laus von Bülow, who has died aged 92, was the central figure in one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century. The case, among the first to be televised in the United States, had all the ingredients of soap opera — adultery, drugs, murder and fabulous sums of money. Its principal characters included the heiress to a $75 million fortune, a wicked stepfather, two mistresses, minor European nobility and a daughter who stood by the father accused of attempting to kill her mother.