Martha von Bulow is dead. Von Bulow, who spent over 28 years in irreversible coma since December 1980, died at the Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home in New York at the age of 76. Martha von Bulow, also known as Sunny, was born Martha Sharp Crawford, the daughter of utilities tycoon George Crawford and inherited a huge fortune. She was found unconscious in a bathroom at her mansion in Newport, falling into an irreversible coma on December 21, 1980.
Although in coma for much of the last three decades, she was the centerpiece in the sensational courtroom dramas involving her second husband Claus von Bulow. Claus von Bulow was accused of trying to murder his wife with an overdose of insulin and subsequently acquitted. At his first trial in 1982, von Bulow was convicted of twice trying to kill his wife by injecting her with insulin, but was acquitted at a second trial in 1985 when medical experts testified her coma was induced by drugs, alcohol and chronic health conditions.
As one of the hugely sensational criminal cases of the 1980s, the drama was translated into a Hollywood move, Reversal of Fortune, based on the book by Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard lawyer who defended Claus von Bulow. The Oscar-winning film had Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons as the couple and Ron Silver as Dershowitz.
As for Claus von Bulow, two years after his acquittal, he divorced his wife and gave up claims to her fortune of up to $40m, as well as a $120,000-a-year trust fund. He is now 82 years old and lives in London where he occasionally writes book reviews.
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