Elisabeth 'Betty' Broderick, Who Killed Ex-Husband and His Wife in 1989, Dies at 78 in Prison

Elisabeth “Betty” Broderick died Friday at age 78 at the California Institution for Women of natural causes, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to People magazine. She had been moved from the state prison three weeks before her death to seek a higher level of care, though details of her health condition remained unclear.

Broderick was convicted of murdering her ex-husband Dan Broderick, 44, and his new wife Linda Kolkena, 28, as they slept in bed in their Balboa Park home in California.

On Nov. 38-caliber revolver. After the shooting she pulled the phone out of the wall and left it in the hallway, out of reach of the victims. She surrendered to police the same day and later admitted to the killings.

Betty Broderick claimed at both her trials that she was emotionally and psychologically abused by her ex-husband. Her first trial ended in a mistrial. She was convicted at her second trial and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison in 1991.

She was denied parole in 2010 and in 2017. The killings occurred nearly 37 years before her death. Betty Broderick and Dan Broderick had married in 1969 and shared four children before divorcing on Jan.

30, 1989. Dan Broderick had an affair with Linda Kolkena, who was his legal assistant. Dan Broderick and Kolkena married on April 22, 1989, less than three months after his divorce from Betty Broderick was finalized.

After the divorce and in the period leading up to the murders, Betty Broderick bombarded her ex-husband with calls, smeared Boston cream pie on his clothes and drove her truck through the front door of his home, CBS News reported. Betty Broderick is survived by her four children: Kim, Lee, Daniel and Rhett.