Sunny von Bülow
Encyclopedia
Martha Sharp Crawford von Bülow (September 1, 1931 – December 6, 2008), known as Sunny von Bülow, was an American
heiress
and socialite
. Her husband, Claus von Bülow
, was convicted of attempting her murder
by insulin
overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal
. A second trial found him not guilty, after experts opined that there was no insulin injection and that her symptoms were attributable to over-use of prescription drug
s. The story was dramatized in the book and movie, Reversal of Fortune
. Sunny von Bülow lived almost 28 years in a persistent vegetative state
until her death in a New York nursing home on December 6, 2008.
(a former chairman of Columbia Gas & Electric Company) and his wife Annie-Laurie Warmack. She was born on her father's personal railway carriage, en route from Hot Springs, Virginia
, to New York
, for which she was known as "Choo-Choo" as a child before being nicknamed "Sunny" because of her nature. Upon her father's death, when she was four years old, she inherited a reported US$100 million. Her mother, the daughter of the founder of the International Shoe Company, later married Russell Aitken, a sculptor and writer.
Martha "Sunny" Crawford married His Serene Highness, Prince
Alfred of Auersperg
, the son of Prince Alois von Auersperg and the Countess Henrietta Larisch von Möennich, on July 20, 1957. They had two children, princess Annie-Laurie ("Ala", born 1958) and prince Alexander Georg (born 1959, who uses the surname Auersperg, without the von
). The Auerspergs were divorced in 1965. At this time, Sunny's net worth was over $75 million. Alfred died in 1992 after lingering in an irreversible coma for nine years following a 1983 car accident in Austria.
On June 6, 1966, Sunny married Claus von Bülow
, a former aide to oilman J.P. Getty, and they had a daughter, Cosima von Bülow, in 1967. By 1979, significant stresses and tensions had developed in their marriage, and both Sunny and Claus spoke openly about the possibility of a divorce. On December 26, 1979, after the family had come together for Christmas at their Newport, Rhode Island
mansion, Sunny was found unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital where she slipped into coma but was revived. After days of testing, doctors determined the coma was the result of low blood sugar and diagnosed Sunny as hypoglycemic
, warning her against overindulging on sweets or going too long without eating. While no foul play was suspected at the time, Claus was later accused of causing this incident by injecting Sunny with insulin. In April 1980, Sunny was again hospitalized after appearing incoherent and disoriented; their doctors reconfirmed Sunny suffered from "reactive hypoglycemia
". She was advised to maintain control of the hypoglycemia by following a strict diet, limiting her sugar intake, and avoiding alcohol.
. Although clinical features resembled a drug overdose, some of the laboratory evidence suggested hypoglycemia
. The Court of Appeal ordered disclosure of the notes taken by the Auersperg children's attorney. These showed that Claus did not want to terminate life support, as had been alleged.
Because of the increased marital tensions between Claus and Sunny in the fall of 1980, her children were suspicious that her brain injury was the result of foul play by Claus. Sunny's two eldest children persuaded Richard H. Kuh, the former New York County District Attorney, to investigate the possibility Claus had attempted the murder of their mother. After the gathering of evidence, Rhode Island prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury who returned an indictment, and in July 1981, Claus was charged with two counts of attempted murder.
endocrinologist
George Cahill testified that he was convinced that her brain damage was the result of injected insulin
. The jury was convinced and Claus was convicted.
for his appeal. Dershowitz's
campaign to acquit Bülow was assisted by the then Harvard Law School
student and later television personality Jim Cramer; Cramer admitted to himself then and later wrote publicly that Bülow was "supremely guilty" of the crime. Dershowitz and his other attorneys produced evidence of Sunny's excessive drug use, including testimony by both Truman Capote
and Joanne Carson (second wife of Johnny Carson
) and more than ten of Sunny's friends. Some of the expert witness testimony was excluded as hypothetical or hearsay. Additional expert witness testimony cast doubt on the validity of evidence that a syringe contained traces of insulin. The appeals court quashed the conviction on several grounds, including the appellate court's ruling that justice for the accused should override attorney-client privilege; and that therefore the notes taken by Kuh, the Auersperg children's attorney, should be disclosed. These notes called into question the credibility of Sunny's maid, Ms. Schrallhammer, who had been a key witness for the prosecution.
At the second trial the defense called eight medical experts, all world-renowned university professors, who testified that Sunny's two comas were not caused by insulin, but by a combination of ingested (not injected) drugs, alcohol, and her chronic health conditions. The experts were John Caronna (chairman of neurology, Cornell); Leo Dal Cortivo (former president, U.S. Toxicology Association); Ralph DeFronzo (medicine, Yale); Kurt Dubowski (forensic pathology, University of Oklahoma); Daniel Foster (medicine, University of Texas); Daniel Furst, (medicine, University of Iowa); Harold Lebovitz (director of clinical research, State University of New York); Vincent Marks (clinical biochemistry, Surrey, vice-president Royal College of Pathologists and president, Association of Clinical Biochemistry); and Arthur Rubinstein (medicine, University of Chicago).
Other experts testified that the hypodermic needle tainted with insulin on the outside (but not inside) would have been dipped in insulin but not injected. (Injecting it in flesh would have wiped it clean.) Evidence also showed that Sunny's hospital admission three weeks before the final coma showed she had ingested at least 73 aspirin tablets, a quantity that could only have been self-administered, and which indicated her state of mind.
Dr. Cahill recanted his testimony from the first trial and opined that insulin was the most reasonable explanation for Sunny's comas, but that "neither he nor anyone else could ever be 100 percent certain of the cause of the comas."
After the trials, Ala and Alexander founded the Sunny von Bulow National Victim Advocacy Center in Fort Worth, Texas
, now the National Center for Victims of Crimehttp://www.ncvc.org in Washington, DC, and the Sunny von Bulow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation in New York
.
Sunny remained in a coma until her death from cardiopulmonary arrest on December 6, 2008, at Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home in New York City. Her memorial service, given by her three children, took place on January 14, 2009, at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York which was the same church where the von Bülows married.
, Claus' attorney, wrote a book about the case, Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case (New York, Random House 1986 and London, Penguin Books 1991).
Professor Vincent Marks, an insulin expert of the University of Surrey
, England
, and Caroline Richmond have a chapter on the science underpinning Sunny's medical condition in their book, Insulin Murders (London
, Royal Society of Medicine Press 2007).
film Reversal of Fortune
was based on Dershowitz' books about the case, with Glenn Close
playing Sunny and Jeremy Irons
playing Claus von Bülow, a performance for which he was awarded an Academy Award for best actor.
Bill Kurtis
narrated an episode of the series American Justice
titled "Von Bulow: A Wealth of Evidence".
The American
television series Biography
produced and aired a documentary episode titled "Claus von Bülow: A Reasonable Doubt", with interviews of Claus Von Bülow and Alan Dershowitz.
This story was also featured on Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice
in the episode titled "The Von Bülow Affair" on truTV.
The events of this story appear to have inspired the fourth season episode "Black Tie" of NBC's Law and Order.
On a Season 3 episode of NBC's Will and Grace entitled 'The Young and the Tactless', Jack (Sean Hayes) informs Will (Eric McCormack) that Karen's (Megan Mulally) alternate and uber-private 'garter phone' is "...only for real emergencies, like if Sunny Von Bulow comes to and starts pointing fingers!" In "Someone Old, Someplace New" (season 4, episode 16), Jack asks Karen, "…who is that one person that could make your life complete again?" Karen replies, "Sunny's out of bed? Finally! Von Bulow, get your ass in here!"
In "The Suicide" season 3 episode 15 of Seinfeld, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) makes a reference to Sunny von Bülow when he says "That’s not too bad. It’s not like a Sunny von Bülow coma. The doctor said he should snap out of it anytime."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...
and socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
. Her husband, Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow is a British socialite of German and Danish ancestry. He was accused of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny von Bülow by administering an insulin overdose in 1980 but his conviction in the first trial was reversed and he was found not guilty in both his retrials.-Biography:Born...
, was convicted of attempting her murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
by insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
. A second trial found him not guilty, after experts opined that there was no insulin injection and that her symptoms were attributable to over-use of prescription drug
Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...
s. The story was dramatized in the book and movie, Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...
. Sunny von Bülow lived almost 28 years in a persistent vegetative state
Persistent vegetative state
A persistent vegetative state is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. It is a diagnosis of some uncertainty in that it deals with a syndrome. After four weeks in a vegetative state , the patient is...
until her death in a New York nursing home on December 6, 2008.
Early life and marriages
Sunny was the only child of utilities magnate George CrawfordGeorge Crawford (American businessman)
George Crawford was a prominent American businessman of the late 19th and early 20th century.A senior figure in the energy supply industry, Crawford was the founder and chairman of Columbia Gas & Electric, one of the leading American utilities companies of the 20th century...
(a former chairman of Columbia Gas & Electric Company) and his wife Annie-Laurie Warmack. She was born on her father's personal railway carriage, en route from Hot Springs, Virginia
Hot Springs, Virginia
Hot Springs is a census-designated place in Bath County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 738. It is located about 5 miles southwest of Warm Springs on U.S. Route 220. Hot Springs is the site of a number of resorts that make use of the springs.The area is...
, to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, for which she was known as "Choo-Choo" as a child before being nicknamed "Sunny" because of her nature. Upon her father's death, when she was four years old, she inherited a reported US$100 million. Her mother, the daughter of the founder of the International Shoe Company, later married Russell Aitken, a sculptor and writer.
Martha "Sunny" Crawford married His Serene Highness, Prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
Alfred of Auersperg
Principality of Auersperg
Auersperg was an Austrian princely family, which held estates in Austria and Thengen...
, the son of Prince Alois von Auersperg and the Countess Henrietta Larisch von Möennich, on July 20, 1957. They had two children, princess Annie-Laurie ("Ala", born 1958) and prince Alexander Georg (born 1959, who uses the surname Auersperg, without the von
Von
In German, von is a preposition which approximately means of or from.When it is used as a part of a German family name, it is usually a nobiliary particle, like the French, Spanish and Portuguese "de". At certain times and places, it has been illegal for anyone who was not a member of the nobility...
). The Auerspergs were divorced in 1965. At this time, Sunny's net worth was over $75 million. Alfred died in 1992 after lingering in an irreversible coma for nine years following a 1983 car accident in Austria.
On June 6, 1966, Sunny married Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow is a British socialite of German and Danish ancestry. He was accused of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny von Bülow by administering an insulin overdose in 1980 but his conviction in the first trial was reversed and he was found not guilty in both his retrials.-Biography:Born...
, a former aide to oilman J.P. Getty, and they had a daughter, Cosima von Bülow, in 1967. By 1979, significant stresses and tensions had developed in their marriage, and both Sunny and Claus spoke openly about the possibility of a divorce. On December 26, 1979, after the family had come together for Christmas at their Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
mansion, Sunny was found unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital where she slipped into coma but was revived. After days of testing, doctors determined the coma was the result of low blood sugar and diagnosed Sunny as hypoglycemic
Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia or hypoglycæmia is the medical term for a state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. The term literally means "under-sweet blood"...
, warning her against overindulging on sweets or going too long without eating. While no foul play was suspected at the time, Claus was later accused of causing this incident by injecting Sunny with insulin. In April 1980, Sunny was again hospitalized after appearing incoherent and disoriented; their doctors reconfirmed Sunny suffered from "reactive hypoglycemia
Reactive hypoglycemia
Reactive hypoglycemia, or postprandial hypoglycemia, is a medical term describing recurrent episodes of symptomatic hypoglycemia occurring within 4 hours after a high carbohydrate meal in people who do not have diabetes...
". She was advised to maintain control of the hypoglycemia by following a strict diet, limiting her sugar intake, and avoiding alcohol.
1980 incident and indictment
On the evening of December 21, 1980, while celebrating Christmas with her family at their mansion, Clarendon Court, in Newport, Rhode Island, Sunny again displayed confusion and uncoordination. She was put to bed by her family, but in the morning she was discovered lying on the bathroom floor, unconscious and unresponsive. She was taken to the hospital where it became clear that this time she had suffered severe enough brain injury to produce a persistent vegetative statePersistent vegetative state
A persistent vegetative state is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. It is a diagnosis of some uncertainty in that it deals with a syndrome. After four weeks in a vegetative state , the patient is...
. Although clinical features resembled a drug overdose, some of the laboratory evidence suggested hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia or hypoglycæmia is the medical term for a state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. The term literally means "under-sweet blood"...
. The Court of Appeal ordered disclosure of the notes taken by the Auersperg children's attorney. These showed that Claus did not want to terminate life support, as had been alleged.
Because of the increased marital tensions between Claus and Sunny in the fall of 1980, her children were suspicious that her brain injury was the result of foul play by Claus. Sunny's two eldest children persuaded Richard H. Kuh, the former New York County District Attorney, to investigate the possibility Claus had attempted the murder of their mother. After the gathering of evidence, Rhode Island prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury who returned an indictment, and in July 1981, Claus was charged with two counts of attempted murder.
First trial
The case attracted nationwide publicity in the United States. The trial began in February 1982. Evidence presented by the prosecution consisted of circumstantial evidence, imputation of financial motive, extensive testimony by various maids, including Maria Schrallhammer who was a prominent witness at both trials, chauffeurs, doctors, and personal exercise trainers, a black bag with drugs, and a used syringe, reported to contain traces of insulin, found in Claus von Bülow's mansion. There was much evidence of excessive use of sedatives, vitamins, and other drugs by Sunny, including testimony of alcohol and substance abuse problems. HarvardHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
endocrinologist
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...
George Cahill testified that he was convinced that her brain damage was the result of injected insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
. The jury was convinced and Claus was convicted.
Appeal
Bülow hired Harvard law professor Alan DershowitzAlan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
for his appeal. Dershowitz's
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
campaign to acquit Bülow was assisted by the then Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
student and later television personality Jim Cramer; Cramer admitted to himself then and later wrote publicly that Bülow was "supremely guilty" of the crime. Dershowitz and his other attorneys produced evidence of Sunny's excessive drug use, including testimony by both Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
and Joanne Carson (second wife of Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
) and more than ten of Sunny's friends. Some of the expert witness testimony was excluded as hypothetical or hearsay. Additional expert witness testimony cast doubt on the validity of evidence that a syringe contained traces of insulin. The appeals court quashed the conviction on several grounds, including the appellate court's ruling that justice for the accused should override attorney-client privilege; and that therefore the notes taken by Kuh, the Auersperg children's attorney, should be disclosed. These notes called into question the credibility of Sunny's maid, Ms. Schrallhammer, who had been a key witness for the prosecution.
At the second trial the defense called eight medical experts, all world-renowned university professors, who testified that Sunny's two comas were not caused by insulin, but by a combination of ingested (not injected) drugs, alcohol, and her chronic health conditions. The experts were John Caronna (chairman of neurology, Cornell); Leo Dal Cortivo (former president, U.S. Toxicology Association); Ralph DeFronzo (medicine, Yale); Kurt Dubowski (forensic pathology, University of Oklahoma); Daniel Foster (medicine, University of Texas); Daniel Furst, (medicine, University of Iowa); Harold Lebovitz (director of clinical research, State University of New York); Vincent Marks (clinical biochemistry, Surrey, vice-president Royal College of Pathologists and president, Association of Clinical Biochemistry); and Arthur Rubinstein (medicine, University of Chicago).
Other experts testified that the hypodermic needle tainted with insulin on the outside (but not inside) would have been dipped in insulin but not injected. (Injecting it in flesh would have wiped it clean.) Evidence also showed that Sunny's hospital admission three weeks before the final coma showed she had ingested at least 73 aspirin tablets, a quantity that could only have been self-administered, and which indicated her state of mind.
Dr. Cahill recanted his testimony from the first trial and opined that insulin was the most reasonable explanation for Sunny's comas, but that "neither he nor anyone else could ever be 100 percent certain of the cause of the comas."
Aftermath
Sunny's family remained convinced that Claus had tried to murder her and was upset that Cosima had chosen to take her father's side. As a result of this, in 1981, Sunny's mother, Annie Laurie Aitken, disinherited Cosima, denying her share of the estate upon Aitken's death on May 4, 1984. In July 1985, ten days after Claus was acquitted at his second trial, Ala and Alexander filed a $56 million civil lawsuit against Claus, on their mother's behalf. On December 24, 1987 this case was settled out of court when Claus agreed to divorce Sunny, give up all claims to her fortune, then estimated between $25 million and $40 million, and leave the country. In exchange Cosima was reinstated in Aitken's will and received $30 million as her one-third share of the estate.After the trials, Ala and Alexander founded the Sunny von Bulow National Victim Advocacy Center in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, now the National Center for Victims of Crimehttp://www.ncvc.org in Washington, DC, and the Sunny von Bulow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Sunny remained in a coma until her death from cardiopulmonary arrest on December 6, 2008, at Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home in New York City. Her memorial service, given by her three children, took place on January 14, 2009, at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York which was the same church where the von Bülows married.
Books
Alan M DershowitzAlan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
, Claus' attorney, wrote a book about the case, Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case (New York, Random House 1986 and London, Penguin Books 1991).
Professor Vincent Marks, an insulin expert of the University of Surrey
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey in the South East of England. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and Caroline Richmond have a chapter on the science underpinning Sunny's medical condition in their book, Insulin Murders (London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Royal Society of Medicine Press 2007).
Televised accounts
The 19901990 in film
The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall .* The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2....
film Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...
was based on Dershowitz' books about the case, with Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
playing Sunny and Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
playing Claus von Bülow, a performance for which he was awarded an Academy Award for best actor.
Bill Kurtis
Bill Kurtis
Bill Kurtis is an American television journalist, producer, narrator, and news anchor. He is also the current host of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files...
narrated an episode of the series American Justice
American Justice
American Justice is an American criminal justice television program on the A&E Network, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the Selena Murder of a Star, Scarsdale Diet doctor murder, the Hillside Stranglers, Matthew Shepard, or the Wells Fargo heist, with...
titled "Von Bulow: A Wealth of Evidence".
The American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television series Biography
Biography (TV series)
Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987...
produced and aired a documentary episode titled "Claus von Bülow: A Reasonable Doubt", with interviews of Claus Von Bülow and Alan Dershowitz.
This story was also featured on Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice
Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice
Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice was an American crime TV series that examined real-life cases of crime, passion, and greed involving privileged or famous people. The episodes were shown on truTV and on Star TV in Canada as well as Zone Reality in Europe and Bio. in Australia. The...
in the episode titled "The Von Bülow Affair" on truTV.
The events of this story appear to have inspired the fourth season episode "Black Tie" of NBC's Law and Order.
On a Season 3 episode of NBC's Will and Grace entitled 'The Young and the Tactless', Jack (Sean Hayes) informs Will (Eric McCormack) that Karen's (Megan Mulally) alternate and uber-private 'garter phone' is "...only for real emergencies, like if Sunny Von Bulow comes to and starts pointing fingers!" In "Someone Old, Someplace New" (season 4, episode 16), Jack asks Karen, "…who is that one person that could make your life complete again?" Karen replies, "Sunny's out of bed? Finally! Von Bulow, get your ass in here!"
In "The Suicide" season 3 episode 15 of Seinfeld, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) makes a reference to Sunny von Bülow when he says "That’s not too bad. It’s not like a Sunny von Bülow coma. The doctor said he should snap out of it anytime."