When she arrived at the courtroom, she went to a holding area and changed into the clothes her attorney brought her: blue blouse, black skirt, and a blue suit jacket. She had on flat black shoes. She knew the clothes were supposed to make her look conservative, serious, slightly frumpy, and innocent.

She was not the femme fatale the press said she was.

She was not the greedy girlfriend.

She was not the master manipulator.

She was not a cold-blooded murderer.

She was a young woman, defending the life of her boyfriend.

Betsy was numb. She was devastated. After the birth of her sweet Rose, her milk had come in and her breasts became rock hard and infected. She had shown the doctor, a male doctor, and he’d shrugged at her, gave her some pills, told her it would “get better on its own especially since your baby is gone,” and that was that. The infection hadn’t gone away. She caught a cold, and it went straight to her chest, caused pneumonia, and gave her a hacking cough. She was sick, weak, and depressed. She couldn’t eat, and when she passed out in the lunch line it was back to the infirmary.

The doctor, a woman this time, was appalled at the infection in her breasts, and she took care of it as it should have been taken care of in the first place. Betsy’s fever was at 103. She had no desire to fight anymore, even for her own life, but the medicine overruled her wish to die.

The ride to court from jail was bumpy and made Betsy nauseated. She knew that she and Johnny would be tried together. That was unusual, but the prosecutor wanted it that way. They were eighteen, Johnny still in high school, but they would be treated like any other adults.

The press was clogging the entrance of the courthouse. Her case, Johnny’s case, had captured the eyes of the public. Peter, born Pyotr, Kandinsky had been murdered by his son and the son’s girlfriend! Betsy knew what the press was saying: MURDER FOR MONEY . . . PAMPERED SON PLUS GREEDY GIRLFRIEND EQUALS A MURDER . . . YOUNG WOMAN LURES BOYFRIEND INTO KILLING HIS OWN FATHER . . . BEAUTY, LIES, DEATH: HOW TWO LOVERS PLANNED THE MURDER OF THE DECADE.

Not only was the case making national headlines because of the two young lovers, but both of the young lovers said they had murdered the father.

Betsy had told the police that she had stabbed Peter.

Johnny, to Betsy’s utter shock, said he did it. She told the police Johnny was lying, she did it. Johnny said that Betsy was lying, he had killed his father.

Both of their fingerprints were on the knife, but the knife had come from Johnny’s kitchen so his prints were expected.