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Mega Edition: The Romance Novelist And The Husband She Murdered (10/28/26) · The Moscow Murders and More

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. Today
0:03
Speaker 1: we have a wild one for you folks. This episode
0:07
Speaker 1: is going to be about an author, a romance author,
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Speaker 1: who ended up killing her husband in what could have
0:15
Speaker 1: been a scene straight from one of her books. So
0:19
Speaker 1: let's jump straight into this article and let's see what
0:22
Speaker 1: CNN and author Faith Karimi has for us. Headline. This
0:29
Speaker 1: romance novelist is on trial in her husband's killing. It's
0:32
Speaker 1: like a plot twist from one of her books. I mean, sheesh.
0:38
Speaker 1: So probably not a good idea if you write books
0:41
Speaker 1: about murdering husbands and, you know, people getting killed for
0:45
Speaker 1: you to go off and murder your husband. Chances are
0:48
Speaker 1: you're going to be a suspect. Nancy Crampton Brophy wrote
0:52
Speaker 1: steamy romance novels with muscular, often shirtless men on their
0:56
Speaker 1: covers and titles like The Wrong Husband. Some carried a
1:00
Speaker 1: tagline that said, wrong never felt so right. When you
1:05
Speaker 1: look at all of this in hindsight now that she's
1:06
Speaker 1: been charged with murdering her husband, man, oh man, all
1:09
Speaker 1: of this looks pretty ironic, huh? But for Crampton Brophy,
1:13
Speaker 1: life with her husband of almost two decades appeared anything
1:16
Speaker 1: but wrong. She and Daniel Brophy lived in a quiet
1:20
Speaker 1: suburb of Portland, Oregon, where he was a chef at
1:23
Speaker 1: a culinary school. Brampton Brophy said her husband raised turkeys
1:26
Speaker 1: and chickens in their backyard, tended a vegetable garden, and
1:30
Speaker 1: liked to whip up lavish meals for her. The day
1:33
Speaker 1: she realized he was Mr. Right, she wrote on her
1:36
Speaker 1: author's website he was making her hors d'oeuvres while she
1:40
Speaker 1: took a bath. Can you imagine spending the rest of
1:43
Speaker 1: your life without a man like that, she asked? Only...
1:47
Speaker 1: to be charged later on with attempting to, I mean,
1:50
Speaker 1: with murdering this dude. How could everything spin out of
1:55
Speaker 1: control so quickly? Then came a plot twist that could
1:59
Speaker 1: have only been ripped from one of her books. On
2:03
Speaker 1: the morning of June 2nd, 2018, someone shot Daniel Brophy
2:07
Speaker 1: in the kitchen of the Oregon Culinary Institute, where he
2:10
Speaker 1: taught cooking. There, three months later, Portland police arrested Crampton
2:15
Speaker 1: Brophy and charged her with her husband's murder. And now,
2:19
Speaker 1: the woman, who once published an infamous blog post titled,
2:22
Speaker 1: How to Murder Your Husband, is on trial in an
2:25
Speaker 1: Oregon courtroom. Crampton Brophy, 71, is charged with a single
2:30
Speaker 1: count of murder and has pleaded not guilty. The trial
2:34
Speaker 1: is expected to last six weeks. So this lady writes
2:38
Speaker 1: all of these books about husbands who get clipped, husbands
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Speaker 1: who get killed, and then when shit goes south with
2:44
Speaker 1: her guy, obviously, thinks it's a good idea to make
2:49
Speaker 1: it all play out in real life. The pages of
2:51
Speaker 1: her book, she wants those to be real. So... She
2:55
Speaker 1: enacts this scheme, this plot, where she goes to the
2:57
Speaker 1: culinary institute, allegedly, and dumps on this dude, shoots him,
3:02
Speaker 1: and kills him. Her husband was shot twice at the
3:07
Speaker 1: cooking school where he worked. On the morning Daniel Brophy
3:10
Speaker 1: was killed, students arrived for class and found him bleeding
3:14
Speaker 1: on the kitchen floor. Imagine, you walk into school, your
3:17
Speaker 1: teacher's laying on the floor, suffering from gunshot wounds. Talk
3:21
Speaker 1: about out of left field, huh? You got this, you know,
3:23
Speaker 1: white bread ass teacher in some little town in Oregon.
3:29
Speaker 1: Not what you would expect for your morning class. In
3:34
Speaker 1: court documents, prosecutors said the 63-year-old man had been shot twice,
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Speaker 1: once in the back as he stood at the sink
3:40
Speaker 1: filling ice and water buckets for the students, and then
3:43
Speaker 1: a second time in the chest at close range. I mean,
3:47
Speaker 1: as much as I find this story ridiculous as far as,
3:53
Speaker 1: you know, her bringing it to life right off of
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Speaker 1: her pages, this poor guy certainly didn't deserve to get
3:59
Speaker 1: shot like that, shot in his back, and then shot
4:02
Speaker 1: close range in the chest. Boy, you really love this guy,
4:05
Speaker 1: don't you? The bullets penetrated his spine and pierced his heart.
4:12
Speaker 1: Brophy's wallet with cash and credit cards was found with him,
4:16
Speaker 1: and there were no signs of robbery or forced entry.
4:19
Speaker 1: And again, look, I don't know these people personally, and
4:22
Speaker 1: this is just my speculation, right? Why would anyone want
4:25
Speaker 1: to kill this dude? Why would anyone have beef with
4:27
Speaker 1: this guy and want to come and shoot him in
4:29
Speaker 1: the culinary joint? Because if you don't take his wallet...
4:32
Speaker 1: You don't take any money... Then it's obviously not a robbery...
4:36
Speaker 1: You had some sort of issue with this person... And
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Speaker 1: that's why you killed him... But there were no signs of...
4:43
Speaker 1: Forced entry... No signs of anything like that... So usually
4:46
Speaker 1: that means it's somebody that you know... Who has access
4:49
Speaker 1: to you... And to the environment that you were found in...
4:54
Speaker 1: The next day... Crampton Brophy posted a message on Facebook...
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Speaker 1: My husband and best friend... Chef Dan Brophy was killed
5:02
Speaker 1: yesterday morning, it said. For those of you who are
5:05
Speaker 1: close to me and feel this deserved a phone call,
5:07
Speaker 1: you are right. But I'm struggling to make sense of
5:10
Speaker 1: everything right now. All right, that's weird as shit. Who
5:13
Speaker 1: goes on Facebook the first thing after their husband is
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Speaker 1: killed to inform people that way? I mean, I guess
5:18
Speaker 1: people do, but I certainly wouldn't. That's a phone call
5:22
Speaker 1: or a face-to-face kind of deal. And furthermore, I wouldn't
5:25
Speaker 1: be in any state to get on the internet and
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Speaker 1: make any posts. If my girlfriend, something happened to her,
5:30
Speaker 1: I'd be a blubbering mess. Zero chance I'd be on
5:33
Speaker 1: the internet talking about it. The slaying remained a public
5:39
Speaker 1: mystery for months. Then came Crampton Brophy's arrest in September
5:43
Speaker 1: of 2018. And suddenly the image of the couple's happy
5:47
Speaker 1: marriage collapsed. Isn't that always the case, huh? The people
5:52
Speaker 1: that run around and act like there's no issues in
5:54
Speaker 1: their marriage or their life, and they floss on social
5:57
Speaker 1: media about how great everything is all the time, you
6:00
Speaker 1: can guarantee that those are the people that are really
6:02
Speaker 1: going through it. Prosecutors allege in court documents that the
6:07
Speaker 1: Brophy's were facing financial difficulties and had drained their retirement
6:11
Speaker 1: account two years prior to the shooting. Crampton Brophy, whose
6:15
Speaker 1: books were not financially lucrative... hatched the plan to kill
6:19
Speaker 1: her husband to collect more than one and a half
6:21
Speaker 1: million dollars from multiple life insurance policies and other assets,
6:26
Speaker 1: prosecutors said. So this is a lady who jumped the shark, right? Look, lady,
6:33
Speaker 1: your books aren't even that good. Nobody's buying them. Do
6:36
Speaker 1: you really think that it's a good idea to play
6:38
Speaker 1: out the scenarios in your books in real life? Dan
6:44
Speaker 1: Brophy was content in his simplistic lifestyle, but Nancy Brophy
6:47
Speaker 1: wanted something more, prosecutors said in court documents. As Nancy
6:51
Speaker 1: Brophy became more financially desperate and her writing career was floundering,
6:56
Speaker 1: she was left with few options. Look, desperate people do
6:59
Speaker 1: desperate things. That said, you can't kill anybody because your
7:04
Speaker 1: books aren't selling or because you're financially desperate. Get a job.
7:07
Speaker 1: Go get a real job. I know that it's hard
7:10
Speaker 1: as an artist to accept the fact that your art
7:13
Speaker 1: isn't going to pay the bills, but sometimes we just
7:16
Speaker 1: have to accept it and move on and find something different.
7:22
Speaker 1: Dan Brophy was worth almost $ 1. 5 million to Nancy Brophy
7:26
Speaker 1: if he was dead, and he was worth a life
7:30
Speaker 1: of financial hardship if he stayed alive. Nancy Brophy planned
7:34
Speaker 1: and carried out what she believed was the perfect murder.
7:38
Speaker 1: A murder that she believed would free her from the
7:40
Speaker 1: grips of financial despair. You have to be so inhuman
7:47
Speaker 1: to want to murder somebody for money, for an inheritance
7:53
Speaker 1: or insurance or whatever. It's just so disgusting. This is
7:58
Speaker 1: your husband, the person you married. You're going to spend
8:00
Speaker 1: your life with him. Now, because times are rough financially,
8:03
Speaker 1: you're going to clip this dude and try and get
8:05
Speaker 1: some dough? Prosecutors said a search of the couple's computers
8:09
Speaker 1: revealed they had a joint iTunes account with a bookmarked
8:13
Speaker 1: article titled 10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder. Well, look,
8:18
Speaker 1: I'll give her the benefit of the doubt there. She's
8:20
Speaker 1: an author. And, you know, look, when you're an author,
8:22
Speaker 1: you have to delve into some really dark places sometimes
8:25
Speaker 1: to make your story feasible, right? So I don't think
8:28
Speaker 1: that's too much of a tell there. But Crampton's Brophy's
8:32
Speaker 1: attorney argued at the trial this week that she loved
8:34
Speaker 1: her husband and had nothing to do with the killing.
8:37
Speaker 1: The state will present a circumstantial case that begs you
8:40
Speaker 1: to cast a blind eye to the most important circumstance, love.
8:45
Speaker 1: Defense attorney Lisa Maxfield said Monday in her opening statement,
8:49
Speaker 1: Nancy Crampton Brophy always been thoroughly madly crazily crazy in
8:55
Speaker 1: love with daniel brophy and she's still to this day
8:59
Speaker 1: for nancy brophy he was perfect the couple had taken
9:03
Speaker 1: several romantic getaways in the months before brophy's death and
9:07
Speaker 1: were planning a summer trip to mount rushmore the defense
9:09
Speaker 1: attorney said so again look i'm speculating this lady could
9:15
Speaker 1: have been all part of her plot right we'll make
9:17
Speaker 1: it look like things are fine, we're going to go
9:19
Speaker 1: on these romantic getaways, and then at the first opportunity,
9:23
Speaker 1: I'm going to shoot this son of a bitch. The
9:27
Speaker 1: slang drew new attention to Crampton Brophy's writings. News of
9:31
Speaker 1: the slang stunned the Portland community and made headlines everywhere,
9:35
Speaker 1: partly due to something Crampton Brophy wrote seven years before
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Speaker 1: her husband's death. In 2011, she published a blog post titled,
9:44
Speaker 1: Had to murder your husband. Oh, yeah, not suspicious at all.
9:47
Speaker 1: Who would write that? I mean, why would you even
9:50
Speaker 1: write that in a blog post? Now, okay, if it's
9:53
Speaker 1: part of your book, I get it. But man, really?
9:57
Speaker 1: As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time...
10:00
Speaker 1: thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure. The 700-word
10:05
Speaker 1: post began. It was published on a blog called See
10:08
Speaker 1: Jane Published that has since been made private. The essay
10:12
Speaker 1: was split into sections detailing the pros and cons of
10:15
Speaker 1: killing a villainous husband. Yikes. So, I know a lot
10:18
Speaker 1: of you out there want to kill your husband sometimes, right?
10:21
Speaker 1: Probably not a good idea, though, to follow through with it.
10:24
Speaker 1: I mean, jeez. You're going to write a blog about
10:28
Speaker 1: how to kill your villainous husband and then think it's
10:31
Speaker 1: a good idea to go and dump on him? If
10:35
Speaker 1: the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly
10:38
Speaker 1: don't want to spend any time in jail, Crampton Brophy wrote.
10:41
Speaker 1: And let me say clearly for the record, I don't
10:44
Speaker 1: like jumpsuits and orange isn't my color. I can agree
10:47
Speaker 1: with her there. Jumpsuits are not for me and I
10:49
Speaker 1: don't like orange either. But the trial judge ruled Monday
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Speaker 1: that the essay would not be permitted as evidence because
10:55
Speaker 1: it was written years ago as part of a writing
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Speaker 1: seminar and unfairly prejudiced the jury. I don't know about that.
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Speaker 1: If I was the prosecution, I'd want that entered. It
11:05
Speaker 1: shows you the kind of person she is, right? But
11:08
Speaker 1: she could argue that this is just my creative writing
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Speaker 1: and so what? Crampton Brophy's novels do not appear to
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Speaker 1: have broader riches or literary acclaim, but they were consistent
11:21
Speaker 1: in their packaging and subject matter. Her books were tales
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Speaker 1: of attempted murder, infidelity, crime, lust, and general debauchery, all
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Speaker 1: common themes for romantic suspense novels. Wait a minute. I'm
11:34
Speaker 1: into all of that stuff. Maybe I should start reading
11:36
Speaker 1: these romantic suspense novels instead of the novels I read.
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Speaker 1: Sounds great. Murder, infidelity, crime, lust, general debauchery. Sounds like
11:45
Speaker 1: a typical Friday night in Las Vegas, honestly. The wrong husband,
11:52
Speaker 1: a woman tries to escape her abusive husband by hiding
11:55
Speaker 1: in Spain during their anniversary trip. My stories are about
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Speaker 1: pretty men and strong women, about families that don't always work,
12:03
Speaker 1: and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty
12:06
Speaker 1: of making it stay, she wrote on her website. In
12:09
Speaker 1: writing fiction, you dig deep and unearth portions of your
12:11
Speaker 1: own life that you've long forgotten or had purposely buried deep. Granted,
12:16
Speaker 1: sometimes it is smarter to change the ending. Boy, this
12:20
Speaker 1: is all prophetic, huh? Considering now that her husband's dead.
12:23
Speaker 1: Her author bio also offered glimpses of how Crampton Brophy
12:27
Speaker 1: saw life with her husband. Like all marriages, we've had
12:30
Speaker 1: our ups and downs. More good times than bad, she wrote. Eh,
12:33
Speaker 1: I can't really knock her for that. What relationship doesn't
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Speaker 1: have You know, ups and downs, good and bad. Prosecutors
12:42
Speaker 1: say she researched ghost guns. Brophy's body was found by
12:46
Speaker 1: his culinary students. At the time of his death, he
12:48
Speaker 1: was alone at the school, prosecutors said. The school had
12:53
Speaker 1: no security cameras, but nearby traffic cameras showed cramped in
12:57
Speaker 1: Brophy's Toyota minivan on city streets near the Institute around
13:01
Speaker 1: the time of the shooting, prosecutors said. Oh, I'm sure
13:05
Speaker 1: she was just going out to the grocery store. It
13:07
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with going to try and shoot
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Speaker 1: her husband. Nothing at all. Prosecutors said they believe Crampton
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Speaker 1: Brophy followed her husband to work and shot him with
13:17
Speaker 1: a Glock 9 she'd bought at a Portland gun show.
13:20
Speaker 1: Investigators found two 9mm shell casings at the scene. She
13:25
Speaker 1: also bought a ghost gun assembly kit that investigators later
13:29
Speaker 1: found at a storage facility. Ghost guns are unregistered and
13:33
Speaker 1: untraceable firearms. Well, look. If you're going to kill somebody,
13:37
Speaker 1: probably the right way to go, right? And I don't
13:39
Speaker 1: know why she would leave the shells at the scene.
13:41
Speaker 1: That's not somebody who has been following the MO of
13:45
Speaker 1: police investigations. Crampton Brophy's attorney told jurors on Monday she
13:51
Speaker 1: was researching a ghost gun kit for a book she
13:53
Speaker 1: was working on and bought the handgun with her husband's
13:56
Speaker 1: knowledge because mass shootings in the U.S. made her feel unsafe. Oh,
14:00
Speaker 1: so what is she, what's she, John Dillinger? She's going
14:03
Speaker 1: to shoot it out with the mass shooter? Come on,
14:05
Speaker 1: I'm taking a look at this lady. Lucky she can
14:07
Speaker 1: get from point A to point B. Highly doubt she's
14:10
Speaker 1: pulling out her gun like Audie Murphy and having a shootout.
14:16
Speaker 1: Prosecutors allege that to cover her tracks, Crampton Brophy swapped
14:19
Speaker 1: the slide and barrel of the Glock 9 with an
14:22
Speaker 1: identical mechanism she bought on eBay and used that to
14:25
Speaker 1: shoot her husband. She then allegedly took out the new
14:28
Speaker 1: slide and barrel and replaced it with the original, thus
14:31
Speaker 1: being able to present a new, fully intact firearm to
14:35
Speaker 1: police that would not be a match to the shell casings,
14:39
Speaker 1: prosecutors said in court documents. Detectives have not recovered the
14:44
Speaker 1: slide and barrel purchased on eBay, meaning forensic experts have
14:49
Speaker 1: been unable to match the spent bullets with the gun,
14:51
Speaker 1: the prosecutors said. That's going to be rough. Not a
14:55
Speaker 1: bad move there on her part, honestly. Changing out the
14:57
Speaker 1: slide and stuff like that make it a lot more
14:59
Speaker 1: difficult for investigators to figure out what's what. She was
15:04
Speaker 1: the sole beneficiary in several life insurance policies. That's a
15:09
Speaker 1: bit of motive, huh? Investigators discovered that Crampton Brophy was
15:13
Speaker 1: the beneficiary of numerous life insurance policies taken out on
15:17
Speaker 1: her husband, prosecutors said in court documents. Despite the couple's
15:21
Speaker 1: financial woes, Crampton Brophy was spending over $ 1, 000 a month
15:26
Speaker 1: on life insurance premiums, prosecutors said. $ 1, 000 a month on
15:30
Speaker 1: life insurance premiums? Just a little bit of breaking news.
15:35
Speaker 1: If your significant other has $ 1, 000 of life insurance policies
15:39
Speaker 1: out on you and you guys are financially struggling and
15:42
Speaker 1: they don't want to drop those financial policies, I mean
15:45
Speaker 1: those life insurance policies, probably a good idea to go
15:48
Speaker 1: and stay somewhere else. Certainly would signal to me that
15:54
Speaker 1: something is amiss. Three days after her husband's death, she
16:00
Speaker 1: called the lead detective in the case and asked for
16:03
Speaker 1: a letter stating she was not a suspect, so she
16:06
Speaker 1: could give it to insurance companies, prosecutors said. Detectives declined
16:12
Speaker 1: to provide the letter. In explaining why she had taken
16:16
Speaker 1: out the life insurance policies on her husband, the defense
16:19
Speaker 1: argued that Crampton Brophy was a salesperson for several life
16:23
Speaker 1: insurance companies and had bought the policies to show her
16:26
Speaker 1: belief in the product and earn a commission. So your
16:30
Speaker 1: commission is more than the thousand bucks a month? Doesn't
16:33
Speaker 1: seem like sound financial moves to me. Her husband was
16:38
Speaker 1: also younger than her and eligible for some life insurance
16:40
Speaker 1: policies that she did not qualify for, Maxfield said. Maxfield
16:45
Speaker 1: told jurors that the Brophy's were in decent shape financially
16:48
Speaker 1: in June 2018 and that prosecutors' characterization of them being
16:53
Speaker 1: in desperate financial straits are overblown. Crampton Brophy did not
16:58
Speaker 1: collect an insurance windfall after the killing, Maxfield said. Yeah,
17:03
Speaker 1: because they stopped her from doing so. If nobody intervened,
17:08
Speaker 1: she would have collected all that money. Who do you
17:10
Speaker 1: think you're kidding? Nancy Brophy and Dan Brophy had an
17:15
Speaker 1: unusually healthy and vibrant marriage. Right up until the very end,
17:18
Speaker 1: she told jurors. After you've heard all the evidence in
17:21
Speaker 1: this case, we are certain that you will understand that
17:24
Speaker 1: Nancy Brophy did not kill her husband. Crampton Brophy is
17:29
Speaker 1: expected to take the stand during the trial. Well, another
17:33
Speaker 1: thing for us to keep our eye on, huh? An
17:35
Speaker 1: interesting one. Talk about crazy. You got yourselves a author
17:41
Speaker 1: who writes books about husbands who get killed, ends up
17:44
Speaker 1: killing her husband? Nobody's going to be suspicious of that. Well, folks,
17:50
Speaker 1: there you have it. The story of Nancy Crampton Brophy
17:54
Speaker 1: and the alleged murder of her husband. We'll see where
17:56
Speaker 1: it all goes. It's on trial right now. And anytime
17:59
Speaker 1: there's something to update, obviously, we'll add it to the catalog.
18:03
Speaker 1: If you'd like to contact me, you can do that
18:05
Speaker 1: at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can
18:14
Speaker 1: also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The
18:21
Speaker 1: link that we discussed can be found in the description box.
18:25
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. A
18:29
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, we were talking about a romance novelist
18:32
Speaker 1: named Nancy Crampton Brophy, who was accused of killing her
18:37
Speaker 1: husband to try and claim a bunch of money from
18:41
Speaker 1: their insurance policy. Well, her trial is underway and the
18:46
Speaker 1: court heard recently that Nancy Brophy, well, she kind of
18:51
Speaker 1: admitted to killing her husband to her cellmate in jail.
18:56
Speaker 1: And that cellmate went and told the authorities. And well,
19:00
Speaker 1: you know how that usually ends up for you. Yeah,
19:03
Speaker 1: it ends up being used against you. in a court
19:05
Speaker 1: of law. That's why these jails use jailhouse snitches and
19:10
Speaker 1: put them in, you know, jail cells with people that
19:12
Speaker 1: they're trying to get information from. And more times than not,
19:17
Speaker 1: these stupid convicts, these moron murderers, they think it's a
19:21
Speaker 1: cool idea to confide in their new cellie, and that
19:25
Speaker 1: cellie ends up being a jailhouse snitch who ends up
19:29
Speaker 1: ratting them out and, well, makes life a lot more
19:32
Speaker 1: difficult for them. So let's dive into this article from
19:36
Speaker 1: the Daily Mail, and let's hear about Nancy Crampton Brophy
19:41
Speaker 1: shooting herself in the foot. Headline, romance novelist who wrote
19:46
Speaker 1: How to Murder Your Husband Before Murdering Her Chef's Spouse.
19:40
Speaker 1: This article was authored by Melissa Koenig and Harriet Alexander.
20:04
Speaker 1: A romance novelist who wrote an essay entitled How to
20:07
Speaker 1: Murder Your Husband accidentally admitted to shooting dead her chef's
20:11
Speaker 1: spouse to a cellmate a court heard. Prosecutors in Portland, Oregon,
20:16
Speaker 1: claimed Tuesday that Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, accidentally let slip
20:22
Speaker 1: that she'd shot chef husband Daniel Brophy, 63, dead at
20:26
Speaker 1: the Oregon Culinary Institute in June of 2018. When we
20:33
Speaker 1: were first talking about this story, it certainly lined up
20:37
Speaker 1: with what the police alleged. She was close by as
20:42
Speaker 1: far as the surveillance videos go. She was in the vicinity.
20:48
Speaker 1: And the police, well, they never found any evidence of
20:52
Speaker 1: someone breaking in or this chef having problems with anyone personally,
20:58
Speaker 1: anything like that. So the evidence started to mount and
21:01
Speaker 1: it started to build. She's said to have made the
21:05
Speaker 1: accidental admission while chatting to former cellmate Andrea B. Jacobs
21:10
Speaker 1: at the Inverness Low Security Jail in Portland in September
21:14
Speaker 1: of 2018. So here she is in this jail cell.
21:19
Speaker 1: thinking that, you know, she's amongst her own people, fellow travelers.
21:23
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to snitch me out. You would think that
21:25
Speaker 1: a novelist who writes stories about people killing their husbands
21:30
Speaker 1: would research jail and understand that anything you say can
21:35
Speaker 1: and will be used against you. That doesn't just mean
21:37
Speaker 1: with the police, right? If you tell a convict something
21:41
Speaker 1: or someone being held in one of these lockups, and
21:44
Speaker 1: they feel like they can get an easier sentence, or
21:47
Speaker 1: if they're facing hard time, and they feel like they
21:49
Speaker 1: can get it a little lighter by ratting on you,
21:51
Speaker 1: believe me, that shit's gonna happen. It's all about self-preservation, folks. Ms.
21:59
Speaker 1: Brophy held her arms apart like a wingspan and said,
22:02
Speaker 1: I was this far away when the shooting happened, Multnomah
22:06
Speaker 1: County Senior Deputy District Attorney Sean Overstreet said of the
22:10
Speaker 1: alleged conversation. She then corrected herself, Overstreet continued, and said
22:15
Speaker 1: the shooting happened at close range. Brophy has previously insisted
22:19
Speaker 1: she's innocent of the crime and has sought to blame
22:22
Speaker 1: it on a mystery assailant. It's always a mystery assailant, right?
22:26
Speaker 1: Whenever one of these people's caught for killing a husband
22:29
Speaker 1: or a wife, or somebody close to them, they bring
22:32
Speaker 1: up this mystery assailant. Oh, this person snuck in, and
22:36
Speaker 1: there's never any evidence to back any of that up.
22:38
Speaker 1: It's just fantasyland nonsense. But it's inevitable that when you
22:43
Speaker 1: get to a case like this, it's going to be
22:45
Speaker 1: one of the excuses. She's accused of carrying out the
22:48
Speaker 1: killing to cash in Daniel's $ 1. 4 million life insurance policy
22:53
Speaker 1: and faces life behind bars if convicted of second-degree murder
22:57
Speaker 1: charges she faces. Wait a minute. How can the, how
23:00
Speaker 1: can it not be first degree murder? She's whacking him
23:03
Speaker 1: to get his insurance though. She's obviously premeditating it. How
23:07
Speaker 1: is this second degree? Look, I'll tell you what, Portland,
23:11
Speaker 1: Oregon in general is a beautiful place, but kind of
23:13
Speaker 1: like the South, how I feel about things down there.
23:16
Speaker 1: It's loony up in Portland. People aren't being, uh, They're
23:20
Speaker 1: not being gone after and prosecuted for crimes against property
23:25
Speaker 1: or against persons even in some regards. Now, you all
23:28
Speaker 1: know how I feel about nonviolent crime. I think that
23:31
Speaker 1: should be treated in a different manner. But the second
23:33
Speaker 1: you're violent in any way. You have to be regarded
23:37
Speaker 1: as a danger to other people. And when I say
23:39
Speaker 1: other people, I mean my mom, my girlfriend, my sister,
23:42
Speaker 1: my little brother, whoever, right? People that you care about
23:46
Speaker 1: could come in contact with one of these violent people
23:49
Speaker 1: and they can easily snap. So if you're a violent criminal,
23:52
Speaker 1: it's a whole different ballgame. There needs to be strict
23:55
Speaker 1: rules and harsh penalties for violent crimes, especially when it's
23:59
Speaker 1: multiple times. You know, first time around, all right, a
24:03
Speaker 1: little bit... of leniency is probably the right way to go. Probation,
24:09
Speaker 1: depending on the crime, right? If it's super violent, well,
24:11
Speaker 1: see you later, prison forever. So it all depends on
24:14
Speaker 1: the crime, but these violent criminals that are let out
24:17
Speaker 1: in places like Oregon, I don't understand what's going on.
24:27
Speaker 1: A reference to her cellmate came in a long, partially
24:30
Speaker 1: ineligible letter that Crampton Brophy received in March, Overstreet explained,
24:36
Speaker 1: according to Oregon Live. It was intercepted by jail officials
24:40
Speaker 1: and became a crucial piece of evidence in the trial.
24:43
Speaker 1: He said authorities did not immediately understand the significance of
24:46
Speaker 1: the letter, but were able to track down the cellmate,
24:50
Speaker 1: who was transferred to a prison in Texas after being
24:53
Speaker 1: convicted of embezzlement charges. to interview her about what Crampton
24:57
Speaker 1: Brophy allegedly said. So this lady is transferred already and
25:04
Speaker 1: the authorities in Oregon are tracking her down because of
25:08
Speaker 1: what the contents of this letter, you know, what it
25:11
Speaker 1: said after they figured out the importance of the case,
25:14
Speaker 1: they wanted to get her corroboration of what's going on here.
25:19
Speaker 1: In the interview, Overstreet said, Jacobs appeared embarrassed after telling
25:23
Speaker 1: authorities of Crampton Brophy's alleged confession. Ms. Jacobs reported that
25:28
Speaker 1: it became very awkward afterward, Overstreet said, noting that Jacobs
25:32
Speaker 1: later told her attorneys she didn't want to go and
25:34
Speaker 1: be a snitch. Well, I hate to tell you that's
25:37
Speaker 1: what you did, but it's the right thing to do here, right?
25:41
Speaker 1: You can't live by that kind of code, but one
25:44
Speaker 1: thing you have to keep in mind is there's a certain...
25:48
Speaker 1: code and certain rules inside of prison. And being a
25:52
Speaker 1: snitch is one of the worst things you can possibly be.
25:55
Speaker 1: So unless you're getting some kind of favorable treatment or
25:58
Speaker 1: you're being moved to a more favorable institution, low security
26:02
Speaker 1: or something, there's not really much motivation for these inmates
26:06
Speaker 1: to come forward and snitch on their comrades. But defense
26:13
Speaker 1: attorney Kristen Weinmiller argued that Jacob cannot be brought in
26:17
Speaker 1: as a witness in the trial because the defense has
26:19
Speaker 1: already arrested its case. To respond to this would require
26:23
Speaker 1: a significant investigation, Weinmiller told Circuit Court Judge Christopher Ramirez, adding,
26:30
Speaker 1: it's just simply too late after they've rested to bring
26:33
Speaker 1: in another witness of this magnitude. Weinmiller said she only
26:38
Speaker 1: learned of the audio recording from the detective's interview with
26:40
Speaker 1: Jacobs this past Monday, adding that Jacobs is suspected of
26:44
Speaker 1: stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicaid fraud, though
26:49
Speaker 1: Overstreet said he wasn't aware of an active investigation. So
26:53
Speaker 1: if she is under investigation, say here, they could offer
26:56
Speaker 1: her lighter time if she cooperates to help prosecute and
27:00
Speaker 1: close this murder case. A lot of times they'll do that.
27:04
Speaker 1: if you're wanted for embezzlement or fraud or something like that,
27:08
Speaker 1: and you can help solve and shut a murder case
27:11
Speaker 1: or a case that goes up the chain, if you will,
27:14
Speaker 1: they'll be willing to work with your lawyer, give you
27:17
Speaker 1: a lighter sentence in return for your testimony, right? But
27:21
Speaker 1: a lot of good defense lawyers will be able to
27:23
Speaker 1: punch holes in that if you have an active case
27:26
Speaker 1: going on and you're going to not be prosecuted because
27:29
Speaker 1: of your testimony, they'll try and use that as a
27:32
Speaker 1: reason to say that you're lying. And obviously, then it's
27:35
Speaker 1: up to the jurors to decide what's what. In the end,
27:41
Speaker 1: Ramris declined to rule on the matter immediately, Oregon Live reports,
27:45
Speaker 1: and instead asked for written arguments to be submitted by
27:48
Speaker 1: May 11th. So by tomorrow, they have to have these
27:51
Speaker 1: written arguments admitted to the court so that the judge
27:55
Speaker 1: can take a look. The accusations of a confession came
27:58
Speaker 1: as testimony resumed in Crampton Brody's murder trial following an
28:02
Speaker 1: 11-day delay when Overstreet came down with COVID-19. The jury
28:08
Speaker 1: has also just lost one of its members due to illness,
28:10
Speaker 1: Oregon Live reports. Previously in the trial, Judge Ramris, Ramris
28:15
Speaker 1: ruled the prosecutors cannot introduce evidence, an essay titled, Had
28:20
Speaker 1: a Murder Your Husband, that Crampton Brody wrote in 2011
28:22
Speaker 1: while applying to a writer's group. I mean, I guess
28:28
Speaker 1: I can see why, right? You can't really make the
28:31
Speaker 1: jump and say because somebody wrote a novel or a
28:35
Speaker 1: blog about someone murdering their husband that that person is
28:39
Speaker 1: guilty of murdering their husband. But I would think that
28:42
Speaker 1: it would be a relevant piece of evidence for the
28:46
Speaker 1: jury to consider when they're trying to make a decision
28:49
Speaker 1: about the person's profile or if they're capable of something
28:52
Speaker 1: like this. As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a
28:58
Speaker 1: lot of time thinking about murder and consequently about police procedure,
29:02
Speaker 1: Crampton Brophy wrote in the essay. Well, not enough time, obviously,
29:06
Speaker 1: if you're talking to jailhouse snitches. After all, if the
29:10
Speaker 1: murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don't
29:13
Speaker 1: want to spend any time in jail. And let me
29:16
Speaker 1: say clearly for the record... I don't like jumpsuits and
29:19
Speaker 1: orange isn't my color. Well, orange is the new black
29:23
Speaker 1: and it better be your favorite color because it's what
29:26
Speaker 1: you're going to be wearing for quite some time. The
29:29
Speaker 1: essay also weighed valid motives for murder, including infidelity and
29:33
Speaker 1: the cost of a divorce and methods. Knives are really
29:37
Speaker 1: personal while guns are loud, messy, Look, I can see
29:30
Speaker 1: both sides of that argument, honestly. I try to be
29:32
Speaker 1: kind of fair here when we're talking about, you know,
29:34
Speaker 1: especially trials. right? Because you want to be afforded a
30:00
Speaker 1: fair shake if you ever find yourself in trouble for something.
30:03
Speaker 1: And I certainly want to be afforded a fair shake.
30:06
Speaker 1: So I try to be pretty neutral when we're looking
30:10
Speaker 1: at procedure and trials. And I could see where the
30:13
Speaker 1: judge is coming from here. I mean, this is a
30:15
Speaker 1: fiery blog post, right? A fiery book entry or whatever.
30:20
Speaker 1: And it was that headline that grabbed my attention for
30:23
Speaker 1: the story. So if it's grabbing my attention, you know
30:25
Speaker 1: that it's going to grab the juror's attention as well.
30:30
Speaker 1: He ruled that any minimal probative value of an article
30:33
Speaker 1: written that long ago is substantially outweighed by the danger
30:37
Speaker 1: of unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues. Crampton Brophy
30:41
Speaker 1: also wrote an online biography about the struggles of being
30:44
Speaker 1: married to a chef. Oh, how rough must it be? Good,
30:48
Speaker 1: hearty meals. Always have something, you know, new whipped up
30:52
Speaker 1: in the kitchen for you. I know, I know, you'd
30:55
Speaker 1: prefer to eat McDonald's while you wrote your stupid go-nowhere novels.
31:02
Speaker 1: As a result, there are chickens and turkeys in my backyard,
31:05
Speaker 1: a fabulous vegetable garden, which also grows tobacco for an insecticide,
31:11
Speaker 1: and a hot meal on the table every night, she wrote.
31:14
Speaker 1: For those of you who have longed for this, let
31:16
Speaker 1: me caution you. The old adage is true. Be careful
31:20
Speaker 1: what you wish for. When the gods are truly angry,
31:23
Speaker 1: they grant us our wishes. Look, if it was so bad, lady,
31:26
Speaker 1: and you didn't want to be married to the chef
31:28
Speaker 1: over here, why didn't you just leave him? I mean,
31:31
Speaker 1: just pick up and leave him. It's not like you're
31:33
Speaker 1: this real successful novelist and you had all this money
31:37
Speaker 1: from writing your stupid romance novels. So, just leave the guy.
31:43
Speaker 1: Why do you have to kill him? And the same goes, obviously,
31:45
Speaker 1: when men kill women. I just don't understand it. Just leave.
31:50
Speaker 1: Brophy was killed in a teaching kitchen at the Oregon
31:53
Speaker 1: Culinary Institute in southwest Portland where he had worked since 2006.
31:59
Speaker 1: Crampton Brophy was caught on camera half an hour before
32:02
Speaker 1: his death, driving to the Culinary Institute for all the
32:05
Speaker 1: bravado and talk she had about being a novelist who
32:10
Speaker 1: writes about wives killing their husbands. She certainly didn't follow
32:14
Speaker 1: any kind of protocol here, driving there in your own van. Yeah,
32:18
Speaker 1: because there's no CCTV cameras anywhere, no surveillance anywhere. 20
32:26
Speaker 1: minutes later, she drove away and went home to Beavertown.
32:29
Speaker 1: Prosecutors claim that Crampton Brophy was motivated by his $ 1. 4
32:34
Speaker 1: million life insurance policy and played an audio recording to
32:37
Speaker 1: the court of her asking a detective four days later
32:41
Speaker 1: to write a letter specifically exonerating her in her husband's
32:45
Speaker 1: death so she could collect the life insurance policy. Imagine
32:49
Speaker 1: thinking like that right after your husband or wife died. Hey,
32:53
Speaker 1: Officer So-and-so, I'm going to need you to write me
32:55
Speaker 1: a letter to exonerate me. What is this, elementary school?
32:59
Speaker 1: You missed a day? Mom and Dad got to write
33:01
Speaker 1: a letter because you were absent? What is she even
33:05
Speaker 1: talking about? And obviously, the police did not do that.
33:10
Speaker 1: She claimed the policy was worth $ 40, 000, but investigators said
33:14
Speaker 1: she tried to claim 10 different policies that totaled $ 1. 4
33:17
Speaker 1: million in as well as workers' compensation plan because he
33:22
Speaker 1: was killed on the job. So she probably planned that, right?
33:25
Speaker 1: I'll kill him on the job. I'll get me that
33:27
Speaker 1: workers' comp. Who has 10 different insurance policies out there?
33:31
Speaker 1: Maybe someone does or people do, and I'm not hip
33:33
Speaker 1: to it. Maybe I'm missing the boat on a way
33:36
Speaker 1: to upend the market here. Personally, I have one. Maybe
33:41
Speaker 1: people have a couple out there, but 10 different policies?
33:44
Speaker 1: I wonder how many of them he even knew about.
33:48
Speaker 1: Nancy Brophy was maintaining all those life insurance policies while
33:52
Speaker 1: continuing down a path of financial ruin, said Overstreet. They were,
33:56
Speaker 1: you know, low on money. They didn't have the kind
34:00
Speaker 1: of money that they should have. And she had all
34:03
Speaker 1: of these insurance policies for a relatively young man of
34:06
Speaker 1: 63 years old. Well over $ 1, 000 a month was being
34:12
Speaker 1: paid into these policies at a time when they were
34:14
Speaker 1: struggling to pay their mortgage. He said that despite Crampton
34:18
Speaker 1: Brophy and Brophy celebrating a large wedding in 1997, they
34:23
Speaker 1: did not actually legally wed until shortly before he was murdered.
34:27
Speaker 1: This whole entire thing looked goofy from Jump Street. And
34:32
Speaker 1: I don't know how this lady thinks she's going to
34:34
Speaker 1: get off here, especially with the new jailhouse snitch stuff,
34:37
Speaker 1: but come on. The kitchen showed no signs of a
34:44
Speaker 1: break in and Brophy's wallet and phone were on him
34:48
Speaker 1: at the time of death. No suspects were ever identified
34:51
Speaker 1: except for Crampton Brophy, who was arrested in September 2018
34:55
Speaker 1: and pleaded not guilty to the crime. Look, usually when
34:59
Speaker 1: there's no other suspects and there's all of this evidence
35:04
Speaker 1: built up against you. Yeah, you're usually guilty. The court
35:09
Speaker 1: had also previously heard how she had bought a ghost
35:12
Speaker 1: gun assembly kit online on Christmas Eve of 2017, which
35:16
Speaker 1: Brophy himself signed for when it was delivered in January 2018,
35:20
Speaker 1: and his wife was traveling for work. Unable to put
35:25
Speaker 1: the gun together, Nancy bought another gun at a Portland
35:28
Speaker 1: gun show in February of 2018, and a month later
35:32
Speaker 1: began practicing at a gun range. Overstreet said Crampton Brophy
35:37
Speaker 1: used a Glock pistol she bought at the gun show
35:39
Speaker 1: to shoot her husband, then swapped out the gun's barrel
35:42
Speaker 1: with an identical mechanism preventing forensic experts from matching the
35:46
Speaker 1: spent bullets with the original slide-racking system. That's about the
35:50
Speaker 1: first thing that she has done here throughout this that
35:54
Speaker 1: would make me say, all right, maybe this lady has
35:57
Speaker 1: read a couple of crime novels, never mind been the
35:59
Speaker 1: author of some. Because if you change that out, it
36:04
Speaker 1: makes it harder for authorities to determine where that bullet
36:08
Speaker 1: came from. Lisa Maxfield, one of two defense lawyers, said
36:14
Speaker 1: Crampton Brophy bought the guns as research for her novels. Oh,
36:17
Speaker 1: come on. Really? You're going to go buy some guns
36:20
Speaker 1: for research for your novels when you're broke? Okay, sure,
36:23
Speaker 1: because those guns aren't costly or anything. She also said
36:27
Speaker 1: Crampton Brophy had worked as a salesperson for a variety
36:31
Speaker 1: of insurance companies and had an incentive to buy multiple
36:34
Speaker 1: policies when she changed jobs to demonstrate her belief in
36:38
Speaker 1: the product and because she received a commission. That is
36:41
Speaker 1: so ridiculous. I mean, who are these lawyers for real?
36:45
Speaker 1: Do they really think the jurors are going to buy
36:47
Speaker 1: this stuff? This lady is going to be found guilty
36:50
Speaker 1: almost without a doubt. Maxville told the court, The circumstantial
36:55
Speaker 1: case against Crampton Brophy begs you to cast a blind
36:59
Speaker 1: eye to the most powerful evidence of all, love. She
37:02
Speaker 1: said her client had no reason to kill her husband,
37:05
Speaker 1: and her finances deteriorated after his death. Well, that's because
37:09
Speaker 1: she was planning on getting a whole bunch of dough,
37:12
Speaker 1: and her plans were thwarted. And really, you're going to
37:15
Speaker 1: say love? Okay, sure, we all buy that. Nancy has
37:20
Speaker 1: always been thoroughly, madly, crazily in love with Dan Brophy.
37:25
Speaker 1: and she remains so this day, Maxfield said. But the novelist,
37:29
Speaker 1: whose titles include The Wrong Husband and The Wrong Cop,
37:32
Speaker 1: previously spoke about her home life in writer forums, where
37:36
Speaker 1: she said their marriage, like any other, had its ups
37:39
Speaker 1: and downs. The blog post, which she wrote on the
37:42
Speaker 1: site Seeing Jane in 2011, began, As a suspense writer,
37:47
Speaker 1: I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently,
37:51
Speaker 1: about police procedure. It included five potential motives for wanting
37:55
Speaker 1: to kill your husband that were divided into the following categories. Financial.
38:00
Speaker 1: Divorce is expensive. And do you really want to split
38:03
Speaker 1: your possessions? Lying. Cheating. This is a crime of passion.
38:08
Speaker 1: In anger, you bash his head in or stab him
38:11
Speaker 1: with a kitchen knife. Oh, wow. That sounds like a
38:14
Speaker 1: well-adjusted lady, huh? Fell in love with someone else. Let's
38:19
Speaker 1: say your church frowns on divorce. You need to be
38:21
Speaker 1: a widow so you won't fall out of favor with
38:23
Speaker 1: your religion. Sounds like a fantastic religion. Can't wait to
38:27
Speaker 1: go there for a service on a Sunday. abuser this
38:31
Speaker 1: one is tough anybody can claim abuse what is abuse
38:35
Speaker 1: it's your profession now we're talking you already possess both
38:39
Speaker 1: skill and knowledge the only one that's acceptable out of
38:42
Speaker 1: all of that is abuser and you know it has
38:45
Speaker 1: to be proved that you're being abused or you're going
38:48
Speaker 1: to be in trouble This lady was obviously somebody capable
38:53
Speaker 1: of stuff like this. Somebody who was thinking about stuff
38:56
Speaker 1: like this, who put it onto paper, right? Now, that
39:00
Speaker 1: doesn't mean she was always going to kill her husband,
39:04
Speaker 1: but she certainly was toying with a few of the
39:07
Speaker 1: ideas here. She also gave the reader options on what
39:14
Speaker 1: their murder weapon or technique should be. She wrote guns, loud, messy,
39:18
Speaker 1: require some skill. If it takes 10 shots for the
39:21
Speaker 1: sucker to die, either you have terrible aim or he's
39:25
Speaker 1: on drugs. Knives, really personal and up close. Blood everywhere. Ew. Well,
39:32
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens here, but I'm pretty sure that
39:36
Speaker 1: with everything that we have heard as far as evidence,
39:39
Speaker 1: and with the jailhouse snitch coming forward, that Nancy Brophy
39:44
Speaker 1: is going to be looking at a very, very long
39:46
Speaker 1: time in prison. and she'll have all of the time
39:49
Speaker 1: she wants to continue writing her terrible romance novels. If
39:55
Speaker 1: you'd like to contact me, you can do that at
39:57
Speaker 1: bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also
40:06
Speaker 1: find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link
40:12
Speaker 1: that we discussed can be found in the description box.