It Was Simple: The Betty Broderick Murders

Episode 1: On her wedding day, April 12, 1969, the newly minted Betty Broderick looked romantically toward a future as enchanting as the lace veil around her shoulders. It was all supposed to be so perfect. But then again, aren’t all marriages, at the start? In the first episode of our podcast, we follow Dan and Betty Broderick from their wedding day through their lean student years of hot-plate dinners, the pressures and strains of her nine pregnancies and his two Ivy League degrees, and their ill-fated move to the shores of La Jolla, Calif.

Episode 2: You could look at the story of the Brodericks as one beginning and ending in two marital beds. In 1969, it was Betty and Dan’s honeymoon bed. In 1989, it was Dan’s bed with Linda Kolkena, his new wife of not quite seven months. Betty — displaced, dispossessed Betty and her five-shot nickel-plated Smith & Wesson — saw to it that they would never live to share that bed again. In the second episode of our podcast, we chart the saga of betrayal, separation, divorce and murder.

Episode 3: Dan Broderick and his new wife, Linda, were killed in their bed. In jail, Betty behaved like you'd imagine someone would be after an exorcism — a bit giddy, a bit manic. She wasn’t sorry, not for a moment. In the third episode of our podcast, we hear why Betty’s first murder trial ended in a hung jury, learn more about Linda Broderick from a close friend, and begin Betty’s second murder trial.

Episode 4: One of the most sensational moments in Betty Broderick’s second murder trial was straight out of a TV courtroom drama. As Betty’s defense attorney Jack Earley was asking about her kids’ welfare, he dropped a bombshell: He had witnesses ready to testify that Dan Broderick had talked about hiring a hitman to kill Betty. In the final episode of our podcast, we hear from one man Earley wanted to call to the stand, from the foreman of the jury at the trial, and from fans lobbying for Betty’s release.

Hello, “It Was Simple” listeners. Up next, you’ll hear the first of three episodes of "Dirty John Season 2: The Podcast," a paid podcast from USA Network. This 3-episode series goes behind the scenes of the USA Network's new television series "Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story," a re-telling of the riveting and complex tale of Betty Broderick.

Bonus Episode 1: To understand why the story of Betty Broderick endures, the creative minds behind the series – Executive Producer, Writer and Director Alexandra Cunningham, along with Executive Producer Jessica Rhoades – explain the importance of the cultural climate of the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as how they approached this complex case so many years later.

Paid for by USA Network and produced by LA Times Studios; the Los Angeles Times Newsroom was not involved in the creation of this series.