I have more questions

She initiated a divorce, got involved with a co-worker supposedly as soon as it was legally okay to date prior to the divorce being final and her supposedly possessive, abusive first husband violently assaulted her.

What if he had a better motive than "Bitch, you're MINE and I am not letting you go!!!"

Julius was 6.5 years older than my sister. He had a Bachelor's degree and was a couple of quarters short of a Master's. He fancied himself a writer.

He supported my sister's career aspirations. He delivered newspapers or sold shoes at a department store.

He had a beard and mustache. 

In his sixties in ICU following surgery, my dad was on morphine and heard some news piece about terrorists. He concluded the "long haired" doctors -- longer than a military haircut -- in jeans in ICU were terrorists.

I never got along that well with him. I don't know why. Maybe he blamed me for his best friend no longer being part of his life.

My family didn't approve of him because he wasn't "a real man." He wasn't the primary breadwinner in their household.

I am unaware of any history of violence. Julius wasn't the most socially smooth individual and he was doing things like selling shoes so he could carve out time to write but was viewed by a lot of people as lazy and not really a man etc. because he was supporting his wife's career aspirations.

People viewed him as a freeloader using her.

He assaulted her for four hours and choked her to silence her screams. She said she was able to convince him to let her go after his eyes stopped being black and turned blue again and based on that could understand tales of demon possession.

So his eyes were full of blood in an extreme fit of rage.

She insisted he was simply a possessive, abusive nutcase. I am not actually aware of any history of him behaving like a possessive, controlling husband.

They typically sabotage a wife's career and deny her work opportunities. 

I was told he had to sign away all rights to the house for her to qualify for a mortgage because of his atrocious credit and mountain of student loans.

So he supports her career, she's making money like a man and she gets the house in the divorce free and clear.

She painted herself as the victim of an abusive marriage. Most people bought that and never questioned it.

I no longer think that holds water and I wonder how else he was being shafted that he lost his shit so thoroughly that day.

And it gives me pause about the general trope about "possessive psych jobs husbands and their COMPLETELY naive, sweet little wifey victims.'