Palm Beach socialite Linda Cooney killed her ex-husband, well-respected attorney Jim Cooney in 1992. She claimed she was defending herself. She said he had a knife in his hand. They had two sons together. One of them, Kevin, witnessed his mother firing the gun at his father and testified at Linda’s trial. He was 11 at the time. Linda was found not guilty of first-degree murder. When the trial was over, she and her sons Kevin and Christopher, who were the beneficiaries of Jim’s $1 million life insurance policy, moved to Las Vegas.
Twenty years after shooting Jim Cooney, Linda used the same .357 Magnum gun to shot her son Kevin, leaving him paralyzed. The mother and son were arguing over Kevin’s then-girlfriend Karina Taylor. Linda didn’t want them to get married. But at her trial, Kevin said it wasn’t his mother’s fault. While he and his mother were wrestling for the gun, he “raised it above his body and it went off at a downward angel into his neck.” But the jury didn’t believe his testimony. Linda Cooney was found guilty of four counts including attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and intimating a witness. She was sentenced to 13 to 40 years in prison. Her strange twisted life will be featured on 48 Hours on June 6 at 10pm on CBS.
Kevin Cooney at his mother’s first trial in 1994. He was 11.
