‘How to murder your husband’ writer on trial for killing hubby

WASHINGTON: A writer who penned a piece titled How To Murder Your Husband is on trial in the US for ... killing her husband.

It is a case that has all the hallmarks of classic detective fiction – a huge insurance payout, an impecunious suspect who claims to have amnesia, a missing weapon, and surveillance footage that seems to have caught the culprit red-handed.

But for novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, it is not the plot of her latest book; it is real life in an Oregon court room.

Crampton Brophy stands accused of shooting Daniel Brophy using a gun whose now-missing barrel she bought on eBay.

Prosecutors said the 71-year-old writer was struggling to make payments on her mortgage, but kept up multiple life assurance policies that would pay out a total of US$1.4 million (RM6.2 million) in the event of her husband’s demise.

Prosecutor Shawn Overstreet said security camera footage had captured Crampton Brophy’s minivan outside the Oregon Culinary Institute on June 2, 2018 at almost exactly the time her chef husband was killed in one of the school’s classrooms.

“You were there at the same time that someone happens to be shooting your husband ... with the exact type of gun that you own and which is now mysteriously missing.”

Crampton Brophy told the court she has no memory of being there, though acknowledges she must have been, insisting the CCTV images show her in the area because she was driving around getting inspiration for a story.

Her husband, 63, was found dead that morning by students readying for a class.

Prosecutors said Crampton Brophy, whose books can be bought on Amazon, was facing financial ruin before her husband’s death, but continued to pay into 10 separate life insurance policies.

The blog on murdering a husband discusses methods and motivations for dispatching an unwanted spouse.

These include financial gain and the use of a firearm, although it notes guns are “loud, messy, require some skill.”

“But the thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough,” the essay said.

The trial, which began early last month, is ongoing. – AFP