And now....the rest of the story

The divorce from Pierre Frottier concluded, Madame also eventually parted ways with the handsome Gianni Tosetti.  Some years later, she met and married Sheldon Reynolds, an American television producer best known for his involvement in the Sherlock Holmes franchise, and may have moved to New York City shortly thereafter, thus explaining Caroline’s high school years at the Lycee Francaise in New York.

In the ‘80’s, Andrea Reynolds life took a dramatic turn as she became embroiled in one of the most highly publicized murder trials of recent memory.  Arguably the first murder trial to be breathlessly recounted daily on American television, the case against wealthy socialite Claus von Bulow for allegedly murdering his heiress wife Sunny brought Andrea Milos Frottier Reynolds onto center stage of the global media maelstrom.

I remember this seemingly endless trial and its colorful cast of characters, but I never once connected Andrea Reynolds (who became von Bulow’s girlfriend during his subsequent re-trials) as the former “Madame” of Villa Said in Paris.  One London newspaper account in 2009 summarized the events as follows:   [She is referred to as both Andrea Reynolds and Andrea Plunket throughout the accounts.]

By Terry Kirby

The Standard

26 August 2009

The trials of London socialite Claus von Bülow - convicted then acquitted of attempting to murder his wife - have been a source of fascination for more than two decades.

One of the central figures of the affair, Andrea Reynolds, von Bülow's former lover, is breaking her silence on the events with a book promising revelations of sex and betrayal among the super-rich.   Married for the fourth time to Shaun Plunket, the heir to an Irish peerage, Mrs Plunket, 71, has written the inside story of her four-year relationship with von Bülow.  Mrs Plunket, a Hungarian-born socialite and freelance journalist, met von Bülow in the Sixties. They began an affair after his 1982 conviction for the attempted murder of Sunny von Bülow with an insulin overdose, for which he received a 30-year sentence.

After von Bülow's appeal, she helped with his case and gave evidence on his behalf at his second trial in 1985, when he was acquitted. Mrs von Bülow remained in a coma for 28 years, dying last December.  Mrs Plunket wrote the memoir of her affair with von Bülow in New York state's Catskill Mountains, where she runs a bed and breakfast with her husband.  

Her literary agent, David Kuhn, said: "I would describe it as a memoir that is part love story and part detective story which looks at an iconic trial from an insider's perspective."  He said the book was being circulated among leading publishers.  [JM note:  This manuscript was never picked up by any publisher.]

A source close to the book said: "It will shake up American society. It is about love, sex, intrigue, betrayal and contains graphic details of the self-indulgent rich and famous of the Eighties. It might shake-up Claus von Bülow as well."  The book is not said to raise any questions about von Bülow's innocence, which Mrs Plunket has always supported.

She and von Bülow parted in 1987 and she married Shaun Plunket [distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth and the youngest son of an Irish peer] in 1989.   In 1990, she was portrayed by Christine Baranski in the film Reversal of Fortune, for which Jeremy Irons won an Oscar as von Bülow. The following year she was in the spotlight for securing an interview for Tatler with Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War.

Von Bülow, 83, is from a wealthy Danish family. He attended Cambridge at the age of 16 and was a barrister in London before becoming an assistant to billionaire J Paul Getty.  He married Sunny, an American heiress, in 1970 and the couple lived in Rhode Island.  After his acquittal, von Bülow returned to London, living in Knightsbridge close to his and Sunny's daughter, Cosima, and two grandchildren. He is legally prevented from talking about the case due to the civil suit settlement involving his ex-wife's two other children….

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Insulin mystery of wife left in coma for 28 years

On 21 December 1980, Sunny von Bülow was found in an irreversible coma on the marble floor of her bathroom in Rhode Island. Her husband Claus was indicted on two counts of attempted murder by insulin injection.

His case, the first major criminal trial to be televised in the US, attracted huge interest. Prosecutors claimed he stood to gain £14 million from his wife's will, and her death would have left him free to marry his mistress at the time, actress Alexandra Isles. The defence said the coma was self-induced by a binge of drugs, sweets and alcohol.

At the 1982 trial, Sunny's maid Maria Schrallhammer said she found a bag belonging to Claus containing a hypodermic needle encrusted with insulin and a bottle marked "insulin". Von Bülow was found guilty and jailed for 30 years. But the conviction was overturned on appeal on the grounds that key pieces of evidence, including the bag, were inadmissible.

At a retrial in 1985, experts testified that Sunny had not been injected with insulin and her coma was caused by factors including alcohol, barbiturates, beta-blockers, hypothermia and aspirin. Claus was acquitted. The marriage was dissolved and he abandoned all claims to her fortune.  [end of article]

Andrea Reynolds attracted so much attention during the subsequent re-trials that famous celebrity journalist Dominic Dunne of Vanity Fair wrote an in depth article about her and von Bulow in a 1985 feature article.  I read the entire article at

http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1985/08/vonbulow198508

and I have to say, Dunne captured her brilliantly.  This was the Andrea Milos Frottier that I knew, and it had the ring of truth.  

As a result of this research, I also learned that Caroline attended veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania (possibly related to her passion for horses which was evident even as a child), but she was there much earlier than my tenure at that institution.  I found no record of a FIFTH marriage (Plunket died several years ago), and found a Facebook page that says she was living in London in 2010.  She has at least one grown grandchild and she is now approximately 75 years old.   If the FB picture is any indication, she is looking pretty good for 75!

So.... when people ask me "Whatever became of the French family that you worked for in Paris in 1969?"  I now have an answer....and much more than anyone bargained for!