John Eleuthère du Pont

On September 3, 1983, du Pont married Gale Wenl, a 29 year old occupational therapist. Within 10 months of the marriage, du Pont filed for divorce.

His wife claimed that du Pont had been physically violent and had even tried to kill her. The divorce was finalized in 1987.

In December 1988, a lawsuit was filed against him which claimed that he had made inappropriate sexual advances towards Andre Metzger, the assistant coach of his Villanova wrestling program.

Born on November 22, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John Eleuthère du Pont was the son of William du Pont Jr. And Jean Lisester Austin.

He was the youngest among the four siblings. They grew up in Lisester Hall in Pennsylvania, which was gifted as a wedding present by his maternal grandfather.

In 1941, when John was two years of age, his parents got divorced. He had a younger half brother from his father’s second marriage.

In 1957, du Pont graduated from Haverford School and in 1965, he graduated from the University of Miami. He had studied Zoology under the guidance of Oscar. T. Owre, the famous scientist.

In 1973, he received his PhD degree in natural science from Villanova University.

Du Pont had been part of several scientific expeditions, in the Phillippines and South Pacific, as a part of his graduate work. During the course of this, he discovered about 16 species of birds.

In 1957, he founded the Delaware Museum of Natural History. He served for a long period as the director of this institute.

In 1980, he bought the British Guiana 1856 1c black on magenta, which is one of the rarest stamps in the world.

By 1986, he started taking active interest in wrestling. When Villanova University dropped his wrestling program , he built a wrestling facility along with a training center at his Newtown Square estate.

The estate was renamed as Foxcatcher Farm and the instruction center was called the Foxcather National Training center, after his father’s thoroughbred racing stable. The center, built in 1988, catered to the world’s greatest wrestling talents. He also let famous wrestlers like Mark Schultz and his older brother Dave Schultz live inside the estate.

On January 26, 1996, John Eleuthère du Pont shot three bullets into Dave Schultz, the coach of his wrestling team, thereby killing him. The witnesses to the crime were Schultz’s wife and the head of Pont’s security.

Following the incident, du Pont locked himself inside his place. The police could arrest him when he came outside to repair his heater.

The police could not find out a motive for the crime. On September 1996, du Pont was declared as ‘psychotic’ and so he could not partake in his own defense. He was admitted to a mental hospital for the next three months. however, the insanity defense was not taken by the court.

On February 25, 1997, the jury found him guilty even though mentally ill. He was sentenced to 13 to 20 years of imprisonment because of third degree murder.

Du Pont was committed to the state Correctional Institution-Mercer in the Pennsylvania prison system.