Romance writer accused of killing spouse had penned how-to essay
PORTLAND, Ore. — A woman accused of gunning down her chef husband is a self-published romance writer who once penned an essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband.”
Nancy Crampton Brophy, 68, published the 700word treatise in 2011 on the website See Jane Publish, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
“As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure,” she wrote. “After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail.”
She has also written such titles as “The Wrong Husband,” a 2015 novel about a woman who escapes an abusive spouse during a shipwreck in the Mediterranean and falls in love with one of the men sent to find her.
Crampton Brophy was arrested last week on a preliminary charge of domestic violence murder in the death of her husband of 27 years, Daniel Brophy, at the Oregon Culinary Institute early on June 2. He was a well-liked instructor there, and the killing baffled many.
Crampton Brophy announced the death of her husband on Facebook a day after the killing, saying she was “struggling to make sense of everything right now.” Her attorney, Jane Claus, declined to comment Wednesday about the charge or her client’s writing. The affidavit filed by police in support of her arrest remains under seal, so many details of the case have yet to be divulged. Authorities have not publicly suggested a possible motive for the killing.
In her 2011 essay, Crampton Brophy discussed several potential motivations for wanting to kill a spouse, including infidelity, abuse or greed.
“Divorce is expensive, and do you really want to split your possessions?” she wrote in a section about financial motives.
“I find it is easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them,” she wrote. “I don’t want to worry about blood and brains splattered on my walls. And really, I’m not good at remembering lies.
“But the thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough.”
The post is no longer public.
Brophy’s colleagues at the Oregon Culinary Institute considered him the institute’s “resident encyclopedia of knowledge” who had a “creative approach to teaching” and an “offbeat sense of humor, ”as they wrote about him in memoriam. He sometimes made cooks who forgot their hats wear sombreros or spiky helmets instead, the Portland Tribune reported.