Romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy was arrested last week on suspicion of killing her husband Dan Brophy
The 68-year-old, who lives in Portland, Oregon, had previously written an essay entitled ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ which was published in 2011 by website See Jane Publish.
Dan Brophy was found shot to death, at the Oregon Culinary Institute where he worked as a chief instructor, on June 2nd. The couple had been married for 27 years.
On September 5th Crampton Brophy was arrested, and charged with unlawful use of a weapon and murder.
The seven-year-old essay was first spotted by Oregon Live. See Jane Publish has now been made password-protected, but the title ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ and URL are still visible via a Google search.
Nancy Crampton-Brophy writes romance-novels-turned-murder-mysteries — now she's accused of killing her husband. https://t.co/8gaAK71u4F pic.twitter.com/yRCY1oMI1g
— 48 Hours (@48hours) September 7, 2018
According to Oregon Live, in the essay, Crampton Brophy wrote: “As a romantic suspense writer, I spent a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure.”
“After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail,” How to Murder Your Husband continued.
She listed possible motives for such a crime as infidelity, an abusive relationship, and greed. “Divorce is expensive, and do you really want to split your possessions?”
According to her website, Crampton Brophy’s self-published e-books include the romantic thriller Hell on the Heart, and The Wrong Never Felt So Right series, including titles such as The Wrong Cop and The Wrong Lover – all with covers adorned by stock images of hunky young men.
According to her Amazon author’s bio, “much of her career has been focused on non-fiction with articles published in trade journals and technical writing for HR departments”.
“But her true love was story-telling,” it continues. “Her stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don’t always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay”.
