Erik and Lyle Menendez: Was Justice Done?

Erik (left) and Lyle - before August 20, 1989

I remember vividly the 1989 shotgun murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez.  I was living on the east coast and desperate to move to southern California.  The news stations were giddy over the murder of Jose, an entertainment executive, and his blonde wife, in their plushy Beverly Hills home - - calling it a nightmare on Elm Drive (taking off from the then-popular Freddy Krueger franchise.)  I knew only what was reported in the media (so basically what they wanted me to know) and grew to believe that the brothers had massacred their parents solely for greed.  Case closed.

Or is it?  Watching the recent A&E program called "The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All" led me to do some serious digging in this case.  All is not what I thought, that's for certain.

The one fact that is absolutely not in dispute in this case is that Erik, then 18, and Lyle, then 21, shot their parents to death on August 20, 1989.  The motive behind the killings, however, may not be what you think.

Jose and Kitty

On the evening of Sunday, August 20, Jose and Kitty were in the den of their fancy home at 722 North Elm Drive.  They had been watching a videotape of The Spy Who Loved Me and snacked on blueberries and cream.  It was a quiet night in. Around 10 p.m., their sons entered the room, armed with 12-gauge shotguns.  Jose was shot in the back of the head, point blank, killing him instantly. Three more shots to his arms followed. Kitty, who may have been dozing, jumped from the couch and attempted to flee.  She was shot in the leg and in left arm, causing a fracture. She fell in front of the couch, leaving her vulnerable to the blasts. Once down, she was shot in the left breast, right arm, left thigh . . . she was still alive and writhing on the floor when the tenth and final shot was delivered to her, when the barrel of the shotgun was placed against her cheek and the trigger was pulled.   It was incorrectly reported that both Jose and Kitty were shot in the knees after death in order to make the murders look as though they were Mob related; however, pictures of Jose, clad in shorts at the time of his death, show his knees unmarked and unwounded.

Despite statements repeated in the press, neighbors did hear the shots but attributed them to kids playing around with fireworks.  Having driven through the neighborhood and seen the house years after the murders, this is not surprising.  The houses, while grand, are close together and it would be insane to think that two 12-gauge shotguns could be blasting inside one of the residences without being heard.  Seriously.   What was the media thinking?  That it was somehow more ninja-like or shifty to suggest that these murders were committed silently?

At 11:47, a 9-1-1 call was made by Lyle in which he stated "Somebody killed my parents!"  Both he and Erik told police they had been at the movies and returned home to find their parents dead.  They should have been prime suspects, as immediate family normally is, but for whatever reason, the LAPD neglected to treat them as such or test their hands and clothing for GSR (gunshot residue.)

While the LAPD apparently wasn't seriously investigating Jose and Kitty's sons, they were checking out theories that the murders were indeed a Mob hit and/or due to shady dealings by Jose and/or his company and/or by a disgruntled employee.  They found out that Jose was not well liked by his coworkers and employees and that he had extracurricular interests outside his marriage to Kitty.

Months later, after Lyle and Erik began spending lavish amounts of money on cars, clothing and Rolex watches, Erik began seeing therapist/psychologist Jerome Oziel.  Dr. Oziel, as you will soon find out, gives therapists a bad name.

Erik confessed to Dr. Oziel that he and his older brother had committed the murders, after being tormented by his crime, suffering with anxiety, depression, insomnia and suicidal thoughts.  Oziel, who was having an affair with his patient Judalon Smyth, convinced Smyth to eavesdrop on his sessions with Erik.  He also told her what Erik discussed during his sessions  - a very clear and egregious violation of the doctor-patient privilege.  Oziel would later state that Lyle threatened him and he had Smyth eavesdrop in order to ensure his personal safety.

Oziel was married (what a catch) and attempted to end things with Smyth (as most wives don't appreciate their husbands having mistresses, much less those that are also patients.)  As hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Smyth promptly called the police and blabbed all that she overheard and that Oziel had told her.

Under arrest

Lyle was arrested in March of 1990; Erik, who was in Israel for a tennis tournament, surrendered voluntarily three days later.  They would not be indicted for murder until December of 1992, as it took two years to determine whether or not Oziel's taped sessions with Erik were admissible.  (Some were but not those in which he discussed the murders.)

The trial began in 1993.  Lyle and Erik both testified that they had been abused, sexually and physically, for years by their father, with their mother turning a blind eye to it, and it was this abuse that led to their committing the murders.  Judge Stanley Weisberg allowed the defense to present the "abuse excuse" and call witnesses to support their case.  The trial, with a jury each for Erik and Lyle, ended in a deadlock, with the males in both juries voting to convict. The DA elected to try the Menendezes again.

On trial

Incredibly, in the second trial, where Weisberg once again presided, he reversed his decisions from the first trial and did not allow the claims of sexual abuse and rape to be presented as a defense.  That effectively meant that Erik and Lyle, while admitting to the murder of their parents, had no real defense for their actions.  As the abuse was not allowed, the many witnesses who took the stand in the first trial, to recount having seen the abuse, were not permitted in the second trial.  The juries, having only the option for first degree murder or acquittal - - not manslaughter - - , convicted both brothers of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.  The state wanted the death penalty; Erik and Lyle were spared due their lack of a past criminal history and on July 2, 1996, Weisberg sentenced them to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As expected, attorneys for Lyle and Erik filed appeals.  In February of 1998, the California Court of Appeals upheld the convictions. In May of that same year, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the convictions and the sentences with none of the justices voting to review the case.

The habeas corpus petitions filed by both were denied by the Supreme Court of California in 1999.  Attorneys then filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of both in the U.S. District Court;  the petitions were denied in March of 2003.  An appeal was then made to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District. The denial of the petitions was affirmed in September of 2005.

Legally, this is where the road ends for Lyle and Erik Menendez.

These are my thoughts.  They are clearly guilty of killing their parents.  There is no dispute on that.  Was there abuse in the Menendez household?  I think so.  Not because Lyle and Erik testified there was (although I can't imagine any teenage boy - - or a young adult of Lyle's age at the time - - who would be willing to claim that his father, an adult male, forced him to give and receive oral and anal sex) but because they had witnesses to back it up.  And not just friends, their tennis coach and Erik's therapist post-Oziel but also the son of Jose Menendez' brother and the sister and niece of Kitty Menendez.

It's really incredible when you think on it.  Not one person during the first or second trial spoke on behalf of Jose Menendez to defend his character. Not one individual said he was a nice, good, decent person.  Not saying that meant he deserved to be killed but it says something, doesn't it?  Jose's own mother sat in the courtroom, supporting her grandsons  - the same Lyle and Erik who killed her son.   Kitty's sister spoke of the abuse she and Kitty were exposed to while growing up, which may have slanted her view on Jose's abuse; Jose's nephew testified as to Kitty's addiction to prescription pills and alcohol.  While the press took such revelations as victim blaming, victim shaming and putting the victims themselves on trial, they were only correct in that the victims were indeed on trial.  And should have been, based upon the allegations.

I believe that Judge Weisberg was correct during the first trial, where he allowed Leslie Abramson, Barry Levin and Jill Lansing to present claims of abuse and belief of imminent danger from their parents.  It was a legitimate defense and the jury should have been allowed to consider it and debate on it (as they did.)

When the Los Angeles D.A. essentially lost the case via a mistrial, I think he erred greatly in reversing that decision.  Did he do so under pressure from the D.A., who surely had egg on his face?  Weisberg had sat through the first trial.  He knew exactly what would happen if Lyle and Erik were unable to present the abuse defense.  Things were made worse for the defense when Weisberg sealed the deal by taking manslaughter off the table.

As someone who once believed that the brothers killed their parents for good old fashioned money, I have changed my stance.  I believe after years of abuse, they snapped.  Do I believe they were convinced their lives were in imminent danger on the night of August 20, 1989?  I honestly don't know.  I can't answer one way or the other because I don't know what years of abuse may or may not do to someone psychologically.  According to Erik, on the afternoon of August 20, he told Lyle that Jose had been sexually abusing him for years and was still doing so, an admission which pained Lyle greatly as he too had been abused by Jose and, as a child, had turned around to abuse Erik.  Also that day, Erik claimed that he was told by his parents that rather than living in the dorms for his upcoming freshman year at college, he would remain at home.  Where he would be available for any type of abuse.  Would these two occurrences be enough to push the brothers into a murderous act?

Erik, in a telephone conversation for "The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All," admitted guilt for his act.  A crime, he said.  He apologized to his mother's sister and niece and his father's mother for the effect his actions had on them - - pushing them into the spotlight and causing them grief over the loss of Jose and Kitty.  The same aunt, niece and grandmother who have stood by him (and Lyle) since their arrests and who, as recently as this year, have visited Erik in prison in San Diego.  Erik also told his therapist, Dr. William Vicary, that if he could do anything differently, he would - - he would have killed himself rather than his parents.

Should Lyle and Erik Menendez have been convicted for the deaths of their parents?  Yes.  I think manslaughter may have been a better option but even convicting for first degree murder, their home lives and the abuse they suffered at the hands of both parents should have been an extenuating factor and circumstance given weight during the penalty phase.  Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole was wrong.  Even the Manson killers are given opportunity for parole.

In my opinion, the Menendezes have served their time.  They have been incarcerated since 1990.  That's twenty-seven years.  I think it's enough.  I wish the State of California felt the same.

"The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All" can be viewed via On Demand or at A&E's website.

Following their murders, Jose and Kitty were buried in New Jersey, at Princeton Cemetery.

722 North Elm Drive

The Mediterranean style house in which they died was sold in 1991 at a $1.2 million loss to a television writer (it was sold for $3.6 million.)  In 2001,  it was sold to a telecommunications executive.  Extensive interior renovations were done in 2002 but the exterior remains much the same as it did in 1989.  Over the years, many A-listers have rented the property, including Elton John and Prince.

Their first California home in Calabasas, a property they still owned at the time of their deaths, was bought at auction for $1.3 million in 1994, well under the $2.65 million appraisal.

The Menendez estate, valued at $14.5 million at the time of the murders (an amount that would be equivalent to nearly $29 million today), was nearly bankrupt by 1994.  Lyle and Erik reportedly went through close to a million dollars before their arrests.  The proceeds from the sale of the Beverly Hills home went to pay off the mortgage and the IRS. The money netted from the sale of the Calabasas home paid off the outstanding $864,000 mortgage and some $600,000 in outstanding taxes.  The remainder of the estate was quickly drained by the defense attorneys.

Two made-for-television movies were made about the Menendez murders;

Erik's former therapist, the sleazy Dr. Oziel, lost his license in 1997.  Breaking confidentiality and sleeping with female patients will do that for you.

Judge Stanley Weisberg retired in 2008.

Lyle married on July 2, 1996, the same day he and Erik were sentenced to life in prison.  The marriage ended in divorce in 2001; he remarried in 2003.  He is currently incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison, where he runs a support group for inmates who have experienced sexual abuse.

Erik married in 1999, becoming a stepfather in the process, and remains married to date. He is currently incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where he works as a caregiver for terminally ill and physically challenged inmates.

The brothers remain in contact via letters.

The Murder of Rebecca Schaeffer

I am so wise, to think love will prevail.  I am so wise. 

                      - Rebecca Schaeffer, 1989


In July of 1989, a month before the killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez shocked L.A. and took over the airwaves and newspapers, a young actress named Rebecca Schaeffer was stalked and killed by an overzealous fan.

Rebecca was a lovely girl who had started her career modeling for local department store catalogs and commercials and then wholesome outlets like Seventeen magazine, the Bible for adolescent girls in the 70s and 80s.  In an era and an industry that worshipped blue eyed blondes, her curly auburn hair and brown eyes made her a standout.  Also a standout was her sweet demeanor, kind nature and intelligence.

Roles on the ABC daytime soap One Life to Live and the Woody Allen film Radio Days followed (although her Radio Days role would end up on the cutting room floor.)  Rebecca was bitten by the acting bug and Hollywood came calling, with a role on a new sitcom called My Sister Sam.  Her role as Patti gave her greater exposure and a fan base.  She was known for personally responding to all her fan mail herself.  One of those fans who wrote her was Robert John Bardo.

Bardo was a high school dropout working as a fast food restaurant janitor from Tucson, Arizona who had been institutionalized at fifteen for emotional problems, following a childhood of abuse and problems including at least one threat of suicide.    Too bad for Rebecca that he didn't follow through on the threat.

He had become obsessed with peace activist and actress Samantha Smith, all of thirteen years old, stalking her in earnest before she was killed in a plane crash in 1985.   Her death left an opening in Bardo's fevered mind, one that he was able to replace with Rebecca when My Sister Sam premiered in 1986. 

The sitcom was nothing groundbreaking and very 80s.  Rebecca, however, shined.  Her Patti was representative of what every teen girl was or wanted to be in the mid to late 1980s.  She had a wonderful chemistry with costar Pam Dawber (late of Mork & Mindy fame); so much so that Rebecca would live with Dawber and her soon to be husband Mark Harmon before moving into her own apartment in West Hollywood, on Sweetzer Avenue.

The show ran for only two full seasons but during that time, Bardo travelled to L.A. and attempted to get on to the Warner Brothers set with gifts to meet Rebecca.  He was motivated in part by a response that she had sent him after receiving a fan letter.  He was denied access to her and returned home where he wrote her more fan letters.  He also went to see her in her latest film and was left irate after a scene that depicted her in bed with a man.  Bardo likely saw her as virginal and innocent; that image was shattered after watching her on a theater screen with another man.  Not one to be rational, he decided then that Rebecca had to die to pay for her immoral behavior.

In the year or so prior to the murder, Bardo was arrested three times for domestic violence and disorderly conduct.    He began exhibiting strange and threatening behavior toward his neighbors and hired a private detective to find out where Rebecca lived. 

Back in 1989, anyone with a couple of bucks could fill out a form at the DMV and get anyone's address.  That's right, anyone.  You had to give your name and the reason why you needed this other person's address but even if your reason was complete bullshit, the information was turned over to you on the spot.  Frankly it's amazing more celebrities weren't stalked with horrifying outcomes.

While Bardo's private detective was getting Rebecca's home address, Bardo himself was attempting to obtain a handgun.  He was denied after admitting on his paperwork that he had been institutionalized.  Not one to be deterred, he returned with his brother who bought the gun in his name and then promptly turned it over to Bardo upon leaving the store. 

The scene was now set for tragedy.  Bardo wrote his sister, living in Tennessee, a letter that if he couldn't have Rebecca, no one could and then packed his illegally acquired gun and hopped a bus for L.A.    He arrived in town on July 17, 1989. 

On July 18, Rebecca was due to audition for The Godfather III.  She was home, dressed casually in a black robe, and waiting for the script to be delivered to her.  Bardo, armed with the address the private detective had acquired from the DMV, rang her bell that morning.  As the intercom to her apartment was broken, she came downstairs.  It must have shocked Bardo.  He had spent three years devoted to Rebecca and countless attempts to see her in person without success.  Now she was in front of him.  He told her he was a fan and she graciously gave him an autograph.  He left to go to a restaurant down the street, dining on onion rings and cheesecake and reading through The Catcher in the Rye.  An hour later, he was back at Sweetzer Avenue.

When the bell rang again, Rebecca must have thought it was the script being delivered to her for the audition that afternoon.  She must have been surprised to see Robert John Bardo once again at her door.  He claimed later that she accused him of wasting her time although it's unknown exactly what conversation transpired, if any.  What is known is that Bardo fired a shot into Rebecca's chest and ran off as she fell, screaming.  A neighbor overheard the gunshot and Rebecca's screams and called 9-1-1.  She was rushed to Cedars Sinai where she died thirty minutes later from the bullet to her heart. 

Bardo had been spotted running from the scene.  Witnesses later recalled him walking the neighborhood the day before the murder, with Rebecca's photo, asking persons if they knew where she lived.  He had tossed his copy of The Catcher in the Rye in an alley down the street from Rebecca's home.  He would be arrested the following day in Tucson, where he was wandering aimlessly in traffic.  He immediately confessed to the murder. 

As expected, Bardo's attorneys argued that the murder was a result of his unstable mental condition (duh) because of childhood abuse.  Cry me a river, seriously.   Thank God that excuse went over like a lead balloon.  Marcia Clark, who would become famous in 1994 thanks to her connection with the O.J. Simpson case, prosecuted Bardo in a non-jury trial, resulting in him getting life without parole. 

One of the more frustrating aspects of this case is that he told his sister what he was going to do - - maybe not in so many words but given his history and unstable behavior, one or twelve red flags should have been flying.  But nothing, it seems.  And worse, no charges were brought against his brother, who committed a federal violation by lying on his firearms application by being a "straw man" for Bardo.  Without the brother's intervention, Rebecca Schaeffer likely would not have died on July 18, 1989. 

The system failed Bardo but more importantly, failed Rebecca.  Bardo had many issues that were apparently ignored, bypassed, swept under the rug.  He had an unhealthy fascination with Samantha Smith, a child, before Rebecca and was reportedly following the movements of singers Debbie Gibson and Tiffany simultaneously with Rebecca. 

Bardo remains incarcerated in California.  He was stabbed eleven times by a fellow prisoner in 2007 but managed to survive and remain to be a drain on state taxpayers. 

The one positive thing that came out of Rebecca's tragic death, along with the frightening attack on actress Theresa Saldana, was recognition of stalking and an anti-stalking law that went into effect on January 1, 1991.  This law prohibits the DMV from releasing addresses of residents.  By 1993, all states, along with Canada, would have active anti-stalking laws.  The LAPD also instituted a Threat Management Team. 

Rebecca died at only twenty-one, with a lifetime of promise ahead of her, but she left behind a legacy of love and caring.  In 1989 she was a spokesperson for Thursday's Child, a charity for at-risk teens.  She made a personal appearance at a girls' shelter, signing autographs and graciously agreeing to return for their Renaissance Fair.  She loved nature and wrote poetry.  As her grave marker says, she was a courageous spirit. 

Betty Broderick: Victim or Victimizer, Sane or Insane?

Well, I just can't seem to read or write enough about the Broderick case.  Maybe it's because it was a landmark case for 1989.  Maybe it's because I've gone through two cheating husbands myself.  Or maybe it's because the case isn't necessarily black and white.

If you're familiar with Betty Broderick you probably know that she was denied parole last year.  Not surprising really because 2013 Betty is essentially the same as 1989 Betty.  She hasn't matured, she hasn't emotionally let go of the pain and suffering and she seems to adamantly refuse to admit any culpability in the murders she committed.  Dan was to blame for their horrible honeymoon in 1969, he was to blame for their marital problems in the 70s and he was to blame for the destruction of their family in the 80s when he took up with Linda Kolkena.

I am no Dan Broderick sympathizer.  I think the man was a huge bastard who was most concerned with himself and with how he looked to everyone else.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he was a class one narcissist because he surely exhibited all the signs of one.  I will concede that he was a very successful and astute attorney but while he had all the smarts in the world about medicine and the legal field, he had zero awareness about how to be a husband and father.  And he clearly did not really know his wife Betty.

I have read theories that Dan had a death wish and expected - - heck, even wanted - - Betty to do him in.  I don't think so.  He was far too self-absorbed to ever want any harm to come to himself and I think he considered Betty too weak and stupid to do anything to him.  He was the great King Dan, he provided for her very existence and her purpose was to serve him until he decided she was no longer necessary.  Just my opinion. 

While I don't think he had a death wish I do think he severely underestimated Betty's rage and her capability to harm others.  I believe he thought she would harm herself first and that's why he (and Linda) continued to stick their hands into the snake pit.  Don't play with fire if you don't want to get burned -- and Dan and Linda Broderick got burned.

I don't think Betty Broderick was mentally ill at the time Linda Kolkena started answering phones in Dan's building.  I don't think she was mentally ill when Linda was promoted after she caught Dan's wandering eye and started banging her boss.  I think the years of lying, the cheating, the resentment and the blame that Dan heaped upon her caused Betty to lose track of who she was and what was real.   Dan reminded her over and over of his mistress and his cheating so should we really be surprised that became the focus of her life? 

If you tell someone something often enough, it starts to become truth.  I think Dan told Betty so many times that she was crazy and repulsive, that she was a bad mother, that it was her fault he strayed, that she was so unworthy and unloveable in so many ways that she believed it.  It was said that Betty was a vivacious person pre-Linda Kolkena, that she was a lot of fun to be around and would help out anyone that needed it.  That hardly sounds like the Betty Broderick of the late 80s.  Remember, she was only 41 at the time of the murders (and turned 42 two days later.)  Still relatively young, with her entire life in front of her if she chose to take it.

I'm sorry she didn't.  She was so mindfucked by Dan and Linda and maybe even her generation that she couldn't just let go of what he did to her.  She should have been grateful to lose the sorry son of a bitch who didn't appreciate what she helped to provide him with, who was still acting like a drunken frat boy into his thirties, who demeaned her verbally and emotionally and who cruelly flaunted his cheating.  She should have happily taken those monthly alimony checks, which would have continued until she remarried, if she chose, or until Dan died from something other than gunshots delivered by Betty.  If I had been Betty, I would have made sure to never remarry so that Dan could continue to pay out financially every month for years.  Would Dan have been nearly so attractive and the catch Linda thought him to be after a few years of marriage and after a few years or more of having to pay out to Betty each month?  I'm not so sure.  Linda had been striving for marriage for years.  She finally got it.  Had she lived beyond that November of 1989, what would the future have brought her?  Would she have had children of her own with old Dan or would she come to realize that dealing with Dan's behavior into his forties and fifties was not rewarding in the least?

I don't condone what Betty did.  I understand why she did it but I don't agree.  She proved Dan and Linda correct - - the two adulterers who claimed she was a beast, a monster and crazy.  She may not have been legally crazy but she acted it when she stole a house key and broke into their house in the early morning hours to administer her own type of justice for Dan's infidelity.

And I think that's the root of the murders.  Betty killed Dan because he slept with someone else.  And continued sleeping with someone else, publicly humiliated her and divorced her.  It may have taken her six or so years to murder Dan for it but she eventually did.  Had she killed Dan back in 1983 or 1984 - - or even 1985, about when he came clean about his affair with Linda - - I think Betty would have walked.  The fact that she waited for six long years, only six to seven months after Dan married the receptionist turned legal assistant, made the murders look less like crimes of passion, an explosion of emotions - - love, hate, disgust, desolation, fear - - and more like a cold and calculated punishment.

The initial trial ended in a hung jury.  I think most wanted to understand Betty, to understand her motivations.  Maybe they did but it was hard to reconcile an emotionally battered woman who was collecting $16,000 a month in support with the Betty Broderick who claimed she was going to shoot herself in her ex-husband's bedroom that morning. 

I think too that if Betty had claimed in court that she never intended to kill herself, that she got the most recent legal filings from Dan a few days prior and just snapped, she couldn't take it anymore and shot him up - - I think she would have walked.

So back to her parole hearing of last year, in which she was denied.  The logical part of my brain wonders why on earth Betty won't just admit she's remorseful and sorry for what she did and do her best to get the hell out prison?  Then I realize that maybe she's secure in prison.  In prison, she can continue to live in her world where Dan and Linda are still very much a presence and a threat.  She can also live in a very structured environment where she is told what to do and when to do it.  Exactly like when she was married to DTB III.  Not a coincidence, I think. 

Betty could have had it all.  Instead of flourishing after separating from Dan and then being divorced, she floundered and wilted.  I don't think Betty wanted to live the life of a happy single woman.  I don't think she knew how to live without being told.  As awful as Dan was, he did that for her for many years. 

Do I think Betty was a victim?  Yes.  She was a victim of the time and she was a victim of Dan's, to an extent, and of Linda's.  Linda was just as cruel to her in many ways as Dan was and in some instances, worse.  Linda was a woman too and yet looked upon Betty with scorn instead of having respect for another woman's marriage and family.   It's impossible to know what may have happened to all involved had Linda Kolkena walked away from Dan Broderick from the beginning.

I think Betty continues to be a victim of herself in the same way that she is a victimizer.  She has had a streak of self-sabotage for years and years.  Since the mid-80s she has done little to help herself and plenty to sink herself. 

I'm not sure that Betty is insane but I am certain she is not mentally stable.  Years of emotional abuse and battery have an effect.  How could it not? 

When Betty was denied parole she was told that no other prisoner had ever been so stagnant in making progress - - in other words, Betty had made no progress during her incarceration.  In twenty years time, Betty had not improved nor emotionally grown at all.   Her oldest child is now in her forties . . . the same age Betty was when she committed these murders and the same age I believe Betty remains emotionally. 

I don't think Betty will ever get out.  I don't think she will ever admit to herself, much less the parole board, that she is remorseful for killing Dan (and Linda was merely collateral damage) because I don't think she is capable of doing so.   Dan is as much a threat to her today, in her mind, as he was more than thirty years ago.  And Linda is still that twenty-something homewrecking slut that ruined Betty's life, not someone who would be more than fifty years old today if she wasn't lying in a grave.

What do you think?  Is Betty victim or victimizer?  Will she ever get out of prison?  And does she deserve to? 

I'm all ears.