Betty Broderick’s Children Today: Where Are They Now?

Betty Broderick’s four children are split when it comes to their mother. While two of them would like to see their mother released when she is eligible for parole in 2032, the others think she should remain behind bars for the 1989 murder of their father, 44-year-old Dan Broderick III, and the murder of his second wife, 28-year-old Linda Kolkena Broderick.

Betty Broderick’s story is currently being featured on Season 2 of Dirty John, starring Amanda Peet as the convicted murderer. Broderick was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.

In diary excerpts, Broderick called her ex the “sickest” man alive. “You have attacked and destroyed me, my home, my possessions and my family. You continue to repeatedly attack and destroy. You are the sickest person alive,” she wrote, as noted by the Los Angeles Times.

“A law degree does not give you license to kill and destroy nor does it give you immunity from punishment,” she continued. “No one will mourn you.” Dan Broderick was a medical malpractice attorney who had degrees from Cornell Medical School and Harward Law School.

Broderick’s parole was most recently denied in 2017 and again in 2010. “Your heart is still bitter, and you are still angry,” Board of Prison Terms Commissioner Robert Doyle said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “You show no significant progress in evolving. You are still back 20 years ago in that same mode.”

Lee and Rhett Broderick Want Their Mother Released

USA NetworkConvicted murderer Betty Broderick killed her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, by shooting him while he was asleep in bed with a .38-caliber pistol while his second life, Linda Kolkena Broderick, lay in bed with him.

Even though Lee misses her father, she wants her mother home. “She should be able to live her later life outside prison walls,” she said at her 2010 parole hearing, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rhett, the youngest of the Broderick children, appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, where he advocated for his mother’s release. “She’s a nice lady. Everyone here would like her…if they spoke with her on any topic other than my dad. Keeping her in prison isn’t really helping her,” he told Winfrey. “She’s not a danger to society—the only two people she was a danger to are dead.”

Rhett wasn’t surprised by the double-murder. “On multiple occasions [my brother and I] went to my dad and said to him that we wanted to live with my mom, and that not having her kids was driving her crazy—and that she could do something extremely irrational if she didn’t have us,” he said.

Daniel and Kim Broderick Want Their Mother Behind Bars

USA Network“No Fault” Episode 201 — Pictured: Amanda Peet as Betty Broderick

Daniel doesn’t think his mother is sorry for what she did, saying at the 2010 parole hearing she is “hung up on justifying what she did,” the Chicago Tribune noted.

“In my heart, I know my mother is a good person,” he said. “But along the way she got lost. Releasing a lost person into society could be a dangerous mistake.”

According to Distractify, Kim has repeatedly denied requests for her mother to be released from prison. In 2014, she wrote a book about her mother and the killings, titled Betty Broderick, My Mom.

“Outside of my dad being killed, it is the worst heartache and sorrow I could ever imagine,” Kim wrote about her mother being in prison. She has visited Broderick behind bars various times.

Broderick’s double-murder has been dramatized for TV and film various times, with Season 2 of Dirty John being the most recent. To find out what happens in the newest episode, don’t miss Dirty John when it airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on USA Network.

How Did Betty Broderick Kill Linda Kolkena Broderick?