Could a wife really force her husband to stay married at that time? Because it seems clear Linda was always willing to marry him for money, and his diabolical plan might have reserved her for himself, but he spent 17 lonely years in jail...
shareI don't think she could force him to stay married - no one can make you do that. What she likely would have done was just have been disagreeable about everything (child support payments, alimony, division of property, etc.) and dragged the process out for years. She also could have thrown the whole alienation of affection thing in there and called the mistress into court. Most people don't want to go through all that because it's costly, time consuming and embarrassing.
For one, he had an incapacitated child that the wife spent all day and night taking care of as she couldn't sit up on her own. It would be repugnant to divorce your wife and leave her to that alone.
Burt's jail time forced her to put her child in a home, which were scary days for that, usually just warehouses with unspeakably deplorable conditions, and presumably, she had to go to work to keep a roof over her head and food on the table.
Also, divorce laws were different back then, I believe. Now most jurisdictions have no-fault divorce, so either party can petition for a divorce and do not need to prove a cause of action justifying a divorce. Before, only a party with cause could sue for divorce, which would result in nasty and embarrassing divorce cases, and one party unable to sue for divorce sometimes.
Because they never leave the first wife. The whole point of a side piece is to have your cake and eat it too...
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