Customer Reviews

Hell Hath No Fury: A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a good read if you want something fast with not a lot of details about the Broderick case. It does not compare with Bella Stumbo's "Until the Twelfth of Never", which should be top choice if you want a very thorough (but not in the least boring) read on it. The author gives a good representation of Betty's point of view, while at the same time stressing the total wrongness of her acts. With a double murder, high society, and the intriguing character of Betty Broderick you can't go too wrong picking this up. Can we ever get enough of this one?

Good true crime books very rarely come in twos. The trusting reader may finish an excellent book about a well-known case, see another book on the same case and think, "that was so good, I think I'll have another." Think again, dear reader, because the next book might be as mind-bendingly awful as "Hell Hath No Fury".

One truly great, genre-transcending book has been written about the Betty Broderick case. It's called Until the Twelfth of Never, by Bella Stumbo. This book, by Bryna Taubman is an assault on the genre aided and abetted by St. Martin's Paperbacks. Of all the out of print true crime books they had to pick THIS ONE to reprint as "True Crime Classic"? Perhaps their definition is more elastic than mine. Certainly their definition of "astonishing" is. The back cover promises "8 PAGES OF ASTONISHING PHOTOS. Inside are photos of (sensitive readers may wish to skip to the next line) people testifying at the trial. But that's not all, there are pictures of the house and of the victims, BEFORE THEY DIED. With content like that you'd think they'd slap a warning label on this book.

Actually, a warning label might be a good idea. I'd have appreciated knowing in advance that I was going to be subjected to two full paragraphs describing the exterior of the house in which the murder were committed. Especially when the description included this:

"The curved driveway passed in front of the four white columns that rose to the overhanging roof."

Gee, you mean the columns didn't just keep on rising until they reached they sky? The driveway didn't go behind the columns and cut through the living room? Those crazy Californians and their ideas on architecture. It gets worse. Betty Broderick, packing heat and having broken into her ex-husband's house at dawn, is "undaunted" by a closed door. We then get details, and I do mean details, about Betty's escape route. The names of the roads she took, the nicknames of the roads she took, what the roads pass, how direct they are, etc. Google Maps should dream of being this comprehensive.

At the time, the Betty Broderick case was widely covered, and thank goodness or how would this book have been written? Surely not through actual first-hand research. Taubman quotes liberally from the People, The San Diego Tribune, Hard Copy, even Ladies Home Journal. She takes the view that Betty was driven to kill and never lets up. When Taubman finally gets around to noting that nothing "can justify" the taking of two lives, it's in the last five pages. Up until then she takes whatever Betty says and presents it as gospel.

Taubman makes some nutty claims, such as "a man accused of killing of killing an unfaithful mate ... is portrayed as defending his honor." Seriously? In San Diego in 1990? Later she excuses Betty as having even "lost her mind for a few seconds." Which seconds would these be? The ones where she dumped her kids off in the middle of the night outside an empty house? When she drove her car through the front door? When she took a gun to her ex-husband's house "to talk"? The Broderick story never gets any thoughtful analysis here, just hyperbole and ranting.

If you want a nuanced, balanced telling that shows the selfish, appalling behavior of both parties, see Bella Stumbo's book. If you want to know more about the author, you'll be left wanting once again. There's no info about Bryna Taubman included; no "About the Author" blurb. Which makes sense. If I'd written this book I'd want to enter the author equivalent of the Witness Protection Program too.

After reading another book about this case and recently watching the Court TV rerun of the 1991 second trial, I was hoping for some additional insight (objective) into the background of Betty, Dan, and Linda Broderick. There was a little of that, but overall this was a disappointing book because of its strong bias toward the defense's theory of the case. Taubman apparently bought into the idea that the venom-spewing woman on the stand was "emotionally abused" by her ex-husband and his new wife to an extent that made murder expected and understandable. While she agrees that Betty Broderick deserved punishment, the author seems to think Broderick's actions made sense in the context of the bitter divorce. They didn't, they don't, and nothing I read in this book convinced me of this position.

I feel like a professional as far as this case goes. LOL I have stated before that after seeing the totally pro Dan and Linda movie (The Betty Broderick Story) I started reading and watching everything about this case, including the court tv show, A&E Justice Story, MNCBS Headliners etc...While I will grant that Betty murdering them was over the top, some of the stunts of Dan and Linda were over the top too. You also have to keep in mind that Dan was the one whose "friends" were the lawyers and judges, not Betty. In spite of friends saying she could have gone to another county to find a lawyer, it really was not as easy as all that. The woman was completly blind-sided by this man she had worked so hard for. It truly was a sad, sad story.This book was quick, but did not have many details and certainly not reserched as the book by Bella Stumbo was. It was okay and added maybe a little more insight to the case but not much.

Betty Broderick. Where oh where to start with this case? This was a murder case that spoke to us on so many levels, made us all shake our heads, turn our noses up, and secretly fear our own insecurities and what we are capable of.

Betty and Dan were high school / college sweethearts, who started off with such hopes and dreams that they would have a wonderful life together. Their family started almost immediately after they married (their first of 5 children arriving nearly 9 months to the day they married). Dan went to medical school and later law school while Betty raised the kids and did the primary bread winning as a school teacher. Once Dan had completed his education, he accepted a job with a California law firm and they moved to the west coast. From there he began to build his career to become one of the most successful and wealthiest men in town, and Betty could quit working to dedicate all her time to her kids.

It wasn't, however, a fairy tale. Dan and Betty's relationship was troubled from the beginning. They would eventually divorce, and it was anything but a peaceful affair. Betty went from being a "normal person" to a pathetic, psychotic hysteric. Dan began to cheat with Linda, and would eventually marry her. Betty's hysteria went from reasonable to destructive (driving her car through the front door of the house which got her thrown into a psych hospital, for example). It all came to a head when she bought a gun, snuck into her ex husband's house one morning, and shot both him and Linda while they slept. Now she's behing bars.

It's so hard to take sides in something like this. You see so clearly what Betty wanted and what was taken away from her. Yet you also see what Dan wanted, and what was taken away from him. Not to mention Linda. And the kids. And their friends, and their families. So many marriages start off so innocently and with such hopes, and so many end so bitterly. Where are those two people who were so in love once in the wedding pictures? Their partnership fell apart. But then again, as I have seen, the majority of people I have seen marry never should have. They were not right for each other. And sometimes we have to realize that and leave the marriages. It's when one doesn't want to that you will get a crazy story like this. Divorce is never pleasent, that's for sure, and you will face terrible times as you realize you have just had the rug ripped out from under you. But, have some dignity. If not for yourself, for your family and friends.

And, Betty, as far as I am concerned, has a genuine element of evil in her. I understand her sense of despair, her jealousy of the other woman, etc., but she has caused such chaos. It would not could not end until someone died. Dan and Linda had to die before Betty's rage was satisfied. To this day she has expressed no remorse over the fact that the both of them are dead. She says "Dan wanted me dead, but I'm alive". Alive to rot in prison, alive to have lost everything, and alive to be a sad joke to many.

This book was ok but not near as good as until the twelfth of never. that book really gives you more of an inside look into the life of Dan and Betty Broderick. This book is a quick read if you are looking for a light read on the story and not a lot of details.

I first saw the television film adaptation which was pro-Dan and Linda all the way. They never showed Dan and Linda bad-mouthing Betty. In the film, Betty was portrayed brilliantly by Meredith Baxter but she played her as a demented, sore loser who never got over losing Dan, her man.

In the book, we read more about Betty's feuding which was more like a World War and Dan's indifference to his former wife's well-being. He tossed her aside when he found a suitable replacement like hiring and firing but Betty didn't go easily or ever. She was obsessed with Dan and Linda and defeating them no matter what the cost.

The book dispels that Dan was a wonderful husband and father only when he was forced too by Betty dumping the kids off one by one. Betty was smart, attractive, and wittier than some of the most professional comedians according to one of her close friends.

She discharged by her husband rather because he decided to have a younger model and version. Now, I don't condone Betty's actions when she shot and killed them in their sleep. Of course if I was Linda, I would run away as fast as I could. Yes, you're in love but look at his first wife. I don't understand why Dan disowned his daughter Lee Gordon Broderick upon his death maybe for siding with Betty over Dan.

Dan never liked to lose in life but he lost in death. There is a website where you can't leave flowers and notes on Dan and Linda's graves because it has been misused. That blockage is usually reserved for dictators and serial killers.

I think Linda was in way over her head when she married Dan not seeing this coming and thinking that Dan could save them both. I remember in the film where a senior secretary played by Debra Jo Rupp warned Dan about how to treat people fairly when she saw Linda rise above her.

It was a poignant moment in the film and maybe showed a side of Dan's egotism that he can handle everything. Like I wrote, there are no winners from this situation. I feel sorry for the children the most for suffering through the loss of their father, stepmother, and their mother's role in their murders.

I became introduced to this case through court TV and many documentaries, and all I can say is WOW!!!! No matter what you feel about the victims or Betty, you have to feel for the children who were put through this. I was heartbroken while reading this book. It has the same feel of the book I read for the movie "Goodfellas" and you do sort of feel caught up in the mess. It's sad really, but it's a teaching lesson if you look it at in a positive light.

I was living in California when this murder happened and the

general opinion was her husband got what he deserved. I remember

a member of the jury I think it was who said, he couldnt figure

out why she waited so long to kill him. I also remember thinking

no matter how much I hated my husband and what he did to me, I

would not dream of spending much of my life in prison for it.

Her husband was dead; he wasnt suffering but here she ends up

in jail for a number of years. She should have taken him for all

she could, moved far away and begin a new life with her

children. She truly had to have serious mental problems taking this

so far. the most unforgivable thing was getting her children in

the middle of all the mess. that was the saddest thing about the

entire mess..the children had to suffer unmercifully. In my

estimation this book in one way leansa towards support of the

husband instead of wife. It looks like he really was trying to

end this thing in a calm, rational way but the more irrational she

acted the more he comes off as a cad. He,s acted like millions

of other husbands who are jerks and should know better but she

it seems went beserk. I can feel her emotions when he dumped her

like he did..but some rationality has to win out before every-

one's life is ruined. I do hope the children can get over this

and eventually lead happy lives. They deserve it a heck of alot

more than their parents.