From The BBC:
An Oregon judge has sentenced Nancy Crampton Brophy, a romance author who apparently foretold of her crime in an essay titled “How to murder your husband”, to life in prison for the shooting death of her late spouse.
Crampton Brophy, 71, was found guilty of second degree murder last month.
A jury found that she shot her husband of 26 years in 2018 for a $1.5m (£1.2m) life insurance pay-out.
Before her crime, Crampton Brophy had been a self-published author whose works of steamy romance and suspense include novels such as “The Wrong Husband” and “The Wrong Lover”.
Her late husband, Daniel Brophy, was a chef and respected teacher at the Oregon Culinary Institute.
He was found shot twice in the kitchen of the Institute in June 2018.
His widow was convicted of the murder last month.
The case attracted much attention for an essay Crampton Brophy had written years before the crime, titled “How to murder your husband”.
“The thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough,” she had said in the now-deleted post.
She listed a number of ways to commit mariticide, from guns and knives to poison and hitmen before writing “it is easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them”.
She added: “If the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail”.
A judge ruled against admitting the essay as evidence at her trial because it was penned years earlier as part of a writing seminar.
But prosecutors did not need the text.
They successfully argued that Crampton Brophy had the motive and the means to murder her partner, showing the couple had fallen on hard times financially, and she stood to pocket a hefty insurance pay-out after his death.
Link to the rest at The BBC
PG suggests that, if you’re planning to commit a crime, it’s a very poor practice to write about a similar crime beforehand or afterwards.
That said, stupid people committing crimes makes life for law enforcement investigators a lot easier.
If you spend a few days as an observer in criminal court, you’ll hear a lot about what one of PG’s granddaughters calls, “bad choices.”
The things some authors will do to promote their books!
This reminds me of a quote that a podcast host often states as his number one rule on what criminals should not violate: “Do not write your crimes down.”
Reminds me of a book and country song called “I Still Miss My Man (But My Aim Is Getting Better).”
(still smiling as I reread that…)
And, for the record, we get along just fine.
This reminds me of a pair of lines of dialogue that popped into my head recently:
Him: “”You don’t care. You probably won’t even be in the room with me when I die.”
Her: “I will if you die of a gunshot wound.”
I thought Heracles was foolish for marrying a woman whose name means “husband killer.” It’s truth in advertising so to proceed with the nuptials is just evolution in action at that point. This case is as close to a modern equivalent as you can get.
Advice: if you’re married to someone who writes how-to guides for murdering a spouse, you need to update your will and insurance beneficiaries 🙂 And check your brakes, remote start your car, etc.
Also — I’m under the impression that in a HCOL area, $1 million doesn’t go very far. And with the rate of inflation these days, it probably doesn’t go as far in LCOL areas, either. This was poor financial planning on the part of the murderer. She really should have talked to her financial advisor first 🙂
That said, stupid people committing crimes makes life for law enforcement investigators a lot easier.
I gather the reason serial killers were initially profiled as “above average” in intelligence is because police had to actually investigate: they couldn’t just look at the victims’ circle of friends and family. They couldn’t just settle for looking to see who had an insurance policy or “stood to gain” from a victim’s death. The deal with serial killers is that they are “deliberate strangers,” as Ted Bundy was called in the titular movie. They’re not any more intelligent than the average bear; the police just have to do more work than usual to detect and catch them.
(Nods) One of the dirty little secrets of law enforcement is that the old saw that 90% of murders are committed by someone known to the victim only applies to solved crimes, and over a third of all homicides are unsolved.