On this day, June 10, in 1985, British socialite Claus von Bulow was acquitted on charges he tried to murder his wife at her Rhode Island estate.
Von Bulow’s previous conviction for attempted murder of his wife, Sunny von Bulow, was overturned on appeal after he hired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz was assisted by Jim Cramer, who went on to become a host of CNBC’s “Mad Money.”
Cramer later acknowledged that Claus von Bulow was “supremely
guilty.” Prosecutors believed von Bulow tried to kill his wife by administering an insulin overdose in 1980, but at the retrial, top-notch defense experts testified that Sunny van Bulow likely killed herself.
Claus von Bulow was found not guilty on all charges. Sunny von Bulow continued to live in a vegetative state until her death in
2008. Claus von Bulow lives in London.
Dershowitz wrote a book that was adapted into a movie, “Reversal of Fortune.” Jeremy Irons, playing Claus von Bulow, won an Academy Award for the role.
