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Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story is a dramatisation of the 1989 murder case of Dan and Linda Broderick. The killer, Dan’s ex-wife Betty Broderick is still in prison today. The eight-part series is based on real events but some scenes and characters were fictionalised for dramatic purposes. Express.co.uk has everything you need to know about the Dirty John season two finale, titled Perception is Reality.
What happened at the end of Diry John: The Betty Broderick Story?
The eighth and final episode of Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story saw Betty (played by Amanda Peet) go on trial for the double murder of Dan and Linda Broderick.
Betty had shot dead her ex-husband Dan Broderick (Christian Slater) and his new wife Linda Broderick (Rachel Keller) on the morning of Sunday, November 5, 1989, as they slept.
Betty did not deny the killings, but the jury had to decide whether she meant to kill them.
She was prosecuted by District Attorney Kerry Wells who argued Betty planned to murder her former husband and his new wife Linda.
Much to Betty’s delight, the first trial ended in a hung jury.
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Not only this, but Betty was also receiving hundreds of letters a day from women across the world, voicing their support for her and the case.
Betty remained confident her second trial would also end in a hung jury, despite her lawyer insisting Wells would come at her from a different angle and really grill her on what happened in the bedroom where the gun went off.
In the show, Betty continued her unhinged behaviour, prank calling her friends claiming to have escaped from prison and not understanding why her two young sons were distant when they visited her in prison.
At the second trial, things were a lot different, with Wells bringing Betty’s former friends to the stand who described the housewife’s anger and obsession with Dan and Linda.
On the stand, Betty insisted she did not know what had happened in the bedroom when she killed Dan, insisting she was “inside her own head” and was planning to go to the beach and take her own life, not kill Dan and Linda.
Betty also claimed she only pulled the trigger on her revolver, five times, because she “tensed up” when she entered the bedroom.
However, the prosecution argued her pulling of the trigger was deliberate, considering she would have had to of changed aim halfway through to kill Dan after Linda.
Betty had also unplugged the phone in their bedrooms and left it on the floor in the hall, meaning Dan and Linda could not possibly call for help if they tried.
Towards the end of the episode, the jury’s verdict came in after a long holdout.
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One female juror confessed she was the one on the panel who would not find Betty guilty of murder.
The female juror was then seen giving interviews to the press, revealing she was under the impression Betty would only serve a few years in prison if she was found guilty of second-degree murder, unaware the verdict could carry a potential life sentence.
In the end, the jury found Betty guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and she was sentenced to 35-years-to-life in prison.
The last time viewers see Betty is her giving another phone interview, reflecting on the songs she and Dan used to dance too when they were younger.
As she sang Johnny Mathis’ The Twelfth of Never, Betty could be seen sitting in her cell, staring into the corner where she envisioned a young Dan (Chris Mason) to be sitting.
She then reflected on all of the key turning points in Betty and Dan’s relationship, imagining what would have happened if things had played out differently.
For example, remaining calm when Dan sold the Coral Reef property instead of driving into their front door; if she had attended the important divorce hearing at the very beginning; if she had not left her young children on Dan’s doorstep one night, which only led to him gaining full custody; if Dan had admitted the truth to Betty the first time she asked about him and Linda having an affair, instead of lying.
The series then ends with Betty still sitting in her prison cell, where she could see adult Dan and Linda smiling at each other.
Betty, with tears in her eyes, stopped singing and hung up the phone, walking slowly back to her cell.
Today, the real Betty Broderick, now 72, is serving her sentence at the California Institute for Women in Los Angeles.
She has been denied parole three times in the past and will not be eligible for another parole hearing until January 2032.
Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story is streaming on Netflix now
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