Elisabeth Broderick

1997 Interview:

lexxicon: Chances are, some of those reading this already know bits and pieces of your story either from the book, the TV movies, or your Oprah appearances. Some might think you're Shakespeare's "furious scorned woman," while others think you were a woman backed into a corner, really just a powerless victim at the mercy of crooked judges and lawyers who acted at the behest of your husband - a one-time president of the San Diego County Bar Association. And some might skip the colorful descriptions and simply call you a murderess. Would any of them be right?

Betty Broderick:When Dan walked out and then filed for divorce, it was tough, but I thought I could get through and beyond it. As the years ticked by it not only didn't stop, it got worse and worse. Dan said, "This will never be over until one of us is gone," and I knew he meant it, and I knew who he wanted gone. My first jury foreman said, "We only wondered what took her so long?" I don't know how I kept going either, except prayer. If I was a person who got mad back at someone instead of severely depressed, no doubt I would have done something sooner - but I am not that person. Never was, never will be. When people hurt me, I remove myself from their company and go on. I don't hold any grudges, just don't want to give them an opportunity to go on with that behavior.

I have no history in life of arguing or fighting with anyone for any reason. I despise arguing and ill will. Dan, on the other hand, was a professional arguer. He loved putting the other side down - he loved winning and humiliating and torturing the other side even beyond winning. He was very proud of always seeking punitive damages as a personal assault on the other side, not covered by insurance. [Ed. note: Daniel Broderick was an attorney specializing in medical malpractice suits.] He was very good at what he did ... at the time of his death, he was making several million a year. Not your average attorney. I was just another victim of his, and I had no desire to take him on in an arena I knew he controlled. I expected him to just give me the divorce simple and clean. After all, he was the one who wanted it, he was the one who moved out, he was the one who filed. I had no idea I'd have to fight him for everything, even the children. I took custody entirely for granted, because he never even liked being around the children! He was a very sick but very powerful man. I needed someone to protect me from him. The courts were supposed to do that. Ha! He got everything he asked for, no matter what the truth or the law. I desperately needed protection.

lexx: Why do you think it's important for people to hear the truth about your life - do you believe your experience has anything to do with the lives of other women or men? In other words, why should anyone care one way or another about your case?

Broderick: If it was done to me in our courts, what is the protection for them? There is a new book out called "Divorced From Justice." Obviously a lot of women are realizing that they have NO protections against husbands who lie, steal, cheat them out of everything - and the judges allow it! My case, with putting him through medical and law school, five children, 20 years, lots of property, et cetera, is probably a worst case scenario, but all women can learn from this! They have no rights in divorce court. The one with the money wins.

lexx: Tell me about the messages or conditioning you got as a girl and as a young woman. How does that conditioning tie in with what you found acceptable or even preferable in married life?

Broderick: I was the perfect little Catholic schoolgirl. I bought the program hook, line and sinker - big sinker! Marry the man of your dreams who will be a good provider for you and your many children. Be beautiful, have a beautiful home, beautiful children, be active in church and community, watch the kids grow, marry them off and be grandparents. I am not a scorekeeper - everything we did, we did as a couple. If we were poor, we were poor together. If we were rich, we were rich together. I viewed everything as "us," the good, the bad, or the ugly. Dan never seemed to have that view. "We" were poor, but "he" was rich. In the divorce, all the debts were 50% mine, but all the assets were 100% his. Nice arithmetic!

lexx: Yet I assume when you got married you were in love and happy. Give me an idea what your life was like during the early part of your marriage. When and how did things start to change?

Broderick: Dan was dependent upon me for his happiness. I was the one who kept everything afloat. The house, the kids, the cars, the parties, the trips, and him. When he started making real money in 1983, women started throwing themselves at him - literally. Not quality women, but desperate working girls looking for a sugar daddy to bail them out. This is a very common occurrence in San Diego. I thought Dan smart enough to see through their ploys to flatter and spoil him. I called it "his day in the sun." When he was a teenager, he was short, scrawny, had no car, no money, no personality - he was hardly BMOC. I had my day in the sun and enjoyed it to the hilt, when I was 16 to 21. I thought it was cute, until his attitude became "Women are waiting in LINE to replace you!" Then it became a little much. I never thought he'd really go for the bait! I thought better of him. Fool he or fool me?

lexx: During your trials, experts testified that you were the victim of chronic emotional abuse, but experts notwithstanding, the average person might find it hard to understand why - if you were being abused in this way - you didn't "just leave." Can you speak to that question?

Broderick: I didn't really become that unhappy until the affair years - 83, 84, 85. I did tell him to "get rid of your girlfriend or get out of my house," by October 1, 1983. He refused to do either - first telling me there was no affair, that I was crazy, then telling me that this was HIS house, and if I didn't like it, I could get out! I had nowhere to go, and no desire to leave my home, marriage, and children anyway. I just wanted him to get rid of his very public, very humiliating, embarrassing girlfriend. If he had been discreet, he could have kept her, but he was trying to force ME into divorcing him, so he could always appear the good guy instead of the snake he really was. Image was everything to him. The day he finally left, in 1985, was one of the best days of my life, because I was free! Of course by that time, he had maneuvered us into a rental house and rental car, both in his name, and he ended up with our house with the equity and I ended up on the street! Master manipulator of money, truth, people, courts, facts, et cetera. And always maintained that he did NOTHING wrong, that I was just crazy! It was very scary. Scares me even now, that he was so diabolical.

lexx: There were two television movies based on your story - Meredith Baxter played you. People watch television dramas and think they're seeing the real story. What was it like seeing your life played out by actors on TV?

Broderick: I've never seen the movies. They never contacted me. The D.A. made them, got money for them, and I hear is even in them. So it's all her take on what transpired and her only job was to prosecute me to the fullest, not to be sympathetic or understand. She hated me with a passion because so many people were very sympathetic to what happened and that made her job difficult. She was furious with the hung jury! [Ed. note: Betty Broderick was tried twice; the first trial ended in a hung jury. In a second trial, she was convicted of two counts of second degree murder.]

lexx: Would you do anything differently leading up to November 5, 1989, if you could?

Broderick: My only intention on November 5 was to kill myself. I couldn't stand it anymore, but I went there to try to reason with him one more time. If he gave me my boys, I would have been okay - without my kids I wanted to die. I had no intention of shooting Dan and Linda. No one was more surprised than I when I heard they were dead - I had no idea when I left there that anyone had even been hit!

lexx: Should people feel sorry for you? Fear you? Respect you?

Broderick: None of the above - I just want truth and justice that will lead to understanding.

lexx: What has surprised you most in terms of support you've received that you didn't expect, or that you didn't receive but thought you would?

Broderick: What surprises me most is that I have such widespread understanding and am still sitting here sentenced as a "murderer." I had a total nervous breakdown and should have been hospitalized, then sentenced to no more than manslaughter - not murder. I did what I did, but there was no premeditation, no malice, it was a fluke! I reacted to provocation from the victims - the legal letters I had just read threatening to have me jailed again. Reacting to provocation equals manslaughter. I'd be home by 1999 - ten years is enough.

lexx: What's life in prison like as compared with your life before - how are you treated by others? Are you notorious, or just another face?

Broderick: I am kept very busy in here. I am forced to "program" from 8 am to 4 pm, then we have meals, showers, laundry, phone calls - all of which entail long lines. I try to tutor ladies through the GED exam, which takes a lot of time on weekends. And I am very active in my "community," serving on boards and committees - just like home. I am the same person in here I was out there - I am very well-liked and respected. My life in here is safe and free ... I don't live in fear. That's what made my life out there unbearable. Goddamn shame you can only feel safe and free in prison! Nice society we have!

lexx: Received any marriage proposals? Or made any?

Broderick: I am still with Brad, the same man I've been with since two weeks after Dan walked out in 1985. I am not looking.

lexx: What do you think of the OJ Simpson case? [Ed. note: This interview was conducted in 1997.]

Broderick: OJ Simpson - reality check! He was just like Dan, in that he had a tremendous ego. He had cars, money, girlfriends, et cetera, but was totally obsessed with what Nicole was doing, because he couldn't control her anymore. It's not about love, it's about ownership and control and they can't let go! Dan Broderick initiated our divorce, then did everything he could to maintain total control of my life. He would never let me go! He was scared to death I'd be fine and very happy without him. I would! And that scared him because he couldn't give up CONTROL. On the other hand, if Nicole had despaired of anyone ever helping or protecting her and had bought a gun to protect herself and shot him in a moment of panic as he was breaking in her doors again - she'd be right here with me! His powerful friends would all bond together, as did Dan's, and make him out a giant and a saint among men, no matter how much proof she had of the truth of the situation. My joke around here is, "I have the Bruno Magli's, I didn't leave my footprints - but I'm in prison! So much for telling the truth. That SOB lied about everything and he's out there playing golf!" I was the hero and told the truth about everything and was willing to pay the consequences ... but politics took over and now I'm paying for more than I actually did. Simpson is a lying, gutless wonder.

lexx: Valentine's Day is coming up. Do you believe in love?

Broderick: I am a romantic fool - I live for love.

lexx: How about trust?

Broderick: Trust will be very hard for me in the future.

lexx: Complete a few sentences for me: "The most important thing to me is ...."

Broderick: My children.

lexx: "The biggest mistake I ever made was...."

Broderick: Loving too much and always seeing the best in everyone.

lexx: "My best advice to women is ...."

Broderick: Don't lose yourself to please a man.

lexx: "...and they should listen to me because...."

Broderick: I was so entirely invested in my family that when I lost husband, home, and children, there was literally nothing left! Of course, in hindsight, I wouldn't have known how to be anything other than 100% invested in my family. I never made time for me, or did anything on my own. I lost me - but I'm back!

lexx: "I'd rather be ...."

Broderick: Home.

2001 Interview:

lexxicon: The most common question readers have is about your kids. How is your relationship with them now?

Broderick: Maybe those readers have misperceptions, probably from watching the movies. My relationship with my children has always been good. During many periods of time we were forcibly kept apart by hateful Broderick men, but even during those times our relationship was strong and good. During the hardest times, our relationship only got stronger. They are all fine. Healthy, happy, safe and free from abuse. They are all over 18 now. I speak to them daily and see them often.

lexx: How do you respond to people who believe you refuse to take responsibility for the deaths of Dan Broderick and Linda Kolkena Broderick?

Broderick: I don't understand how anybody could think that! Yikes! I have taken full responsibility for what happened that day. I just refuse to take responsibility for things that did not happen. This was not about the "affair," which was over in 1985. They were not asleep [when killed]. Linda came at me and the gun went off over and across the bed. All the evidence proves this!

lexx: If you had known then what you know now, would you have handled your marriage or divorce situation differently?

Broderick: If I had known then what I know now about alcoholism and abuse, I never would have even dated Dan Broderick! But I did not know about those things then because I expected everyone to be nice, and everyone in college drank. Now I have to warn my children of the dangers of alcohol abuse and abusive people. I learned about these things in here - spiritual illness.

lexx: You were raised Catholic and have said you stuck with an unfaithful husband in a bad marriage largely because of your religious beliefs. Is it really that simple?

Broderick: My religious beliefs, and those of my mother, who assured me that I could never come to her if I decided to leave my marriage, left me with nowhere to go. I was totally trapped in that marriage. If my mother had been supportive, I would have left Dan in 1970 when he beat Kim, then 10 months old, and I fled to New York. My mother sent me back.

lexx: Do you believe you violated the Christian commandment “thou shalt not kill”? Do you consider yourself a murderer?

Broderick: This is just like the difference between manslaughter and premeditated murder. There are all different degrees of "killing." What is punishable by God and the State is the intent of the person who did the killing. These were unintentional, accidental with no premeditation whatsoever. The second jury never even heard about the suicide note that I left, so they heard no other reason for my going there with a gun than to shoot Dan and Linda... but that was not the reason I went there.

lexx: An aspect of your case that fascinates people is the money. I've heard from readers of the Stumbo book, along with viewers of the movies and trials, who have the impression that you valued money and things over your children. Some people don’t understand why you couldn’t “make do” with the amount of support ordered by the court initially. How accurate is this perception of the person you were then? Has your thinking changed much with regard to money?

Broderick: The money is a funny part of this case because of the total lies the DA told about me in the movies. On 11/05/89, money wasn't even an issue! Custody was the only issue. I can "make do" with whatever I have on hand to make do with. By the time of the divorce we had several million dollars on hand and Dan's earning power hadn't even peaked! We had four children who were used to the good life: private schools, braces, trips, nice clothes, etc. When Dan appeared in divorce court he stated that it cost him $30,000 per month to have the kids and operate his home, which was the same size and cost of mine.

lexx: Yet there is still the perception that you were greedy and should have dropped your demands for more support money.

Broderick: I did not want to be left without enough money to raise my children according to the standard they were accustomed to. At the time Dan was taking in over $300,000 a month, so he would well afford it, and after all the years of deprivation, I well deserved to be treated fairly and well. Dan would have liked it if I could have "made do" with $1,000 a month. For many years I made do with less than that! This was never my perception of money as much as it was my perception of justice and fairness within the context of our situation and the law.

lexx: How will you be different when you walk out of prison?

Broderick: I will be safe and free and back to the happy, healthy, fun person I used to be before Dan Broderick targeted me and ruthlessly attacked my very being and right to exist. I had only hoped to recover back to the person I used to be pre-1983 when the affair started. I had completely forgotten the Betty I used to be before I married Dan. No wonder he wanted to marry me - I was a very happy, whole person. I was never allowed to be myself in that marriage. I always had to defer to Dan's wishes and whims, moods and rages. I fogot who I was before living that way! This is the aspect of domestic abuse most people don't understand. You don't realize how much of yourself is whittled away day after day just trying to keep the peace and survive.

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Background on the Elisabeth Broderick Case:

Elisabeth Anne ("Betty") Bisceglia met Daniel T. Broderick III in 1965. She was 17, a college freshman; he was a senior premed student on his way to Cornell Medical School - and, eventually, Harvard Law School. They married four years later and immediately began their family: the following year, the first of five children was born. One child died in infancy, and Betty suffered numerous miscarriages. Altogether, she was pregnant nine times in the first ten years of marriage.

From modest beginnings, Dan and Betty worked hard to build a life many would envy. Dan continued his studies while Betty worked multiple jobs and cared for the house and kids. Twenty years later during divorce proceedings, both would recall their early years together as tough. But eventually their struggling began to pay off: Dan, a brilliant and well-respected attorney whose specialty was medical malpractice law, would eventually serve as president of the San Diego County chapter of the American Bar Association and go on to become a multi-millionaire.

During their marriage, Betty enjoyed a reputation as exceptional mother and model wife. A beautiful, intelligent, and talented woman in her own right, by all accounts she worked ceaselessly to create and maintain a near-perfect life for her family, an environment in which her children and ambitious husband could thrive. For a while, the Brodericks lived the American dream.

The dream began to fall apart in 1983, when, as Dan would acknowledge years later in divorce court, he began an affair with a young woman in his office building. He further testified that, although confronted by Betty, he denied the affair for almost three years before moving out of the family home in 1985.

What followed for the next several years was a ceaseless, dizzying series of complex legal maneuverings and manipulations, many of which were overseen and directed by Dan's professional colleagues. Twice, Betty was jailed for contempt when Dan filed formal complaints about her using bad language in answering machine messages. Finally, an eight-day divorce trial took place - but in a sealed courtroom, at Dan's formal request and judge's orders. The Broderick marriage was officially dissolved in January, 1989.

By that time, Betty's share of the community property had been substantially reduced due to her accruel of "Epstein credits," a provision under California divorce law which says the supporting spouse may charge the dependent spouse for one half of all community debts accumulated - not from the date of divorce, but from the date of separation. If there is a substantial amount of time between the separation and the actual divorce, a dependent spouse may actually accumulate enough Epstein credits to effectively cancel out any share of the community property which might have been forthcoming had the divorce been finalized immediately after separation. The Broderick divorce trial was pushed back time and again for four years while Dan and Betty argued over custody issues, attorney fees, property settlement agreements, and more.

In the end, the judge - who had the authority to determine which Epstein credits were valid and which were not - accepted all of Dan's proposed numbers and ruled that Betty owed him $750,000 in Epsteins and cash advances, all accrued between the time Dan moved out and the date the divorce was final. In the end Dan Broderick, multi-millionaire, was ordered to pay his wife of 20 years less than $30,000 cash. Additionally, Dan was awarded custody of their sons. Betty hired an attorney to contest the custody ruling, and a new round of legal maneuverings began.

Meanwhile, in April, 1989, three months after the Broderick divorce was final, Dan married Linda Kolkena, the woman with whom he had been having an affair for six years. Dan and Betty continued to argue over custody through their attorneys. In early November of 1989, Betty received two letters from Dan's attorney: one flatly turning down the most recent custody proposal made by Betty's attorney, and the other threatening to have Betty jailed again for contempt because of messages she had left on Dan's telephone answering machine. The second letter from Dan's attorney read in part, "I firmly believe ... another jail sentence will be imposed." Soon after receiving those two letters, Betty went to Dan and Linda's house, where she shot and killed them both. The next morning, she turned herself in to police.

Betty Broderick stood trial twice for the murders. The first trial ended in a hung jury, the jury foreman later telling a reporter, "We only wondered what took her so long to kill him."

In the second trial, she was convicted on two counts of second degree murder. She was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2011.