begged her to stop calling
26:34
and leaving messages with bad words on them because she
26:37
didn't stop, he wouldn't be able to see her anymore.
26:40
In response, while still being recorded, and yes you can
26:43
find this online, she talked to her then seven year
26:46
old son about how his dad was a fucking, oh sorry,
26:49
was fucking some quote office cunt and actually called Linda
26:53
a cunt twice in less than ten seconds, while just
26:57
continuing to go on her tirade as if she were
26:59
speaking to another adult, not her own young son. She
27:03
ended the call by saying she was going to call
27:05
the police to come beat up daddy, before hanging up
27:09
on her poor crying child. What a fucking asshole. She
27:17
would also show up at the couple's home randomly screaming
27:20
and threatening things, and at one point she ran her
27:22
suburban into the front door of the house, destroying a
27:25
large part of it. Now, her children were in the
27:28
home at that time, and she could have killed them easily,
27:32
but did not seem to give one single shit about that,
27:36
because she's the fucking mom of the year over here.
27:39
So from Betty we have all this fucked up, horrible
27:41
behavior and she clearly doesn't care about her kids at all,
27:44
like not their feelings or their lives, like they're just
27:47
not a factor whatsoever. And Dan did what he could,
27:51
you know, to keep her away, including having her arrested,
27:54
having her committed, and getting a restraining order against her, which,
27:58
like I said, she repeatedly violent. Now, the car incident
28:02
is actually what led to Betty losing custody of her kids,
28:05
which apparently she was very upset about despite dropping them
28:08
off with Dan prior to this. That also landed her
28:11
a seventy two hour hold in a mental health clinic.
28:14
But when she was out, she went right back to
28:16
her shit. So there's Betty there, she is in a nutshell,
28:22
I'll bring up some more stuff too, And I do
28:24
want to say, this is crazy that at some point
28:26
she ended up getting a boyfriend, which is so wild
28:29
as she's clearly obsessed with Dan and Linda. But it
28:32
makes me wonder why and what kept her going for
28:35
so many years at this level of crazy, Like it's
28:38
obviously more about her pride than anything. I mean, she
28:42
didn't have any kids to think about, she had a
28:44
big house, she was still getting over nine thousand dollars
28:48
in monthly payments from Dan. She had nice clothes, a
28:51
social life, a boyfriend, and she chose to behave this
28:55
way because she had to win whatever the fuck that
28:59
looks like against Dan and Linda. However, as it turns out,
29:05
dear old Dan wasn't just a simple victim. I mean,
29:08
the way this whole thing started was with a nearly
29:10
two years long affair which he was extremely brazen about,
29:14
and Linda, for her part, knew of and had repeatedly
29:17
met Betty as she worked at Dan's office, so it's
29:20
not like she didn't know that she was the other woman,
29:23
which is pretty fucking shitty. Now that being said, that's
29:27
not really enough to justify Betty's rage for as long
29:29
as it went on. But it's not all the couple
29:32
did either. Now, Dan, because he was also a narcissist
29:35
and therefore wanted to punish Betty for calling him out
29:38
for his terrible behavior, would antagonize Betty to no end,
29:42
sending her mailers and coupons for Skincare, weight loss treatment,
29:47
and other things to let her know that he and
29:49
Linda both thought that she was old and ugly, which
29:52
is especially harsh since Linda was what like twenty five
29:54
at this point now according to Betty, so take this
29:57
as you will. Linda also sent her fo photos of
30:00
herself with Dan, with taunting messages like eat your heart out,
30:03
bitch scribbled on the back. Now, whether or not this
30:07
is true, there are definitely other things that are true,
30:10
like Dan selling the family home without Betty's approval, using
30:13
some weird legal loophole he of course knew about to
30:16
allow himself to sell it without her knowledge or permission.
30:20
He also fought her for full custody of the kids
30:22
and would withhold letting her see them if she said
30:25
or did mean things to him or Linda, which is
30:28
equally shitty, like they both use their kids as pawns
30:31
and it's fucking gross. Now, Dan did buy Betty a
30:34
house for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which back
30:37
then was a whole lot of money. But he did
30:40
this because he was required to buy law and it
30:42
was part of his selling their family home out from
30:45
underneath her. Like I said, he did also have to
30:48
pay her the nine thousand dollars per month in alimony,
30:51
but he would do things like fine her for her transgressions,
30:54
like if she left a nasty message on his voicemail,
30:57
if she came to his house unannounced, you know, took
31:00
the kids without his knowledge, it would be like one
31:03
hundred dollars per swear word, two hundred and fifty for
31:05
coming on property, and a thousand dollars for taking the
31:09
kids without his permission, which again like if he has
31:14
full custody and she only has visitation rights and not
31:17
even that for a while, like call the cops or
31:19
call child protective services if she's taking them without permission,
31:22
like do the right thing, don't withhold money from her.
31:25
And also he's doing it in a way where he's like,
31:27
you are gonna listen to me. He's making her submissive,
31:31
just like he did in their marriage, like if you
31:33
take the kids without my saying, okay, I'm gonna punish you.
31:37
If you call me when I don't want you to,
31:39
I'm gonna punish you.
31:40
Speaker 3: Now.
31:40
Speaker 2: Was Betty being a total fucking psycho, yes, But was
31:43
Dan antagonizing her and being like domineering and trying to
31:47
just have control?
31:48
Speaker 3: Also? Yes?
31:49
Speaker 2: Like every like I said, everybody sucks, everybody sucks.
31:53
Speaker 1: Uh.
31:54
Speaker 2: And you know, again the withholding of money, that's all
31:56
that matters to either one of them. He cares about money.
31:59
She was about money. It's money status, getting their way.
32:02
That's how they both operated. And probably Linda too, especially
32:07
based on the accusations made against her by Betty of
32:09
sending those ads and the things in the mail. Now, anyway,
32:13
as you can imagine, Dan and Linda eventually got engaged,
32:16
and when they planned to marry, Linda begged Dan to
32:19
wear a bulletproof vest to the wedding. She was legitimately
32:23
scared that Betty would try to kill him at their wedding,
32:27
which is really fucking crazy, Like to get to that
32:30
point is wild, But to be fair, she was harassing
32:34
them daily for years, and she had threatened to kill
32:39
them more than once, so you know, not totally unfair
32:43
for her to request this. Dan did not comply, however,
32:47
and believe it or not, they were married in their
32:49
own backyard without any issues. Now, they did higher security
32:53
just in case Betty tried to crash the wedding, but
32:55
apparently she never showed up, which is honestly pretty surprising.
32:59
Their wedding, like I said, was in their backyard in
33:01
La Jolla, and it was a beautiful affair to their
33:04
friends and families. They were the perfect couple, happy, fun
33:09
in love, just like Dan and Betty had seemed for
33:12
so long, but in this case it actually seemed very real.
33:17
The two went on a honeymoon to the Caribbean, and
33:20
life seemed like it might actually start to get better
33:23
for the newlyweds. But we all know better, right now.
33:29
Do you guys say Caribbean or Caribbean? I actually interchange them,
33:33
like I'll use one one time and one another. I
33:35
think I'm more comfortable with Caribbean, though, because I'm asking
33:38
this question, which means that I noticed how I said it. Anyway,
33:41
I just want to call that out because I'm sure
33:43
some people also noticed it. Because I noticed stuff like
33:45
that when I'm listening to podcasts. So sometimes I just
33:47
like to name what we all noticed, the elephant in
33:50
the room as it were. Anyway, Sorry, Okay. So the
33:53
couple was married in April of nineteen eighty nine, and
33:56
as soon as they came home, the issues continued. They
34:00
just started right back up. Betty once again was calling
34:03
the house nearly daily, leaving lude messages for her entire
34:06
family to hear. Dan, for his part, continued with the
34:09
monetary punishments, threatened legal action, and actually employed one of
34:13
his many lawyer friends to send Betty cease and desist
34:16
type letters regarding her actions. The back and forth went
34:20
on for months until finally, on November two, just a
34:24
few days before Betty's forty second birthday, she received a
34:28
notice in the mail that put her over the edge.
34:32
It was a legal notice from Dan and his lawyers
34:34
threatening to charge Betty with criminal contempt if she did
34:38
not stop leaving messages on his answering machine or stop
34:41
calling their home. Now, to me, this seems like a
34:45
totally fair request, and really like at this point, like
34:48
just let it go right. They're married, they have the kids,
34:51
you have a house, you've got a boyfriend, you've got money, like,
34:54
get a fucking life, go on vacation. But Betty wasn't
34:59
having any of it. She was the victim. She had
35:02
been wronged until she made it right. She could not
35:05
let it go, and that's why two days later, in
35:09
the middle of the night, on Sunday night, November fifth,
35:12
nineteen eighty nine, Betty took her car and drove from
35:16
her home to Dan and Linda's not far away. She
35:20
used her oldest daughter's key to get inside and crept
35:23
upstairs to their bedroom. She entered their room and, according
35:28
to Betty herself, took out her gun, which she somehow
35:31
was able to legally purchase during all of this craziness,
35:35
and shoots at the couple in their bed quote real fast,
35:40
no hesitation. She shoots the gun multiple times. One shot
35:45
goes into the bed frame, one into the wall, but
35:48
all others hit their mark. Linda was shot once in
35:52
the chest and once in the neck, with the bullet
35:55
lodging itself in her brain. She died immediately. Dan, however,
36:03
was only shot once in the back as the noise
36:05
woke him up and he was trying to flee the shooting.
36:09
The bullet went through his back, hitting and collapsing his
36:12
lung and fracturing one rib. However, this was not an
36:17
immediately fatal shot, and we know this because Betty later
36:22
said she heard him say as he attempted to dive
36:25
under the bed, Okay, you shot me. I'm dead. So
36:31
with that in mind, why did Dan ultimately die?
36:35
Speaker 3: Now?
36:35
Speaker 2: Betty, who later claimed not to remember anything at one point, admitted,
36:40
and there was also evidence of this, that she had
36:42
the presence of mind to pull the phone out of
36:44
the wall so Dan could not call for help. She
36:48
said she thought to herself, he's going to call the
36:50
cops before I make it downstairs, and she didn't want that,
36:53
so she removed his ability to call for help and
36:56
left him to die on the floor halfway out of
36:58
his own bed.
37:00
Speaker 3: I believe.
37:01
Speaker 2: Betty then called her friend Diane and told her that
37:03
she had shot at Dan. Diane then called Betty's boyfriend
37:09
Brad around seven thirty am, and he then called their neighbor,
37:13
who was a longtime friend of Dan's, and the two
37:15
went to Dan and Linda's home to check on them. Now,
37:18
they didn't immediately call the police because Betty hadn't made
37:20
it sound particularly bad. You know, shot at Dan isn't
37:24
exactly the same thing as shot and killed Linda and
37:26
shot and left Dan to die. Right when they arrived
37:29
at the home, the front door was unlocked, and the
37:31
couple were found dead inside their bedroom. I believe that
37:36
at one point Betty also called her daughter Lee and
37:39
confessed what she had done to her as well. From there,
37:43
Betty was promptly picked up by the police, confessed, and
37:46
was arrested on suspicion of murder two counts. And here
37:52
is where it gets really weird and interesting on a
37:54
human level, even more because we're going to talk about
37:58
the trial.
38:02
Speaker 1: Now.
38:03
Speaker 2: As I noted, Betty was immediately seen by some of
38:05
a villain, but also by others as a hero to
38:09
many mostly rich white men mostly is that what I said,
38:13
most mostly richly white men. To many mostly rich white
38:18
men in her own community, she was the scorned, crazy
38:22
ex wife, driven to murder by jealousy over her ex
38:25
husband's newfound happiness. But to many of those men in
38:29
her community's ex wives or maybe even current wives and
38:33
other women around her own age, she was seen as
38:36
a hero, someone who finally stood up and said enough abuse.
38:40
I won't take it anymore now. Funny enough, a movie
38:43
called She Devil, starring Roseanne Barr, came out almost exactly
38:48
one month after Betty murdered Dan and Linda, and it's
38:52
about a first wife who was left for a younger,
38:54
prettier woman by her narcissistic husband and how this ex
38:58
wife goes about getting revenge on him. Now, the first
39:02
thing she does in this movie is vandalize and destroy
39:06
their shared home. Sound familiar. The next thing she does
39:10
is drop off their three kids with him and his
39:13
new wife to force them to care for them. It's
39:17
honestly crazy how similar parts of the movie are to
39:20
this case. And this movie was seen not only as
39:23
a comedy, but Roseanne was definitely the hero and her
39:26
movie husband and his new wife were absolutely the villains. So,
39:30
I mean, I don't know that anybody else's ever mentioned this,
39:32
but I think the movie was a sign of the
39:34
times and just really perfectly timed to get Betty a
39:37
ton of sympathy from women nationwide. And even now, the
39:41
division between hero and villain remains, and the discussion continues
39:44
as to who was really at fault.
39:46
Speaker 3: Now, if you think.
39:47
Speaker 2: About that show that came out a few years ago.
39:48
Dirty John the first season is basically this story, and
39:52
it's definitely not called Dirty Betty. Right, So, even now,
39:55
I think women often identify with Betty despite her being.
39:59
Speaker 3: A double more to her.
40:00
Speaker 2: But I also think a lot of that has to
40:02
do with people not really knowing the specifics of her behavior,
40:06
many details of which came out at the trial, but
40:09
I think people are quick to forget. This often isn't
40:12
discussed in great detail. But I'm going to touch on
40:15
it because I really want to drive this home now.
40:18
Betty's behavior prior to and following the murders came to
40:21
like quickly, with her kids telling police about her abusive
40:24
behavior towards both Dan and all of them, even years
40:29
before the couple divorced. Her oldest daughter, Kim went on
40:32
to say that Betty would threaten to divorce Dan constantly,
40:35
and Kim got to the point where she begged her
40:37
dad to see it through and to take her with
40:39
him the day he left. Kim also recounted a story
40:43
where she became pregnant at the age of eighteen, and
40:46
instead of asking her mother for help, she went to Linda. Now,
40:51
remember I said Linda was like a mother figure or
40:53
a bigger sister at least, you know, and I think
40:56
this is proof of that. Now. Betty of course found
40:59
out and public humiliated Kim, going as far as calling
41:03
the mother of one of her female friends, so not
41:06
even the boy who got her pregnant, to tell her
41:09
about the pregnancy and abortion. She also wrote a letter
41:13
to Linda's family telling them of Linda's role.
41:15
Speaker 3: In the ordeal.
41:17
Speaker 2: Now as a note, Betty herself had an abortion when
41:20
Kim was just four years old. So this woman is
41:24
just the biggest fucking hypocrite ever. But whatever, just more
41:30
about how terrible she is. Right in court again, Kim
41:34
even testified that Betty would often tell her children she
41:37
hated them. It also came out that although Betty had
41:41
received the threatening letter from Dan's attorney a few days
41:44
before the murders, she also received another letter from their
41:47
legal team offering her what she said she always wanted,
41:51
custody of the boy's back. The couple's two daughters had
41:55
already moved out of the house, but the boys were
41:57
both still minors, and Betty used Dan taking them away
42:00
as her excuse for everything she was doing. Because again,
42:03
she's just using the kids, with no regard for their feelings.
42:07
Dan finally agreed on a trial basis to give Betty custody,
42:11
hoping that this would get her to.
42:13
Speaker 3: Leave him alone.
42:15
Speaker 2: However, many people, myself included, believe that this is actually
42:19
what truly set her off, not the legal threat against her,
42:23
because if Dan gave her custody, she no longer had
42:26
any excuse to intervene in his and Linda's lives. And
42:30
I think it is now abundantly clear that she wanted
42:34
and needed that excuse. Needed to be the victim, had
42:38
to have a reason why it's Dan's fault that she
42:40
was literally stalking, attacking, and abusing him four years on
42:45
from their separation. Anyway, so much came out at the
42:48
first trial, and yes, I did say first. The first
42:51
trial began in October of nineteen ninety and ended in
42:55
a mistrial, with ten jurors wanting her found guilty on
42:58
two counts of murder and two jurors wanted wanting her
43:02
found guilty of two counts of manslaughter. Now, in this trial,
43:05
her defense used the battered women's syndrome to explain her
43:09
erratic and violent behavior, citing Dan's punitive actions against her
43:13
over the years the affair, which lasted, you know, at
43:16
least a year or two before Betty realized what was
43:18
going on and really just vilified Dan and Linda. And
43:22
it worked, and it worked in the trial, and it
43:24
worked with the public. Prosecutors after the mistrial were like,
43:29
now we're retrying this case, and of course, of course
43:31
they did.
43:32
Speaker 3: And again in.
43:33
Speaker 2: Nineteen ninety one, Betty went to trial. Now a lot
43:36
of this trial is online on YouTube, and Betty's testimony
43:40
is really weird to watch. She confesses on the stand,
43:44
but her words in her demeanor are very much distancing
43:47
herself from the actual murder. She said she doesn't remember
43:51
pulling the trigger and that the gun quote just went off,
43:54
And she says this over and over. It just went off.
43:57
It just went off. The gun went off. It's like, girl,
43:59
you sho it at least five times. It doesn't just
44:02
go off. The gun doesn't shoot itself, and it certainly
44:05
doesn't shoot itself five times, and it certainly doesn't aim
44:07
at other people. Anyway, she's crying, she's saying there are
44:11
blank spots in her memory, because we all haven't heard
44:13
that before. And she even says the reason the quote
44:16
gun went off is because Dan and Linda woke up
44:19
while she was in the room and Linda yelled called
44:22
the police. So just no acceptance of any responsibility whatsoever. Now,
44:28
most of the trial is honestly pretty boring, but you
44:31
get the feeling that nobody liked Betty or was on
44:34
her side at this point, which is funny because again
44:37
the public is very split, with a lot of people
44:39
on her side, but even former friends called her materialistic,
44:44
vain and obsessed with winning against Dan. So anybody who
44:48
really knew what was going on was like, fuck Betty,
44:50
And I think that's fine. That being said, Dan's transgressions
44:54
were also on display. But honestly, it was a lot
44:57
harder this time to sell that she was a battered woman,
45:00
I think, not only because each trial is just different,
45:02
but also the prosecution knew their play, so it was
45:04
easier to tear that apart because Dan never actually like
45:08
hurt her. He did cheat on her, but he also
45:10
divorced her and like gave her a house and gave
45:13
her money. Now, in the end, Betty ended up being
45:16
found guilty on two counts of second degree murder and
45:19
sentenced to thirty two years to life in prison. She
45:23
remained unrepentant throughout the trial and afterwards as well, focused
45:27
solely on any narrative that made her the victim. And
45:30
I'll say right now that for many years I actually
45:32
did think that she kind of was a victim. I
45:35
thought what she did was awful, but not justified so
45:39
much as like understandable. I don't know, like I don't
45:42
want to sound like I'm okay with killing people, because
45:44
I'm not, But like, there are a lot of women,
45:47
you know, who are on her side because they lived
45:48
what they thought was similar a similar story to hers.
45:51
But after really diving in on this case, I have
45:54
completely changed my mind. Like Dan was a misogynist, he
45:59
was shitty to be and he shouldn't have cheated, but
46:02
she was clearly abusive, narcissistic, always threatening him and did
46:06
horrible things to him as well. And because she felt
46:09
he was mistreating her by being at school and making
46:11
her work and then you know, being at the office
46:14
and then being with somebody else, she figured that was
46:17
enough of an excuse to murder him and his wife.
46:19
And I just you know, while I get it, I
46:22
don't think it's as cut and dry as Dan having
46:24
a midlife crisis and trading Betty in for a newer model.
46:27
I think that they could have stayed happily married. But
46:29
as her daughter Kim put it, Betty could never admit
46:32
that she had a happy life. First she was unhappy
46:35
with Dan for various reasons. Then she was unhappy because
46:38
of Dan leaving her. I mean, she's just always the victim,
46:42
never happy. That's Betty in a nutshell. So Betty went
46:47
to prison, and weirdly, she flourished prison guards, other prisoners,
46:52
everybody really loved her. She was still denied parols several
46:56
times due to her complete lack of remorse, but she
46:59
had a sparkling record while in prison. Like, it's so
47:03
crazy to me though, Like she very likely could have
47:06
been released if she had just swallowed her pride and
47:10
admitted what she did. Instead, she never changed her story,
47:16
she never changed her outlook. She was always the victim,
47:23
and in that refusal, I mean, that's kind of it, right.
47:27
She was seventy eight years old when she died and
47:29
wouldn't have been eligible for parole again until she was
47:31
eighty four, so pretty much destined to die in prison.
47:35
She had a parole hearing in twenty ten, so she
47:39
would have had a good sixteen years out had she
47:42
been able to do it. And again in twenty sixteen.
47:47
I believe all but one of her children were with
47:49
her at her bedside when she died, and after her
47:52
death they came out and said their relationship with her
47:54
was complicated, but ultimately she was their mother. In fact,
48:00
that to twenty ten parole hearing, her daughter Lee asked
48:03
the board to release her into her care, saying Betty
48:06
could live with her and her family in Idaho. Now,
48:10
weirdly or not so weirdly, probably Kim also lives in Idaho,
48:14
so it would have been a reunion of sorts because
48:17
actually RHTT also lives in Idaho, in the same city
48:20
as Kim, which is not far from Lee. So Betty
48:22
would have been able to live out her final years
48:25
surrounded by her children and grandchildren, had she just been
48:29
able to get past her narcissism. Now Daniel noticed, I
48:34
didn't mention him. He was actually the only child to
48:36
speak out against Betty's release in twenty ten, and is
48:40
also the only child to still live in La Joya,
48:43
So I'm not really sure the deal there, but anyway,
48:46
that's the story crazy as it is, my mind has
48:50
definitely been changed. Betty sucked as a person, and while
48:54
I doubt she would have reoffended, her inability to take
48:57
responsibility for this makes her not only deserve of her sentence,
49:01
but also like she could be a threat because she
49:03
can clearly delude herself into believing she's the victim in
49:07
literally any situation, even in one where she murders two people,
49:12
including the father of her own children. So yeah, dirty
49:18
Betty after all. So I guess that's it. This is
49:23
me officially being back. I'll probably be doing every other
49:26
week just to help keep my sanity and actually keep
49:29
myself recording. Thank you everybody so much for listening, liking, reading, reviewing,
49:35
reaching out to ask me wheut the hell I'm at Like?
49:37
Thank you for holding me accountable. You guys are awesome.
49:41
I'm definitely a little rusty. Hopefully the cadence on this
49:43
was okay. If it wasn't, please don't tell me. I
49:46
promise it'll get back to the way it was. If
49:48
you liked it as is great, I'll keep it up.
49:51
But yeah, thanks everybody for all of your support. I'll
49:54
be back in a week or two with another case.
49:57
I think I have a cold case coming. I'm just
49:59
trying to Sorry I sniffled into the mic. I'm just
50:01
trying to get a little more info on it so
50:03
it's not super short. If I can't do that, I'm
50:06
actually thinking about doing like maybe a few cases in
50:10
one just like cold cases that have been solved, some
50:15
of them when they're so old. You can find, you know,
50:18
ten fifteen minutes worth of research content and information, but
50:22
you can't really do the deep dive that I.
50:24
Speaker 3: Like to do when i'm doing cases. So we'll see.
50:27
Speaker 2: Got a couple things cooking either way.
50:29
Speaker 3: I'll be back soon.
50:31
Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening, and until next time, stay safe.