Elena Semander

popular name: Dan Broderick

date_of_death: November 5, 1989

age: 44

cause_of_death: Murdered - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: In 1965 Betty met her future husband, Dan Broderick at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. After bearing him four children, working a variety of jobs and keeping the household running, Dan was able to graduate with both a law degree from Cornell University and a medial degree from Harvard University. After working at a couple of law firms, Dan struck out on his own in San Diego, California. In short order Dan was pulling in up to $300,000 a month and was, for the most part the most powerful attorney within the legal community in San Diego at that time. He was president of the San Diego bar association and he won every case he fought and cultivated deep friendships with most of judges and court personnel. In short order he hired a 21-year-old failed flight attendant (she was fired from Delta Airlines for "conduct unbecoming") as his personal assistant (even though she didn't know how to type). Within weeks the married attorney with four children began a torrid affair with the future trophy wife Linda Kolkena. After a vicious legal battle lasting five years, Betty was only awarded roughly $28,000 lump sum, $16,000 a month in alimony (less than 5% of Dan's gross income) and she lost custody of all her children. Three months later, Dan married Linda and seven months they were both murdered in their bed by Betty Broderick.

popular name: Bobby Franks

date_of_death: May 21, 1924

age: 14

cause_of_death: Homicide - beaten and asphyxiated

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Bobby Franks was the son of the very wealthy Chicago real estate speculator and developer Jacob Franks. On May 22, 1924, the body of 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks was found murdered on Chicago’s South Side. The murder would launch the infamous Leopold and Loeb trial. The criminal trial that followed — “the trial of the century” — would go on to captivate the nation and catapult defense attorney Clarence Darrow to fame.

popular name: Sunny Von Bulow

date_of_death: December 6, 2008

age: 76

cause_of_death: Cardiopulmonary Arrest

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Martha "Sunny" Von Bulow was an American heiress, socialite, and philanthropist. Upon her utilities magnate father's death, she was the heiress to his ~ $100 million fortune. After divorcing her first husband, Prince Alfred von Auersperg, she married Claus von Bulow, a former aide to J.P. Getty. Claus was accused of twice trying to murder his wife for her fortune, by injecting Sunny with Insulin. The second coma left Sunny in a persistent vegetative state for the next 28 years until her death from cardiopulmonary arrest in 2008. Claus was initially found guilty of attempted murder, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. Her children from her first marriage remained convinced that Claus had tried to murder her, and established the Sunny von Bulow National Victim Advocacy Center, now known as the National Center for Victims of Crime. They also established the Sunny von Bulow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation in New York in their mother's honor.