Du Pont heir, killer of Olympic wrestler, dies

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 11/09/2010 | Joelle Farrell and Mari A. Schaefer

[Kid Shelleen]

John E. du Pont, an eccentric millionaire sentenced to prison in 1996 for the murder of an Olympic wrestler, died in prison Thursday morning. He was 72.

Du Pont was found unresponsive in his cell in Somerset County at 6:55 a.m., said Sue Bensinger, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Dupont died of natural causes, she said.

Du Pont was convicted of third-degree murder after he gunned down Olympic wrestler David Schulz outside his home in January 1996. Shultz's wife and the estate's head of security witnessed the shooting. Schultz, a 1984 gold medalist, was living in a house on du Pont's rambling Newtown Square estate, which he had fashioned into a world-class wrestling training facility

[fieldmarshaldj]

Prayers for a misguided soul.

[x]

His father owned James Madison's mansion, Montpelier, and John E. Dupont owned the world's rarest stamp for a while.

He grew up with everything money could buy, and still ended up in prison.

[Kid Shelleen]

and he paid for Villanova’s basketball arena

[Varda]

He ended up in prison because he was insane. His family tried to get the authorities to act but we are no longer allowed to institutionalize crazy people.

[Gondring]

Paranoid schizophrenia is a horrible thing.

And money can’t buy sports prowess.

Dave Schultz might have been using him for his money, going along with him rather than popping the balloon of mental illness and mess up the cash cow, but he didn’t deserve to die.

[Myndbender1]

I never met DuPont, but I knew Dave Schultz. Fantastic wrestler. DuPont’s erratic behavior was well known within the amateur wrestling community, but he spent a bundle supporting it. Amateur wrestling lost a lot on that day in January, 1996.

[Radio Free American?]

So what happened with his fortune?
Just curious.

[Kid Shelleen]

I know the victim’s family filed a wrongful death suite and did win a big verdict but I don’t think that would account for all the estate.

[Radio Free American?]

Surely he had a trust or something set up...perhaps before he lost his mind totally. The family knew of his state of mind and I would think they would do what needed to be done.

Thanks Kid