The Nation - News from May 24, 1985

Testimony from Claus von Bulow’s former mistress in his first trial in 1982 of trying to murder his wife cannot be admitted at his retrial, a judge ruled in Providence, R. I. in a major blow to the state’s case. The witness, Manhattan socialite Alexandra Isles, was last known to be in Europe and unwilling to testify again. The state alleges Von Bulow injected his wife--Martha (Sunny) von Bulow--with insulin, which has left her in a coma for the last several years, in murder attempts prompted by his desire to be free to marry Isles and to obtain his $14-million share of his wife’s $75-million fortune.