European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 9, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse By am v Wallace los Angeles times everybody in the upscale area of la Jolla calif., knew the Broderick. Daniel t. Broderick Iii and his wife Betty seemed to have a classic society Page marriage. Dan was a celebrity in local Legal circles. Armed with degrees from Harvard Law school and Cornell school of Medicine the prominent malpractice attorney was a $1 million a year lawyer at the top of his game. Botty spent her Days shuttling her four children to and from music lessons and soccer games planning the couple s Busy social Calendar and tending to the Yard and housework. In the Early 80s, a they both were almost Central casting for Early Yuppie 1 recalls Burl stiff the society columnist for the san Diego Union. But in 1983, Tho facade began to crack when Betty suspected that Dan was having a Romance with his office assistant. In 1985, after 16 years of marriage Dan filed for divorce sparking five years of Battles so violent that Broderick is. Broderick became known As the worst divorce Case in san Diego county. The jilted wife Spray painted the Interior of the a $325,000 Hillside Home that they had shared. She rammed her car into Danes front door left obscene messages on his answering machine and defaced court documents writing Quot god Quot where his name should have been. Betty says Dan used his Legal influence to win sole custody of. Their children sell their House against her wishes and bilk her out of her rightful share of his income. More than once Betty told her children that she would kill their father. Dan countered by having Betty arrested jailed and briefly committed to a mental Hospital. On Friday nov. 3, 1989, four Days before Bettye a 42nd birthday yet another round of Legal papers arrived at her door. Dan was threatening to file criminal contempt charges unless she stopped leaving few messages on the answering machine he shared with his new wife Linda. Betty recalls that she was exhausted by the near constant court Battles likening them to Quot putting a housewife in the ring with Muhammad and late saturday night she decided that she could t fight anymore. Just before Dawn sunday she dressed got in her car and drove from her Ocean View Home to Dan and Linda a georgian style House near downtown san Diego. She used her older daughter s key to let herself in. She climbed the stairs and slipped into the master bedroom standing Over the bed where Dan arid Linda slept. Her eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness As she pointed her 2-year-old .38-Cafiber, five shot revolver toward the colonial print Bedspread and began firing a Quot real fast Quot she recalls Quot no hesitation at one Bullet hit a bedside table. Another pounded into the Wall. But three bullets struck the sleeping couple. One pierced Linda s neck and lodged in her brain. Another hit her in the Chest. A third perforated Danes Back fracturing a rib and tearing through his right lung. Quot of of you got me Quot Betty heard Dan say san Diego county Deputy medical examiner Christopher Swalwell concluded that Linda was killed instantly when a Bullet penetrated her brain Stem. Dan died More slowly a3 blood filled his right lung and made it More and More difficult to breathe. When Betty first agreed to talk to this reporter three weeks after the killings she came on Strong Quot he went off with the Bimbo at 40, driving a red Corvette a Haven to we heard this before Quot she chirped in the sterile visiting room of the women s detention facility. Betty was no longer the svelte tailored woman that Dan had left behind she had gained 60 pounds since the divorce. _ Quot i have never had emotional disturbance or mental illness a except when he provoked a disturbance. A she spat. Quot my a emotional outbursts were Only a response to Dan s calculating hateful Way of dealing with our divorce. He was hammering into me and everyone else that i was crazy. How Long can you live like that Quot overnight Betty became a Symbol of the rage a and desire for revenge a so familiar to divorcing couples. Soon after her Story appeared in print hundreds of people most of them women wrote to Betty and to local newspapers to say that while they did t condone murder they understood the fury that prompted it. Quot i believe every word Betty says a because i be been there Quot one woman wrote. Quot lawyers and judges simply refuse to protect mothers against this Type of legalized emotional Quot i bought into a 1950s leave-1t-to-beaver�?T marriage. And he stole my whole life Quot Betty said Quot this was a desperate act of self-defense.1�?T the first time Dan saw her she says he told friends that she would be his wife. She barely gave him a second look. That was in 1965, just before her 18th birthday she and a Girlfriend had travelled from new York for a chaperoned football weekend at notre Dame where Dan was beginning his senior year. He approached her at a party and introduced himself As an mad a a doctor he said that he would be attending Cornell University a medical school in Manhattan the next year. The. Conversation was Brief and when Betty returned to her first semester at mount Saint Vincent an All women s Catholic College in the Bronx where she was an English major she remembers thinking Dan was a nerd Quot i m real tall and used to go out with athletic she remembers explaining that at 5-Fooho Dan was nearly an Inch Shorter than she. Quot he had Long Skinny sideburns round Tortoise Shell glasses you re talking Geek but Dan kept in touch sending telegrams and letters to Betty who was living with her parents in the new York suburb of Bronxville. And when the confident Young medical student called her the next fall Betty was intrigued Quot he was very ambitious very intelligent and very funny. And i am those three things. We were from the same kind of background we both wanted the same things in the future Quot she says wealth social standing and a Large family. Quot All i wanted to be was a Mommy Quot she says and that appealed to Dan. Quot he promised nit the Moon. The Guy asked me to marry him every Day i three they were married in april 1969 in an elaborate ceremony at the immaculate Conception Church photographs from that Day show a Bride of striking Beauty a rail thin and wrapped in lace with Bright eyes Long Blond hair and a satisfied smile. The third of six children of Frank and Marita Bisceglia a Success a new York City building contractor Betty had never lived away from Home and she was accustomed to having a maid. Now that idyllic life ended. In Danes tiny medical school dormitory room her life went Quot from Bliss to disaster Quot Betty says. She threatened to leave him. But she changed her mind when she found out she was pregnant. Before the wedding she had begun teaching third Grade. Now she tried to conceal her pregnancy working until the Day she delivered. In january 1970, when Kimberly Broderick arrived one month Early the couple was unprepared. Kirej spent her first months sleeping in a Dresser drawer. Aboin this time Dan decided to get into the emerging medical malpractice Field by following his medical studies with Lav school. Betty had a second daughter Lee and then in 1973, after Dan graduated from Harvard Law school the Broderick family moved to san Diego. Dan and Betty Hadj been married four years and during that time she says Quot the balance of Power Between us had been totally a a a went from being accomplished Well connected j and free to being trapped with two children for whom i was 100 percent responsible Quot she wrote in an unpublished 90-Page account of her marriage that Sha titled what s a Nice girl to do a Story of White costar Domestic violence in America. Quot Dan went from being a student on his own with naj possessions no savings no connections or contacts to being an my cd who had Many Many indeed Dan seemed to Blossom in Southern California soon after he began his new Job at san Diego a oldest Law firm Gray Cary Ames amp Frye the Quick witted Young Litigator was recognized As a powerful orator. He specialized in civil litigation with a emphasis on personal injury and insurance Law and within a few years he became known As san Diego a pre eminent plaintiff s lawyer in the Field of medical malpractice. Dan and Betty were quickly absorbed into the Sci scene of attorneys and their mates. Within a few years Danes income began to ease the family a financial burdens. By the time Daniel in was born in 1976, the Broderick had bought their first House a five bedroom tract Home in la Jolla. In 1978, when Dan left Gray Cary t Start his own practice they had a swimming Pool dug in the Back Yard. A fourth child Rhett was born in 1979, an it soon the Broderick were living very Well. They had a ski condominium in Keystone colo., a boat and several cars including an my and a Jaguar. The children went to the prestigious private schools. There was plenty of Money for summer Camps and ski vacations cruises and trips to Europe. Bettye a life had finally surpassed what she had known As a child but her children say that achievement did not bring the family any peace. Quot mom was always kind of weird Quot recalls Kim now 20. Quot mom would get mad at dad All the time. Once mom picked up the stereo and threw it at him and she locked him out it a a to in a a albeit i it i. ,. A. A a _ i., a a ,. Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes Monda up i
