Author of How to Kill Your Husband Convicted of Husband's Murder

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Nancy Crampton Brophy (left): "Accidentally" near the crime scene

Photo: Dave Killen/AP

The short essay doesn't really read like a manual, but in the USA a writer who wrote an essay entitled "How to Kill Your Husband" has been convicted of murdering her husband.

After eight hours of deliberations, an Oregon jury found Nancy Crampton Brophy guilty of her husband's murder.

The writer, who specializes in romance novels with titles such as "Hell in the Heart" or "The Wrong Husband", had denied all allegations.

According to prosecutors, she had financial problems.

Accordingly, she killed her husband in June 2018 in the cooking school where he worked as a cook with two shots in the heart to collect his life insurance.

She firmly rejected this motive.

According to her own statement, pictures from a surveillance camera showing her near the scene of the crime only showed her looking for inspiration for her books.

She happened to be there.

A pistol that later disappeared – according to the police, the murder weapon – she bought as a prop for writing a book.

Her 2011 essay states that firearms are "noisy, dirty, and require some skill."

»Each of us is capable of it«

The author was arrested in September 2018 and has been in custody since then.

The length of the sentence that the writer has to serve is not yet known.

The sentence should be announced on June 13, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to the local newspaper The Oregonian, the 71-year-old's lawyers have already announced that they want to appeal.

The judge had not considered the essay at trial.

Although his conclusion is: "The most important thing to know about murder is that any of us is capable of it if we push it far enough".

pbe/AFP