# Sunny von Bülow
**Sunny von Bülow** (Martha "Sunny" von Bülow, born Martha Sharp Crawford) was an American heiress whose irreversible coma in December 1980, and the two trials of her husband [Claus von Bülow](https://www.edgepedia.org/claus-von-bulow) for attempting to murder her by insulin injection, became one of the most publicized legal cases in the United States in the 1980s. She remained in a persistent vegetative state for almost 28 years until her death on December 6, 2008, at a nursing home in New York, aged 76.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name and birth | Martha Sharp Crawford, known as "Sunny"; obituaries give her birth as September 1, 1932, in Pittsburgh, or September 1, 1931, in a railway carriage between White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and New York[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html) |
| Marriages | Married Prince Alfred von Auersperg in 1957 (divorced 1965); married Claus von Bülow on June 6, 1966[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) |
| Comas | Unconscious on December 26, 1979, at Clarendon Court, Newport, Rhode Island, and recovered; lapsed into a permanent coma on December 21, 1980[3](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/04/07/Chronology-of-von-Bulow-case/4125481698000/) |
| Criminal case | Claus von Bülow convicted of two counts of attempted murder on March 16, 1982, and sentenced to 30 years; convictions overturned April 27, 1984; acquitted at retrial June 10, 1985[4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/) |
| Televised retrial | The 1985 retrial was the first trial in a US court to be televised[2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html) |
| Civil outcome | Her children's civil suit was settled with von Bülow renouncing all claims to her fortune, estimated at between £17m and £27m, and agreeing to divorce[5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/07/sunny-von-bulow-usa) |
| Death | December 6, 2008, at a nursing home in New York, after almost 28 years in a coma[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) |
## Early life and marriages
Sunny Crawford was the only child of George Crawford, founder of Columbia Gas & Electric, who was 75 at the time of her birth and died when she was four, leaving her a fortune. She grew up in New York, attended the Chapin School, and was named to Vogue's list of the world's ten best-dressed women.[2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html) The Washington Post obituary places her birth on September 1, 1932, in Pittsburgh, while The Independent's obituary gives September 1, 1931, in a railway carriage; both accounts agree on the day and month.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html)
In 1957, at a sporting party in Austria, she married Prince Alfred von Auersperg, an Austrian prince then teaching tennis; the marriage produced two children, [Alexander](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexander) and Annie Laurie (Annie-Laurie), and ended in divorce in 1965.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html) In 1966 she married Claus von Bülow, a Danish-born barrister who had worked in Lord Hailsham's chambers and as an assistant to [J. Paul Getty](https://www.edgepedia.org/j-paul-getty). They had one daughter, Cosima, born in 1967, and lived on New York's Fifth Avenue with summers at Clarendon Court, their [Newport, Rhode Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/newport-rhode-island), mansion.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html)
## The comas and the criminal case
**Two collapses.** On the evening of December 26, 1979, Sunny von Bülow became weak and uncoordinated and lost consciousness at Clarendon Court; her general practitioner resuscitated her and she recovered.[3](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/04/07/Chronology-of-von-Bulow-case/4125481698000/) • [2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html) On December 21, 1980, she was found unconscious on the marble bathroom floor of the mansion, in what appeared to be an insulin overdose, and never regained consciousness.[6](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/December-21/sunny-von-bulow-is-found-comatose) She was transferred to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York in 1981 and later to a Manhattan nursing home.[2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html)
**Prosecution.** Her two children from her first marriage financed a $400,000 private investigation that led to Claus von Bülow's indictment by a Newport County grand jury on July 6, 1981, on two counts of assault with intent to murder for allegedly injecting his wife with insulin.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/) Central prosecution evidence included a black bag found in his closet containing syringes with traces of insulin and sedatives, and the testimony of the maid Maria Schrallhammer.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [7](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1982/03/16/Claus-von-Bulow-Guilty-as-charged/6400058370821/) After a trial in Newport, he was convicted on both counts on March 16, 1982, and sentenced to 30 years in prison, released on $1 million bail pending appeal.[3](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/04/07/Chronology-of-von-Bulow-case/4125481698000/)
**Reversal and acquittal.** In April 1982 von Bülow retained Alan M. Dershowitz, a [Harvard Law School](https://www.edgepedia.org/harvard-law-school) professor, to handle his appeal.[4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/) On April 27, 1984, the [Rhode Island Supreme Court](https://www.edgepedia.org/rhode-island-supreme-court) reversed both convictions, on grounds including that state police had failed to obtain a search warrant before having privately seized evidence tested, and that the defense had been improperly denied access to notes of the private investigator whose work led to the charges.[3](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/04/07/Chronology-of-von-Bulow-case/4125481698000/) • [4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/) At the retrial in Providence, the defense challenged the medical evidence that the coma was insulin-induced, presenting nine medical experts specializing in insulin and hypoglycemia, and argued that Sunny's coma could have resulted from her own use of alcohol and prescription drugs.[2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/07/sunny-von-bulow-usa) The jury acquitted von Bülow on both counts on June 10, 1985.[4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/)
## Civil suit and settlement
Shortly after the acquittal, Sunny von Bülow, acting through her children as next friends, brought a civil action in federal court against her husband alleging common law assault, negligence, fraud, and RICO violations.[4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/) The suit was settled two years after its 1985 filing: von Bülow agreed to file for divorce, renounced any claim to his wife's fortune, estimated at between £17m and £27m, and undertook not to profit from the story.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/07/sunny-von-bulow-usa) He subsequently lived in London.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/07/sunny-von-bulow-usa)
## Cultural aftermath
In May 1986 [Random House](https://www.edgepedia.org/random-house) published *Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case*, Dershowitz's account of the first trial, the appeal, and the acquittal.[4](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/) The 1990 film adaptation, starring [Glenn Close](https://www.edgepedia.org/glenn-close) as Sunny and [Jeremy Irons](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeremy-irons) as Claus, maintained public interest in the case, and Irons won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/07/sunny-von-bulow-usa) • [1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) Dershowitz later wrote that the case marked the beginning of gavel-to-gavel television coverage of trials and helped popularize forensic medicine.[8](https://time.com/archive/6687255/sunny-von-bulow/)
Her two older children founded the Sunny von Bülow National Victim Advocacy Center and the Sunny von Bülow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/) The Independent's obituary described her 28 years in a persistent vegetative state as believed to be the longest case ever recorded.[2](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html)
## References
1. ["'Sunny' von Bulow, 76; Center of Legal Drama," The Washington Post, December 7, 2008](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/12/07/sunny-von-bulow-76-center-of-legal-drama/13a22b03-4df9-4dac-8b95-6bce2e68182e/)
2. ["Sunny von Bülow: Heiress whose husband's trial for her attempted murder was dramatised in the film 'Reversal of Fortune'," The Independent, December 8, 2008](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sunny-von-bulow-heiress-whose-husbands-trial-for-her-attempted-murder-was-dramatised-in-the-film-reversal-of-fortune-1056670.html)
3. ["Chronology of von Bulow case," UPI Archives, April 7, 1985](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1985/04/07/Chronology-of-von-Bulow-case/4125481698000/)
4. [In re Claus Von Bulow, 828 F.2d 94 (2d Cir. 1987), Justia](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/828/94/368669/)
5. ["Sunny von Bulow dies after years in coma," The Guardian, December 6, 2008](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/07/sunny-von-bulow-usa)
6. ["Socialite Sunny von Bulow is found comatose," HISTORY.com](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/December-21/sunny-von-bulow-is-found-comatose)
7. ["Claus Von Bulow: Guilty as charged," UPI Archives, March 16, 1982](https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1982/03/16/Claus-von-Bulow-Guilty-as-charged/6400058370821/)
8. [Alan M. Dershowitz, "Sunny von Bulow," TIME, December 11, 2008](https://time.com/archive/6687255/sunny-von-bulow/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Communities and populations › Minorities and social groups › Social class and stratification*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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