Claus von Bülow

Claus von Bülow. He was a Danish-born socialite and lawyer who became internationally infamous following his two highly publicized criminal trials in the 1980s for the attempted murder of his wealthy American wife, Martha "Sunny" von Bülow. Acquitted after a dramatic legal battle that captivated global media, the case exposed the opulent and often scandalous world of high society in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York City. His life, marked by extreme privilege and profound notoriety, remains a subject of intense public fascination and legal analysis.

Early life and background

Born Claus Cecil Borberg in Copenhagen to a prominent aristocratic family, his father was a playwright and his mother was the daughter of Frits Bülow, a Danish nobleman and government minister. Following his parents' divorce, he was adopted by his maternal grandfather and assumed the surname von Bülow. He was educated in Switzerland and later studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became part of an intellectual and social circle that included contemporaries like Ludovic Kennedy. His fluency in multiple languages and aristocratic bearing facilitated his early career moves into the worlds of international business and diplomacy.

Career and social life

After Cambridge, von Bülow worked as an executive assistant to the wealthy oil magnate J. Paul Getty, a position that embedded him within the highest echelons of transatlantic wealth. He later served as a special assistant to Lord Jenkins, a senior British politician. In 1966, he married American heiress Martha Sharp Crawford, whose substantial fortune originated from her stepfather, the utilities tycoon Russell A. Alger Jr.. The couple lived a life of extreme luxury, dividing their time between a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, a sprawling estate in Newport, Rhode Island named Clarendon Court, and a holiday home in London. They were fixtures in international high society, with a social circle that included figures like Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Trials and attempted murder charges

In December 1980, his wife Sunny was found unconscious at Clarendon Court and lapsed into an irreversible coma, a condition later described as a persistent vegetative state. Following an investigation spurred by allegations from family members, von Bülow was charged with two counts of attempted murder, accused of administering injections of insulin to induce the comas. His first trial in 1982 in Providence, Rhode Island, prosecuted by Stephen Famiglietti and featuring dramatic testimony from his stepdaughter Ala von Auersperg, resulted in a conviction. The verdict was overturned on appeal by the Rhode Island Supreme Court, largely due to the work of his defense attorney, the renowned Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School. A second trial in 1985, with a defense team that also included Thomas Puccio, ended in his full acquittal, a legal victory that dominated headlines in publications like The New York Times.

Later life and death

After his acquittal, von Bülow largely retreated from public life, residing primarily in London. He never divorced his incapacitated wife, who remained in a nursing care facility until her death in 2008. He became a dedicated patron of the arts, particularly the Royal Opera House, and was a well-known figure in certain London social circles. In his final years, he faced renewed public scrutiny with the release of documentary films revisiting the case. Claus von Bülow died at his home in the Knightsbridge district of London in May 2019, with his death confirmed by his longtime friend, the journalist Dominick Dunne.

In popular culture

The von Bülow case has been the subject of numerous books, films, and dramatic interpretations, cementing its place in popular culture. The 1990 feature film Reversal of Fortune, starring Jeremy Irons as von Bülow and Glenn Close as Sunny, was adapted by Nicholas Kazan from Alan Dershowitz's book and won Irons an Academy Award for Best Actor. The case was also extensively covered by journalist Dominick Dunne in Vanity Fair, and it inspired episodes of television series like Law & Order. More recent examinations include the 2022 Netflix documentary series The Trials of Claus von Bülow, which revisited the evidence and media frenzy surrounding the trials.

Category:1926 births Category:2019 deaths Category:Danish socialites Category:People from Copenhagen Category:American murder suspects