MovieChat Forums > A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992) Discussion > Until the 12th of never... book review

Until the 12th of never... book review

posted 13 years ago by leek-16
4 replies | jump to latest

I just started reading this book about this horrible situation. I don't know why but for some reason Betty popped into my head earlier this week I found this book and so I decided to order it. This book is supposed to be the "go to" book for accurate information about what happened as told from both sides of the story. When I first saw the movie I thought Betty was nothing more than a raving, controlling, jealous certifiably insane piece of garbage....my opinion has changed.

She says things in the book that she can back up. Dan was raised to be a strict Irish Catholic while growing up. He stopped attending church in his adult life but still held to some of the beliefs, one of them being no divorce....ever. What it appears he was trying to do is one of two things. Basically flaunt the affair with Linda right under Betty's nose so SHE would be the one to file for divorce or drive her crazy by denying every time in the last 4 years of their marriage she asked him if he was having an affair and it telling her she was crazy and causing her to lash out violently so that his family and friends would think he was lucky to have escaped from the marriage.

So far from what I've read Dan and Linda were the furthest thing from saints. Should Betty have killed them? Absolutely not. Should they have stopped egging her on and engaging her whenever possible? Absolutely. What they did amounted to nothing more than a form of adult bullying until she could take no more.

If you can get your hands on the book get it. It doesn't justify what Betty did but it does give you the why and takes an honest approach from both sides of the story.

Also wanted to mention while looking over information about the kids I came across the curious will Dan had last drafted. He left no trust fund for his oldest daughter. She had been written out of his will. The other kids received trusts but not her(I think her name is Lee). The general theory floating around is that Lee supported her mother and Dan didn't like it so he wrote her out.

Makes you wonder what kind of parent, who is a multimillionaire, would disinherit one of his own children. To me that fact alone speaks volumes to Dan's character.

Lastly, according to Linda's family, Linda asked Dan for either a dog for protection(Dan hated dogs) or an alarm system in their home for their safety. He flat out refused. He said Betty will not dictate how I live my life. He was very aware of the fact that she had bought a gun. One minute he's calling her a lunatic, unstable and crazy and the next moment he's putting himself and Linda right in the middle of Betty's sights and essentially doing nothing to protect himself and his bride from the "out of control shrew". That's very questionable to me. If she was so out of control as her behavior and his statements made her out to be why not at least get an alarm system??

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hodie 13 years ago

I'm re-reading the book now. It's awesome.

"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

[–] lilypad183 13 years ago

" If she was so out of control as her behavior and his statements made her out to be why not at least get an alarm system??"

leek,
with 4 children in and out of the house, how could they keep the alarm system effective?

[–] RubyLex 12 years ago

I just read this book for the first time. I found her parole hearing on youtube, as well. While I don't think Betty is completely sane I think her reactions were justified up to the point where she killed them. I mean, your husband lies to you, deliberately tries to make you crazy and no one validates your outrage? A divorce is the death of a living thing and in their case it was also the end of a financial partnership. His abuse is passive and phlegmatic, but it's abuse all the same.

He left Lee out of his will because he punished the women in his life by withholding money. He was still deducting penalties from Betty's spousal support checks even after both divorce proceedings were through (the 2nd half, the financial part, took years to complete). He was doing the same with Lee. She had never completed High School and was constantly running off on her own. What money she got she spent on drugs. In the book Dan cites this as having been told this by both Kim, his other daughter, and Betty.

Dan's love of money was shared by his family, too. Since he had married Linda she was his heir and was entitled to a spouse's share of his estate. But, because Linda died first his family said she was entitled to NOTHING. They finally let her aging parents have 200k.

Her family was never as financially successful as the Brodericks. Larry especially was a bastard about the estate. He billed his niece and nephews for everything he could to deplete their inheritance. He billed them for buying a vehicle plus expensive meals where he discussed the issues all because he had been named the Executor. His law firm was also required to lower their bill to the estate by 40% because the charges were shockingly high.

This book is a must read. I will give my review once I am through but I highly recommend this to any woman who is married or thinking of getting married.

Why does nothing please you? ~ Alex reads Twilight