His father was accused, though later cleared, of being a Nazi collaborator for his activities during the Second World War in the German occupation of Denmark.

Bülow graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and practised law in London in the 1950s before working as a personal assistant to J. Paul Getty.

[18] His mistress of two years, the soap opera actress Alexandra Isles, testified "He said that they had been having a long argument, talk, about divorce that had gone on late into the night.

[20] At the trial in Newport, Rhode Island, Bülow was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison;[14][21] he appealed, hiring Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz to represent him.

[23] Dershowitz's campaign to acquit Bülow was assisted by Jim Cramer and future New York attorney general and governor Eliot Spitzer, who were then Harvard Law School students.

[26] The private investigator, Edwin Lambert (an associate of the Bülows' lawyer Richard Kuh), was told by several family members and a maid that Claus had recently been seen locking a closet in the Newport home that previously was always kept open.

[33] At the second trial, the defence called eight medical experts, all university professors, who testified that Sunny's two comas had not been caused by insulin, but by a combination of ingested (not injected) drugs, alcohol, and chronic health conditions.

[38][39] Dershowitz, in his book Taking the Stand, writes about Claus von Bülow's dinner party after he was found not guilty at his trial.

Dershowitz replied to the invitation that he would not attend if it was a "victory party", and Bülow assured him that it was only a dinner for "several interesting friends".

Norman Mailer also attended the dinner where Dershowitz explained why the evidence pointed to Bülow not having attempted to murder his wife.