Frances B. Schreuder, a Manhattan socialite convicted in 1983 of persuading her teenage son to kill her wealthy father in Utah because of what she considered his stinginess, died on Tuesday at a hospice in San Diego. She was 65.
The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Marilyn Reagan, her sister, said. Schreuder (pronounced SHROY-der) lived in San Diego.
The murder of Franklin Bradshaw in Salt Lake City on July 23, 1978, provoked intense news coverage and led to two books, two television miniseries and, as recently as this year, a documentary on Court TV.
"True crime is the hottest game in town," J. Anthony Lukas wrote in The New York Times Book Review about the two books, both published in 1985. One was "My Mother's Request: A True Story of Money, Murder and Betrayal" (Atheneum) by Jonathan Coleman; the other was "Nutcracker: Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album" (Doubleday) by Shana Alexander.
"This is 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty' come to life," Bill Wells, the director of one of the miniseries, for CBS, said in an interview with The Times in 1986.
The crime indeed involved fascinating characters and plot twists. There was Schreuder, who bought $40,000 earrings at Tiffany's and sat on the board of the New York City Ballet. Bradshaw was one of the country's richest men and was known as Utah's Howard Hughes, but he bought his clothes at thrift shops and used a Coors beer carton as a briefcase.
Marc F. Schreuder, the grandson who shot Bradshaw in the back and head with a .357 Magnum, testified at his mother's trial that she had told him : "Look, Marc, it is not really killing. It is the right thing to do for us."
Frances Bernice Bradshaw was born on April 6, 1938, in Salt Lake City. She attended Bryn Mawr but was suspended in 1958 for stealing and forging checks and was told that she could return only if she received psychiatric help.
In the summer of 1958 she lived in Manhattan at the Barbizon Hotel for Women and met Vittorio Gentile, a pearl merchant, at Gino restaurant on Lexington Avenue. They married in 1959 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and in 1960 had two sons, Lorenzo, who was born in February, and Marco, born in December.
After the couple divorced, the sons were called Larry and Marc. Larry, who has changed his last name to Bradshaw, now lives in Los Angeles. Marc Schreuder lives in Provo. In addition to Reagan, who lives in Manhattan, Schreuder is survived by Lavinia Schreuder of San Diego, a daughter from her second marriage, to Frederik Schreuder.
Bradshaw made his fortune by starting a chain of auto parts stores and acquiring federal oil and gas leases. Schreuder came to believe she might be disinherited, and her simmering resentment blossomed into a murder plot that at one point involved hiring what turned out to be a bogus hit man for $5,000.
The summer before the killing, when her sons went to Salt Lake City to work for their grandfather's company, she gave them poison to put in his food, Coleman said.
Marc Schreuder was convicted of second-degree murder in 1982 and served 12 years in prison. Frances Schreuder was convicted of first-degree murder the next year and was imprisoned for 13 years.
Marc Schreuder testified against his mother, saying she must be stopped, according to Coleman's book. "I'm doing this for Lavinia," he said of his sister.