The saying goes: “Love and marriage; they go together like a horse and carriage”. What the saying doesn’t tell you is that horses get spooked, and the carriage can crash. Similarly, love dies, and marriages end. Accepting the end of a marriage is not an easy task – and Betty Broderick certainly did not take the ending of hers very well at all.
Elisabeth (Betty) Anne Bisceglia was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947 to extremely devout Roman Catholic parents. She was the third of six children; the golden child; the best girl. There was a lot of pressure on her shoulders from a young age. She was told exactly how to live her life, and how to act. This upbringing shaped her entirely – and shaped her reaction of what was to come.
Betty was more or less raised to be a wife and mother. Her purpose, according to her her church and her family, was to support her husband, stand by him through thick and thin, and provide children for him.
Even while attending the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx for early childhood education, Betty knew one thing for certain – her degree was just for show. The purpose was to know how to handle her own children. It was never meant to be put into practice. And that seemed to suit her beau just fine.
In 1965, Betty met Dan Broderick, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1944 to a large Irish Catholic family. Betty and a friend were on a chaperoned trip to the University of Notre Dame to watch a football game. Dan was a senior, and Betty, barely 18-years-old, was a freshman. He told her he was going to be a doctor; he’d be studying at Cornell, at their New York campus. He also claimed that Betty was going to be his wife.
When Betty returned home, Dan kept in touch. While he was at Cornell, he officially courted her. Dan wooed her, and Betty wanted nothing more than to make both of their families happy by becoming his wife, and the mother of his children. For three years, Dan asked Betty to marry him. When she finished college, she no longer had any reason to say no.
On April 12th, 1969, the married at the Immaculate Conception Church in Tuckahoe, New York. They went on a Caribbean cruise for their honeymoon. Betty was unimpressed.
As soon as they said ‘I do’, Dan turned cold. He ceased wooing her, and treating her nicely.
Betty was used to a certain way of affluent living. She was used to an expensive wardrobe, maids, and country club memberships. But what she got was a husband who was no longer kind, and a tiny medical school dorm room. Her mother refused to help, or care for Betty. Dan had refused to dress up for the wedding. Betty’s parents would not suffer the insult. Betty was Dan’s problem now.
Betty saw what her life with Dan was going to be like. And she wanted out. But getting out would be extremely difficult. Betty was pregnant. And a single, pregnant woman was not what she’d been raised to be.
All in all, Betty had four children with Dan. The oldest daughter, Kim, was born in 1970; second daughter, Lee, followed in 1971; first son, Daniel, was born in 1976, and; youngest son, Rhett, was born in 1979.
Shortly after Kim was born, Dan finished his M.D. At Cornell. Betty thought their lives were finally going to start. She was wrong. Dan decided he wanted to go to law school. Being a doctor wasn’t where the money was. No, he wanted to be a lawyer who specialized in medical malpractice. He enrolled at Harvard Law. Once again, Betty – pregnant and with a newborn in tow – was the sole provider, working part-time jobs, and selling Avon products out of Dan’s law school dorm room.
Betty had gone from rich and connected, to a run-down woman supporting her husband’s educational pursuits. She was exhausted. Something had to change.
After Dan had completed his J.D., he was offered a prestigious position at a law firm in San Diego, California. They settled in the suburb of La Jolla, and Dan began making the money he’d always promised Betty he would. She could finally quit her jobs, quit selling Avon and Tupperware, and be the stay-at-home mom she was raised to be.
Dan gifted himself a nose job, and hand-tailored suits. They seemed to have way more money than they knew what to do with. They went on shopping sprees, and became known as a La Jolla power couple. The neighbours loved Betty. The kids were always at the Broderick house. They called her Super Mom.
For all intents and purposes, life for the Brodericks seemed to be on the up and up. Dan was thrust head-first into the high-society social scene at his law firm, and Betty enjoyed many of the benefits. They joined country clubs, became members at a private resort, had condos, boats, and cars. The children attended private school, summer camps, vacations, cruises, and trips to Europe. Everything was coming up roses. But Betty wasn’t happy. And her marriage began to crumble.
Betty was often verbally and physically abusive towards Dan and the children. Behind closed doors, the Super Mom often threatened her husband and children, and threw things at them – most notably, frozen food. When she was angry, she would throw Dan out of the house, and lock him out. To get back in, Dan would have to go to Kim’s window, and ask her to let him back him.
Dan soon hit his limit. The more Betty grew hostile, the more he stayed away. He’d leave the house, and ‘go networking’. But what he was really doing was grabbing drinks with other lawyers and socializing. Dan was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Betty threatened to divorce Dan constantly. Throughout their entire marriage, Betty would threaten to leave. But she never did. She wouldn’t dare leave. She’d been raised to be a wife and mother. She wouldn’t dare go through with her threats. She simply wanted to shock Dan’s Catholic guilt into being more present in the marriage, and more involved with the children. Surprising no one, it didn’t work.
Dan threw himself into work, leaving his firm and going into private practice. He was hugely successful. He was a force to be reckoned with. He had a marriage (unhappy), a family (in turmoil), and a successful practice. Betty thought that things were fine as they were.
Then, in the fall of 1983, everything changed.
Stay tuned for part two.
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Sources:
Till Murder Do Us Part: Dan and Betty Broderick’s divorce played out over five vicious years – Amy Wallace – LA Times Magazine
How Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story‘s Characters Compare to Their Real-Life Counterparts – Kenny Herzog – Vulture
Morbid: A True Crime Podcast – Episode 47 – Betty Broderick Minisode
Betty Broderick Wikipedia page