Transcript of The Mysterious Case of Sunny von Bulow

Hey, weirdos. I'm Elaina. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. I can't get too crazy with it. My voice is still getting back together.

Yeah, and then you'll hack through my episode.

Yeah, I almost hacked through your last one. Yeah. We're batch recording a little bit.

Yeah. We're going to New York. We just came off of the holidays.

We're just being responsible.

Not too much so that we're not aware of what's going on in the world. We aren't able to talk to you about it.

We're just getting a couple done. But I almost hacked my way through her last one. But then I realized that every time 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 liquid IV in it. It should.

You've been sick.

Then it would make the cough go away. But then by the end of the I had to pee so bad that I thought I was going to die.

Then I happened to find a fun fact about urination girafs.

Which hopefully you just listened to.

It all worked out. Hold on. All right.

I took some water.

I wonder what the fun fact will be today.

The fun fact today will be- Will be at the end, girl. I know, but I'm just trying to lead into- Oh, you're segueing.

Sorry to interrupt.

You said, Fuck that. We'll say it later.

I jumped in front of your segue.

I jumped right in front of my segue. I died. It made me flip over. You crushed me. That make you feel so real. But yeah, so something cool that just happened was we were on Watch What Happens. Every time I go to say that, I go to say Watch What Happens, which I do that, too. This is an amazing podcast. I do that, too. We love Roddy and Ben. But amazing.

Oh, my God.

Surreal.

Incredible. Still can't believe it. I need to bask in it, and then we can do a full breakdown on the next episode. Exactly. You know I will be doing that.

You need to let it settle for a minute. I just... Well, and it's something else exciting, tell me, brother, is weirdos. I am so excited to share that the next book in my Dr. Red Muller series is called The Butcher Legacy.

Oh, that's crisp. It's crisp. That's my favorite title so far. Oh, I love that.

And it's coming out on August 11th.

Mark your calendar.

And Pre-order it now at ButcherLegacy. Com. Butcherlegacy. Com. Butcherlegacy. Com. Butcherlegacy. Com. You can get it anywhere you get your book, so you'll have a little drop-down menu and you can pick wherever you want to get it.

But wait, there's more.

There will be a target exclusive edition with sprayed edges and exclusive art.

That's delicious.

And I'm signing a limited number of copies for Barnes & Noble.

Oh my goodness.

Stay tuned for even more surprises over the next few months. I'm going to keep you all updated here and on social media, of course, you're going to know about every little thing that's coming down the pipe.

All the Things.

All the Things Butcher Legacy. I'm so excited, guys. You're going to love it.

I can't wait to read it.

You can put it in your back pocket, but it's a little thick, a little thick. But go get either one, whatever one you feel is calling to you. Go get it, pre-order it, Butcher Legacy. I'm really fucking excited about this story, guys, so I really hope you dig it.

I'm so excited Because usually when Elaina is writing a book the first two times, she has me read so much of it. But this time she didn't have me read any of it. If anything, I read a paragraph of a chapter, twice maybe. So I'm going into this like, virtually blind. And that I'm Really excited about. I do need to reread the last two over again so that I'm up on everything for the third book.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm really fucking excited about. Everybody should do that. Why don't you go buy the first two books? Yeah, go buy them. Go buy Butcher and the Ren in the Butcher Game, and then buy the Butcher Legacy.

Put them in your back pocket.

Put them in your back pocket. You know what?

People are going to have to start buying cargo pants, which is good because they're in again. I know. Or at least they were last season. But you're going to maybe make them popular for two seasons in a row because people are going to need more pockets to put your books into.

It's true. And this one's a little thick. Thick as? She's a little thick.

I love a thick.

I love a thicky. She might weigh down your booty a little bit. But you know what? It's worth it in the end.

You know what? Squat with them in your pocket. There you go. Gains.

Look at me. I'm trying to help you with your fitness goals in 2026. 2026.

Gains.

That's me and my book.

Look at you. Booksa. Booksa. Booksa. Booksa. Put some respect on your name. Sorry, Booksa. Booksa.

It's going to be awesome.

I can't wait.

I'll come see you this year to talk about it.

Maybe I'll tag along. Maybe. Who knows? Depending on where I'm at.

Yeah, who knows? So go get the book.

I can't fucking wait.

It's fun.

I'm actually I'm really excited.

I am, too.

Yay. What else is going on? Anything? I mean, those are two pretty big things. I said that I needed more. Our twilight episode is going to be coming out. Excuse me, our New Moon episode is going to be coming out soon. I got to start. I want to reread it, but I think I'm going to listen to it so it goes a little faster. Smart. And that will be such a different experience because that wasn't an option that I was at least aware of back in the day. So that'll be fun.

I'm I'm really excited because the first one was such a blast to do. I know you guys... It seemed like you guys really liked the twilight episode, and we had so much fun doing it that I cannot wait to do New Moon because New Moon, as we all know, Is batshit fucking crazy?

Yeah, it really is. Batshit. No one makes me really sad.

It's a sad- It's a sad, but it's a wild fucking ride.

It is. It gives me heartache, to be honest. I remember being absolutely... We'll We'll get into it another time.

Don't worry. Another time on the bonus episode. Yeah. Like next week. Yeah. We want to save it all.

Guess what I have for you today? What do you have? I haven't done one of these in a while. At least it feels like that to me. A high society case.

Oh, you love a high society case.

They just embody who I am. Yeah. I'm not high society. I wish I was, but I think I was in a past life.

Like your soul feels like it should be.

One of them. Yeah. So we're going to be talking about the mysterious case of Sunny Von Buhló.

Just that name alone.

Any Vawn in this case has Vawn names up the wazoo.

Oh, if there's a Vawn. Up the von zu.

It's high society. I'm so excited. All right, so let's talk about it. Martha, who was known as Sunny. Martha Sunny Crawford was born in her father's private train car on September first, 1931 in Virginia, all while her parents, George and Annie-Lauri Crawford, were traveling to New York.

So just on the way to New York, she gave birth to a child.

In a private train car. Good for her. What's richer than that? Yeah, that's pretty high class. That's big money. Yeah. So by the time she was born, Sunny's father had already made a shit ton of money, first in the oil industry. Oil. Oil. And then in gas and electric. And that year, he was named the chairman of the board of Columbia Gas and Electric. So big motherfucking money.

I remember the motherfucking board.

We were talking about gains. He was gaining. He and Sunny's mother had gotten married in 1927 when George was 66 and Annie Laurie was '27. And four years later, Sunny was born. Given that he was 70 years old when his daughter was born and a very prominent figure in the world of finance and business, George didn't have much of a relationship with his daughter. Yeah. Yeah. And also just like, fathers and daughters weren't really hanging out a ton back then. And in 1935, when Sunny was just four years old, George actually ended up dying after being sick briefly. He left his entire fortune, though, valued at more than $100 million back then. Holy shit. $100 million back then, he left his wife and daughter. Damn. Today, that would be about $2. 4 billion.

Whoa.

Big money. Damn. After her father died, Sunny spent most of her childhood at different, very elite boarding schools all along the East Coast, including the Chappin School in Manhattan and St. Timothy School in Maryland. In 1949, when she graduated from high school, she had her debut in New York's High Society.

Oh, she I've also been watching the old episodes of New York House Wives lately and when Tinsley's on it with her mother Dale.

Oh my God. This is giving me, like next level.

The Mortimas.

I'm so upset that I didn't get to make a debut in high society.

I know you are. Yeah, it's really interesting. I'm sorry that we couldn't provide that for you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Maybe my 30th birthday, we can have it be débutant themed. Oh my God. Maybe I will come out to high society. There you go. Watch me. Watch this space. So in It's not that specific. Keep your eyes on this space. So in 1957, 20 years after her father died, her mother, Annie Laurie, remarried two writer and sculptor, Russell Atkin, and the two remained married until Annie Laurie died in 1984. That same year, 24-year-old Sunny also got married in a very heavily publicized wedding to Austrian Prince and tennis pro Alfred von Ausberg. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Of course. Yeah.

So after the wedding, they moved from the US to Munich, where they lived briefly, and then eventually settled in Kitzbühel, Austria. The following year, Sunny gave birth to their first child, who she named after her mother, Annie Laurie, but they called her Ala. Oh, cute. She was followed one year later by a son, Alexander. But unfortunately, outside of their very opulent wedding and the little short honeymoon phase that followed, Sunny and Alfred's relationship wasn't a very happy one. They didn't have a lot of shared interest. Sunny hated his enthusiasm for big game hunting and the fact that he was a seamless flirt. You would literally flirt right in front of her. So in 1965, their marriage ended in divorce. In the settlement, Alfred actually received two houses and $1 million, and Sunny got the kids and was able to return to the US. Which honestly, $1 million is nothing to her.

Yeah, that's true.

I'm sure it was something, obviously. But you know what I mean?

Yeah, but in her situation.

So not long after they moved back to New York, Sunny ran into her old friend Klaus von Buhló. She had met him in London years earlier while she was still married to Alfred. But they were just friends. But you know, she went back to New York and they met up and they rekindled their friendship. And within a few months, their friendship evolved and they were dating.

Oh, look at Sunny and Klaus.

It's beautiful. And then in June of 1966, a little over a year after she got divorced from Alfred, Sunny and Klaus were married. Oh, look at that. So from the moment they got married, the press and the public were very interested in Klaus' story. But no matter how deep reporters dug, they really couldn't differentiate between fact and fiction when it came to Klaus.

They did know that he was- He's got a little Jay Gatsby in him.

Yes, very, very that. Very that. So he was born Klaus Borberg in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1926 to Sven and Janna Borberg. And after World War II, his father, Sven, was actually accused of being a Nazi collaborator. Yeah, horrible. And served 18 months in prison, which I say, give him more. After his dad died, R-I-D, rest in distress, Klaus took his mother's maiden name, Buhlo, but added the Von later. Oh, yeah, he did. To make him salvage his fancy.

Oh, my God. He really is like Jay Gatsby.

He also just gets it. You add Von to your name and you're fancy.

Buhlo? Yeah. Von Buhlo sounds like a real fancy name.

It works perfectly. That's the thing. You have to be selective about where you Vawn.

Yeah, it can't just be like, Von I'm trying to think of a name.

Vawn Kelly. Doesn't work.

Von Kelly, yeah.

Von Oercart doesn't really work. No offense.

It really doesn't.

I don't know who Vawn. It's hard to Vawn.

It's hard to Vawn.

That's why it's exclusive.

That's why if you get a name that you can Von with, Von with it.

Von. Von all the longt. Von. Yeah, Von. So Vonbula. So by the time they reunited in 1966, Klaus had graduated from law school, and he was working as an assistant to the notorious oil magnet, J. Paul Getty.

Oh, we know him.

You remember him?

We know him.

Remember when he was going to get his ass beat?

Yeah, remember that time?

Klaus worked with him for a little while. I do remember that time. You remember that? Remember butthole change? I remember that vividly. Remember butthole change? That's what it was, right? Butthole change. It was, I think. Imagine if I was just misremembering that.

You were just like, remember that? I remember butthole change. No, I don't. I do remember you said I would beat your ass.

Listen, I I stand 10 to his down on that. Beat your grandpa's ass. If he doesn't pay you a ransom after your ear gets sliced off your fucking head, you have to get in the right in the world to beat your grandpa's ass. I don't advocate violence often.

You stand 10 toes down.

Which I'll put my hands down on that.

I stand on business.

Phalanges down. Beat your grandpa's ass if your ear gets cut off and he doesn't pay your rent.

Say that with my whole chest.

Yeah. Titty's out. I love when our cases connect, though. Like, whatever that happens. I know.

When you can go back with that.

It's like, whoa.

Oh, man.

So he worked for the good for that, man. So he did that. After the wedding, Klaus and Sunny settled in a large apartment on Fifth Ave in New York, right? Overlooking Central Park. It must have been gorgeous. But a short time later, Sunny purchased Clarendon Court, which was a massive mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and I believe still is. And obviously at that time, the wealthiest families in the nation were vacationing in Newport, like the Vanderbilt, the Astors, and Doris Duke, who we also covered. So from that point forward, they split their time between New York and Rhode Island.

Makes sense. Also, the Astors makes me think of Titanic, John Jacob Astor. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And his new wife, who was with child, I believe.

Oh, yeah.

Was she a mistress? Yeah. I'm looking at Debbie for answers because I'm like, you and I watched this movie 100,000 times together.

I've only watched Titanic three or four times, and I can't watch it anymore because it literally makes me ugly sob.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like watching it now would destroy myself.

I can't do it.

But I was thinking about this, just a little side track.

No, go for it.

Side track because John and I were talking about it last night, actually.

I don't know why it came up. You talk about the Titanic pretty frequently. We do.

I don't know why. But he was talking about how he saw that movie in theaters. Oh, damn. For the first time, and he saw it with his mom. And his mom did not know that that was going to be part of it. So he was like, So here I am. He's like, Those are the first boobs I ever saw, were Kate Winslet. The first boobs he ever saw. He's like, And sitting in a movie theater with a million other people. And his mom. But I was like, If your first boobs being Kate Winslet in that movie, I was like, Good for you. That's a good first set of movies. That is. I was like, That's pretty elite. And I was saying how I feel bad that kids, that young people today, don't get to experience that era of Leonardo DiCaprio. The Romeo and Juliet Titanic era is a very specific era that nothing will ever replicate it, and it will never come back. So it's this very specific era where it was just like, yeah. A very specific Leonardo DiCaprio. You know what, though?

We experienced a very different Leo DiCaprio, and we have fun Leo stories that are alleged.

What?

Like all the crazy stories about headphones and stuff.

Oh, yeah. No, that's what I mean. Like the Leonardo DiCaprio- You got the purist. Of now is a very different situation than we had when we were younger. Again, I'm looking at Debbie, confirm this for me. Because that was him and his like, nothing. No one was like him.

We have Lucas Matzen. Because remember, they say that about him.

I mean, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. In succession.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean.

Different. Different. I'm chinning. I'm chinning your point.

It was so pure then.

I know. I mean, you know what, though? He has stayed so fucking attractive. Who? Leo. You don't think he's attractive anymore?

Nothing beats Romeo and Juliet, Leonardo. No, he was literally- No, I know. No, look up Romeo and Juliet, Leonardo DiCaprio. Just look at that specific- I mean, I've seen that. But you need to visualize it again.

No, I know.

Because that was a fucking moment in my life, but watching that movie, and when he came on the screen, I said, What is this world all about?

Yeah.

I said, What do you mean?

My closet still said Leonardo DiCaprio. I love Leonardo DiCaprio from you.

Him and the chainmail? I feel like Titanic. And poor John was at that age. He thought it was just going to be this action-packed movie. And he was like, I didn't know that there was going to be a full love story involved in it.

Karen also probably was like, Oh, we'll just go witness history together.

He wasn't ready.

Well, they did Witness History. They weren't ready. They did.

And then that was it.

I can't imagine having to Don't you paint me like one of your French girls with my family.

The car scene?

With the hand? Yeah. Oh, ruin me. Yeah, that would ruin me. I would probably leave, I think. I'd go to the bathroom.

Yeah, I think that would be the end of me.

That'd be upsetting. All All right. Well, how did we get there?

Oh, John Jacob, the Astor.

Oh, the Astor. The Astor.

Because I had a weird moment of remembering that entire conversation.

Good for you, though. I love it. All right. So, so back to Sunny and being Vons. In 1967, a year after she married Klaus, she gave birth to their only child, Kocima, I believe is how you say her name. So at first, things in the von Buhló's life together were pretty much going great. Like, things were great. Klaus was no stranger to high society. You him. He was that Jay Gatsby type, which is also funny because then we went into a whole Leo thing. But he mixed in easily with Sunny's friends and associates. Everybody found him charming, entertaining. I don't know, probably hot. But not long after Cosima was born, things seemed to change. Sunny didn't love how Klaus was working very long hours and carrying on with other women in full view of the public.

That would also be something I would be pissed off about.

Yeah, I would be pretty pissed. He, on the other hand, complained that she had completely lost interest in their relationship together after their daughter was born, which maybe give her a fucking minute.

Yeah, just a quick, a hot minute.

Yeah, just a sec. But eventually, they reached an impasse and they decided to move into separate bedrooms, keeping up appearances for the sake of the public, but leading very separate lives. I feel like that's such a thing in high society. It is. Don't Richard and Emily, do they have the same bedroom?

They do, yeah.

Oh, they do? Okay. Yeah. Well, anyway, throughout the 1970s- They do separate at one point. They do. I can't talk about that.

Don't worry. It's fine in the end. Yeah. I don't want to besmirch Richard and Emily.

Don't you dare. You never would. I never would. Oh, gosh. So throughout the 1970s, Klaus and Sunny appeared to the outside world to be the very picture of American aristocracy. But behind closed doors, they continued to have very little to do with each other. And in March of 1979, Klaus started having an affair with former soap opera actress, Alexandra Iles. And before long, they had fallen very deeply in love with each other. But, Alexandra had absolutely no intention of being somebody's mistress or carrying on an affair behind Sunny's back. She repeatedly pressed Klaus to divorce his wife, which, you know.

Sorry, something about that. The moral high ground of being like, I will not continue fucking you unless you divorce your fucking wife. Who do you think I am? I love that she was just like, I have no intention of being a mistress, babe. You are. I know. I will not carry on an affair. You are.

I know.

Divorce your wife. Wow.

Yeah. It's all very messy. It's all very high society.

The shaky ass moral high ground to be standing up. So for months, Klaus talked about leaving Sunny, promising Alexandra that he was...

I think that name is so pretty. I'm not talking about her being a mistress or anything, but the name Alexander. Alexander. Alexander. Alexandra's so pretty.

Oh, it is. It's a very pretty name.

But I don't like the nickname Alex very much. I don't dislike the name Alex, but if I had an Alexandra, I would only want people to call her Alexandra.

It's such a pretty name altogether. I don't mind the nickname, but the name all... I was going to say all the All the Way.

Yeah, all the way. I'm not cold, my son. All the Way. All the Way name.

All the Way name.

Yes. It's so pretty. But anyway. So he kept promising Alexander that he was planning to break up with Sunny when the time was right. But the time obviously is never that great to leave your spouse. So there affair dragged on, with Klaus making promises of getting a divorce that he seemed pretty unlikely to keep. Then, in December 1979, a health scare threw a wrench into Klaus and Alexander's plans, causing Klaus to at least temporarily recommit to Sunny. It was about a week before Christmas, and Maria Schralhammer, the maid at Clarendon Court, was cleaning the hallway outside of Sunny and Klaus' bedroom when she heard Sunny moaning on the other side of the locked door. She She tried to enter the room, but from the other side of the door, Klaus insisted that Sunny was fine and that they didn't need any help. When she was finally able to get into the room, Maria found Klaus and Sunny lying in bed, and Sunny, she said, did not look very good. When she suggested that they call the doctor, she said that Klaus strongly objected, said Sunny was fine, she was just sleeping, and actually she had gotten up a few times to go to the bathroom, so everything was fine.

But by the end of the day, it was very clear that Sunny was essentially comatose, and Klaus not doing anything to help her. What the fuck? According to Maria. So Maria called for an ambulance, and Sunny was taken to Newport Hospital. At first, doctors couldn't figure out what had caused her to slip into the coma in the first place. But after several blood tests, they determined that she had very unusually high levels of insulin in her blood.

How did that get there?

Great question. Doctors at Newport managed to bring her out of the coma in a pretty short amount of time, and they said the incident was hypoglycemia, but they noted no other irregularities. Thank you so much. Irregularities at the time. So that was all very strange. But they were like, Okay, I guess you ate too much something. Yeah. I don't know how any of that works.

You did some too much of something. You hypoed.

Yeah, you hypoglycemia. You hypo-glycemia. In the months after Sunny's return from the hospital, things basically went back to normal. But by the middle of the year, Klaus' affair with Alexandra had started once again, but it had reached a breaking point. Klaus argued that it would have been pretty cruel to propose a divorce to his wife since she had just been in a coma and that he needed to be there for her recovery. Valid. Me, I would argue that it's pretty cruel that you're still carrying on an affair with your wife on your wife when she was just in a coma.

Also valid.

Maybe you could end that. Yeah. Yeah. But by June, Sunny was in good health, and Alexander was once again getting the feeling that Klaus was not going to leave her. She didn't want to continue on. I don't think it's happening.

No, it's not.

She didn't want to continue on with the affair, so she gave Klaus an ultimatum, Divorce Sunny within the next six months. She was like, damn, that's a nice ultimatum. Or, I'm done here. So that put Klaus in a difficult position. The family's attorney, Richard Q, said He had no money, and so divorce, as he thought, was not an option. It would leave him penniless. But if Sunny was dead, then he would have her title to her house in Rhode Island, her wonderful apartment in Manhattan, and a great deal of money.

Oh, this is always when it gets a little A little sticky.

Yeah. And that's a quote, by the way. That's not my words. Yeah. So the months passed on and Klaus dragged his feet, promising Alexander that he was going to go through with the divorce as soon as he felt like the time was right. But in December 1980, another emergency occurred at Clarendon Court, and this time it was a lot more serious than the last one. So on December 20th, Sunny's son Alex arrived home and found his mother on the first floor struggling to get up the stairs. It was less than a week before Christmas, and Sunny had spent the last week just preparing for the holidays. I was going to say, Mom's on holidays. You just got done with that and you got sick as a dog. Alex assumed that she was just very exhausted from all the work that she was 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 night, and just gave her some time to rest. But the next morning, when he went back to check on her, he found her face down on the floor of her bathroom.

She was unconscious. Her nightgown was gathered up around her waist, and there was a small amount of blood around her mouth. So he was panicked now and called for an ambulance, which luckily got there in just a few minutes. Former paramedic Paul Rippa said, I knew as soon as I walked into the room and knelt beside her, she was in trouble. So the paramedics made a quick evaluation of Sunny's condition, and they noted that cut that she had on her upper lip, which appeared to be where the blood around her mouth had come from. And the presence of blood now made sense, but neither Rippa or his partner could find any explanation for the cut itself. There was nothing on Sunny or near her that could have caused the cut. If she had hit her head during the fall, it would have caused more damage than just that small cut on her lip. The scene didn't really necessarily make sense. They couldn't revive her there. So they loaded her back into the ambulance and took her again back to Newport Hospital, and Klaus rode in the back with her. Now, Paul Rippa had been a paramedic for a long time at this point, so he had seen all kinds of different behaviors from people in very stressful situations.

Not unlike this one. And he found Klaus' demeanor to be very odd, in his opinion. He said, Mr. Von Buhl looked at his wife with ice-cold blue eyes, and there was absolutely no feeling. And it's like, In most cases, we're generalizing, but in most cases, somebody in this position where their spouse is unconscious and nobody knows why, maybe you would make an attempt to comfort your loved one, no matter. And maybe you'd continue talking to them even if they can't hear you. But according to Paul Rippa, Klaus just seemed very removed from the situation and never said a word, which you can understand would look a little bit weird. But also, sometimes people disassociate in stressful situations. Yeah, for sure. Honestly, I mean, I've never been in a situation like that with my spouse, luckily. But I feel like we've been in similar situations with other family members, and I do disassociate a little bit.

Yeah, I definitely go into straight up. Just what needs to be done.

Yeah, same. Exactly. Yeah. So maybe that's where he was. Who's to say?

Who's to say.

But at the hospital, Sunny's situation, unfortunately, did take a turn for the worse. The doctors in the ER weren't able to revive her, and they couldn't determine what had caused her to slip into a coma in the first place. But when the results of her blood test came back a couple of days later, they were mostly normal, but there was the exception of her insulin level, which was 216 micro units per milliliter. Whoa. The normal range is between 5 and 15. Holy shit. And hers was at 216. That's wild. Like bananas. So the amount of insulin in Sunny's blood was obviously extremely high for any person, regardless of circumstance. But it was especially peculiar for Sunny, who, aside from the one incident the previous year, wasn't known to have any health problems whatsoever. So under the circumstances, the doctors concluded that her body hadn't just generated that amount of insulin on its own. That insulin had to have been administered either by Sunny or somebody close to her. But why would somebody do that? Yeah. So weeks passed, and unfortunately, she just seemed to slip deeper and deeper into her coma, and she wasn't showing any signs of improvement.

So in early January, she was transferred to a long-term care unit at Columbia Hospital in Manhattan. Meanwhile, back in Rhode Island, Alex and his sister Alaa started to grow suspicious of their stepfather. The tension- Can't blame them. Which, yeah, I can't blame them because they knew. The tension between Klaus and Sunny wasn't a secret, and I don't think the affair was a secret either. They're probably pissed. You know, that is going to make you pretty suspicious. Yeah. So among other things, Then a few weeks of Sunny being admitted to the hospital, Klaus was taking a lavish vacation with Alexander Iles like nothing had happened. Eew. In a few weeks.

That's icky.

Like your wife is lying in a coma in Manhattan. Yeah, that's icky behavior on both their That's where it was at. Yeah. So while Sunny's children from her first marriage may have grown suspicious of Klaus, there was nothing about Sunny's condition to doctors at that point that suggested foul play for, like enough for the police to investigate the situation. Which is really weird to me.

I don't know.

Different time. Yeah. Still, Alex and his sister were convinced that Klaus had done something to their mom. They reached out to the family lawyer, Richard Q, and he was a former Manhattan district attorney, and the family is, like I said, personal lawyer. He suggested that while they really had no cause yet to go to the police, there was nothing preventing them from looking into things on their own. Alex started looking into Klaus' behavior in the months leading up to Sunny's coma, like looking back on a few things.

These are some kids right here. Yeah.

These are the kids you want to have. Like I said, it wasn't shocking or new information that their dad was having an open affair. But what was surprising was that in the months before the incident, Klaus was allegedly spreading rumors about Sunny, including a rumor that she was struggling with a drinking problem. What the fuck? And an addiction to prescription pills, which he said had started long before he met her. But as far as her own children knew, Sunny was never much of a drinker, and this rumor seemed to come out of nowhere. It's like, why would you even do that?

Why are you setting her up to be a substantial user?

Tarnish her name, you know? And make it look like she has issues with substances. Yeah. So the next and possibly the most consequential aspect of their investigation came in Alex's casual discussions with the maid, Maria. At the time of Sunny's incident, both Alex and Maria remembered seeing Klaus regularly in possession of a small black leather bag, which he used to carry his own medications. Alex became absolutely convinced that the bag had something to do with his mother's coma now, and he was determined to find out what was in that bag. But knowing that he might need some help, Richard Q suggested that Alex not search the house alone, so he hired a private detective and a locksmith to accompany him as he searched the house. So one afternoon, a few months after Sonny had been transferred to New York for care, Alex and the other two private detectives searched the entire house in Rhode Island, and they found nothing out of the ordinary. But when they came to Klaus' room, because remember, they had separate bedrooms, they And they discovered that the closet where the housekeeper Maria said she'd seen the black bag, that closet was locked.

So at Alex's direction, and he has every right in the world because this is his house, the locksmith broke the lock and inside the closet, they found the black bag. What's in the black bag? At the time, it didn't occur to Alex or the private detective that they should photograph the bag as they found it or that they could have dusted it for fingerprints or anything like that. They just wanted to look inside and find out what was in there.

I mean, I'm not thinking of that. Private Detective.

Yeah. Alex, I understand.

Alex, I get not thinking of that. Private detective.

There's two private detectives, too. But Alex took the bag to Richard Q, and at his office, they opened the bag and they found several bottles of pills, mostly sedatives, a used syringe, and a bottle of insulin.

Ding, ding, ding. Weird.

So even though Sunny's coma had obviously been caused by an insulin overdose, Richard Q still didn't think that there was enough evidence to suggest that a crime had been committed. I think to us, it's like he literally has everything that you would think caused that. But you do need a lot.

Well, it's like the way it was found, all this stuff. It could get a little hair.

Yeah, it's shaky. Yeah. Exactly. So he believed that the police would probably decline to investigate. Also, you have to remember, these are connected people in high society.

Yeah, exactly.

Instead, he sent the contents of the bag to the family's doctor, who immediately noticed that the needle appeared to have been used.

Oh.

Based on his suspicions, the doctor sent the needle out to be tested, and the results showed that it had contained insulin at one point. Oh, shit. But as far as the family doctor knew, Klaus nor Sunny had ever been prescribed insulin, so neither of them would have a need for it to be in their possession. So given the result of the test, the doctor brought his suspicions back to Alex and the family attorney and said either they could go to the police at this point or he was going to. Good for him.

He's like, something's fucking weird.

He's like, This is fucking weird. Exactly. So a few days later, Alex and Richard took everything that they knew to the Rhode Island State Police, and they handed over the black bag and its contents. They gave the detective the entire backstory on Klaus and Sunny's entire relationship leading up to her coma, including the fact that this was not the first time that she had He seriously slipped into a coma.

With high insulin levels.

With high insulin levels, exactly. Based on the evidence he'd been given, Detective Jack Reece started speaking to the other members of the family, including Klaus, who was very cagey, he said. Reece said, There was a lot of inconsistent statements, and the more we got into it, the more they pointed toward Klaus. So the first thing that struck him as strange was the way that Sunny had been found on the bathroom floor. According to the paramedics, her head was positioned under the toilet. There was that blood on her face, and like I said, her nightgown was pulled around her waist. It looked like she had been placed there, not that she had fallen right there. Feeling that Sunny's position on the bathroom floor was one of the keys to understanding everything, Risa He actually enlisted the help of his wife, who was right around Sunny's height and weight, and they used their own bathroom as an informal crime lab to test these things out. Wow. Over and over, they went through various scenarios that could have led to Sunny landing in that position, and none of them resulted in Reese's wife landing the way that Sunny did.

Especially under the toilet.

Yeah, head under the toilet seat. But then, to test another hypothesis of his, Jack carried his wife into the bathroom and slowly let her slip out of his arms and onto the floor. And when he did that, not only did she land on the floor in the exact position that Sunny had, but as she slipped from his arms, her nightgown got hung up on his arm and it bunched around her waist. Wow. So. Holy shit. Interesting.

That is very interesting.

I just love that detective work when they bring it home.

When they had to go really down deep in it.

Yeah. So given everything that they learned, Reese was pretty confident that it was to have a formal interview with Klaus. But he also didn't want to give Klaus any advanced notice to get answers ready or anything like that or craft a story. So he surprised him outside of his Manhattan office and brought him in for an interview. Who knew? For the For the most part, his answers to the questions were to be expected. He maintained that he didn't know how Sunny landed in a coma. He did confirm that he and Alexander Iles had been having an affair for the last two years, so he was honest about that. So at that point, the interview It was pretty standard. Nothing big was popping out. At the time, Klaus was unaware, though, that Sunny's son, Alex, had found the black bag of medication at Clarendon Court and was also unaware that the family lawyer had been investigating him. When Ries offhandedly asked if Sunny would have any reason to use insulin, Klaus replied, By God, that's the last thing she would need. Oh, it's like the why is it in your bag of medications. Why didn't he have it?

Yeah. Now, at this point, he tipped them to the fact that he was being investigated. And Reece was pretty confident that Klaus was going to go back to Rhode Island to go get his black bag. So he quickly filed a request for a search warrant for Clarendon Court. And a few days later, state police met Klaus in the house in Newport. Before sitting him down for the second time, Reece participated in the search of this home, which is literally a mansion. So it was intense. And throughout the search, he made multiple important observations. So they're listed. One, Klaus hadn't been living at the house since before Sunny fell into a coma. So the bedroom closet was still locked, just like Alex and the locksmith had left it when they found the bag. Two, on a pad on Klaus's desk in the bedroom, there was a note in his writing that simply said, Black box. And three, during the search of the closet, investigators found a black metal lockbox where Klaus was known to keep his bag of medications. So while technicians and troopers continued the search of the house, Jack Reece sat down with Klaus for another interview, and that's when he brought up the bag of medications.

Now, right after the question was raised, Klaus excused himself very abruptly, just for a moment, and then returned a few minutes later. When the interview was over, Ries went into his bedroom, Klaus' bedroom, and found that the note on the pad was now gone and that the closet had been re-locked.

Oh, shit.

He said, We surmised that he hadn't found the black bag and was probably a little concerned that he may misplaced it. Oh, wow. Based on his possession of the insulin and the used needle and the statements from friends about his affair with Alexander Iles and the ultimatum that she'd given him, Jack Ries was like, Yeah, I think Klaus von Buhlo probably had the means and motive to kill his own wife. Yeah. So in early 1981, Ries took everything he had to the Newport County district attorney, who quickly convened a grand jury to review the evidence. And a week later, Klaus von Buhlow was indicted on two counts of attempted murder. Because remember, Sunny's literally in a coma during all of this. Yeah. She's still alive, so they can't get murder. So on July 31st, 1981, Klaus was arrained in a district Court of Providence, Rhode Island, on two charges of attempted murder, one for the attempt on Sunny's life in 1979, and then the most recent one. He pleaded not guilty to both charges. And in a statement to the press, his lawyer, John Sheehan, said Klaus was devastated by the accusation and the children's belief that he tried to kill their mother.

He told reporters, I can't conceive of a doctor saying with reasonable certainty what happened to cause the coma. I think that's literally a doctor's entire job, babe.

Is this the attorney being like, I can't even fucking fathom that? Like, well, that's not for you to fathom, so don't worry.

But it's also pretty fathomable.

That's literally his job.

Yeah. That's literally why he went to medical school.

I can't imagine how he would know this medical thing.

I can't conceive of it. Like, okay. I'm like, Have Have you heard of medical tests?

He's a doctor.

But he insisted that whatever the reason was and that Sunny had slipped into a coma, had nothing to do with Klaus.

No.

And in their own statement to the press, Sunny's two children, Alex and Ala, told reporters, We feel very strongly that he tried twice to murder our mother. We believe that he deprived her of life as we now know. Why do I keep saying that? As we know it. As we know it, deprived her of many years of happiness.

You're like, I really want now to be.

I know. I think when I see no, I just want to say now, too. So as far as the prosecution was concerned, the case was pretty straightforward, and it was just a matter of greed. Because like I said, if Klaus was to divorce Sunny, he was going to be written out of her will. He would have lost access to the $15 million that he felt he was entitled to. But if she died, he would have received $5 million immediately, and the rest would have been placed into a trust fund, and he would have been able to access that after a period of a few years. Basically, they were saying that faced with losing either his relationship with Alexander or aisles or access to Sunny's fortune, he decided to kill his wife so that he didn't have to give up either. Wow. He could keep his affair and get all the money.

Have his cake and eat it, too.

Exactly. Within days of the indictment, Klaus von Buhlow's criminal team was already planning their defense strategy that not only refuted the prosecution's charge of attempted murder, but also then pinned responsibility for the coma on Sunny herself. Wow. Which is like, that's nice. Cool. A real shitty. Classy. Yeah, hella. Yeah. In an interview with the press, one of his lawyers, Harold Farringer, told reporters, We're not trying to prove Sunny deliberately tried to kill herself those two times a year apart, but she was so very sick and reacted so badly to so many foods and drugs that whatever happened was clearly her own fault. Nice. Wow. Nice. Wow.

And then like, And since she's not here to defend herself, seems like we can just close this book.

Yeah, we'll just shit all over it. That's fine. And to prove his claim, Farringer manager said there was an incident a few weeks before Sunny fell into the coma the second time, where she went to the emergency room after fearing that she had taken too much aspirin. He said, That may have been a suicide attempt.

Or just a fuck-up.

I'm like, I don't think that she would have tried to end her life by taking aspirin. No, probably not. Also, why would she then go to the the ER? Exactly. Like, okay. Yeah. So by the time the trial started on February first, 1982, obviously the story was plastered across the front pages of every newspaper from one side of the country to the other. Everybody had their own opinions on whether or not Klaus was guilty. Some news outlets maintained an objective even tone, but a lot of people didn't really have that much trouble accepting that Klaus probably tried to kill his wife for money. Damn. I mean, it's a tale as old as time.

It is. It's true.

But what was surprising for people, especially outside of Newport, was the composition of the jury, because most people knew Newport to be full of very, very wealthy people who lived in town. So it came as a surprise when the jury actually turned out to be made up of a lot of middle class residents, actually. People were like, Wait, middle class people live in Newport? What? So prosecutor Stephen Fami-Glietti asked rhetorically in an interview, Where are you going to get a jury of his peers. It's almost impossible to get twelve people with his socio-economic background. Valid.

Which is valid.

But honestly, you probably could find them in Newport. I know.

That's true.

So despite the evidence against Klaus, the prosecution had no illusions that it was going to be quick or an easy trial. Steven said, I thought it was an extremely difficult case, primarily because it was a circumstantial evidence case, meaning there was no eyewitnesses to the alleged criminal conduct. There was so much medical testimony, which I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to tie together in order to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

I love that he's like, I did not know if I can do my job here.

Pretty much. I mean, it's a tough one. In their case to the jury, the prosecution did their best. They presented multiple medical experts who explained that the only way for Sunny's insulin level to be that high would have had to have been for somebody to inject her with insulin.

Yeah.

I mean, all you have to do is say what a normal one, normal insulin level is and then say what hers was.

Yeah, and that's pretty compelling. It is.

It was compelling to me when I first read this. Yeah. Now, when one of the doctors was asked directly whether he thought foul play was involved in Sunny's condition, he replied that he believed the coma was caused by the surreptitious administration of insulin, aka overdose of insulin. Yeah. And her own physician testified that she was in very good health, and as far as he knew, she, again, had no need for insulin. Yeah. And he also testified that to his knowledge, and contrary to rumors that were believed to be spread by Klaus himself, Sunny didn't have any of drinking problem or any problem with drugs.

And that's her doctor.

That's her literal doctor. Like, that's big. So the most critical testimony came from The Made. It's like a game of clue. Maria Schralheimer or Hammer, who told the jury about her previous experience with Klaus when she said he refused to help his wife, and then she went into that coma that first time in 1979. So both Maria and Sunny's son Alex testified that after Sunny's first coma, that's when they started seeing Klaus with that black bag of medications, which they now knew contained medications, including insulin. Damn. So the biggest blow to Klaus von Buhloss claims of innocence came a little over two weeks into the trial when Alexander Iles was called to testify. Uh-oh. She confirmed that, yes, she had given Klaus an ultimatum because she didn't want to be involved in an extramarital affair anymore. She said at no point did she encourage he do anything other than divorce his wife. And when she learned that he was under investigation for attempted murder, she told the court, I thought it was a pack of nonsense. But then when the prosecutor asked her whether she still thought it was nonsense, she looked away and then replied, I don't know.

When the prosecutor asked her whether or not she was still in love with Klaus, she said, I don't know. Whoa. So it was very clear that her feelings had shifted in a big way.

After hearing what was going on.

And that's going to hit with a jury.

Absolutely. Of course it is.

So when the prosecution rested their case, obviously, the defense took over for what would be a pretty short presentation. In his opening statement, she then told the jury, What happened to Sunny was not anyone's fault but her own, and that sad fact will emerge in this case if the truth is to prevail. I would be a little pissed off at this.

That's a dick move. It really is. I know it's his job, but I'm like, damn, you sound like an asshole. Yeah.

I would not want to find him innocent just because of that statement. Just because of that shitty statement.

It's their own fault.

That's really wrong of me, but I feel that way.

But don't put me on this jury.

Yeah, don't. So if you're mean, don't put me on a jury. Yeah. Maybe that's how I could get out of jury duty. Yeah.

You're like, I'll immediately take that.

If you're mean, I'll just go the other way.

I'll convict your client.

They're like, Okay, you can go now, miss. I'll convict your client. Jesus Christ. So the defense alleged that Sunny was a psychologically disturbed woman, they said, who took insulin in a reckless attempt to lose weight. Whoa. They also argued that if it appeared that Klaus was responsible for his wife's condition. That was because her family had gone out of their way to make it seem that way.

Oh, shit. We're pulling the family in there.

Yeah. She in there even called into question the discovery of the black bag. When as far as to suggest that Alex had planted it himself in order to frame his stepfather and make sure he was cut out of the will.

Team Alex.

Absolutely.

Because no.

That's so fucked up.

I don't believe that. If I know Alex, which I don't at all, never even seen a picture of him. I don't even know if he's real.

He is It's real.

I can't confirm. But I can't confirm. Team Alex. If I know Alex, he didn't do that.

I'm like, come on. That's really shitty.

He didn't plant it.

I don't think so.

No.

After almost two months of testimony and evidence, the case went to the jury for deliberation in mid-March. In his closing statement, Harold Farringer made his case one final time. He said, 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 basically went over and whispered to the jury, Suicide. Like, what a douchebag.

Is Is he a twelve-year-old boy? I'm fully confident. That's the most insane behavior I've ever heard. He's just like, I feel like it was like,. It's just, what?

It's like a performance.

It's like, did he tiptoe over there?

Probably.

And twiddling his mustache, like a villain?

Probably. Just so you know.

I don't know what could have happened. Yeah, I do.

Mind you, this woman is laying in a coma. What is wrong with you? She's a mother to three children. You literally just said you don't know what happened, but then you're going to go, Suicide.

That's circus behavior. You're a douchebag. That's circus behavior.

Yeah. Ridiculous.

That's dumb as hell.

The case may have all been circumstantial, but in the end, the jury could not deny that all of the evidence did point to Klaus. So after deliberating for six days, they returned to the court and they found Klaus von Buhló guilty on two counts of attempted murder, and the judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

Damn.

Now, everybody was actually very shocked by this because if we know anything, wealthy people do away with a lot of things often. He sure do. Especially back then. Yeah. But Klaus von Buhló had no intention of staying locked up. Within a few days of the verdict, he had already placed a call to Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. By that time, Dershowitz had built a reputation as a very capable lawyer representing clients like Patty Hearst, adult film star Harry Reims. And he represented people in cases where the odds of an acquittal were slim. In the years after the von Buhló case, he actually would go on to become a pretty controversial figure. He represented Mike Tyson, O. J. Simpson, Jim Baker, Donald Trump, and Jeffrey Epstein. And I'm just going to leave that right there.

And I'm going to leave the room. Bye.

After speaking with Klaus. I'm going to leave the Helen. Yeah. Fucking Ellen. Like I said, controversial. Gross. I'm going to leave it there. After speaking with Klaus and reviewing the evidence used to convict him, Dershowitz actually agreed to take on the case. Shocked. Later, he said, I hadn't followed the case very closely. I knew he'd been convicted. Like most people reading the newspaper, It sounded to me like the evidence was convincing. Wow, Allen. But from his office at Harvard, he assembled a legal team, mostly made up of his law students, and they broke up into smaller teams, each focusing on specific pieces of the prosecution's case. He said, First meeting, I knew this case was going to turn on those Q notes, meaning Richard Q. So when the district attorney took the case to trial, nobody had actually bothered to subpoena Richard Q's notes.

That's wild.

That's a little wild. Even though he had been involved in the investigation with the family, even before they had gone to the police.

That was a choice.

That really was. Dershowitz believed that the notes must have had some information vital to clearing Klaus's name. But now Richard Q was refusing to hand them over, and he cited the previous trial judge's orders not to surrender them. He was doing what he believed was right.

Judge tells me not to, I'm not.

But Dershowitz was like, okay, now I definitely have to get those notes.

That just made them so much more enticing.

Yeah, exactly. He worked on subpoening them while another team evaluated the medical evidence used in the trial. According to the prosecution, originally, the lab test showed that Sunny's insulin level was 216 when she arrived at the hospital. But it turned out, while one test did show 216, the lab had actually run three additional tests, and the results of those tests varied between zero and 350.

I'm sorry, what? Zero and three-fit. None insulin and all the insulin?

That's actually exactly what it translates into. None insulin and all insulin.

How is that?

None insulin.

What medical test is that?

Beats me. What? I don't know a lot about medical tests, but those seem inconclusive. That seems inconclusive. It seems wildly inconclusive. I would go ahead and stamp inconclusive across that and maybe retest.

I don't know what to say about that. I didn't see that coming.

I didn't either. None I don't think Dershwitz did either. I had no idea. Dershwitz's team questioned the reliability of those tests now.

I mean, I can't blame them on that one.

Then now they were also questioning the test conducted on the syringe. Oh, shit. Which remember, they were like, Oh, yeah, It's been used, and it definitely was used with insulin. So they decided to test the lab by sending several just random needles for tests. And within a few weeks, the results came back showing several false positives, which suggested that if they had been wrong in Dershowitz's test, they also could have been wrong when they were tested originally in Klaus' case.

This is sloppy as hell.

It gets worse. Finally, Dershowitz turns his attention to the biggest piece of evidence, the black bag itself. As a resident of Clarendon Court, like I said, Alex was within his rights to search the house and even to hire a locksmith to open Klaus' closet. He was also within his rights when he handed over the bag to Richard Q. But Dershowitz would later argue that even though Alex was in his rights, Jack Ries and the other investigators had no legal right to accept the bag as evidence without a warrant or with Klaus' consent, and in doing so, they had violated his constitutional rights. How did no I didn't catch that? The chain of custody was a little fucked up here.

There was two private detectives on this thing, and they weren't like, Hey, this is getting a little sloppy with the chain of evidence here. No one called that out and was like, We could fuck this whole thing up.

I don't know if maybe chain of custody became bigger later, but it's like they should know that that could be a potential issue. You would think.

And they should have at least accounted for that. I mean, this is like a smoking gun situation. So it's like, that's your biggest piece of evidence. You don't want to risk that being thrown out. So I would think you would go above and beyond to be like, let's just make sure we are doing all the things to make sure that every T is crossed, I is dotted, and we don't fuck this up so this gets thrown out.

Yeah.

Well, they did. Because that's not Alex's- No, it's not Alex's fault.

He thought he was calling the right... I mean, he's like a regular citizen.

He's calling- Because technically, he did call the right- The detectives, you know? Yeah. Damn.

So in April 1984, Alan Dershwitz presented Klaus von Buhl's appeal to the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. By that time, he narrowed his appeal to just two areas. One, he argued that the black bag of medication should never have been admitted into evidence in the first place because it had been obtained through questionable means. Fuck. Two, that the notes taken by attorney Richard Q should have been admitted in the previous trial since they were detailed as a critical part of the investigation before the proper authorities became involved. Based on those two things, he argued that Klaus should be granted a new trial. After reviewing the evidence, hearing the testimony, the Supreme Court sided with his team. They agreed the black bag, which was the motivation for the arrest in the first place, had been obtained illegally and should have been deemed inadmissible at trial. And honestly, if that was deemed inadmissible at trial, who knows if he would have been convicted. So now he was entitled to a brand new trial. Shit. And in the spring of 1984, the prosecution and defense prepared for that new trial. This time without the black bag in evidence.

Oh, no. That's huge.

Now, just as importantly, the family attorney, Richard Q, had been ordered to hand over his notes from his initial meetings with Sonny's first two children. In the notes were Alex's mention of the black bag, and in subsequent notes, Q cataloged the contents of the bag before handing it over to the state police. Missing from that list of contents that he originally wrote down was the vial of insulin, meaning that the notes directly contradicted the testimony given at the previous trial by the housekeeper, who stated that she saw insulin in the bag. The defense said, If she saw insulin among the other medications, then surely it should have been on Richard Q's list.

Oh, no.

The omission of the insulin on that list turned out to be one of the most significant aspects of the defense. I can't imagine being on the jury and hearing that.

I'd be like, Oh.

The The black bag had been a critical piece of evidence during the first trial, but now the prosecution's case was that much weaker without it. In its absence, they were hoping that testimony from the maid, Maria Schralheimer, would now be sufficient enough to establish that the insulin was in Klaus' his possession. But now that the notes basically undermined the credibility of that testimony, a second conviction was pretty unlikely at this point.

Oh, no.

So prosecutor, Steven there, pinned his hopes. Steven. Steven. Steven F. Pinned his hopes mostly on the testimony of Alexander Iles, whose relationship with Klaus ended long ago by that point, at the time of the second trial. As she had in the trial before, she told the jury about the ultimatum that she gave Klaus. But this time, she heavily implied that Klaus had done something to cause Sunny's first call. She said under oath, he said the next day when she was unconscious, he watched 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 with it, and he called an ambulance and saved her life.

Which does check with what the maid observed. Absolutely. She was saying he wasn't helping her, and she was being like, something needs be done here. And wouldn't let her do anything.

But also it looks a little weird that Alexander is now, and I'm not saying she's lying, but you also sitting on that jury have to take into account that she didn't say that the first time around. That's very true. And now they've broken up. There's bad blood. And now she's saying that.

And then you also have to flip it and say, Are you lying under oath, though?

Exactly.

Who knows? Because if you get caught lying like that under oath, you're fucked.

Both of us are like, You're fucked. So similarly, she told the judge that prior to the trial in 1981, Klaus begged her not to testify, and she said under oath that he said, If you testify that we were more than friends, you'll be putting nails in my coffin.

Whoa. Yeah. Remember that first time she was on the stand, she was in a relationship with him.

She was still.

She was very- So maybe she didn't reveal that because that was told her in confidence by someone she's in a relationship with.

Somebody she loved. Also, she was pretty cagey. She just said, I don't know most It seemed like she was like, fuck.

Yeah.

So on June seventh, 1985, both sides made their final arguments to the jury with the prosecution alleging that Klaus had attempted to kill Sunny for the inheritance and the defense arguing that Sunny's coma was a result of her own actions. After just a few days of deliberation, the jury returned, and they found Klaus von Buhló not guilty of attempted murder. So now that he was acquitted of attempted murder charges, he was never going to face criminal charges for what happened to Sunny. But that didn't mean that he was free of all potential consequences. Civil suit. Civil suit. You know. You always know in these cases a civil suit's coming. A month after he was acquitted, Alex and Alaa filed a civil suit against Klaus for 56 million dollars.

I can't blame them.

And it was in a complaint that the press described as mirroring the charges raised by Rhode Island prosecutors. So they're just saying the same thing. Yes. In addition to the 56 million dollars in damages, the suit sought to invalidate his claim to any part of Sunny fortune and required him to return any money or property that he had received from the estate since Sunny first fell into a coma in 1979. That's a big deal. Yeah. Unfortunately, the Sybil suit was unsuccessful for them, and there wasn't a lot else they could do. But rather than pursue additional legal challenges, they decided to take a different approach. And this is intense. They convinced their grandmother to remove their stepsister from her will. So as the only member of the family to have supported Klaus, they felt that Kocima betrayed their mother and wasn't deserving of any money. So that both sides argued back and forth for years until late 1987, when Klaus finally agreed to drop any claim he had to Sunny's money on the condition that Kocima be written back into the will because she was written out at one point. And both parties agreed. So he gave up his claim so that his daughter could could get hers.

Whoa.

Yeah. In the years that followed, he kept a pretty low profile. Even though he'd been acquitted, the charges against him brought a whole bunch of scandal, and it tarnished his reputation. And he was basically outstead from New York's high society. In 1987, Klaus and Sunny were officially divorced, and he just moved back to London, where he lived until he died in 2019. Wow. Unfortunately, Sunny von Buhlau remained in a coma in the nursing home in Manhattan.

My God, I For some reason, my brain was saying she had died.

Oh, no. That's why I was trying to say a couple of times, remember, she's still lying in a coma.

Yeah, I keep forgetting that she is still in a coma at that point.

She remained in a coma for 28 years. Holy shit. Until she died at 77 from cardiac arrest on December 6, 2008. 28 years.

Can you imagine how utterly horrific that was for her family?

For her family. No.

Not even for a millisecond. That is so long to be waiting for someone to wake up. Well, and also just- Or hoping to still wake up.

Strangely, like grieving at the same time, I would think.

Yeah, you're grieving for decades at that point. Yeah. That's so hard. Yeah.

It's a tragic story. It's a really, really tragic story.

Even though you never know what happened. You can have ideas about what happened, but you don't actually know what happened here.

It's awful that because we don't know what happened, you and I. But it's awful that people who were closer to it feel like they do feel like they probably do know and that justice wasn't sought out or people who were close to it feel like they do know and that justice wasn't even though I think like, Cosima probably feels like her dad got fucked in all of this. Yeah, of course. Then Alaa and Alex feel like their mother was lost in all of this.

That justice wasn't served for who they believe did this.

Exactly.

But we don't know.

And how sad is that, too, that the sibling relationship was obviously fractured. Yeah. And the family in general. Exactly.

Holy shit. That's a gnarly story. Wow. That's a tragic family tale right there. It really is. Because it like, trickled down to the kids, too.

Yeah. Like, multiple generations.

And for Sunny to be in a coma for that many years. Like, 28.

That's my entire life, almost. Holy shit. That's literally almost my That's unbelievable. I just think of everything I've done in my life and I'm like, and she was just laying in a coma in Manhattan for that long.

And we still don't know so much about coma states. Yeah. And what people experience in them and what they don't. We know certain things, but we're always finding out new stuff. I feel like everybody's is different. You don't know if she's experiencing all these things or hearing all these things or any. It's just like, holy shit. It's a lot. It's a lot. Damn.

Yeah.

I feel really bad. I feel really bad for the kids.

I do, too. All of them. All of them.

Because none of them, obviously, have anything to do with what occurred. It's just like they had to eat up the after-after math. And they were just trying to defend their parent. Both of them. Right.

Or it's all three of them. Yeah. No, it's really, really. It's tragic.

Yeah. That's really sad. Holy shit. High society, man. Damn. That was really high society.

It was honestly one of the most high society we've ever gone ever.

Yeah, it really was. Like, holy shit.

Well, we have to end on a fun fact. We do. And Mikey found one. So we'll credit Mikey for this one. That's also high society. Yeah. It's pretty high society, allegedly, according to Cosmopolitan. Allegedly. Allegedly. And according to Cosmopolitan. Yes. Kim Kardashian has a glam clause in her will, and it states that if she is ever in a position where she cannot get ready herself, cannot communicate or is unconscious, somebody has to make sure her hair, nails, and makeup are all perfect. And when I do my will, I will be adding that to mine. And that's a fact.

I don't know what to say about that.

I'm obsessed.

I literally don't know what to say about that.

I am obsessed with that. It reminds me of our nanny. When she was in her nursing home, her hair and her nails and her makeup were dead. And I respect that. I respect that.

I'm just thinking of you comparing my nanny to I'm like, Those are two different ladies.

Two very different ladies.

Nanny is wherever she is right now going, Are you fucking kidding me?

No, but I'm putting respect on that. The fact that she was done. Those nails were dead. That hair was perfect. Oh, yeah. She was done. And her skin and makeup were flawless. That's true. I remember thinking she was the most beautiful woman. She was a glamorous lady. She was. She was. Laverne. Laverne. Love that. Love that lady. But yeah, that's your fun alleged fact.

Allegedly.

It's your fun.

According to Cosmo. It's your fun reporting.

Yeah.

According to Cosmo.

Who knows? They said it. Would you put that in your will?

No.

Would you adhere to it in my will? Yeah.

Good. Of course. I always listen to everybody's wills. Good. I'm not here to try to tell people what to do with their will.

Would you judge me? No.

Really? You can do whatever the fuck you want with your will.

Hell, yeah. I'm going to. I haven't written my will yet, but I'm going to.

I'm not going to judge what's important to people. No.

And Being a 10 is important to me. There you go. Yeah. Or trying, at least.

Being real cozy is important to me, so I don't want people judging me.

Oh, I'd like to be cozy. Cozy and beautiful. Yeah. That's my goal always. Being a 10. Being a cozy 10. And with that, we leave you. We hope you keep listening, please.

And we hope you keep it weird.

But that's so weird that you don't add whatever the fuck you want to your will, baby. It's your life. Yeah, your life. Be a cozy 10.

No one's going to... If you want to. I won't judge you.

No, me either. No. No. No. No.