Claus von Bülow, the Danish socialite who was convicted and later acquitted of attempting to murder his heiress wife, died Thursday at the age of 92. Von Bülow was accused of trying to kill his wife, Sunny von Bülow, by injecting her with insulin to aggravate her hypoglycemia. Sunny went into a coma in December 1979 and again a year later after briefly recovering. She remained in a vegetative state until her death in 2008. In 1982, a Rhode Island jury found Claus guilty of attempted murder and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, Claus was later freed on $1 million bail and won on appeal with the help of Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. At his second trial in 1985, he was acquitted of all charges. The von Bülows’ story was turned into a bestselling book, Reversal of Fortune, in 1986 and in 1990 was adapted into a Hollywood movie of the same name, with Jeremy Irons playing Claus and Glenn Close playing Sunny. Claus’ son-in-law, Riccardo Pavoncelli, told The New York Times von Bülow died at his home in London.
