i just grabbed the knife out of his hand, and i stabbed him in the side. then i stabbed him again. >> a respected psychologist dead. his wife accused and ready to reveal a sordid secret. >> how did you two meet? >> that is a question that i wasn't able to answer, you know, truthfully.

>> reporter: an explosive relationship began with a painful secret, ended decades later in a night of violence. >> i thought, how am i going to tell my children what happened? they will never see me the same again. >> reporter: it's a killing that would pit brother against brother, the final blow to a family ravaged by rage. >> i think it's sad. i think it's really sad. >> reporter: a bizarre trial that had jurors and lawyers shaking their heads. >> the whole situation was so wild. >> reporter: what will you believe? who will you believe? in this hour, "unlocking the past." >> 911. police or fire? >> murder. >> okay. what happened? >> i think my mom shot my dad. >> this is unlike any other case that's ever been tried in the

universe. it's bizarre. >> reporter: bizarre? oh, yes, it certainly is. in ways this prosecutor is going to tell you. soon enough. but first, the strange story as told by a defendant quite unlike any other. >> i don't think anything in a person's life prepares them for a jail experience. it's awful. >> reporter: her name is susan polk. she is within the curious celebrity world of the famously accused among the most articulate, elegant, and the prosecutor's warning notwithstanding, more than a few people wondered as she sat here awaiting trial, is she really delusional, a little off, or the perfectly sane victim of the whole sad business? as for killing her husband, however, everybody agreed from the start. that happened. >> i thought, oh, my god, he's dead, i've killed him, i've got his blood on my hands, how am i going to tell my children what happened? they will never see me the same again.

>> reporter: his name was felix polk. perhaps even more articulate, more cultured than his wife, until he met his fate on october 13th, 2002. >> if you told me five years ago that i'd be sitting here and susan would be in jail and felix would be dead, i wouldn't have believed it. >> reporter: if felix polk could be said to speak from beyond the grave, it would be through his old friend, barry morris. >> what kind of a man was he? >> very urbane, worldly. he liked classical music, was very bright, good sense of humor. >> reporter: and an apparently kind and accomplished psychologist, a therapist and counselor. why would his own wife, the mother of his three children, kill him? the answer's not so simple, of course. it never is. but it lies somewhere here in the shadows of these bucolic hills just east of san francisco bay. behind the facade of a

privileged, seemingly perfect life is the disturbing tale of a dysfunctional family with dark and ultimately violent secrets. that one of them is dead we know. but still, the question. exactly what happened here? and why? the seeds were planted long ago. back in the 1970s a young susan polk, then susan bolling, was growing up in the suburbs of oakland, california. her parents were divorcing, and her mother, helen, said susan found comfort in books. >> did she read a lot? >> oh, man. she said that books were her friends. by the time she was 14 she'd read turgenev, chekhov, tolstoy. you name it. >> reporter: but when it came to

susan's assigned schoolwork, it was a different matter. her teachers worried. she was troubled somehow. helen wondered if susan was trying to shut out the emotional turmoil of her parents' divorce. she had no idea, of course, that the question would come back to haunt her so. but not yet. because as time progressed susan matured into a beautiful young woman, graduated college, and at 25 got married to frank felix polk. mind you, it seemed an odd pairing. he was double her age, a holocaust survivor from an affluent austrian family who had left a wife and grown children for susan. but they were apparently deliriously happy, and almost no one knew that they were already hiding a secret. >> i remember at the time on my wedding night, you know, thinking do i really want to do this? no, i really don't. and i just didn't have the guts to be a runaway bride.

>> reporter: and as you will soon discover, there was a disturbing reason for her uncertainty. but that's for later. at the time, as far as the outside world knew, the couple seemed to be doing just fine. felix's career flourished. he was a respected child psychologist with an active private practice, and by the late '80s -- >> we're very pleased to have dr. felix polk with us. >> reporter: -- he was teaching and lecturing. >> i have a couple of important things i want to say to you, things that are current in our field. >> reporter: susan, meantime, was busy at home raising three boys. >> she was a devoted mother. she loved her children. >> reporter: adam was the eldest, gabriel the youngest. and in the middle, eli, who spoke to us as a young man. >> how did you boys get along? >> we got along great. i mean, loving brothers. we all had a really perfect relationship together. >> reporter: over the years the family took trips around the world.

they drove fancy cars. the boys went to private schools. >> me and gabriel were best friends in the truest sense of the phrase. >> reporter: in the fall of 2000 they moved into this expensive compound in the oakland hills. big house, out buildings, poolside cottage. it was more house than they could afford really on felix's income, but orinda, as the leafy hamlet was called, had been a place to aspire to, and the polk family blended in. >> they seemed like a happy couple. there were the normal ferrying the kids around and going to the kids' basketball and football, baseball, soccer games, that kind of stuff. >> reporter: but behind closed doors eli says things weren't what they seemed. his mom and dad were not getting along. and his dad, a mental health professional, remember, was accusing his mom of being kind of crazy. >> he also used to say things like, "you're a sick puppy, susan, and someone should put you away." >> reporter: by the time the boys were teenagers, the family was coming unglued, spiraling dangerously out of control. yet no one on the outside, it

seemed, had a clue. >> is it possible he was an abusive husband secretly? >> look, anything's possible. i saw no evidence of that. >> for years and years. >> you know, what happens behind closed doors can stay behind closed doors, but usually stuff leaks out, and i never saw any kind of leakage of that kind of conduct. >> reporter: coming up -- it was only a matter of time before the closed doors of this troubled family would burst wide open. >> i say, felix, you want to live? yes. then you call the police. this is not a joke. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations.

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here in the quiet moneyed exurbia of the oakland hills a seemingly perfect family was coming unglued.

by the year 2000 felix and susan polk's 20-year marriage was disintegrating, and the boys caught in the middle witnessed it all, says eli. the long, slow escalation of the war of the polks. felix, much older than his wife, trying to stay in control. susan, in her rages, threatening to leave. felix, in front of the boys, and this went on for years, says eli, calling his wife crazy, delusional. >> and my mom would say -- you know, we would confront her, and she would say no, no, that's not how it is. and we would get frustrated and start yelling at her and say, well, maybe you are crazy, and stuff like that. >> reporter: outside the walls of the polk family compound, the facade held. but after nearly 20 years of marriage, susan had made a private decision. >> i had approached divorce before, but it was clear to me that i could not live out -- i could not continue for the rest

of my life with this man. >> reporter: the tension was miserable, all but unbearable, says eli. he, the middle son, feeling the searing anger, unable to understand it, felt compelled somehow to keep the peace. >> i'm in middle school, and i don't know what's going on. and at that point i wanted to find out what was going on. i put myself in the middle of that situation. >> trying to be a peacemaker? >> yes, exactly. >> in the war of the roses. >> and i came to find out they needed a divorce. >> pretty hard thing for a 13-year-old to figure out. >> yeah. well, i mean i -- it took me a few years to come to that realization that hey, these people can't be together. >> but they did stay together, and things got worse. in january of 2001 a very troubled susan polk attempted suicide. >> what did you do? >> well, i took a bottle of aspirin in a moment of despair. >> she survived.

the marriage did not. several months after her suicide attempt, the couple finally separated. it seemed merciful. susan filed for divorce. for a while, they tried to occupy the same property, she in the main house, felix in the pool house. but now there were more issues. who would get the family compound here? who would have custody of gabriel, the youngest, just 14. impending divorce didn't end the war. it ramped it up. as they fought, each threatened more than once to kill the other. >> his attitude was that the marriage was forever and i could never leave him. and that if i did, he said he would go after me. >> go after you? >> he would go after me. >> that's the way he put it? >> he put it that way. he also said he'd kill me. >> reporter: gabriel declined our request for an interview. but he did talk to the authorities when the awful business happened. he told them his mother was the one making threats.

once musing aloud, whether to drug, drown or shoot felix. and friend barry morris says by now felix was genuinely worried, claiming susan was unhinged, dangerous. >> he told me she was walking around at night with a gun in the house and he was barricading himself in another room. so all the signs were there. >> reporter: police were called to intervene. on one occasion susan was arrested for hitting her husband in front of officers. >> felix calls me up to tell me what happened and wants to know if he should bail her out. i said, felix, this woman just hit you, do you think that's a good idea? i don't. then he calls me up a couple days later about not wanting to prosecute, and that was that. but that's a typical example of, you know, of sort of confusing his own self-interest with his clinical diagnosis of someone who is mentally unbalanced.

>> reporter: eventually, susan moved out of the family compound so that peace could prevail? sadly, no. in fact, the last dreadful act was about to begin. in the fall of 2002 a judge in the divorce case granted custody of the youngest son to felix. he also ruled that felix could keep the house and drastically cut her alimony. and then about a week before she was to return to the orinda house to remove her belongings barry morris says felix got a disturbing phone call from his wife. >> he said that susan had called him, said she was in montana, and that she bought a shotgun and she was coming back to kill him. i said have you called the police? he said i told susan i wouldn't. i said, felix, you want to live? yes. then you call the police. this is not a joke. >> reporter: felix did call the police, but by the time susan arrived late at night on october 13th the officers were long gone. susan says she did not have a gun when she encountered felix,

reading in the guest house next to the pool around 11:00. the tension that had been building for years reached its flash point. coming up, the night, the killing, the questions. >> i thought, he's going to kill me. i'm going to die here. unless i do something right now. >> reporter: the war of the polks was approaching a horrifying climax. just the envt that bacteria likes to nestle into and they can cause the odor. your denture needs to be cleaned gently on a daily basis. i like to recommend polident, it kills the bacteria without causing any abrasion. when my patients follow my instructions, their dentures feel clean and fresh. they look forward to putting them in their mouth and smiling. really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars.

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over 20 years the marriage of susan and felix polk had gone from good to bad to hopeless. threats, psychological abuse, violence. on october 13th, 2002, the life of felix polk came to a terrible end, and his wife was left holding the knife. in her version of the story, it was late evening. she was in the final process of moving out. she claimed she was unarmed when she encountered felix in the pool house. they argued, and he became enraged. >> at a certain point in the conversation, i think that i said some things that triggered

rage in him. and at one point he just said, "i can never let you leave with what you might say about me." he went after me. >> reporter: she said she squirted him in the face with pepper spray. >> and it was supposed to be able to stop a grizzly bear, but it didn't stop him. he dragged me by the hair, threw me on the ground, he punched me in the face, and then he pulled a knife. >> you grabbed it away from him? >> he smeared the pepper spray into my face. what i saw through the blur and the burning was him stabbing at so i thought he stabbed me. i thought, he's going tol me, i'm going to die here. unless i do something right now. and i just kicked him as hard as i could with the heel of my foot in his groin, and at the same time i went for his hand. and his hand loosened just as i kicked him, and i just grabbed the knife out of his hand, and i said, "stop. i have the knife." and he didn't stop.

he just came over me, grabbing at the knife, punched me in the face, and i stabbed him in the side. and he was trying to grab it out of my hand. and so i squeezed my hand as tight as i could, and i stabbed him again. i think i stabbed him five times. at one point i waved it back and forth like this, and i said, "get off, get off, get off, get off." and he stood up. and it was over. >> he said something? >> he said, "oh, my god. i think i'm dead." >> reporter: and that was it. frank felix polk, holocaust survivor, psychologist, father, was no more. >> do you remember what you thought? >> at that moment? >> mm-hmm. >> i thought about our life together. that's what i thought about. i did. i sat down on the stairs next to where he was lying, and i looked at him, and i thought of our

years together and the love that i'd felt for him and our children, and i thought, when are the police coming? you know? >> you didn't sit there thinking, oh, my god, i just killed my husband? >> of course i did. >> reporter: over the next few days susan's story would come under intense and negative scrutiny. but right at that moment she picked herself up, went back to the house, cleaned off the blood, and went to bed. >> why didn't you call 911? >> i thought that if i did my life was over, they were not going to listen to me and they were not going to care. >> reporter: then, nearly 24 hours after felix's gruesome death, the couple's 15-year-old son, gabriel, who'd been living with felix, discovered his father's lifeless body on the floor of the poolside cottage. >> so okay. maybe she was scared. maybe that's why she didn't call the police right away after it happened. but then she set it up so gabe would find the body? what kind of mother does that? >> why did you let gabriel find

him? >> why did i let gabriel find him? i think that's a quote i've heard from barry morris, that i let gabriel find his body. i don't think i let gabriel find his body. i wouldn't put it that way. >> you allowed it to happen. >> i locked the doors. i first thought i'd call them later, that i'd call the police. and then i thought, i want to tell gabriel first what happened and then i'll call them. and then i kept putting off telling gabriel. >> reporter: she put it off too long. >> 911. police or fire? >> murder. i think my mom shot my dad. >> you think your mom shot your dad? >> yeah. >> then when the police did arrive and they did ask her what's going on, there's a two-hour videotape of her denying knowledge of anything, how it happened, that he was dead, how he died, so on and so forth. >> i did not kill my husband. >> did you put somebody up to it? >> of course not. i would not kill my husband.

i can't pay the bills. >> to police what happened seemed perfectly obvious. there'd been evidence of a struggle. felix had been dead for a while. his body was covered with cuts. 27 wound, 15 stab wounds, half of dozen of which penetrated his flesh. on his head evidence of blunt force trauma. clutched in his hand, strands of her hair. and yet susan continued to insist for two days after the killing that she had nothing to do with the death of her husband. then she changed her story, saying she acted in self-defense. >> well, she lost a grip on reality, as everyone else sees it. >> detectives were no more convinced than was morris that susan was telling the truth. she was arrested, taken to jail, and charged with murder. the motives seemed to be many. losing the house, losing the money, losing custody of young gabriel.

all of these things police believe pushed an already unstable woman over the edge. but is that really how it was? maybe not. could the dead man be blamed for his own demise? susan of course was saying yes. and she had an ally in her middle son, eli. >> he didn't have to do what he did to us. he didn't have to do that. he didn't have to hit my mom, hit us. it was unnecessary. >> and that wound up leading to his death? >> well, it wound up leading to his explosion where he attacked my mom and she defended herself, yes. >> reporter: susan pleaded not guilty, claimed it was not murder but self-defense, felix attacked her, she claimed, an attack that culminated years of abuse, abuse that began with a shocking story, a family secret that dated back to 1972. coming up -- that secret locked away for decades was about to be revealed.

>> what i recall is that my husband asked me if i would consent to be hypnotized. you want to make a healthy choice for your hair and a healthy choice for the planet? [ female announcer ] try pantene nature fusion shampoo. its pro-v formula captures the potential of cassia to make weak, brittle hair up to 10x stronger. and now it comes in pantene's new bottle. made from up to 59% plant-based material. ♪

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i'm page hopkins. speaking in atlanta less than an hour ago, herman cain said he is suspending his campaign for president. cain cites the continued distraction and continued hurt caused all my family. the former godfather's ceo has face faced allegations of sexual harassment and says he will make an endorsement in the future. now, we take you to "unlocking the past." after 20 turbulent years the

marriage of susan and felix polk ended in a burst of violence. susan fatally stabbed her husband. a gruesome turn in an already painful family saga. susan claimed she acted in self-defense, but was charged with first degree murder. as she sat in jail, susan was well aware of the allegations about her sanity that swirled around her. but she would have none of it. she rejected legal advice to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, fired the lawyer who suggested it, and decided she would represent herself. the secret she now intended to tell, she believed, would not only convince a jury of her innocence, it would expose her dead husband as a criminal. >> how did you two meet? >> well, that is a question that i wasn't able to answer, you know, truthfully to people for a very long time. my husband was my psychotherapist, and i met him

when i was 15. >> reporter: and thus, said susan, entered the poison that would destroy everything. 15. a girl with issues about school. so her mother sent her to see a therapist she'd heard good things about. his name -- felix polk. at the time felix was 40 and married with two children. >> he gave me confidence that he could do the right thing for susan. >> reporter: but as their sessions continued, susan revealed something very disturbing. >> she said something about sitting on his lap. and i kind of -- >> sitting on his lap? >> yes. that's right. that's right. see, you got it the same way i got it. i said, wait a minute. that doesn't sound right. but then i said, well, maybe that's the way they do it now. see, i had an answer for everything. but i did wonder. >> reporter: what really went on during those sessions?

we can't ask felix, of course. but susan, sitting here in prison, claimed that what happened was more than just inappropriate, it became the dark heart of her life. >> what i recall is that my husband asked me if i would consent to be hypnotized. i would walk in, he'd give me a cup of tea. next thing i'd know i'd look at the clock and the hour was gone and i couldn't remember what had happened. and for many years i just didn't think about it. >> this happened for years? >> yeah. i started seeing him when i was 15. i never stopped. >> reporter: he was her first, she says, and her only, who all the while controlled her, led her to what felt to a girl like love. and ten years later, when susan was 25, felix 50, he left his wife and kids and the two got married. according to susan, felix dominated from the beginning.

>> he expected me to be a very feminine person, and feminine for him meant submissive, that i wouldn't oppose his will in virtually anything. >> reporter: eli says as he and his brothers grew up his father exerted the same kind of control over them. >> i mean, my father was crazed. >> crazed? >> crazed. >> he'd hit you? >> yes. >> did he hit your brothers? >> yes, he did. >> a lot? >> a fair amount. >> did he hit your mother? >> yes, he did. i saw him hit her. the black eyes. dragging her by the hair up the stairs to their room. what people need to understand is it was a constant physical threat. >> reporter: when the boys were teenagers, said susan, she told felix she wanted out. >> and he said, you'd better think about the consequences, you'd better think about the consequences to the children. and that just paralyzed me with fear.

>> he was afraid that if they broke up, she would talk about what had happened between him and her, you know. >> yes. >> right. >> the inappropriate relationship. >> right. >> and that that could cost him his license? >> exactly. >> reporter: and after susan filed for divorce, she claims felix was the one coming unhinged and lashing out. >> i mean, he would do this constant verbal and physical kind of, you know, intimidation himself. and then if the kids joined in at all in support of me, like we want to live with mom, you know, that kind of thing, then he would say, if you line up with your mom, you're dead. >> was that going on in your house? >> i think my dad definitely tried to break my mom. i really do. he did try to break my mom. >> reporter: eli, age 20 here, supported his mother in the divorce. he supports her now. it's her story, he believes.

>> i believe he became violent with her. i believe he exploded that night and attacked my mother. >> it's a plausible story to you? >> it's not just a plausible story. i'm sure it's what happened. i mean, like he had done so many times before. so this time i believe he wanted to kill her. >> reporter: that's why susan was determined to claim she killed her husband in self-defense and equally determined to represent herself in court. until. >> she killed him for one reason. >> reporter: oh, yes. this is going to get even more bizarre.

less than a month before the trial was to begin, polk agreed to allow attorney daniel horowitz to take over the case. he's a defense attorney who had gained some notoriety in recent years as a tv legal pundit. >> i think there are two reasons for this. >> reporter: polk says that as the trial began horowitz promised acquittal. he promised bombshells. but certainly not the kind of bombshell that was about to explode involving himself. coming up, a dramatic turn. a murder within a murder trial. a defense lawyer put on the defensive. >> i would take a polygraph at any time that the police asked me to do it. there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there's a three-prong plug. i have club passes. [ male announcer ] now there's a mileage card that offers special perks on united, like a free checked bag, united club passes, and priority boarding. thanks. ♪ okay. what's your secret? ♪ [ male announcer ] the new united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs.

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they looked like they had it all. at least from the outside. but life for this privileged couple was far from perfect. after a volatile 20-year marriage, susan polk was accused of killing her husband, felix. but it's what she claimed after her arrest that made her sad case a sensational one. and even then the surprise weren't over. susan found her own bizarre

murder trial derailed by another mysterious killing. here it was. the people versus susan may polk. the charge first degree murder. finally a trial. and here, as it began, the eager defense attorney dan horowitz professing his client's innocence. >> i believe she's innocent and that she defended herself. >> reporter: did no one feel the dark premonition? did no one have a premonition? >> police near san francisco are investigating the murder of the wife of a prominent defense attorney and television legal analyst. >> reporter: the news stopped everything. pamela vitale, horowitz's wife of ten years, was found bludgeoned to death inside a trailer, next to this massive dream home the couple was building. initially, investigators wondered if her killing had anything to do with the susan polk case. the road outside horowitz's house sprouted a crop of hungry

reporters. did police consider horowitz a suspect? >> a number of people have asked whether you were asked to take a polygraph, whether you were polygraphed, and whether you'd be willing to take one. >> i have not been asked to take a polygraph. i would take a polygraph at any time that the police asked me to do it. >> reporter: about a week later a young neighbor was charged with killing pamela vitale. he pled not guilty. and horowitz was left in relative peace to grieve. but not by everyone. >> i was appalled. of course. i was shocked. >> reporter: the murder forced a mistrial in the polk case. but as a new trial was about to begin, as a still grieving dan horowitz was preparing for it -- >> i am concerned that dan was involved in her murder, and i feel -- i will stand by that. >> reporter: and so she fired him. just as she had fired all three of the lawyers who'd come before. the suspect in the pamela vitale case was eventually convicted, and dan horowitz was cleared by police.

but not by susan polk. she decided to be her own lawyer. >> she thought no one could do as good a job as she could. >> reporter: carol pogash is a journalist who lives in the orinda hills near the polk home and has covered the case from the very beginning. >> she was convinced that this was her only chance to speak out and she was going to say what she had to say, and she wouldn't give in. >> reporter: and especially to a prosecutor susan polk seemed to despise. >> susan polk really hated paul sequeira, and at times paul sequeira, the d.a., really hated susan polk. >> she'd say i was a baby. she'd say i was a liar. >> reporter: cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, but the drama inside was more bizarre than any fiction. polk accused the prosecutor and the judge of conspiring against her. she objected hundreds and hundreds of times, demanding almost daily a mistrial. >> probably the most memorable thing she said about the judge was the judge was trying to explain to her the law saying you're arguing apples and

oranges. and she said oh, judge, that's your problem, this is a murder trial and you think it's about fruit. >> reporter: but sometimes says prosecutor sequeira she was a brilliant courtroom lawyer despite having no training in the law. >> there is cross-exam that she did that were unbelievable, that were as good as any veteran defense lawyer i've ever seen. >> reporter: the prosecutor's case was simple. susan polk, he said, afraid she'd lose her rights to the family estate and custody of her youngest son, gabriel, killed felix in a rage and then tried to cover up the crime. he presented gory crime scene photos, dozens of them. here, said the prosecutor, were pictures of a man brutally killed. compared to a police photo of a woman whose face was barely disturbed. >> and there were just small red marks around her eyes. >> reporter: then in sharp contrast to susan's claim that she only stabbed felix a handful of times, the coroner testified there were 27 wounds in all,

five of them deep stab wounds, and evidence of a hard blow to felix's head. >> that told you so much about what had happened that night. >> reporter: and then, the prosecutor asked, why did susan fail to call 911? why did she clean herself up, allow her son to find the body, and then lie to the police for two days? >> i would not kill my husband. i can't pay the bills. >> it's always tough to sell self-defense when the first time you're confronted by law enforcement you say i wasn't there and i had nothing to do with it and i don't know what you're talking about. >> disturbing evidence. but nothing compared to the testimony her sons were about to give in court. eli we've already heard from. his story of father-dominated violence is what susan is counting on to win her freedom. but what would the others say about the embarrassing family secrets? what about the baby, about gabriel? who since his father was killed has refused even to see his

mother and was now sitting just feet away from her in court. >> they hadn't seen each other in years. >> they hadn't -- >> and you brought him into court. it was like throwing them both into a dangerous emotional bear pit. >> it was. >> how does that feel for a mother? >> to have one's own child, you know, supporting the prosecution, that's an awful experience. >> reporter: it was then 15-year-old gabriel, remember, who found his dead father and called 911, the boy who told police he'd openly heard his mother threaten to kill his father. he would tell all that to the jury and more. >> was he upset at the prospect of testifying against his mother? >> he wasn't. i think he felt like he owed it to his father to tell the truth and to say exactly what happened. >> reporter: the truth, said gabriel, was that his mom was delusional, that she was the abusive parent and that she murdered his loving and caring father.

susan sat through it all. and then came what may have been the most wrenching moment of all. susan was about to cross-examine her own sons. >> and she very carefully got up from her seat, walked over with her podium to question him, and she started to weep. and she took a moment, and then she asked the judge, can i call him gabriel? >> reporter: she questioned gabriel for four excruciating days, and he sat there and accused her repeatedly of murder. and then her eldest took the stand, adam. it was, if anything, worse. >> as his father's son, he went there determined to see that his mother was convicted of murder, because he believed she had killed his father in cold blood. >> reporter: she was crazy, said adam, and evil. and the phrase he threw at her, silly and angry at the same

time, seemed to come from somewhere deep in their mutual past. >> bonkers, cuckoo for coco puffs. >> cuckoo for cocoa puffs. that was one of the most amazing lines of the trial. >> how would she react? >> she would shake her head and go, adam, when did you learn to lie so well? >> but there was another son, remember, there was eli. the war of the polks was about to resume in court. over in the jury box that group of people seeing their civic duty thought they had taken about as much as they could. they had not. >> i had no idea what i was in store for. >> reporter: coming up -- the verdict that had everyone in the courtroom holding their breath. >> and i heard it, and my heart kind of jumped a little bit. and i said, oh, my god. usa prime credit... this peggy... hi, i'm cashing in my points... peggy? no more points - coupons now.

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three years, five months after stabbing her husband, felix, to death, the trial of susan polk was under way. the prosecutor came out swinging, painting susan as a delusional murderer. was she? or was the prosecutor suffering delusions? remember, she was acting as her own lawyer, sometimes brilliantly. to counter the coroner's testimony that felix had 27 wounds, susan put her own expert forensic pathologist on the stand, and he told the jury it wasn't murder at all. felix, he said, had a heart condition and died of a heart attack after starting the assault himself. >> the forensic pathologist, were really critical to a murder case. you know, how did someone die? and these guys really didn't agree at all. >> reporter: and then, eli, her middle son and lone defender, the one who had stood with her all along. >> i really think he was trying to be her protector. and his father was gone, and all he did -- all he had was his

mother left, and i don't think he wanted to lose her too. >> reporter: eli told the jury of seeing his father assault his mother physically and verbally. there was no doubt, said eli, that his mother was forced to defend her life that fateful night in the pool house. but on cross-examination the prosecutor quizzed eli about a letter he'd written to his mother while she was in jail awaiting trial. >> and in it he said, i must testify for you. i will do anything for you, i would die for you. >> i said, if you'd die for her you'd lie for her. if the devotion is that great and you're that close, then you would do anything to save your mother. >> reporter: it was painful, said jurors, to watch the battle of the sons. >> they each had their good and bad points, each of the boys. >> and the truth was somewhere in the middle, we all felt that way. >> susan polk needed a hail mary pass. she needed to save her case. and so she announced to the court, i now call myself. and she set about telling the

jury the whole sordid story from its troubling beginnings about her relationship with felix as a 15-year-old girl to that dreadful last night in the pool house. and she was at times brilliant, as if she were a seasoned lawyer. but she went on for five excruciating days, and then -- >> she went off the deep end. and she would say, i was a medium, and i didn't want to be but i predicted 9/11. >> i predicted 9/11? >> right. you know, she felt responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people. >> she's saying this in open court? >> yeah. >> and still trying to get people to believe that she's not delusional? >> right. but, you know, everyone had to also keep in mind that she could be delusional but she could also be right. maybe she did kill in self-defense. >> reporter: but would the jury think so? on a tuesday morning after

sitting through 14 grueling weeks of a family tragedy played out in the courtroom-like theater, the six women and six men on the jury were finally getting the case. >> there was trouble for some of the jurors to get their feelings out of it. there was. >> reporter: the case for some took an emotional toll. for others, it was surreal. >> i mean, every time i would go into the jury room, i couldn't believe that this was real, because the whole situation was so wild. >> reporter: as the jury sifted through the evidence, adam and gabriel polk gave an interview to court tv, hoping to resurrect their fath they said he'd been publicly dragged through the mud ever since his death. >> really, the fact of the matter is that 99% of what went on in court in terms of the muckraking that my mom engaged

in was -- was basically false. >> reporter: though both sons declined to be interviewed for this story, they told anchor catherine crier what they hoped the jury would say. >> what should happen to her, gabe? >> that's a tough question. i mean, ideally i think she should get some sort of help. so the outcome is either jail or on the street, and between the two i choose jail. >> reporter: eli for his part was silent, unable to voice support for susan but for a completely different reason. eli was sitting helpless in the very same jail as his mother for a recent unrelated assault conviction, the latest of a string of troubles for eli. meanwhile, days ticked by, and the prosecutor began to suspect he had a hung jury on his hands. >> as we approached friday, i started to get a little nervous that there was some disagreement, which i think there was probably. >> reporter: and then finally, the fourth day of deliberations. a friday morning.

the jury had reached a verdict. susan was brought to the courtroom. and very much alone. >> there was no family member there for her. her sons adam and gabe were there in the front row. but they weren't there to support her. they were there to see her convicted of murder. susan's mother and brother left before the verdict. she really wanted them there. she begged them to stay. but they left. >> reporter: the clerk read the verdict. first degree murder, not guilty. >> and i heard it, and my heart kind of jumped a little bit, and i said, oh, my god. >> and it sort of took everyone's breath away. because it was like, were they saying that she's not guilty? susan polk wasn't sure either. >> reporter: and then the clerk continued. second degree murder, guilty. the jury was not convinced the killing was premeditated, but they didn't buy her claim of self-defense either.

susan turned to her trial assistant and said, "my life is over." >> i don't think susan polk is a violent, vicious person. but she murdered her husband. she's got to pay the price for it. >> reporter: but was she delusional? was she, as her eldest son called her, cuckoo for cocoa puffs? >> she has been telling us for 3 1/2 months that she is not delusional, and there was certainly no evidence that she's delusional. >> reporter: susan's three boys, once as close as brothers could be, now estranged opponents. at her sentencing eli, her troubled champion, again defended his mother. he begged the court for leniency, claiming his mother was the victim of his father's abuse. if released, she'd come home and bake a batch of cookies, he said. susan's oldest son, adam, told

his mother, "you took my dad. i don't know if i could ever forgive you." and her youngest, gabriel, said, "you may have been done with my father, but i was not." susan received 16 years to life and won't be eligible for parole until after 2017. as she serves time in prison, susan polk still has issues to resolve, fences to mend with her sons, especially her baby, her accuser, her gabriel. >> it's my job as a mother and my duty to love him forever as long as i'm alive, i will love him. and, you know, there's other kinds of closeness. you know, there's an emotional closeness. and i think there's a mental closeness that -- i'll never desert him.