Why Couldn't Kouri Richins Stop Performing The Grieving Widow?
About this episode
The episode explores the unsettling actions of Kouri Richins after her husband's death and parallels with Nancy Crampton-Brophy's case.
After Eric Richins died, Kouri did something that still unsettles people: she put out a children's book about a father who dies and watches over his children, then went on morning television and performed the grieving widow for a national audience. Prosecutors said she killed him. This look back sits with that need to control the story — and pairs it with one of the eeriest parallels in true crime. Oregon novelist Nancy Crampton-Brophy took the same impulse to its furthest edge. Years before her husband Daniel was shot and killed at the culinary school where he taught, she published an essay titled "How to Murder Your Husband" — surveying methods, musing that a killing meant to free her shouldn't cost her jail time. The essay was kept out of her trial for being too old, and a jury convicted her of second-degree murder anyway. She'd owned the same model of gun used in the killing, driven her own minivan past the scene, and published her fascination with spousal murder under her real name. The throughline this segment draws is uncomfortable: the person who needs to be seen as clever, or sympathetic, or in control of the narrative often can't stay invisible. Kouri wrote herself as…
More episodes of The Case Against Kouri Richins
- Why Did Kouri Richins Roll Her Eyes As Her Children Described Their Fear?
- What Did Kouri Richins' Own Sons Ask The Judge To Do?
- What Did Kouri Richins Say After Her Sons Begged To Be Kept Safe?
- What Comes Next For Kouri Richins After The Guilty Verdict?
- Why Do Killers Like Kouri Richins Always Get Caught Eventually?
- How Did Kouri Richins Target A Man Who Had It All Together?
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Case Against Kouri Richins podcast page.