An American novelist who wrote an essay titled “How to Kill Your Husband” was convicted on Wednesday of the murder of her husband by a court in Oregon, in the northwestern United States.
After eight hours of deliberation, the jury found Nancy Crampton Brophy guilty of the murder of Daniel Brophy.
The writer, who specializes in sentimental novels with titles as evocative as “Hell in the heart” or “The bad husband”, denied outright, ensuring that the CCTV images where she appears near the crime scene show her simply looking for inspiration for his books.
As for a missing pistol, which is the murder weapon according to the police, she swears that she bought it for the sake of realism, as a prop for writing a book. She also denies the accusation that she killed her husband to pocket hundreds of thousands of life insurance dollars.
Lawyers for the 71-year-old woman have indicated their intention to appeal, according to local newspaper The Oregonian.
Nancy Crampton Brophy was in financial trouble when she shot her husband twice in the heart in June 2018 at the cooking school where he worked, prosecutors say.
Students had found Daniel Brophy, 63, on the floor of a classroom.
His wife had been arrested in September of that year, and had been in detention ever since.
At trial, prosecutor Shawn Overstreet presented the evidence he said showed the defendant committed the murder.
“It’s not just regarding the money. It’s regarding the lifestyle that she wanted, and that Dan mightn’t give her,” he said to explain his gesture.
At the helm, Nancy Crampton Brophy had dismissed these allegations, assuring that her financial problems were ancient history.
“Financially, I’m doing better if Dan is alive than if he’s dead,” she testified.
“Where is the motive, I ask you? An editor would laugh and say ‘I think you need to work harder on this story, there’s a big hole in it.'”
The length of the sentence that the writer will have to carry out is not yet known.
The essay “How to Kill Your Husband” is devoted to the art and manner of getting rid of a spouse without being worried by the justice system.
We learn that firearms are “noisy, messy, and require some skills”.
But, the essay concludes, “the thing regarding killing is that each of us is capable of it, when pushed hard enough.”
