The too fictional too be true story of Sunny & Claus Von Bulow

Martha (Sunny) Von Bulow died this week after spending the last 28(!) years in hospitals and nursing homes diagnosed as a persistent vegetable. Her two children, who believed that she might still step up of her persistent state, kept bringing her fresh bouquets of flowers everyday and updating the family pictures on her night desk. They also believed that her husband, Claus Von Bulow, their stepfather, socialite, protégé of Paul Getty who was known as Europe's finest backgammon player, is responsible for her deep coma by injecting insulin into her veins.

Who killed Sunny?

Almost 28 years before her death, Sunny Von Bulow was found unconscious in her marble bathroom of her Newport mansion, with a syringe by her side. Her two children (from her previous marriage to Austrian Prince Alfred von Auersperg) ignored their mother's well known drug and alcohol dependency and accused their stepfather Claus Von Bulow of hypoglyceming her. Before falling into a 28 years coma, Sunny put her husband's name as the main beneficiary from her very wealthy inheritance, and they wanted him out of her will. (The couple also had a daughter, Cosima, but she stood by her father side all the way. Good girl).

On their first trial, they succeed. Claus Von Bulow was found guilty in two counts of attempted murder and sentenced 30 years in jail. Claus appealed. His big shot attorney Alan Dershowitz (the same one who helped acquitting OJ Simpson) brought a row of socialites to testify on Sunny alcohol and drug problems (Truman Capote among them), but what probably changed the court's mind was the team of scientists who proved that the same result (=coma) can be reached by an overdose of prescription drugs by someone with a chronic glucose intolerance such as Sunny. Claus Von Bulow was cleaned by the law, yet his stepchildren remained suspicious and banned him from visiting their comatose mother in her sleeping bed.

Prologue

• Sunny Von Bulow died on December 6, 2008, aged 76 from "cardiopulmonary failure".
• Her children spent most of their inheritance on preserving their mother's quality of life during the 28 years she was hanging in between zones.
• Claus Von Bulow did not wait for his wife to officially die to release the bird out of the cage. Shortly after her blackout, he showed off his new girlfriend on the cover of a popular magazine. According to Wikipedia, he is 82, lives in London and writes art and theatre reviews. Additional googling shows that he attended Andy Warhol's funeral.
• The movie Reversal of Fortune (with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons) is based on Sunny & Claus Von Bulow story.