00:00:00
Hey weirdos. I'm Elena. >> I'm Ash. >> And this is Morbid. >> Oh, I can't get too crazy with it cuz my
00:00:22
voice is still getting back together. >> Yeah. And then you'll hack through my episode.
00:00:26
>> Yeah. I almost hacked through your last one. >> Yeah. We're we're like batch recording a
00:00:31
little bit. >> Yeah. You know, we're going to New York. We just came off of the holidays.
00:00:36
>> We're just being responsible, you know, >> not too much so that we're not like
00:00:39
aware of what's going on in the world and we like aren't able to talk to you about. We're just like kind of getting a
00:00:44
couple done. But >> I almost hacked my way through her last one, but then I realized that every time
00:00:49
I felt like I was going to cough, if I just chugged water with liquid IV in it, this is not an ad, but it actually has
00:00:54
liquid IV in it. >> It should. You've been sick. >> Then it would make the cough go away.
00:00:58
But then by the end of the episode, I had to pee so bad that I thought I was going to die.
00:01:02
>> And then I happened to find a fun fact about urination giraffes and >> which hopefully you just listened to.
00:01:07
>> It all worked out. >> I wonder Oh. Oh, hold on. >> Oh, all right. I took some water.
00:01:14
>> I wonder what the fun fact will be today. >> Uh, the fun fact today. >> We say it at the end, girl.
00:01:21
>> That I know, but I'm just trying to lead into >> Oh, you're segueing. Sorry to interrupt.
00:01:26
>> You said [ __ ] that. We'll say it later. jumped in front of your segway. >> Jumped right in front of MY SEGWAY. I
00:01:31
>> DIED AND made me flip over. >> You crashed me. >> That became so real. >> But yeah, so something cool that just
00:01:39
happened was we were ON WATCH WHAT HAPPENS. >> Every time I go to say that I I go to
00:01:43
say watch what crapens, which is an amazing podcast. We love Rody and Ben. >> Uh but amazing.
00:01:49
>> Oh my god. I >> surreal. >> Incredible. >> Still can't believe it. >> I I need to like bask in it and then we
00:01:55
can like do a full >> Yeah. a full breakdown on the next episode. >> Exactly. >> And you know I will be doing that.
00:02:01
>> You need to let it settle for a minute. >> I just you know well in and something
00:02:05
else exciting >> tell me brother >> is um weirdos. >> Yeah. >> I am so excited to share that the next
00:02:15
book in my Dr. Ren Mueller series is called The Butcher Legacy. >> Ooh, that's crisp. It's crisp.
00:02:23
>> That's my favorite title so far. >> Oh, I love that. And it's coming out on August 11th. You
00:02:28
>> mark your calendar >> and pre-order it now at butcherleacy.com. >> Legacy.com.
00:02:35
>> Butcherleacy.com. You can get it anywhere you get your book. So, you'll have a little drop down menu and you can
00:02:39
pick wherever you want to get it. But wait, there's more. >> There will be a Target exclusive edition
00:02:44
with sprayed edges and exclusive art. >> That's delicious. >> And I'm signing a limited number of
00:02:50
copies for Barnes & Noble. Oh my goodness. Stay tuned for even more surprises over the next few months. I'm
00:02:58
going to keep you all updated here and on social media, of course. You're going to know about every little thing that's
00:03:03
coming down the pipe. >> All the things. >> All the things. Butcher legacy. I'm so
00:03:08
excited, guys. You're going to love it. I can't wait to read it. And you can put
00:03:11
it in your back pocket, but it's a little thick. Little thick. But go get either one. Whatever one you
00:03:20
feel is calling to you, go get it. Pre-order it. Butcher Legacy. I'm really [ __ ] excited about this story, guys.
00:03:27
So, I really hope you dig it. >> I'm so excited because usually when Elena's writing a book, like the first
00:03:32
two times, she has me read so much of it, but this time she didn't have me read any of it. I if anything, I read
00:03:37
like a paragraph of a chapter here, like twice maybe. So, this I'm going into this like virtually blind.
00:03:43
>> Yeah. >> And that I'm really excited about. I do need to reread the last two over again
00:03:48
so that I'm like up on everything for the third book. >> Yeah, that makes sense.
00:03:52
>> Yeah. I'm really [ __ ] >> Everybody should do that. Why don't you go Why don't you go buy the first two
00:03:56
books, you know? >> Yeah. Go buy them. >> Go buy Butcher and the Ren in the Butcher Game
00:04:00
>> and then buy The Butcher Legacy. >> Put them in your back pocket. >> Put them in your back pocket.
00:04:04
>> You know what? People are going to have to start buying cargo pants, which is
00:04:06
good because they're in again or at least they were last season. But you're going to maybe make them popular for two
00:04:12
seasons in a row because people are going to need more pockets to put your books into.
00:04:15
>> It's true. And this one's she's a little thick. >> She's a little thick. >> I love a thick. So, I love a thicky.
00:04:22
>> She might weigh down your booty a little bit, but you know what? It's worth it.
00:04:25
It just means just you know what? Squat with them in your pockets. >> There you go.
00:04:30
>> Gains. >> Look at me. I'm trying I'm trying to help you with your fitness goals.
00:04:35
>> Gains. >> That's That's me in my book. >> Look at you. Ba. Put some respect on
00:04:41
your name. >> Sorry. Ba >> Ba. >> It's going to be awesome. >> I can't wait. >> And I'll come see you this this year to
00:04:48
talk about it. >> And maybe I'll tag along. Maybe depending who knows on the >> depending on where I'm at.
00:04:54
>> Yeah, who knows? >> So, go get the book. >> I can't [ __ ] wait. >> It's fun.
00:04:59
>> I'm actually really excited. >> I am too. >> Yay. >> What else is going on? Anything?
00:05:07
I mean, those are two pretty big things. >> Yeah, >> I said that like I needed more.
00:05:10
>> Yeah. >> Our Twilight episode is going to be coming out or excuse me, our New Moon
00:05:15
episode is going to be coming out soon. I gotta start. I want to um reread it, but I think I'm gonna listen to it so it
00:05:20
goes a little faster. >> Smart. >> Um and that will be such a different experience because that wasn't an option
00:05:26
that I was at least aware of back in the day. >> Yeah. >> So, that'll be fun. >> I'm really excited because the first one
00:05:31
was such a blast to do and I know you guys seemed like you guys really liked that the Twilight episode. So, I and we
00:05:38
had so much fun doing it. >> Yeah. >> That I cannot wait to do New Moon because New Moon, as we all know,
00:05:45
>> is batshit. [ __ ] crazy. >> Yeah, it really is. New moon makes me really sad.
00:05:51
>> It's a sad, but it's a wild [ __ ] ride. >> It is. It gives me heartache to be
00:05:57
honest. >> I remember being absolutely We'll get into it another time. Another >> Don't worry. Another time on the bonus
00:06:03
episode. >> Yeah, like next week. >> Yeah, we want to save it all. >> Guess what I have for you today.
00:06:07
>> What do you have? >> I haven't done one of these in a while. At least it feels like that to me. A
00:06:12
high society case. Oh, you you love a high society case. >> They just embody who I am.
00:06:18
>> Yeah. >> Like I'm not high society. I wish I was, but I think I wasn't a pass.
00:06:21
>> Like your soul feels like it should be. >> One of them. >> Yeah. >> So, we're going to be talking about the
00:06:26
mysterious case of Sunny Von Bulo. >> Just that name alone. >> Any van in this case has Vaughn names up
00:06:34
the wazoo. >> Oh, if there's a van >> up the vanoo society. >> I'm so excited. All right, so let's talk
00:06:39
about it. Martha, who was known as Sunny. Martha Sunny Crawford was born in her father's private train car.
00:06:47
>> Yeah. >> On September 1st, 1931 in Virginia. All while her parents, George and Annie
00:06:53
Lorie Crawford, were traveling to New York. >> So just on the way to New York, she gave
00:06:57
birth to a child >> in a private train car. >> What's richer than that? >> Yeah, that's that's pretty high cost.
00:07:03
>> That's big money. >> Yeah. >> So by the time she was born, Sunny's father had already made a [ __ ] ton of
00:07:08
money. First in the oil industry. >> O. and then uh in gas and electric and that year he was named the chairman of
00:07:15
the board of Columbia Gas and Electric. So big [ __ ] money >> of the [ __ ] board.
00:07:22
>> We were talking about gains he was gaining. He and Sunny's mother had gotten married in 1927 when George was
00:07:27
66 and Annie Lorie was 27 and four years later Sunny was born. Given that he was
00:07:34
70 years old when his daughter was born and a very prominent figure in the world
00:07:38
of finance and business, George didn't have much of a relationship with his daughter.
00:07:42
>> Ah, yeah. >> Yeah. And also just like fathers and daughters weren't really like hanging
00:07:45
out a ton back then. >> Uh, and in 1935 when Sunny was just four years old, George actually ended up
00:07:51
dying after being sick briefly. >> O, >> he left his entire fortune though, valued at more than $100 million back
00:07:59
then. >> Holy [ __ ] >> $100 million back then. He left his wife and daughter. Damn. Today that would be
00:08:06
about $2.4 billion. >> Whoa. Big money. Damn. So, after her father died, Sunny spent most of her childhood
00:08:16
at different very elite boarding schools all along the East Coast, including the
00:08:19
Chapen School in Manhattan and St. Timothy's School in Maryland. And in 1949, when she graduated from high
00:08:26
school, she had her debut in New York's High Society. >> Oh, she debuted. I've also been watching
00:08:32
the um the old episodes of New York Housewives lately and when Tinsley's on it with her mother Dale.
00:08:38
>> Yeah. >> Next, this is giving that like next level. >> The Mortimemas. >> I'm so upset that I didn't get to make a
00:08:43
debut in high society. >> I know you are. >> Yeah. It's really >> I'm sorry that we couldn't provide that
00:08:48
for you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Maybe my 30th birthday we can have it be debutant
00:08:53
themed. >> Oh my god. >> Maybe I will come out to high society. >> There you go.
00:08:56
>> Watch me. Watch this space. So in 19 Keep your eyes on this space. So, in 1957, 20 years after her father died,
00:09:07
her mother, Annie Lorie, remarried to writer and sculptor Russell Atkin. And the two remained married until Annie
00:09:14
Lorie died in 1984. That same year, 24-year-old Sunny also got married in a very heavily publicized wedding to
00:09:22
Austrian prince and tennis pro Alfred von Aberg. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Of course.
00:09:28
>> Yeah. So after the wedding, they moved from the US to Munich where they lived
00:09:32
briefly and then eventually settled in Kitsbell, Austria. The following year, Sunny gave birth to their first child
00:09:39
who she named after her mother, >> Annie Lorie, but they called her Allah. >> A cute.
00:09:44
>> She was followed one year later by a son, Alexander. But unfortunately, outside of their like very opulent
00:09:51
wedding and the little short honeymoon phase that followed, Sunonny and Alfred's relationship wasn't a very
00:09:56
happy one. Mhm. >> They didn't have a lot of shared interest. Sunny hated his enthusiasm for
00:10:00
big game hunting and the fact that he was like a shameless flirt. Like he would literally flirt right in front of
00:10:05
her. >> Ew. >> So in 1965, their marriage ended in divorce. In the settlement, Alfred
00:10:12
actually received two houses and $1 million and Sunny got the kids and was able to return to the US.
00:10:18
>> Yeah. >> Which honestly like a million dollars is nothing to her. >> Yeah, that's true.
00:10:22
>> I'm sure it was something obviously, but you know what I but in her situation.
00:10:26
>> So, not long after they moved back to New York, Sunny ran into her old friend
00:10:30
Klaus von Bulo. She had met him in London years earlier while she was still married to Alfred.
00:10:35
>> Oh, >> but they were just friends. But, you know, she went back to New York and they
00:10:39
met up and they rekindled their friendship and within a few months their friendship kind of evolved and they were
00:10:44
dating. >> Oh, look at Sunny and Claus. >> It's beautiful. And then in June of 1966, a little over a year after she got
00:10:51
divorced from Alfred, Sunny and Klaus were married. >> Oh, look at that. >> So, from the moment they got married,
00:10:56
the press and the public were very interested in Klaus's story. But no matter how deep reporters dug, they
00:11:03
really couldn't differentiate between fact and fiction when it came to Claus. >> They did know that he was got a little
00:11:10
Jay Gatsby in him. >> Yes. Very, very that. Very that. So he was born Klouse uh Borberg in
00:11:17
Copenhagen, Denmark in 1926 to Sven and Janna Borberg. And after World War II, his father spend was actually accused of
00:11:25
being a Nazi collaborator. >> Yeah, horrible. And served 18 months in prison, which I say give him more. After
00:11:32
his dad died, RI rest in distress, Klaus took his mother's maiden name, Bulo, but
00:11:37
added the Vaughn later. >> Oh yeah, he did. >> To make himself and fancy. Oh my god, he
00:11:43
really is like Jay Gatsby. >> And he also just gets it. You add Vaughn to your name and go fancy.
00:11:48
>> And Bulo, Von Bulo sounds like a real fancy name. >> It works perfectly. That's the thing
00:11:54
like you have to be selective about where you van because >> Yeah. It can't just be like Von I'm
00:12:00
trying to think of. >> Von Kelly doesn't work. >> Von Kelly. Yeah. >> Von Urkheart
00:12:04
doesn't really work. No offense. >> It really doesn't. >> I don't know who Von It's hard. It's
00:12:10
hard to von. It's hard to vom. >> That's why it's exclusive. >> That's why if you get a name that you
00:12:14
can v with von with >> von von all the long von. >> Yeah. Von. >> So von bula. So by the time they
00:12:21
reunited in 1966, Klouse had graduated from law school and he was working as an assistant to the notorious oil magnet J.
00:12:29
Paul Getty. >> Oh, we know him. >> You remember him? >> We know him. >> Remember when you know he was going to
00:12:35
get his ass beat? >> Yeah. Remember that time? >> But Claus worked with him for a little
00:12:40
while. I do remember that. >> You remember that? Remember butthole vividly? >> Remember butthole change?
00:12:44
>> But hole change. >> That's what it was, right? But hole change. I think >> Imagine if I was just misremembering.
00:12:52
>> You were just like, remember that? >> No, I don't. >> I do remember you. I would beat your
00:12:57
ass. >> Listen, I stand 10 grand on that. Beat your grandpa's ass if he doesn't pay
00:13:04
your ransom after your ear gets sliced off your [ __ ] head. Grandpa should get every right in the world to beat
00:13:09
your grandpa's ass. >> I don't I don't advocate violence often. >> 10 toes down,
00:13:15
>> [ __ ] I'll put my hands down on that. I stand on B. >> Fanges down. Beat your grandpa's ass if
00:13:22
your ear gets cut off and he doesn't pay your rent. >> Say that with my whole chest.
00:13:25
>> Yeah. Titties out. >> I love when our cases connect though. Like whatever that
00:13:32
>> you can go back with. >> It's like whoa. >> Oh man. So he worked for the good for
00:13:36
that. After the wedding, Klaus and Sunny settled in a large apartment on Fifth A
00:13:41
in New York, right? Uh overlooking Central Park. It must have been gorgeous. But a short time later, Sunny
00:13:48
purchased Clarendon Court, which was a massive mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and I believe still is. Um and
00:13:54
obviously at that time, the wealthiest families in the nation were vacationing in Newport, like the Vanderbilts, the
00:14:00
Ator, and Doris Duke, who we also covered. So from that point forward, they split their time between New York
00:14:05
and Rhode Island. >> Makes sense. Also, the Aers makes me think of Titanic, John Jacob A.
00:14:10
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And his new wife, who was with child, I believe. Yeah.
00:14:15
>> Oh, yeah. >> But like >> I think was she like a mistress? >> Yeah. >> Oh, [ __ ]
00:14:19
>> I'm looking at Debbie for answers cuz I'm like, you and I watched this movie 100,000 times together.
00:14:23
>> I've only watched Titanic like three or four times and I can't watch it anymore
00:14:27
because it literally makes me ugly sobb. >> Yeah. I mean, I feel like watching it
00:14:32
now would destroy myself. >> I can't do it. >> But I was thinking about this just a
00:14:36
little little sidetrack >> cuz John and I were talking about it last night. Actually, I don't know why
00:14:40
it came up. Actually, >> you talk about the Titanic pretty frequently. >> We do. I don't know why, but he was
00:14:45
talking about how he saw that movie in theaters. >> Oh, damn. >> For the first time, and he saw it with
00:14:50
his mom. >> And his mom did not know >> Oh. >> that that was going to be part of it.
00:14:56
>> Oh. >> So, he was like he was like, "So, here I am." He's like those the first boobs I
00:15:02
ever saw were Kate first boobs he ever saw. And >> he's like and sitting in a movie theater
00:15:07
with a million other people >> and his mom. >> But I was like if you're first boobs
00:15:11
being Kate Winslet in that movie I was like good for you. >> That's a good first set of movies.
00:15:15
>> That is I was like that's pretty elite. And I was saying how I feel bad that that uh kids that like
00:15:24
young people today don't get to experience that era of Leonardo DiCaprio. The Romeo and Juliet Titanic
00:15:33
era. >> Yeah. >> Is a very specific era that nothing will ever replicate it >> and it will never come back. So it's
00:15:41
just like one of it's this very specific era where it was just like yeah a very specific kind of Leonardo DiCaprio.
00:15:50
>> You know what though? We experienced a very different Leo DiCaprio and we have
00:15:56
fun Leo stories that are alleged. >> What you know like all the crazy stories about like headphones and stuff.
00:16:02
>> Oh yeah. No, that's what I mean. like the the Leonardo purist of now is a very
00:16:08
different situation than we had when we were younger. Again, I'm looking at Debbie like like confirm this for me
00:16:16
>> because that was him and his like >> nothing was no one was like him. >> We have like Lucas Matson.
00:16:23
>> I mean >> uh cuz remember they say that about him. >> I mean Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
00:16:27
>> In Succession. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> See? Yeah. That's what I mean. >> Different. Different. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm
00:16:34
I'm chinning I'm I'm chin chinning your point. >> He was so so pure then. >> I know. And I mean, you know what
00:16:40
though? He has stayed so [ __ ] attractive. >> Who? >> Leo. >> You don't think he's attractive anymore?
00:16:47
>> Nothing beats Romeo and Juliet. Leonardo. >> No, he was literally No, look up Le
00:16:55
Romeo and Juliet. Leonardo DiCaprio. Just look at that specific. I mean, I've seen that,
00:17:01
>> but but you need to visualize it again. >> No, I know >> cuz that was a [ __ ] moment in my life
00:17:07
that but watching that movie and when he came on the screen, I said, "What is this world all about?"
00:17:13
>> Yeah. >> I said, "What do you I said, what do you mean?" >> My closet still said Leonardo DiCaprio.
00:17:18
I love Leonardo DiCaprio from you. >> Him and the chain mail. >> That's I feel like Titanic. And poor
00:17:25
John was like at that age, he thought it was just going to be this like action-packed
00:17:30
>> movie and he's like, I didn't know that there was going to be like a full love
00:17:33
story involved in it. >> And Karen also probably was like, oh, we'll just go witness history together.
00:17:37
>> He just wasn't. He wasn't ready. >> Well, they did witness history. >> They weren't ready.
00:17:41
>> They did. >> And then that was it. >> I can't imagine having to watch Paint Me
00:17:45
like one of your French girls with my family. >> The car scene >> with the hand. Yeah.
00:17:51
>> Oh, honey. Yeah, that would ruin me. I would probably leave. I think I'd go to
00:17:56
the bathroom. >> Yeah, I think that would be the end of me. >> That'd be upsetting.
00:17:59
>> All right. Well, um, how did we get there? >> Oh, John Jacob asked. >> Oh, the Atos. The a
00:18:05
>> because I had a weird moment of remembering that entire conversation. >> Good for you, though. I love it. All
00:18:10
right. So, >> so back to Sunny and being Vans. Uh, in 1967, a year after she married Klaus,
00:18:17
she gave birth to their only child, Kosima, I believe is how you say her name. So, at first things in the Von
00:18:24
Bulo's life together were pretty much going great. Like things were great. Claus was no stranger to high society.
00:18:29
You know, he was that like Jay Gatsby type, which is also funny because then we went into a whole.
00:18:35
>> But he mixed in easily with Sunny's friends and associates. Everybody found him charming, entertaining, I don't
00:18:40
know, probably hot. But not long after Kosima was born, things seemed to change. Sunny didn't love how Klaus was
00:18:47
working very long hours and um carrying on with other women in full view of the public.
00:18:52
>> Oh, I that would also be something I would be pissed off about. >> Yeah, I would be pretty pissed. He on
00:18:57
the other hand complained that she had completely lost interest in their relationship together after their
00:19:02
daughter was born, which like maybe give her a [ __ ] minute. >> Yeah, just like a quick a hot minute.
00:19:06
>> Yeah, just a sec. But eventually they reached an impass and they decided to move into separate bedrooms, keeping up
00:19:12
appearances for the sake of the public, but leading very separate lives. >> I feel like that's like such a thing in
00:19:17
high society. Like they just like don't Richard and Emily Do they have the same bedroom?
00:19:22
>> They do. Yeah. >> Oh, they do. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Well, anyway, throughout the 1970s,
00:19:25
>> they separated at one point. >> They do. I I can't talk about that. >> Don't worry, it's it's fine in the end.
00:19:29
>> It's Yeah. >> I don't want to bismerch the Richard and Emily. >> Don't you dare. You never would.
00:19:34
>> I never would. >> Oh gosh. So throughout the 1970s, Klaus and Sunny appeared to the outside world
00:19:39
to be the very picture of American aristocracy. But behind closed doors, they continued to have very little to do
00:19:45
with each other. And in March of 1979, Klaus started having an affair with former soap opera actress Alexandra
00:19:53
Isles. And before long, they had fallen very deeply in love with each other. But
00:19:58
Alexandra had absolutely no intention of being somebody's mistress or carrying on
00:20:03
an affair behind Sunny's back. And she repeatedly pressed Klaus to divorce his wife, which you know,
00:20:10
>> sorry, something about that, like the moral high ground of being like, I will
00:20:14
not continue [ __ ] you >> unless you divorce your [ __ ] wife. Who do you think I am?
00:20:19
>> Yeah. >> Like, I love that she was just like, I have no intention of being a mistress,
00:20:22
babe. You are. >> I know. >> I will not carry on an affair. You are. >> I know. >> Divorce your wife. Wow.
00:20:30
>> Yeah. >> It's all very messy. It's a very high society. >> Shaky ass moral high ground to be
00:20:36
standing on. So for months, Klaus talked about leaving Sunny, promising Alexandra that
00:20:54
he was I think that name is so pretty. I'm not talking about like her being a mistress or anything, but the name
00:20:59
Alexandra is so pretty. >> Oh, it is. It's a very pretty name. But I don't like the nickname Alex very
00:21:03
much. Like I don't dislike the name Alex, but if I had an Alexandra, I would only want people to call her Alexandra.
00:21:09
>> Well, it's such a pretty name all together. I don't mind the nickname, but the name All I was going to say all the
00:21:15
way. >> Yeah, all the way. >> All the way name. >> Uh the all the way name is it's so
00:21:20
pretty. >> Pretty. >> But anyway, so he kept promising Alexander that he was planning to break
00:21:24
up with Sunny when the time was right. But the time obviously is never that great to leave your spouse. Yeah. So,
00:21:29
their affair dragged on with Klaus making promises of getting a divorce that he seemed pretty unlikely to keep.
00:21:35
Then, in December 1979, a health scare kind of threw a wrench into Klouse and Alexandra's plans, causing Claus to at
00:21:42
least temporarily recommmit to Sunny. It was about a week before Christmas and Maria Shrawlhammer, the maid at
00:21:50
Clarendon Court, was cleaning the hallway outside of Sunny and Klaus's bedroom when she heard Sunny moaning on
00:21:57
the other side of the locked door. So, she tried to enter the room, but from the other side of the door, Klaus
00:22:02
insisted that Sunny was fine and that they didn't need any help. >> When she was finally able to get into
00:22:08
the room, Maria found Klouse and Sunny lying in bed. And Sunny, she said, did not look very good. When she suggested
00:22:14
that they call the doctor, she said that Klouse strongly objected, said Sunny was
00:22:18
fine. She was just sleeping and actually she had gotten up a few times to go to the bathroom. So like everything was
00:22:23
fine. But by the end of the day, it was very clear that Sunny was essentially comeomaosse and Klaus was not doing
00:22:30
anything to help her according to Maria. So Maria called for an ambulance and Sunny was taken to Newport Hospital. At
00:22:37
first, doctors couldn't figure out what had caused her to slip into the coma in the first place. But after several blood
00:22:44
tests, they determined that she had very unusually high levels of insulin in her
00:22:48
blood. >> How did that get there? >> Great question. Doctors at Newport managed to bring her out of the coma in
00:22:55
a pretty short amount of time. And they said the incident was hypoglycemia, but they noted no other irreg irregular
00:23:03
I can never irregularities. >> Thank you so much. Irregularities at the time. So that was all very strange, but
00:23:09
they were like, "Okay, I guess you, you know, ate too much something." >> Yeah. >> I don't know how any of that works.
00:23:15
>> You just did some too much of something. >> You hypoed near the glycemia. So >> in the months after Sunny's return from
00:23:23
the hospital, things basically went back to normal. But by the middle of the year, Klaus's affair with Alexandra had
00:23:29
started once again. But it had reached a breaking point. Klouse argued that it would have been pretty cruel to propose
00:23:35
a divorce to his wife since she had just been in a coma and that he needed to be
00:23:38
there for her recovery. Valid me, I would argue that it's pretty cruel that you're still carrying on an affair with
00:23:43
your wife on your wife when she was just in a coma. >> Also valid. >> Maybe you could end that.
00:23:48
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. But by June, Sunny was in good health and Alexandra was once again
00:23:53
getting the feeling that Claus was not going to leave her. So she didn't want to continue on.
00:23:58
>> No, it's not. >> She didn't want to continue on with the affair. So she gave Klaus an ultimatum.
00:24:03
Divorce Sunny within the next 6 months. I was like, damn, that's a nice ultimatum.
00:24:07
>> You should or I'm done here. So that put Klaus in a difficult position. The family's attorney, Richard Q, said he
00:24:15
had no money and so divorce as he saw it was not an option. It would leave him penniless. But if Sunny was dead, then
00:24:21
he would have her title to her house in Rhode Island, her wonderful apartment in
00:24:25
Manhattan, and a great deal of money. >> Oh, this is always when it gets a little
00:24:30
little sticky. >> Yeah. And that's a quote, by the way. That's not my words. >> Yeah.
00:24:33
>> So, the months passed on and Claus dragged his feet, promising Alexander that he was going to go through with the
00:24:38
divorce as soon as he felt like the time was right. But in December 1980, another
00:24:43
emergency occurred at Clarendon Court. And this time, it was a lot more serious than the last one.
00:24:49
>> So, on December 20th, Sunny's son, Alex, arrived home and found his mother on the
00:24:53
first floor struggling to get up the stairs. It was less than a week before Christmas and Sunny had spent the last
00:24:59
week just preparing for the holidays and you know you know I was going to say you
00:25:03
know mom's on holidays you just got done with that and you got sick as a dog. >> Mhm.
00:25:07
>> So Alex assumed that she was just very exhausted from all the work that she was
00:25:10
putting into it. So he scooped her up and he carried her upstairs to her room and he laid her in her bed, said good
00:25:16
night and just gave her some time to rest. >> But the next morning when he went back
00:25:20
to check on her he found her face down on the floor of her bathroom. >> Oh jeez. She was unconscious. Her night
00:25:26
gown was gathered up around her waist and there was a small amount of blood around her mouth.
00:25:31
>> Oh. >> So, he was panicked now and called for an ambulance, which luckily got there in
00:25:35
just a few minutes. Former paramedic Paul Ripa said, "I knew as soon as I walked into the room and knelt beside
00:25:41
her, she was in trouble." >> So, the paramedics made a quick evaluation of Sunny's condition, and
00:25:46
they noted that cut that she had on her upper lip, which appeared to be where the blood around her mouth had come from
00:25:52
>> and the presence of blood. now made sense. But neither Ripa or his partner could find any explanation for the cut
00:25:59
itself. There was nothing on Sunny or near her that could have caused the cut. And if she had hit her head during the
00:26:06
fall, it would have caused more damage than just that small cut on her lip. So, the scene didn't really necessarily make
00:26:13
sense. >> Yeah. >> So, they couldn't revive her there. So, they loaded her back into the ambulance
00:26:17
and took her again back to Newport Hospital. And Klouse rode in the back with her. Now, Paul Ripa had been a
00:26:23
paramedic for a long time at this point. So, he had seen all kinds of different behaviors from people in very stressful
00:26:29
situations, not unlike this one, and he found Klaus's demeanor to be very odd in
00:26:36
his opinion. He said, "Mr. Von Bulo looked at his wife with ice cold blue eyes and there was absolutely no
00:26:42
feeling." Ooh. And it's like in most cases, we're generalizing, but in most cases, somebody in this position where
00:26:50
like their spouse is unconscious and nobody knows why, >> maybe you would make like an attempt to
00:26:55
comfort your loved one no matter and like maybe you'd continue talking to them even if they can't hear you. But
00:27:00
according to Paul Ripa, Klaus just seemed very removed from the situation and never said a word, which you can
00:27:07
understand would look a little bit weird, >> but also like sometimes people disassociate in stressful situations.
00:27:13
>> Yeah, for sure. >> And honestly, like >> I mean, I've never been in a situation
00:27:17
like that with my spouse, luckily. But I I feel like we've been in similar situations in other
00:27:23
>> with other family >> with other family members. And I I kind of like do disassociate a little bit.
00:27:28
Yeah, I definitely go into like straight up like just like what needs to be done
00:27:32
mode. >> Yeah, same. Exactly. >> Yeah. >> So maybe that's where he was. >> Who who's to say?
00:27:36
>> Who's to say? >> But at the hospital, Sunny's situation unfortunately did take a turn for the
00:27:41
worse. The doctors in the ER weren't able to revive her, and they couldn't determine what had caused her to slip
00:27:46
into a coma in the first place. But when the results of her blood test came back
00:27:50
a couple days later, they were mostly normal, but there was the exception of her insulin level, which was 216
00:27:58
microunits per milliliter. >> Wo. >> The normal range is between 5 and 15. >> Holy [ __ ]
00:28:05
>> And hers was at 216. >> That's wild. >> Like bananas. So, the amount of insulin
00:28:11
in Sunny's blood was obviously extremely high for any person, regardless of circumstance. But it was especially
00:28:17
peculiar for Sunny who aside from the one incident the previous year wasn't known to have any health problems
00:28:23
whatsoever. >> So under the circumstances the doctors concluded that her body hadn't just
00:28:29
generated that amount of insulin on its own. >> That insulin had to have been administered either by Sunny or somebody
00:28:35
close to her. >> But like why would somebody do that? >> Yeah. So weeks passed and unfortunately
00:28:41
she just seemed to slip deeper and deeper into her coma and she wasn't showing any signs of improvement. So in
00:28:47
early January, she was transferred to a long-term care unit at Columbia Hospital
00:28:51
in Manhattan. Meanwhile, back in Rhode Island, Alex and his sister Alla started to grow suspicious of their stepfather.
00:28:58
The tension blame, >> which like yeah, I can't blame them cuz they knew like the tension between Claus
00:29:04
and Sunny wasn't a secret and I don't think the affair was a secret either. Yeah. So, I mean, they're probably,
00:29:10
>> you know, like that is going to make you pretty suspicious. >> So, among other things, within a few
00:29:15
weeks of Sunny being admitted to the hospital, Klaus was taking a lavish vacation with Alexandra Isles like
00:29:21
nothing had happened. >> Ew. >> In a few weeks, >> that's icky. >> Like, your wife is lying in a
00:29:29
>> both their part. >> Yeah. So, while Sunny's children from her first marriage may have grown
00:29:34
suspicious of Klouse, there was nothing about Sunny's condition to doctors at that point that suggested foul play for
00:29:42
like enough for the police to investigate the situation, which is really weird to me, but
00:29:46
>> I'm like, I don't know, >> different time. >> Yeah. >> So, still, Alex and his sister were
00:29:51
convinced that Claus had done something to their mom. So they reached out to the
00:29:54
family lawyer, Richard Q, and he was a former Manhattan district attorney and the family's, like I said, personal
00:30:00
lawyer. So he suggested that while they really had no cause yet to go to the police, there was nothing preventing
00:30:06
them from looking into things on their own. >> Yeah. >> So Alex kind of started looking into
00:30:10
Klaus's behavior in the months leading up to Sunny's coma. Like kind of like looking back on a few things.
00:30:16
>> These these are some kids right here. >> Yeah. Yeah. These are the kind of kids
00:30:20
you want to have. So, like I said, it wasn't shocking or new information that their dad was having an open affair. But
00:30:26
what was surprising was that in the months before the incident, Klouse was allegedly spreading rumors about Sunny,
00:30:33
including a rumor that she was struggling with a drinking problem. What the [ __ ]
00:30:37
>> And an addiction to prescription pills, which he said had started long before he
00:30:41
met her. >> But as far as her own children knew, Sunny was never much of a drinker. And
00:30:45
this rumor kind of seemed to come out of nowhere. Hm. >> It's like why are you like why would you
00:30:50
even do that? >> Yeah. Why are you setting her up to be like a >> tarnish her name, you know, and like
00:30:56
make it look like she has >> Yeah. >> issues with >> substances. >> Yeah. >> So, the next and possibly the most
00:31:04
consequential aspect of their in investigation came in Alex's casual discussions with the maid, Maria. At the
00:31:10
time of Sunny's incident, both Alex and Maria remembered seeing Klouse regularly
00:31:15
in possession of a small black leather bag, which he used to carry his own medications.
00:31:21
>> Oh. Alex became absolutely convinced that the bag had something to do with his mother's coma now, and he was
00:31:27
determined to find out what was in that bag. But knowing that he might need some
00:31:32
help, Richard Q suggested that Alex not search the house alone. So he hired a private detective and a locksmith to
00:31:40
accompany him as he searched the house. So one afternoon, a few months after Sunny had been transferred to New York
00:31:46
for care, Alex and the other two private detectives searched the entire house in
00:31:51
Rhode Island and they found nothing out of the ordinary. But when they came to Klaus's room, because remember they had
00:31:58
separate bedrooms, they discovered that the closet where the housekeeper Maria said she'd seen the black bag, that
00:32:05
closet was locked. Oh. >> So, at Alex's direction, and he has every right in the world because this is
00:32:10
his house. Yeah. >> The locksmith broke the lock and inside the closet, they found the black bag.
00:32:16
>> What's in the black bag? >> At the time, it didn't occur to Alex or the private detective that they should
00:32:21
photograph the bag as they found it or that they could have dusted it for fingerprints or anything like that. They
00:32:26
just wanted to look inside and find out what was in there. >> I mean, private detective.
00:32:32
>> Yeah, like Alex, I get not thinking of that. private detector. >> There's two private detectives, too.
00:32:38
>> But Alex took the bag to Richard Q and at his office, they opened the bag and
00:32:43
they found several bottles of pills, mostly sedatives, a used syringe, and a bottle of insulin.
00:32:49
>> Ding, ding, ding. >> Weird. So, even though Sunny's coma had obviously been caused by an insulin
00:32:55
overdose, Richard Q still didn't think that there was enough evidence to suggest that a crime had been committed.
00:33:00
So I think I mean you like to us it's like he literally has everything that you would think caused that but you do
00:33:07
need a lot. >> Well it's like the way it was found all this kind of stuff. It could get a
00:33:11
little hairy. >> Yeah. It's shaky. >> Yeah. >> Exactly. So he believed that the police
00:33:14
would probably declined to investigate and also you have to remember these are connected people like in high society.
00:33:20
>> Yeah. Exactly. >> So instead he sent the contents of the bag to the family's doctor who
00:33:25
immediately noticed that the needle appeared to have been used. Oh. >> So, based on his suspicions, the doctor
00:33:32
sent the needle out to be tested and the results showed that it had contained insulin at one point.
00:33:36
>> Oh, [ __ ] >> But as far as the family doctor knew, Klouse nor Sunny had ever been
00:33:42
prescribed insulin, so neither of them would have a need for it to be in their possession.
00:33:46
>> Huh. >> So, given the result of the test, the doctor brought his suspicions back to
00:33:50
Alex and the family attorney and said either they could go to the police at this point or he was going to.
00:33:55
>> Good for him. >> He's like [ __ ] weird. Exactly. So, a few days later, Alex and Richard took
00:34:01
everything that they knew to the Rhode Island State Police and they handed over the black bag and its contents. They
00:34:07
gave the detective the entire backstory on Klaus and Sunny's entire relationship
00:34:10
leading up to her coma, including the fact that this was not the first time that she had mysteriously slipped into a
00:34:15
coma. >> With high insulin levels. >> With high insulin levels. Exactly. And based on the evidence he'd been given,
00:34:21
Detective Jack Reese started speaking to the other members of the family, including Klouse, who was very cy, he
00:34:27
said. >> Ree said, "There was a lot of inconsistent statements, and the more we got into it, the more they pointed
00:34:33
toward Klouse." >> Ooh. >> So, the first thing that struck him as strange was the way that Sunny had been
00:34:38
found on the bathroom floor. According to the paramedics, her head was positioned under the toilet. There was
00:34:44
that blood on her face, and like I said, her night gown was pulled around her waist. And so it was kind of it looked
00:34:50
like she had been placed there, not that she had fallen right there. >> Yeah. >> So feeling that Sunny's position on the
00:34:56
bathroom floor was one of the keys to understanding everything, Reese actually enlisted the help of his wife who was
00:35:02
right around Sunny's height and weight. And they used their own bathroom as like
00:35:06
kind of an informal crime lab to to test these things out. >> Wow. So over and over they went through
00:35:12
various scenarios that could have led to Sunny landing in that position and none
00:35:16
of them resulted in Reese's wife landing the way that Sunny >> under the toilet.
00:35:21
>> Yeah, like head under the toilet seat. >> But then to test another hypothesis of
00:35:26
his, Jack carried his wife into the bathroom and slowly let her slip out of his arms and onto the floor. And when he
00:35:34
did that, not only did she land on the floor in the exact position that Sunny had, but as she slipped from his arms,
00:35:41
her night gown got hung up on his arm and it bunched around her waist. >> Wow. >> So,
00:35:47
>> holy [ __ ] >> Interesting. >> That is very interesting. >> I just love like that kind of detective
00:35:52
work when they like bring it home. >> They had to go like really down deep in it.
00:35:56
>> Yeah. So given everything that they learned, Ree was pretty confident that it was time to have a formal interview
00:36:01
with Klouse. But he also didn't want to give Klouse any advanced notice to like get answers ready or anything like that
00:36:07
or craft a story. So he surprised him outside of his Manhattan office and brought him in for an interview.
00:36:13
>> Oh damn. >> For the most part, his answers to the questions were to be expected. He
00:36:18
maintained that he didn't know how Sunny landed in a coma. He did confirm that he
00:36:22
and Alexander Isles had been having an affair for the last 2 years. So he was honest about that. So at that point in
00:36:28
the interview like was pretty standard. Nothing nothing big was popping out. And
00:36:34
at the time Klaus was unaware though that Sunny's son Alex had found the black bag of medication at Clarendon
00:36:40
Court and was also unaware that the family lawyer had been investigating him. So when Ree off-handedly asked if
00:36:46
Sunny would have any reason to use insulin, Klaus rep replied, "By god, that's the last thing she would need."
00:36:53
Oh, it's like the lime in your bag of medications. >> Yeah. >> So, at now at this point, he tipped them
00:37:00
off to the fact that he was being investigated and Reese was pretty confident that Klaus was going to go
00:37:04
back to Rhode Island to go get his black bag. So, he quickly filed a request for
00:37:08
a search warrant for Clarendon Court. And a few days later, state police met Klouse in the house in Newport. Before
00:37:15
sitting him down for the second time, Ree participated in the search of this home, which is literally a mansion. So,
00:37:20
it was like intense. Yeah. >> So, they're listed at the house since fell into a coma. So,
00:37:32
the bedroom closet was still locked, just like Alex and the locksmith had left it when they found the bag. Two, on
00:37:39
a pad on Klaus's desk in the bedroom, there was a note in his writing that simply said black box. Ooh. And three,
00:37:47
during the search of the closet, investigators found a black metal lock box where Klaus was known to keep his
00:37:53
bag of medications. >> Oh. So, while technicians and troopers continued the search of the house, Jack
00:37:59
Ree sat down with Klaus for another interview, and that's when he brought up the bag of medications.
00:38:04
Now, right after the question was ra uh was raised, Klaus excused himself very abruptly just for a moment and then
00:38:13
returned a few minutes later when the interview was over, Reese went into his bedroom, Claus's bedroom, and found that
00:38:19
the note on the pad was now gone and that the closet had been relocked. >> Oh [ __ ]
00:38:25
>> He said, "We surmised that he hadn't found the black bag and was probably a little concerned that he may have
00:38:30
misplaced it." >> Oh wow. So based on his possession of the insulin and the used needle and the
00:38:35
statements from friends about his affair with Alexander Isles and the ultimatum that she'd given him, Jack Reese was
00:38:41
like, "Yeah, I think Klaus Von Bulo probably had the means and motive to kill his own wife."
00:38:46
>> Yeah. >> So in early 1981, Ree took everything he had to the Newport County District
00:38:52
Attorney who quickly convened a grand jury to review the evidence. And a week later, Klaus Fonulo was indicted on two
00:38:59
counts of attempted murder. Damn. >> Cuz remember, Sunny's literally in a coma during all of this. Yeah. Like
00:39:04
she's still alive, so they can't get murder. >> So on July 31st, 1981, Klaus was
00:39:11
arraigned in a District Court of Providence, Rhode Island on two charges of attempted murder. One for the attempt
00:39:16
on Sunny's life in 1979 and then the most recent one. He pleaded not guilty to both charges. And in a statement to
00:39:24
the press, his lawyer, John Sheen, said Klouse was devastated by the accusation and the children's belief that he tried
00:39:30
to kill their mother. He told reporters, "I can't conceive of a doctor saying with reasonable certainty what happened
00:39:36
to cause the coma." Like, I think that's literally a doctor's entire job, babe. I
00:39:41
It's like, isn't this is this the attorney being like, "Yeah, I can't even [ __ ] fathom that." Like, well, that's
00:39:45
not for you to fathom, so don't worry. >> But it's also pretty pretty fathomable.
00:39:50
Like, babe, that's literally his job. Yeah, it's literally why he went to medical school.
00:39:54
>> I can't imagine how he would know this medical thing. I can't conceive of it.
00:39:58
Like, okay. Yeah. >> I'm like, have you heard of medical tests? Like, he's a doctor.
00:40:03
>> But he insisted that whatever the reason was, and that Sunny had slipped into a
00:40:06
coma, it had nothing to do with Klouse. >> No. >> And in their own statement to the press,
00:40:11
Sunny's two children, Alex and Allah, told reporters, "We feel very strongly that he tried twice to murder our
00:40:16
mother. We believe that he deprived her of life as we now know." Why do I keep saying that? as we know it.
00:40:21
>> As we know it, deprived her of many years of happiness. >> You're like, I really want now to be a
00:40:26
>> I know when I think when I see no, I just want to say now, too. >> So, as far as the prosecution was
00:40:32
concerned, the case was pretty straightforward and it was just a matter of greed because of, like I said, if
00:40:37
Klaus was to divorce Sunny, he was going to be written out of her will. He would
00:40:40
have lost access to the $15 million that he felt he was entitled to. But if she died, he would have received $5 million
00:40:48
immediately and the rest would have been placed into a trust fund and he would have been able to access that after a
00:40:53
period of a few years. >> So basically they were saying that faced with losing either his relationship with
00:40:59
Alexander Isles or access to Sunny's fortune, he decided to kill his wife so that he didn't have to give up either.
00:41:05
>> Wow. >> He could keep his affair and get all the money. >> Have his cake and eat it too.
00:41:09
>> Exactly. So within days of the indictment, Klaus Von Bulo's criminal team was already planning their defense
00:41:14
strategy that not only refuted the prosecution's charge of attempted murder, but also then pinned
00:41:20
responsibility for the coma on Sunny herself. >> Wow. >> Which is like, that's nice.
00:41:26
>> Cool. >> Real shitty, >> classy. >> Yeah, it's hella. >> Yeah. So, in an interview with the
00:41:31
press, one of his lawyers, Harold Faringer, told reporters, "We're not trying to prove Sunny deliberately tried
00:41:37
to kill herself those two times a year apart, but she was so very sick and reacted so badly to so many foods and
00:41:42
drugs that whatever happened was clearly her own fault." >> Nice. >> Wow. >> Nice.
00:41:51
>> Wow. And they're like, and since she's not here to defend herself, seems like
00:41:54
we can just close this book, right? >> Yeah. We'll just [ __ ] all over. And to prove his claim, Finger said
00:42:00
there was an incident a few weeks before Sunny fell into the coma the second time
00:42:04
where she went to the emergency room after fearing that she had taken too much aspirin. He said that may have been
00:42:10
a suicide attempt >> or just a [ __ ] >> I'm like, I don't think that she would have tried to end her life by taking
00:42:17
aspirin. No. Like, and probably not. >> Also, why would she then go to the the ER, you know? Exactly. Like, okay.
00:42:24
>> Yeah. So by the time the trial started on February 1st, 1982, obviously the story was plastered across
00:42:30
the front pages of like every newspaper from one side of the country to the other and everybody had their own
00:42:36
opinions on whether or not Klaus was guilty. Some news outlets maintained an objective even tone. But a lot of people
00:42:43
didn't really have that much trouble accepting that Klouse probably tried to kill his wife for money.
00:42:47
>> Damn. >> I mean, it's a tale as old as time. >> It is. It's true. But what was
00:42:51
surprising for people, especially outside of Newport, was the composition of the jury because most people knew
00:42:57
Newport to be full of very, very wealthy people who lived in town. So, it came as
00:43:02
a surprise when the jury actually turned out to be made up of a lot of middle-class residents. Actually, people
00:43:07
were like, "Wait, middle class people live in Newport?" >> What? >> So, prosecutor Steven Fametti asked
00:43:12
rhetorically in an interview, "Where are you going to get a jury of his peers? It's almost impossible to get 12 people
00:43:17
with his socio socioeconomic background. >> Which is valid, >> but honestly, you probably could find
00:43:24
them in Newport. >> I know that's true. >> So, despite the evidence against Klouse,
00:43:27
the prosecution had no illusions that it was going to be quick or an easy trial.
00:43:33
Steven said, "I thought it was an extremely difficult case, primarily because it was a circumstantial evidence
00:43:37
case, meaning there was no eyewitnesses to the alleged criminal conduct. There was so much medical testimony which I
00:43:44
wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to tie together in order to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:43:49
>> Love that he's like I did not know if I can do my job here. >> Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it's a tough
00:43:53
one. >> So, in their case to the jury, the prosecution did their best. They presented multiple medical experts who
00:44:00
explained that the only way for Sunny's insulin level to be that high would have
00:44:04
had to have been for somebody to inject her with insulin. >> Yeah. Which is Yeah. I mean, you all you
00:44:09
have to do is say what a normal one normal insulin level is and then say what hers was.
00:44:13
>> Yeah. And that's pretty compelling. I would say >> it was compelling to me when I first
00:44:17
read this. >> Yeah. Now, when one of the doctors was asked directly whether he thought foul play
00:44:35
was involved in Sunny's condition, he replied that he believed the coma was caused by the surreptitious
00:44:41
administration of insulin, aka like overdose of insulin. >> And her own physician testified that she
00:44:47
was in very good health and as far as he knew, she again had no need for insulin.
00:44:52
Yeah. >> And he also testified that to his knowledge and contrary to rumors that
00:44:56
were believed to be spread by Klaus himself, Sunny didn't have any kind of drinking problem or any problem with
00:45:02
drugs. >> And that's her doctor test. >> That's her literal doctor. Like that's big.
00:45:06
>> So the most critical testimony came from the maid. It's like a game of clue. >> Yeah.
00:45:10
>> Maria Shallheimer or Hammer who told the jury about her previous experience with
00:45:15
Klouse when she said he refused to help his wife and then she went into the coma
00:45:18
that first time in 1979. So both Maria and Sunny's son, Alex, testified that after Sunny's first coma, that's when
00:45:27
they started seeing Klaus with that black bag of medications, which they now knew contained medications, including
00:45:32
insulin. >> Damn. >> So, the biggest blow to Klaus Vonulo's claims of innocence came a little over
00:45:38
two weeks into the trial when Alexandra Isles was called to testify. Uh >> oh. She confirmed that yes, she had
00:45:45
given Klaus an an ultimatum because she didn't want to be involved in an extrammarital affair anymore. And she
00:45:51
said at no point did she encourage he do anything other than divorce his wife. And when she learned that he was under
00:45:57
investigation for attempted murder, she told the court, "I thought it was a pack
00:46:01
of nonsense." But then when the prosecutor asked her whether she still thought it was nonsense, she looked away
00:46:07
and then replied, "I don't know." >> Whoa. And when the prosecutor asked her whether or not she was still in love
00:46:12
with Klouse, she said, "I don't know." >> Whoa. >> So, it was very clear that her feelings
00:46:17
had shifted in a big way. >> Hearing what was going on, >> and that's going to hit with a jury
00:46:21
after it is. >> So, when the prosecution rested their case, obviously, the defense took over
00:46:26
for what would be a pretty short presentation. In his opening statement, Sheen told the jury, "What happened to
00:46:31
Sunny was not anyone's fault but her own, and that sad fact will emerge in this case if the truth is to prevail."
00:46:38
I would like I'd be a little pissed off at this. >> That's a dick move. It really is. It
00:46:42
just is. I know it's his job, but I'm like, damn, you sound like an [ __ ] >> Yeah. I would not want to I would not
00:46:47
want to find him innocent just because of that statement. >> Shitty statement like it's their own
00:46:53
fault. >> That's really wrong of me, but I feel that way. >> But like, don't put me on this jury.
00:46:57
>> Yeah. Don't. >> So that if you're mean, don't put me on a jury. >> Yeah. >> Maybe that's how I could get out of jury
00:47:03
duty. >> Yeah. You're like, I'll immediately think that if you're mean, I'll I'll
00:47:06
just go the other way. I'll convict your client. They're like, okay, you can go now, miss. So, I'll convict your client.
00:47:14
Jesus Christ. So, the defense alleged that Sunny was a psychologically disturbed woman, they
00:47:21
said, who took insulin in a reckless attempt to lose weight. Whoa. They also argued that if it appeared that Klouse
00:47:28
was responsible for his wife's condition, that was because her family had gone out of their way to make it
00:47:33
seem that way. >> Oh [ __ ] we're pulling the family in now. >> Yeah. And the uh she in there even
00:47:38
called into question the discovery of the black bag and went as far as to suggest that Alex had planted it himself
00:47:44
in order to frame his stepfather and make sure he was cut out of the will. >> Team Alex. Absolutely. Because No,
00:47:52
>> that's so [ __ ] >> I don't believe that. If I know Alex, which I don't at all. Never even seen a
00:47:57
picture of him. Literally, I don't even know if he's real. >> He is real, but team Alex. If I know
00:48:02
Alex, he didn't do that. >> I'm like, come on. That's really plant it. >> I don't think so.
00:48:07
>> No. >> So, after almost two months of testimony and evidence, the case went to the jury
00:48:11
for deliberation in mid-March. And in his closing statement, Harold Faringer made his case one final time. He said,
00:48:17
"I don't know what happened here. I don't know if anybody ever will." Then, as if to undermine what he just said, he
00:48:23
basically went over and whispered to the jury, "Suicide." Like, what a douchebag. Is he a
00:48:30
12-year-old boy? >> I'm fully confident. >> The most insane behavior I've ever heard. He's just like I feel like it was
00:48:36
like suicide. >> Like, it's just what? >> It's like a performance. >> It's like he did he tiptoe over there
00:48:43
probably and like like twiddling his mustache like a villain. >> What? And like just so you know,
00:48:49
>> like I don't know what could have happened. Yeah, I do. >> Mind you, this woman is laying in a
00:48:53
coma. >> That's like what is wrong with you? >> And she has she's a mother to three
00:48:57
children and you're like you you literally just said you don't know what happened, but then you're going to go
00:49:02
suicide. >> That's circus behavior. >> You're a douchebag. >> That's circus behavior.
00:49:05
>> Yeah. Ridiculous. >> That's dumb as hell. >> The case may have all been circumstantial, but in the end, the jury
00:49:11
could not deny that all of the evidence did point to Klouse. So after deliberating for 6 days, they returned
00:49:16
to the court and they found Claus Vonulo guilty on two counts of attempted murder
00:49:21
and the judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison. >> Damn. >> Now, everybody was actually very shocked
00:49:27
by this because if we know anything, wealthy people do get away with a lot of things often, especially back then.
00:49:32
>> Yeah. >> But Klaus Vonulo had no intention of staying locked up. And within a few days
00:49:37
of the verdict, he had already placed a call to Harvard law professor Alan Dersuitz. By that time, Durowitz had
00:49:43
built a reputation as a very capable lawyer, representing clients like Patty Hurst, uh, adult film star Harry Rees,
00:49:52
and he represented people in cases where the odds of an acquitt were slim. In the
00:49:56
years after the Vonulo case, he actually would go on to become a pretty controversial figure. He represented
00:50:02
Mike Tyson, OJ Simpson, Jim Baker, Donald Trump, and Jeffrey Epstein. And I'm just going to leave that right
00:50:07
there. >> And I'm going to leave the room. >> Bye. After speaking with Klouse, >> Ellen.
00:50:13
>> Yeah, >> [ __ ] hell. >> Like I said, controversial. >> Gross. >> After I'm gonna leave it there. After
00:50:17
speaking with Klouse and reviewing the evidence used to convict him, Duruititz actually agreed to take on the case.
00:50:24
>> Shocked. Later, he said, "I hadn't followed the case very closely. I knew he'd been convicted. Like most people
00:50:29
reading the newspaper, sounded to me like the evidence was convincing." >> Wow, Alan. But from his office at
00:50:33
Harvard, he assembled a legal team, mostly made up of his law students, and they broke up into smaller teams, each
00:50:39
focusing on specific pieces of the prosecution's case. He said, "First meeting, I knew this case was going to
00:50:44
turn on those Q notes." Meaning Richard Q. >> Ah, so when the district attorney took
00:50:50
the case to trial, nobody had actually bothered to subpoena Richard Q's notes. >> That's kind of wild. It
00:50:56
>> is a little wild. Even though he had been involved in the investigation with the family even before they had gone to
00:51:01
the police. Yeah, that was a choice. >> Yeah, it really was. So, Duruititz believed that the notes must have had
00:51:06
some kind of information vital to clearing Klaus's name, but now Richard Q was refusing to hand them over and he
00:51:13
cited the previous trial judge's orders not to surrender them. So, he was doing what he believed was right.
00:51:18
>> Judge tells me not to. I'm not. >> But Duruitz was like, "Okay, now I definitely have to get those."
00:51:22
>> Yeah. That just made them so much more enticing. >> Yeah. Exactly. So he worked on
00:51:26
subpoening them while another team evaluated the medical evidence used in the trial. According to the prosecution,
00:51:32
originally the lab test showed that Sunonny's insulin level was 216 when she arrived at the hospital. But it turned
00:51:38
out while one test did show 216, the lab had actually run three additional tests
00:51:45
and the results of those tests varied between zero and 350. >> I'm I'm sorry, what? Zero and 3. None
00:51:55
insulin and all the insulin. >> It's That's actually exactly what it translates into. None insulin and all
00:52:02
the insulin. >> How is that? >> None insulin. >> What medical test is that? >> Uh beats me.
00:52:10
>> What? >> I don't know. I don't know a lot about medical tests, but those seem
00:52:13
>> inconclusive. >> That seems I would go wildly I would go ahead and stamp inconclusive across
00:52:20
that. Maybe retest. That's That's >> I don't know what to say about that. >> I didn't see that coming.
00:52:28
>> I didn't either. None. >> I don't think either. No idea. >> So, Dersowitz's team questioned the
00:52:35
reliability of those tests. Now, >> I mean, I can't I can't blame them on that one.
00:52:39
>> And then now they were also questioning the test conducted on the syringe. >> Which remember, they were like, "Oh,
00:52:44
yeah, it's been used and it definitely was used with uh insulin." So they decided to test the lab by sending
00:52:50
several just random needles for tests. And within a few weeks, the results came back showing several false positives,
00:52:58
which suggested that if they had been wrong in Dersawitz's test, they also could have been wrong when they were
00:53:03
tested originally in Claus's case. >> Sloppy as hell. >> It gets worse. Finally, Durowitz turns
00:53:12
his attention to the biggest piece of evidence, the black bag itself. As a resident of Clarendon Court, like I
00:53:18
said, Alex was within his rights to search the house and even to hire a locksmith to open Klaus's closet. He was
00:53:24
also within his rights when he handed over the bag to Richard Q. But Durich would later argue that even though Alex
00:53:31
was in his rights, Jack Ree and the other investigators had no legal right to accept the bag as evidence without a
00:53:37
warrant or with Klaus's consent. And in doing so, they had violated his constitutional rights. How did no one
00:53:45
catch that? >> Yeah, the chain of custody was a little [ __ ] up here. >> Two like private detectives on this
00:53:51
thing and they weren't like, "Hey, this is getting a little sloppy with the chain of evidence here."
00:53:56
>> Yeah. >> Like no one called that out and was like, "We could [ __ ] this whole thing
00:53:59
up." >> I don't know if maybe like chain of custody became bigger later, >> but it's like they should know that that
00:54:05
could be a potential issue, >> you would think. And they should have at least accounted for that. I mean, this
00:54:10
is like this is like a smoking gun situation. So, it's like that's your biggest piece of evidence.
00:54:15
You don't want to risk that being thrown out. So, you I would think you would go
00:54:19
above and beyond to be like, let's just make sure we are doing all the things to
00:54:24
make sure that every tea is crossed, I is dotted, and we don't [ __ ] this up so
00:54:29
this gets thrown out. >> Yeah. Well, they did >> cuz that's not like Alex's >> No, it's not Alex's fault. He thought he
00:54:35
was calling the right I mean, he's like a regular citizen calling. >> He did call the right
00:54:39
>> the detectives, you know. >> Damn. So in April 1984, Alan Dersowitz presented Klaus Vonulo's appeal to the
00:54:47
Supreme Court of Rhode Island. By that time, he narrowed his appeal to just two areas. One, he argued that the black bag
00:54:53
of medication should never have been admitted into evidence in the first place because it had been obtained
00:54:58
through questionable means. >> [ __ ] and two that the notes taken by attorney Richard Q should have been
00:55:03
admitted in the previous trial since they were detailed as a critical part of the investigation before the proper
00:55:09
authorities became involved. Based on those two things, he argued that Claus should be granted a new trial. After
00:55:16
reviewing the evidence, hearing the testimony, the Supreme Court sided with his team. They agreed the black bag,
00:55:23
which was the motivation for the arrest in the first place, had been obtained illegally and should have been deemed
00:55:30
inadmissible at trial. And honestly, if that was deemed inadmissible at trial, >> who knows if they would have been
00:55:35
convicted. >> So now he was entitled to a brand new trial. >> [ __ ] >> And in the spring of 1984, the
00:55:41
prosecution and defense prepared for that new trial, this time without the black bag and evidence.
00:55:47
>> Oh no, >> that's huge. >> That's Yeah. Now, just as importantly, attorney, the family attorney, Richard
00:55:53
Q, had been ordered to hand over his notes from his initial meetings with Sunny's first two children. In the notes
00:56:00
were Alex's mention of the black bag, and in subsequent notes, Q cataloged the contents of the bag before handing it
00:56:06
over to the state police. Missing from that list of contents that he originally wrote down was the vial of
00:56:15
insulin, meaning that the notes directly contradicted the testimony given at the
00:56:20
previous trial by the housekeeper who stated that she saw insulin in the bag. And the defense said if she saw insulin
00:56:28
among the other medications, then surely it should have been on Richard Q's list.
00:56:33
>> Oh no. So, the omission of the insulin on that list turned out to be one of the
00:56:37
most significant aspects of the defense. And >> I can't imagine being on the jury and
00:56:42
hearing that. I'd be like, you're here. Yeah. >> The black bag had been a critical piece
00:56:46
of evidence during the first trial, but now the prosecution's case was that much
00:56:50
weaker without it. And in its absence, they were hoping that testimony from the maid, Maria Shreheimr, would now be
00:56:57
sufficient enough to establish that the insulin was in Klaus's possession. But now that the notes basically undermined
00:57:04
the credibility of that testimony, a second conviction was pretty unlikely at this point.
00:57:10
>> Oh no. >> So prosecutor Steven there pinned his hopes Steven uh Steven F pinned his hopes
00:57:19
mostly on the testimony of Alexander Isles whose relationship with Klouse ended long ago by that point at like at
00:57:26
the time of the second trial. As she had in the trial before, she told the jury about the ultimatum that she gave
00:57:31
Klouse, but this time she heavily implied that Klouse had done something to cause Sunny's first coma.
00:57:38
>> She said under oath, he said the next day when she was unconscious, he watched
00:57:43
her knowing she was in a bad way. And finally, when she was on the point of dying, he said he couldn't go through
00:57:48
with it and he called an ambulance and saved her life. >> Which does check with what the maid
00:57:54
>> like observed. She was saying like he wasn't helping her and she was being like something needs to be done here
00:58:01
>> and like wouldn't let her do anything. >> But also it looks a little weird that
00:58:05
Alexander's now like and I'm not saying she's lying but you also sitting on that
00:58:09
jury have to take into account that she didn't say that the first time around they've broken up. There's bad blood and
00:58:14
now she's saying that. >> But you and then you also have to flip it and say are you lying under oath
00:58:19
though? >> Exactly. >> Like who knows? cuz if you get caught lying like that under oath, you're
00:58:24
you're [ __ ] >> Both of us are like, you're [ __ ] >> Perj. >> So, similarly, she told the judge that
00:58:30
prior to the trial in 1981, Klaus begged her not to testify. And she said under oath that he said, "If you testify that
00:58:38
we were more than friends, you'll be putting nails in my coffin." >> Whoa. >> Yeah.
00:58:43
>> And remember that first time she was on the stand, she was in a relationship with him. She was still and she was very
00:58:49
>> so maybe she didn't reveal that cuz >> that was told to her in confidence by someone she's in a relationship
00:58:55
>> somebody she loved and also she was very like pretty cy she just said I don't
00:58:59
know the book >> yeah so on June 7th 1985 both sides made their final arguments to the jury with
00:59:06
the prosecution alleging that Klouse had attempted to kill Sunny for the inheritance and the defense arguing that
00:59:11
Sunny's coma was a result of her own actions. After just a few days of deliberation, the jury returned and they
00:59:18
found Klaus Fon Bulo not guilty of attempted murder. So now that he was acquitted of attempted murder charges,
00:59:26
he was never going to face criminal charges for what happened to Sunny. But that didn't mean that he was free of all
00:59:32
potential consequences. >> Civil suit. >> Civil suit. >> You know, you always know in these cases
00:59:38
a civil suit's coming. A month after he was acquitted, Alex and Allah filed a civil suit against Klouse for $56
00:59:44
million. >> I can't blame them. >> And it was in a complaint that the press described as mirroring the charges
00:59:50
raised by Rhode Island prosecutors. So, they're just saying the same things. In addition to the $56 million in damages,
00:59:56
the suit sought to invalidate his claim to any part of Sunny's fortune and required him to return any money or
01:00:03
property that he had received from the estate since Sunny first fell into a coma in 1979.
01:00:09
>> So, that's a big deal. >> Yeah. >> Unfortunately, the civil suit was unsuccessful for them, and there wasn't
01:00:14
a lot else they could do. But rather than pursue additional legal challenges, they decided to take a different
01:00:20
approach. And this is intense. >> They convinced their grandmother to remove their stepsister
01:00:29
>> from her will. >> Whoa. >> So, as the only member of the family to have supported Klouse, they felt that
01:00:35
Kosima betrayed their mother and wasn't deserving of any money. So that both sides argued back and forth for years
01:00:42
until late 1987 when Klouse finally agreed to drop any claim he had to Sunny's money on the condition that
01:00:49
Kosima be written back into the will because she was written out at one point. >> Whoa.
01:00:53
>> And both parties agreed. >> Whoa. >> So he gave up his claim so that his daughter
01:00:58
>> could get her could get hers. >> Whoa. >> Yeah. In the years that followed, he
01:01:04
kept a pretty low profile. Even though he'd been acquitted, the charges against him brought a whole bunch of scandal and
01:01:10
it tarnished his reputation and he was basically outsty and Sunny were officially divorced and
01:01:19
he just moved back to London where he lived until he died in 2019. >> Wow. >> Unfortunately, Sunny von Bulo remained
01:01:26
in a coma in the nursing home in Manhattan. >> Oh god, I couldn't I for some reason my
01:01:31
brain was saying like she had died. Oh, no. That's why I I was trying to say like a couple times like remember she's
01:01:36
still lying in a coma. >> Getting that like she is still in a coma at that point.
01:01:41
>> She remained in a coma for 28 years. >> Holy [ __ ] >> Until she died at 77 from cardiac arrest
01:01:49
on December 6th, 2008. 28 years. >> Can you imagine how utterly horrific >> that for her family?
01:01:59
>> No. Not even for a millisecond to be >> waiting for someone to wake up and still
01:02:05
wake up. >> Strangely like grieving at the same time for like decades at that point.
01:02:11
>> Yeah, that's so hard. >> Yeah, it's a tragic story. >> It's a really really tragic story.
01:02:17
>> You never know what happened. >> Mhm. >> Like you can have ideas about what happened but you don't actually know
01:02:23
what happened here. It's awful that cuz we don't know what happened to you and I
01:02:27
but it's like it's awful that like people who were closer to it >> feel like they do know
01:02:31
>> feel like they probably do know and that justice wasn't sought out or people who
01:02:35
were close to it feel like they do know and that justice wasn't even though like
01:02:40
I think like Kosima probably feels like her dad got [ __ ] in all of this >> and then Allah and Alex feel like their
01:02:47
mother like was lost in all of this >> and that justice wasn't served for who they believe did this
01:02:53
>> exactly But the but we don't know. >> And how sad is that too that like the sibling relationship was obviously
01:02:59
fractured. >> Yeah. >> You know, and and the family in general. Exactly. >> Holy [ __ ] That's a gnarly gnarly story.
01:03:08
And >> wow. Like that's that's a tragic family tale right there. Cuz it like trickled
01:03:14
down to the kids, too. >> Yeah. Like multiple generations. >> And for Sunny to be in a coma for that
01:03:21
many years, like 28 years. That's my entire life. Almost. >> Holy [ __ ] >> That's literally almost my entire life.
01:03:30
>> That's unbelievable. >> I just like think of everything I've done in my life and I'm like And she was
01:03:35
just laying in a coma in Manhattan for >> And we still don't know so much about like coma states and like
01:03:42
>> what people experience in them and what they don't. new stuff and I feel like everybody's
01:03:49
differenti it's just like holy [ __ ] >> that's a lot >> damn >> I feel really bad I feel really bad for
01:04:03
the kids >> I do too all of them >> cuz it's none of them obviously have anything to do with the what occurred
01:04:11
it's just like they had to eat up the >> aftermath of it And they were just trying to defend their parent.
01:04:18
>> Yeah. >> You know, both of them, >> right? >> Or all three of them. >> Yeah. No, it's it's really really it's
01:04:23
tragic. >> Yeah. That's really sad. Holy [ __ ] >> High society, man. >> Damn. That was really high society.
01:04:28
>> It was honestly one of the most high society we've ever gone. >> That really was like holy [ __ ]
01:04:33
>> Well, we have to end on a fun fact. We do. And Mikey found one. So, we'll credit Mikey for this one.
01:04:37
>> That's also high society. >> Yeah, it's pretty high society. Allegedly, according to Cosmopolitan.
01:04:43
Allegedly. And according to Cosmopolitan, >> yes, >> Kim Kardashian has a glam clause in her
01:04:49
will and it states that if she is ever in a position where she cannot get ready herself, cannot communicate, or is
01:04:55
unconscious, somebody has to make sure her hair, nails, and makeup are all perfect. And when I do my will, I will
01:05:01
be adding that to mine. And that's a fact. I don't know what to say about that. >> I'm obsessed.
01:05:10
>> I literally don't know what to say about that. >> I am obsessed with that. I >> it kind of reminds me of our nanny like
01:05:17
she when she was in her nursing home her hair and her nails and her makeup were dead.
01:05:22
>> And I respect that. It's >> true. >> I respect that. >> I'm just thinking of you comparing my
01:05:29
nanny to get I'm like those are two different ladies. >> Two very different ladies.
01:05:35
>> Nanny is wherever she is right now going are you [ __ ] kidding me? >> No, but I'm I'm putting respect on that.
01:05:40
The fact that she was done, >> those nails were did, that hair was perfect, and her skin and and makeup
01:05:47
were flawless. >> That's true. >> I remember thinking she was like the most beautiful woman.
01:05:51
>> She She was a gorgeous lady. >> She was >> She was Leverne. >> Lever. Love that. Love that lady. But
01:05:57
yeah, that's your fun fun alleged fact. >> Allegedly. >> According to Cosmo, >> it's your fun reporting.
01:06:03
>> Yeah. According to Cosmo, >> who knows? >> They said it. >> Would you put that in your will?
01:06:09
>> No. No. >> Would you adhere to it in my will? >> Yeah. >> Good. >> Of course. I always listen to
01:06:15
everybody's wills. >> Good. You know, I'm not here to try to tell people what to do with their wills.
01:06:19
>> Would you judge me? >> No. >> Really? >> You can do whatever the [ __ ] you want
01:06:22
with your will. >> Hell yeah. I'm going to >> I haven't written my will yet, but I'm
01:06:26
going to. I really >> judge what's important to people, >> you know? >> No. And being a 10 is important to me.
01:06:32
>> There you go. >> Yeah. Or trying at least. >> Being real cozy is important to me. So,
01:06:36
I don't want people judging me. >> Oh, I'd like to be cozy. Cozy and beautiful. >> That's my goal always.
01:06:41
>> Be a 10. Be in a cozy 10. >> And with that, we leave you. >> We hope you keep listening, please. And
01:06:48
>> we hope you keep it weird, >> but not so weird that you don't add whatever the [ __ ] you want to your will,
01:06:54
baby. It's yours. >> Be a cozy 10. No one's going to judge you. >> Nope. Me either.
01:07:00
>> Nope. >> Nope. Nope.