Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, Who Wrote ‘How To Murder Your Husband,’ Convicted Of Murdering Husband

In an unfortunate twist of fate, a romance novelist faces life in prison after she was convicted of second-degree murder by a Multnomah County, Oregon jury on Wednesday. She had even written a blog post in 2011 that was actually titled “How To Murder Your Husband.”

Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was found guilty of shooting her husband Daniel Brophy, 63. Daniel was a chef and was found dead by one of his Oregon Culinary Institute students in June 2018.

Key pieces of evidence used against her were the fact that Crampton Brophy would receive around $1 million in several life insurance payouts if Daniel died, and that she was spotted by surveillance cameras near the culinary school at the time of the shooting.

Crampton Brophy’s defense attempted to downplay financial struggles that would have motivated wanting the life insurance payment and claimed a gun she was found to have bought was just used for research. They also blamed an alibi of hers that ended up changing on retrograde amnesia induced by shock.

She also lied about how large of a life insurance payment she was seeking. Crampton Brophy initially said her husband’s life insurance policy was worth only $40,000, but it was later discovered that she attempted to claim over 10 policies totaling $1.4 million.

Her “satirical” blog post was written on Seeing Jane, and featured several different motives one she wrote was, “Financial: Divorce is expensive, and do you really want to split your possessions?” It also debated the best possible murder weapons, weighing the pros and cons of shooting vs. stabbing your husband.

Crampton Brophy’s team plans to appeal the verdict, and her sentencing is set for June 13, 2022. She faces a life sentence in prison for the crimes if charged at the maximum degree.