About book Until The Twelfth Of Never: The Deadly Divorce Of Dan & Betty Broderick (1993)
This was an excellent look into the lives of every “victim” involved in this tragedy. It pulls you into the mind of Betty, slowly going insane over the years trying to hold together a marriage, that was never meant to last. It actually pulled me in so much emotionally, I had to take a break for a few days. A book has never done that to me before. I have heard of this story since I was younger, and always assumed it to be a story of a man and wife, and a perfect marriage and some young beautiful seductress comes along and ruins everything. That’s not the case at all. The Lifetime movie even did this story injustice, portraying Dan as a nice reasonable man, just trying to get on with his life with his new classy assistant and the poor man is just being harassed by his ex -wife who can’t let go. That wasn’t the case at all.Though murder is never an answer, the only victims in this story, I feel are the poor children. It was heartbreaking how each parent used these children as pawns in their bitter divorce, not having one ounce of concern for their feelings. The “Danny” tape where Betty is cursing up a storm at her 11-year-old still upsets me, both how she was saying horrible things to her son….and how Dan allowed it just so he can collect evidence.The marriage, was doomed from the beginning. Dan, for whatever reason shut down the day they went on their honeymoon, and has been cold and distant and unaffectionate ever since. Betty acted out her insecurities with violence all along, according to the children. Dan was an egotistical, passive aggressive, narcissist, and so is she, except for the passive aggressive part. She was aggressive. So in a lot of ways they were perfect for one another, but dangerous together.This in itself, is where the tragedy lies. Before Linda Kolkena comes along, both could have avoided disaster. Dan,.if he had any iota of decency would have said “look Bets, I just don’t love you anymore, its not going to work” but no. He had her keep house and her children while he worked toward his career, I think, planning all along, to wait until something better came along. Betty, if she had any kind of self respect, would have gathered her children and went back to the East Coast, knowing she deserved a better husband. But she didn’t. This is where I don’t understand what she was trying to hang on to. There was the money theory, of course, but she got a settlement of $16,000, and that was in the 80s. I’m a single 33-year-old and I’ll take $16,000 now, and be more than happy with it! Technically yes she put him through school and he was a self indulged ingrate, so she should be mad, but she should have left sooner. So it really wasn’t about the money, I think, with Betty it was just about being rejected. Linda Kolkena was no saint. She was fired from her job as a stewardess because she was screwing a passenger. And according to co-workers, had her sights set on Dan from the beginning. And she did not show any qualms to being a homewrecker, only the fact that Dan wouldn’t yet leave his wife for her. So began the notorious affair. If she used her intelligence and not emotion, Betty would have let these two be. And they would have self destructed on their own. Dan was a heartless, vain creature, and would have left this young chick in a few years anyway, and realized he had nothing in common, other than screwing, with someone that could be his daughter. But Betty harassed and vandalized and terrorized, a thing which I think some psychologists should have been sued for malpractice. For these things, she should have been locked up before the murders happened. Dan enjoyed it, serving her passive aggressively with OSC after OSC and restraining orders and using his attorney influence for his own gain. So both were dangerous together.Then she finally killed, and the last portion of the novel shows the trial, those who sympathized with her and those who didn’t and how a toughie like Wells was finally able to bring her down.I think another movie should be made, and solely based on Bella Stumbo’s book. Excellent!
This is one of the saddest true crime books I've ever read.I first heard of Betty Broderick when I caught the Lifetime movie about her on TV a few weeks ago (I was a very young child in the early 90's so I hadn't heard anything about her back then). After watching the movie and learning it was heavily bias, I started searching for a more accurate telling of her story and came across this book. I was very lucky to get the Kindle version for free a few days ago and I just couldn't put it down.The sheer torment that Betty was put through by Dan and Linda is disgusting. Now, I'm not saying Betty is totally innocent (obviously), but as you continue reading this book, it's easy to sympathize with her. Betty was a woman who was literally driven to do what she did. After sacrificing so much, after working her butt off to raise four children and support her husband both emotionally and financially through medical and law school, after all that...her husband kicks her to the curb for a younger woman, just as Betty was about to be able to enjoy the rewards of all her sacrifice and hard work. Then to be constantly tormented and dragged through years of legal BS. I do not condone what she did, but I truly feel for Betty Broderick.
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Betty Broderick came to fame in late 1989 when she shot her ex-husband Dan Broderick and his new wife, Linda Kolkena to death in their bed. What viewers got to see was a long, drawn out custody battle over their four children, and of course, money. What viewers of the two murder trials didn't get to see was the manipulations, abuse, and gaslighting that Dan did to Betty. In 1983, Dan began an affair with his legal secretary, Linda. When Betty asked if he was cheating on her, Dan said no. Dan said he wasn't cheating on his wife of 20 years for the first three years of his affair. When he finally admitted his affair, Betty burned his clothes. When Dan walked out on her, and into the arms of his lover, Betty drove their four children, one at a time, to Dan's new house and dropped them off outside. Betty's thought was, I raised them, now it's Dan's turn. She expected Dan to give up immediately, and return the children to their mother. When he didn't, he turned his newfound custody into a legal battle. Dan, who had gotten a medical degree and a law degree while Betty raised their two oldest and worked odd jobs to support them, was now President of the San Francisco Bar Association, and because of his status and clout, was able to drag Betty through the court system, and have her lose at every turn. Betty, arguing that she wasn't getting a fair trial, had several judges tell her that she was getting her fair trial. Anyone with half a brain knew that Betty was getting the short end of every deal, including being thrown in jail for cursing her ex-husband out on his answering machine. Many people wondered what took Betty so long to finally shoot her ex and his new wife. Especially after telling anyone who would listen for years that she was going to kill them. What smart people can also see is that when Dan walked out, he took with him, what was left of Betty's mind. Betty went crazy, and was not treated as such. For both of her murder trials, her attorney was put on a short leash in what he could and could not present to the jury. The prosecution got no such restraints. Betty was also not allowed to plead insanity as a defense, tho anyone could see that she was insane. This is a story about the injustices of justice, and how one woman got her revenge on a man who used his position in society to bury his wife.As for the book itself, the first half was incredibly slow moving and very dull. Though this book came highly recommended, the minutiae that was included was a bit much, and much was repetitive. The second half moved along at a slightly faster pace, but was still slow. I became interested in the Betty Broderick case when I saw the two movies on Lifetime depicting her story and then her trials. Both movies were told from the prosecution side, and were factually incorrect. I would only recommend this book to true die hard true crime fans, but with heavy reservations.
—Dana
Dan Broderick is a successful lawyer who has an affair with his assistant and then leaves his wife, Betty, for this much younger woman. Betty kills them both which shocks the upscale community in which they live in. I was completely engrossed in this true crime novel and I thought it was well written because the book covers the span of their marriage, beginning with the early years as they struggled financially when Dan was in law school to the present when he became successful and they lived an upper class lifestyle. After Dan left her, Betty comes across as a scorned and bitter woman and it is easy to see how she reached the point to where she "lost it". If I had to figure out her motive, I would say that she felt betrayed because she helped her husband get to where he was at in his career. If you enjoy reading true crime books, I highly recommend you read this one!
—Lennie
I like true crime books because they try to answer an unanswerable question. (What makes people do what they do to each other?) This book was extremely well written and really came off as unbiased. That must be a very difficult task for a crime author who is, after all, a human with their own perceptions and biases. What to say about the subject matter? All I can think of is the terrible decisions made by both Dan and Betty (Linda's decisions are more understandable). IF they had put their children first, IF they had been truthful to each other, IF they had been less selfish and narcissistic (yes, both of them), IF they had been less ambitious and materialistic.......the list of IF's go on and on. This is a great read, I recommend it to all who like true crime and those who just want to see if they can answer that unanswerable question!!
—Becky
