Bella Stumbo (1943–2002)

“to this day, two trials later, Betty still frequently speaks of Dan Broderick, and sometimes Linda, as if they were still alive and well and tormenting her. "He's such a shit!" she exploded one day, nearly fifteen months later, after reciting some past example of his sins against her. "I'd like to kill him!" "But, Betty," her listener replied, "you did."
― Bella Stumbo, Until the Twelfth of Never: The Deadly Divorce of Dan and Betty Broderick

I see how highly rated this book is. I myself did not care for it.

The author, seemed to me, very much on Betty's side. That was what I felt anyway. I do enjoy true crime books on occasion but with this, although the author is very honest about Betty's role and contribution there seemed to me, to be many a snarky passive aggressive comment directed toward Dan and Linda which did not fit if she were completely unbiased.

Look I get it. If Dan did all these things that was lousy and the actions, if done, were awful. I would have had sympathy for Betty..until she killed him.

I was also amazed at some of the comments directed toward Linda the new wife. At one point..and I cannot quote because I cannot remember the specific line the writer labels Linda as someone "without compassion". Well how does she know? Did she interview Linda for this book. No of coarse not. Linda is dead. And it is Betty that killed her.

I want to be sure I am clear. I have had crummy rotten things happened to me that were done by others. So have friends of mine past friends and current. Some of the things I could say were easily s bad if not worse then what happened to Betty. I mean it.

At no point did any of my friends nor myself decide murdering the person was the solution. Betty has not shown remorse and she did not just destroy two lives. what about the families? Their parents and siblings? And Betty and Dan's kids who have to go through life with all this on their plate.

Also in the book there are courtroom scenes and some of what is said is written and Dan says..tells Betty..he wants her to have the kids back but she must stop using them as a weapon. Well whats wrong with that? I agree with him. don't forget..Betty DROVE the kids to his house and dumped them there. I just do not get the underlying hostility in the book to Dan and Linda.

so no I did not enjoy this. I found it way to snarky and I do not feel i got anywhere near the real story or maybe I did. I just feel differently about it then I think the writer may have.… (més)

This book may be out of print now and hard to find but it is worth it to find a copy. I had to get mine from a private seller at Amazon. I read a lot of true crime but this book is so much more than that. It is about family dynamics, marriage, home maker vs career mom, cheating, divorce, and so much more.

The gist of the story is that Betty made her family her whole life. She put her husband through school and went about being the best mother she could be. Betty can be kind of a shrew but she goes through the years assuming all is well in her blessed life in La Jolla. One day her husband gets a new office assistant and decides that he doesn't want to be married anymore. Betty loses her mind and does a lot of unseemly things as does her husband and the new woman who has replaced her as Mrs. Broderick. Eventually things boil over and the result is Betty shoots the newly married couple as they sleep. The story of the psychological unraveling of the main characters is fascinating.

There are no sympathetic innocent people in the story except for maybe the kids. As the divorce dragged on, they became manipulators themselves. Bella Stumbo does an excellent job of being even handed in her storytelling. Her writing elevates this to a work of literature rather than another run of the mill true crime story. I would put this book up there with In Cold Blood. This book should serve as a cautionary tale for women who expect their husband and children to be their whole lives. Anyone who is dissatisfied with their mate and contemplating divorce should read this book to see just how bad things could get.… (més)

"Until the Twelfth of Never" is an excellent debut by writer Bella Stumbo, of an ugly and acrimonious divorce that turned deadly.

Stumbo goes deep into the backgrounds of both Dan and Betty Broderick and their eventually troubled marriage. She exposes the flaws from both of them. She does not portray Dan to be a saint, nor Betty to be a devil in sheep's clothing. Rather than feeling anger or outrage toward Dan or Betty, it's easy for the reader to feel a deep unsettling, knowing the outcome . . .and knowing that so many signs were there that this battle of wills would eventually erupt into a bloody mess.

Unlike other versions, which are quick to take Dan's side or Betty's side, Dan's second wife Linda is not portrayed as an innocent victim either. The tv miniseries was sufficiently "cleaned up" to make it appear as though Dan and Linda were nothing more than co-workers and good friends until after the Broderick divorce. As "Twelfth" reveals, nothing could have been further from the truth.

Murder is never justified, but the cracks in Betty's emotional and mental state were in evidence long before she ever pulled the trigger.

The only victims truly apparent in this story are the Broderick children. They were used in a vicious tug of war between their parents and in the end, lost both their father and their mother.

"Twelfth" should be viewed as a cautionary tale - - of two people that were ill-suited for each other from the beginning, that suffered through an unhappy marriage for years, shared that suffering with their children and could not let it go until one, or the both of them, were dead.

Sad, depressing tale excellently written.… (més)