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Sonny Von Bulow Legacy

21:24 recording · EN · 5 speakers

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Brief overview

Acquitted but stripped of Sunny's fortune, Klaus von Bulow rebuilt his life while she never woke.

  1. The acquittal ended the case, not the fightBarred from a third criminal trial, Alexander and Ala sued Klaus for $56 million in federal court in Manhattan.
  2. The settlement read like a verdictKlaus kept his freedom but gave up every claim to Sonny's fortune and agreed to divorce a wife who would never know.
  3. Two juries heard two different casesThe first heard the mistress and the 14 million Klaus stood to inherit; the second heard the medical defense instead.
Executive Summary AI
  • In June 1985 Sunny von Bulow lies in a private room at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, fed by a tube and watched by private nurses, while 90 miles away a Providence jury acquits her husband Klaus at his second trial for attempted murder.0:00
  • Her children Alexander and Ala von Auersberg found a national victims' organization named for their mother in 1985, which drops her name and grows into today's National Center for Victims of Crime.1:33
  • Unable to retry him criminally, the stepchildren sue Klaus for $56 million in federal court in Manhattan, and the December 1987 settlement has him surrender every claim to Sonny's fortune and divorce her in exchange for the suit being dropped.3:36
  • Cosima, the only child of Klaus and Sonny, is cut out of grandmother Annie Laurie Aitken's estate valued between 50 and more than $110 million, losing a share worth about $25 million, until the same settlement restores her to the one-third share originally intended.5:07
  • Klaus enjoys the notoriety in New York with Andrea Reynolds, then follows Alan Dershowitz's advice to disappear to London, while Sonny is moved to a Manhattan nursing home in 1998 and dies there on December 6th, 2008 at 76, after 28 years in bed.7:32
Key Quote
“I'm Megyn Kelly, and this is MK Confidential.”
— Megyn Kelly2:16
Key Quote
“He's being sued by his stepchildren for $56 million. The case is not over.”
— Alan Dershowitz4:18
Key Quote
“This is during a murder trial with butlers with white gloves and all this kind of stuff.”
— Dominic Dunn8:32