|
|
Claus von Bülow (born Claus Cecil Borberg on August 11, 1926 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a British socialite. He was accused of having attempted to murder his wife Martha von Bülow, called Sunny, by insulin injection.
He is related through his mother to the German von Bülows, the patrons of composer Richard Wagner. His father, playwright Svend Borberg, was a Nazi sympathizer who was later convicted of collaboration after World War II.
Von Bülow graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and worked as a personal assistant to J. Paul Getty after having practiced law in London during the 1950's. Getty wrote that von Bülow showed "remarkable forbearance and good nature" as his occasional "whipping boy." Von Bülow remained with Getty until 1968, two years after marrying Sunny on June 6, 1966.
In 1982, Von Bülow stood trial for the attempted murder of his wife Sunny at their estate, Clarendon Court, in Newport, Rhode Island. At the trial in Newport, Von Bülow was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Claus appealed, hiring famous Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz to represent him. Dershowitz and his team of attorneys managed to cast serious doubts on some of the most damning evidence and witness testimony presented in the first trial, and the conviction was reversed in 1984. At a second trial in 1985, a jury found Claus not guilty on all charges.
In spite of the verdict, Sunny's family remained convinced of his guilt. Claus's and Sunny's daughter, Cosima, was disinherited by her maternal grandmother, Annie Laurie Aitken, for having maintained her father's innocence during the trials. Claus's two stepchildren from Sunny's previous marriage to a German prince sued him for $56 million. As a result, he renounced all claims to Sunny's personal fortune, estimated at $75 million, in exchange for Cosima's reinstatement as heiress to her grandmother's fortune.
Claus lives in London and writes art and theater reviews. His ex-wife is still in a coma in Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
Dershowitz wrote a book about the von Bulow case, which later was made into a film, Reversal of Fortune, starring Jeremy Irons as Claus - a role which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
External links
- CrimeLibrary.com - The Claus von Bulow Case (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/index.html)
- Harvard Law School Forum - Von Bulow Recounts Trial Experiences (http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/forum/VonBulow.html)