When wealthy heiress Sunny von Bülow fell into an irreversible coma in 1980, suspicion eventually turned toward her husband, Claus. Prosecutors alleged that he had twice tried to kill her with insulin, while the defense argued that the medical evidence told a very different story. A conviction, a dramatic reversal, and an acquittal transformed their troubled marriage into one of the most famous attempted-murder cases of the twentieth century.

In August 2018, Chris Watts stood outside his Colorado home and appealed publicly for his missing pregnant wife and two daughters to return. Within days, investigators discovered that the husband asking for their safe return was responsible for their deaths. Behind the appearance of an ordinary suburban family was a marriage approaching a catastrophic end.

Betty and Dan Broderick appeared to have built the kind of successful American life people envy, until their marriage deteriorated into one of the most bitter divorces in California history. Years of accusations, an affair, custody battles, vandalism, and escalating hostility ended with Betty entering Dan’s home and killing him and his new wife, Linda. This is the story of how the end of a marriage became the beginning of a double murder.