On December 21, 1980, Sunny von Bulow, a wealthy Rhode Island socialite, was found in a coma on her bathroom floor. Although her coma initially appeared to be the result of an insulin overdose, her husband, Claus von Bulow, was eventually charged with two counts of attempted murder. Despite the fact that he was convicted in 1982, his conviction was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted in a second trial in 1985.

This was not the first coma that Sunny had endured. Approximately one year prior to the December 21 incident, she lapsed into a coma and eventually recovered, leaving medical officials confused and unable to establish a medical reasoning for the event. It was after the December 21 coma that Sunny’s personal secretary went to the local authorities and revealed that Claus von Bulow harbored a bag containing insulin in his closet. It was this information that led to the eventual prosecution of Claus, and the beginning of one of the most sensational trials of the twentieth century.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Claus von Bulow had a famous mistress—a former soap opera star. She provided direct testimony during his trial regarding the ultimatum she had given just prior to Sunny’s first coma. It was at this trial that he was convicted in 1982. After that conviction, Claus hired a defense attorney to appeal the decision, and the conviction was overturned. However, Sunny’s children later filed a lawsuit against Claus von Bulow, and the settlement agreement included the provision that Claus would renounce all claims to the wealthy socialite’s reported seventy-five million dollar fortune.