The Voice Recordings of "Violent Mom" Betty Broderick Left Jurors Stunned
Updated June 30 2020, 1:40 p.m. ET
True Crime series are more popular than they've ever been, with re-enactments of some particularly dastardly events getting the star-studded treatment. Dirty John is yet another excellent entry in this genre, and Season 2 features Amanda Peet as the central character in The Betty Broderick Story. People are so captivated by the killer's tale that they're looking for the damning voice messages that horrified jurors when they first debuted in court.
The transcriptions of the Betty Broderick voice message tapes left court attendees stunned.
A 1991 Los Angeles Times article thoroughly delineates the events of the highly publicized early '90s trial that saw Betty Broderick's oldest daughter, Kim Broderick, take the stand and openly discuss how her mother often discussed her hatred of their father and that she would contemplate taking violent action against the man. Action that her son, Danny Broderick, who at the time of recordings was only 11 years old, was disgusted with.
In the records, jurors heard Danny Broderick plead with his mother to stop using "bad words," and he accused her of only caring about money. Showing an impressive presence of mind in his conversations with his mother, the young boy begged his mother to stop causing a rift in their family with her jealousy and hateful words.
Even just reading the following words and thinking that someone who's only 11 needs to say this to his mom is absolutely heartbreaking: "All you care about is your stupid money. You want everything. You want all the kids, all the money, to get rid of Linda — and it’s not going to work, Mom. You’ve been mad long enough."
Betty Broderick replied by saying, "No, I haven't."
Betty Broderick would be convicted of killing her ex-husband, Daniel Broderick III, a successful attorney who had married his new wife Linda Kolkena Broderick, who was also his legal assistant, as they slept in their bed.
In the recorded conversation with her son, who cried almost throughout the entire call, Betty Broderick made some staggering revelations regarding her feelings toward her ex and his new wife.
She admitted that she could never change "because I hate Daddy." She also repeatedly called Linda a "b---h," to which Danny replied, "If you cared about your family, you'd stop using bad words."
"He’s absolute scum. He’s cheated and lied and f--ked around. You have no reason to be mad at me. I didn’t cause any of this. Daddy and the (expletive referring to Linda Broderick) caused all of this," she continued.
Danny Broderick tells his mother in the call, "We want to live with you, Mom, but you’re making it harder for all of us. You probably don’t care, because all you want is your money."
Toward the end of the call, Betty Broderick told her son, "I wish [Daddy] would just die...[and Linda] get drunk and drive her car off a cliff."
Kim Broderick openly discussed the palpable anger her mother had toward her father and stepmother, and denied that her dad ever physically abused her. She added that she did see Betty Broderick intentionally jam her fingernails into her father's back in anger before.
"She said, ‘I’m going to kill the son of a b---h. She said, ‘I’m going to shoot him in the head.’ She said the world would be a better place and that everyone would thank her," Kim Broderick testified.
When Kim Broderick replied to her mom and said, "Sure, Mom, and spend the rest of your life in jail,” Betty Broderick replied, “No. No one will believe what happened to me.”
Kim Broderick also testified that her mother knew of the $2 million life insurance policy Daniel Broderick III took out before he was killed, which would award $250,000 each to his children, and $1 million to Linda Kolkena Broderick.
