Forsaking all others

I am a crime drama junkie. TiVo faithfully records for me, each week, at least 9 hours of crime dramas. I also love the crime documentary, so I record those, too: American Justice, City Confidential, Dateline, and my favorite, 48 Hours Mystery. One thing you learn quickly from watching these shows: it is always the husband. Truly. If a married woman is murdered, her husband did it. Every. Single. Time. Even if the husband is acquitted, there is general consensus that he did it anyway, there just wasn't enough evidence. It is amazing to me how many educated, seemingly rational men, decide to murder their wives in lieu of paying alimony. They always have girlfriends. Yet they still think they will get away with it. They are still shocked and pissed off to be considered a suspect. Crazy.

The other afternoon I watched an episode about--surprise!-- a married man who was murdered. Not surprisingly, the woman on trial is his wife. Supposedly she was mentally and physically abused for years, and she killed him in self-defense. Her trial is taking place now in Northern California.

Except--I just read in yesterday's paper that the judge has declared a mistrial. Because--get this--the defense attorney's wife was murdered over the weekend. Creepy, huh? And sad. There doesn't seem to be any suggestion here that the defense attorney killed his wife, but given all the previous episodes of these shows, that was my first thought.

I wonder if they will do a show about this, once it is all figured out, if it is all figured out. If the defense attorney did do it, you can bet on it. But since it doesn't seem he did . . .