‘How to Murder Your Husband’ author goes on trial for allegedly doing just that

Nancy Crampton Brophy, a self-published romance author who once wrote a blog post titled “How to Murder Your Husband,” is on trial for the alleged murder of her husband.

What’s more, a judge ruled this week during the first day of the trial that the 2011 blog in question, which she wrote as part of a writers workshop, can’t be presented to jurors as evidence against her for the alleged 2018 fatal shooting of her husband, NBC News reports.

Authorities say Daniel Brophy, 63, was found dead on June 2, 2018 inside the culinary school where he taught, Oregon Culinary Institute, in Portland, Oregon.

It was implied by the prosecution that they suspect Crampton Brophy was motivated by greed. She is poised to receive $1.4 million as a beneficiary from a life insurance policy, if not found at fault for her husband’s death, something that could have potentially been a planned escape route from financial ruin, prosecutors said.

Another interesting revelation that came to light during the first day of trial was the fact that Crampton Brophy previously made an online purchase of a kit to assemble a “ghost gun,” a weapon that can be put together at home that lacks a serial number and therefore cannot be identified. The defense argued the gun purchase was made for research purposes for a new novel she was planning to write, according to KOIN 6 News. The novel in question was about a woman in an abusive relationship who wanted to buy a gun, but could not, due to a previous depression diagnosis and hospitalization.

But when Crampton Brophy could not assemble the ghost gun kit, prosecutors said she sought out another weapon that was purchased at a gun expo in Portland. She then tried to assemble the slide and barrel from the ghost gun kit onto the lower frame of the expo-purchased gun, but they would not attach, after which she ordered another slide and barrel from eBay. The first two guns were found by investigators, prosecutors said, but not the eBay-purchased slide and barrel.

Crampton Brophy’s defense argued it was typical for her to buy unusual items for researching her novels, such as night-vision goggles and a telescope.

Before the arrest of Campton Brophy, who has pleaded not guilty, her husband’s death was largely a mystery, and authorities have never publicly named another suspect, Associated Press reports. The trial, which began Monday, is expected to last seven weeks.