The von Bülow case was the first major criminal trial to be televised in the United States. The trial began an international media circus which remained in the spotlight for five years. The elements of: enormous wealth, adultery, and allegations of attempted murder in high society made this trial one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century.
Sunny von Bülow: Sunny (named after her sunny deposition) was born Martha Sharp Crawford in Manassas, Virginia on September 1, 1932. Her father, George W. Crawford was founder of Columbia Gas, Lone Star Gas and Northern Natural Gas. He died when Sunny was only four, leaving her an immense fortune. Sunny attended Chapin School in Manhattan and St. Timothy’s in Maryland as a child. She often accompanied her mother on annual visits to Parisian haute couture houses, and appeared in Vogue magazine’s list of the World’s 10 Best-Dressed Women.
On one of her European tours, while visiting the Tyrolean country club Schloss Mitersill, Sunny met and fell in love with its tennis professional, Prince Alfred von Auersperg. The couple married in 1958 and had two children, Annie Laurie (Ala) and Alexander. Alfred had a widely publicized affair with Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida which resulted in the couple divorcing in 1965. At the time of the divorce Sunny’s net worth was over $75 million. Alfred died in 1992 after lingering in an irreversible come for nine years following a 1983 car accident in Austria.
