Hubby-killing author of 'how to murder your husband' gets life in jail

Life imitates art but sometimes in a way that makes us say 'Nope!' and run away. Artistic freedom may afford space for an author for his/her musings but if it becomes a blue-print for a real-world crime, it's time to nab the criminal. An author in US who wrote 'How to murder your husband' and actually killed her real-life husband has been served poetic justice of sorts and has been sentenced to life in jail.

Nancy Crampton Brophy (71), the convict, will not even be eligible for first 25 years of her prison sentence. A judge in USA's northwestern state of Oregon handed the sentence to the author.

The trial went on for a month. It was heard during the trial how the author used a gun (bought on eBay) to kill her husband Daniel Brophy in order to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in life insurance.

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The weapon was bought by Nancy Crampton Brophy as research for her new novel. The gun has not been found.

Chef Daniel Brophy, her husband, was found on the floor of a classroom in a now-defunct culinary institute where he worked, in June 2018. He had been shot twice. His wife was seen driving in the area in a CCTV footage at the time of the murder.

The author has written a series of novels titled "Wrong Never Felt So Right". Some of the novels in this series include "The Wrong Husband" and "The Wrong Lover".

Nancy Crampton Brophy claimed that she had no memory of being present at the crime seen. About CCTV footage, she said tha she would have been in the neighborhood trying to get inspiration for a new work of fiction.

Crampton Brophy, whose lawyers said last month they would appeal the verdict, denied the murder, insisting that years of financial struggle were behind the couple and that she had no reason to kill her husband.

"Where is the motivation? I would ask you," Crampton Brophy said as she sparred with the prosecutor during her trial.

"An editor would laugh and say, 'I think you need to work harder on this story, you have a big hole in it.'"

Her blog post "How to kill your husband," which is still readily available online, discusses methods and motivations for dispatching an unwanted spouse.

These include financial gain and the use of a firearm, although it notes guns are "loud, messy, require some skill."

"But the thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough," the essay says.

(With inputs from agencies)

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