Thief of Women’s Hearts, Money Convicted : Background: Wife recalls her first husband, who she thought was dead, as a smooth-talking manipulator of women who wanted the best of everything.

For 14 years, Barbara Brunette thought her first husband was dead.

Then, she spotted his picture in a newspaper and found out that James Borzynski, the 45-year-old accused con man who had fathered her son, was not only alive but on trial here for swindling other women.

In an interview Tuesday, Brunette, 49, said she wasn’t surprised at the allegations against Borzynski because he had a history of deceiving women.

Brunette said she is glad he was convicted Tuesday of three counts of grand theft for swindling three women out of $87,000 and now faces more than five years in state prison.

“My dear, little hubby got convicted,” Brunette said from her home in Glendale, Ariz., where she works as a mobile-home saleswoman. “He was pulling this crap when we were married, and it was time to put a stop to it.”

Brunette said she married Borzynski in 1970 in Waukegan, Ill. They eventually moved to Milwaukee, where Borzynski got a job as a used-car salesman for Chevrolet. But in 1974, after discovering his affairs with two other women, she said, including an 18-year-old who had believed he was single, Brunette said she told him to leave.

“What he did to that girl was enough for me,” she said.

Orange County sheriff’s investigators said Borzynski married the young woman. Brunette said that if he did, he did it without first obtaining a divorce from her. The young woman eventually committed suicide, investigators said.

Brunette said she tried to contact Borzynski in 1980, because she wanted to marry another man and needed a divorce. But several of his family members told her he had died in a car accident, she said. Brunette said she believes she was told he was dead to keep her from trying to seek child support.

Brunette remarried and moved to Arizona where she raised her son, who is now 24. In 1991, her second husband, Henry Brunette, died of cancer.

Then, five months ago, a friend in Los Angeles spotted a Times article and photo of Borzynski and sent it to her.

“I was in shock here a couple of days,” Brunette said.

Brunette, however, said she was not surprised by the charges of theft because Borzynski was always a smooth talker who wanted the best of everything.

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“It was always show and tell with him,” she said. “He had to have the best clothes, the nicest car, the best home. He’d only go to clubs and lounges. There was no going to a corner bar and shooting pool with this guy. You had to go someplace where high society went. He was always trying to impress someone.”

Brunette said she felt so strongly about what she knew of his past that she volunteered to testify against him, despite a call from Borzynski who begged her not to. Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Cliff Deller said prosecutors considered calling Brunette as a rebuttal witness in the event Borzynski testified. But Borzynski declined to take the stand last week and so Brunette was not needed, Deller said.

Brunette said she would have been able to give jurors facts about Borzynski’s background, but she would never be able to explain his behavior completely.

“I think he was a woman-hater,” Brunette said. “He seemed to love women, but just to benefit himself. But I could never figure it out--what made him tick or why he hated women. He’s just been that way.”

Borzynski’s defense attorney, Dennis P. O’Connell, said he was aware of the two wives in Borzynski’s past. He said he believes Borzynski’s second wife committed suicide because she was upset that her mother was dying of cancer.

As far as allegations that Borzynski hates women, O’Connell said that only an expert could make that judgment.

“You get high emotions in a case like this and it’s hard to tell who’s telling the truth,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph D’Agostino said he is now investigating evidence that Borzynski may have yet two more wives to whom he is currently married.