The Indo Daily: Sunny Jacobs - Victim complex or a complex victim?

Sunny Jacobs

Early this month, when a house fire claimed the lives of 78-year-old Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs and her home-help carer 31-year-old Kevin Kelly, the tragedy shook their small community.  That Jacobs had often referred to the Connemara home as her "sanctuary" made the circumstances of her death seem an even crueller twist of fate.

But hers was a life marked by cruel juxtaposition. The well-liked and peaceful woman spent five years on death row in the US before her conviction over the murder of two police officers in Florida in 1976 was overturned after procedural errors were identified. The soft-spoken and private woman’s 17-year stint in prison has been portrayed on stage by Hollywood stars like Mia Farrow, Susan Sarandon, Kathleen Turner and Brooke Shields.

While the details of her story have been told over and again, one Florida inmate believes she’s not a reliable narrator. Walter Rhodes has shared his version with the Irish Independent in a series of interviews recorded from prison.

Kevin Doyle is joined by  Eavan Murray, western correspondent with the Irish Independent, to hear about her conversations with Rhodes and ask, who was the real Sunny Jacobs?