The Reader plays your heartstrings

Abortion, Tijuana torture, Windansea's fun hog, criminal sister, Betty Broderick tells all

Author

By Various Authors

Publish Date

Nov. 18, 2018

“[Now] I can’t sleep at night. I just start to think about how they shocked me, and I can’t sleep."

One woman, one man, no baby

I was in Los Angeles when Kelly called. My decision was made: I wanted the abortion. However, I wouldn’t tell her what to do, not because I’m benevolent, but rather I was certain that without my saying anything, she would quickly opt for the abortion.

By David Steinman, Nov. 18, 1982 Read full article

Little sister, big trouble

"I know you probably won't believe me, and I don't blame you for not trusting me, but I didn't jump bail. I really thought the court date was the 27th. It was the same guy that told me it was the 27th that turned me in, because he just wanted the reward money from the bail bondsman."

Requiem for a rebel

After leaving the crowd of North County misfits of which he and Danny were so much a part, he finally quit drinking, got married, and lives now in his native Los Angeles. Danny didn’t make it. He died on the railroad tracks in December, not long before his twenty-first birthday.

By Joe Applegate, May 19, 1983 Read full article

The ultimate fun hog has bailed

Windansea people say Seth became a local legend not due to his surfing skills, not like Van Artsdalen, but from the NOT WHEN THE SURF'S UP sign painted on his van and from its outgrowth, the NOT WHEN license plates, and for what they symbolized to Windandea people.

By Sue Garson Aug. 15, 1985 Read full article

Betty Broderick: “I’ve been forced into a legal system that Dan controls." (Joe Klein)

Till death do us part

When we talked, early in the summer of 1988, Betty Broderick was not one to remember her failed marriage with misty eyes. Mostly, she described her wedding and early married life as a fall from an idyllic youth into catastrophe. She says she grew up in the New York suburb of Bronxville, “a very pretty, lovely place. And everybody was just like me. We wore Villager clothes."

By Jeannette DeWyze, Nov. 16, 1989 Read full article

"Someone said my name and said, ‘You are the guilty one.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Yes, you are. How can you not be?’"

Little room

"They started to slap me and kick me in the stomach. After that they beat me on the back with two old belts that they then used to tie my feet very tightly to the chair. Then they handcuffed me again, real tight, and said, ‘Take off your shirt.’ And I took it off, so I was left in my T-shirt."

By Abe Opincar, June 14, 1990 Read full article