John du Pont, Convicted of Murdering Olympic Wrestler,

Found Dead

The man who was convicted of killing Olympic gold medalist wrestler Dave Schultz was found dead
in his prison cell Dec. 9, 2010.
John E. du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, was serving 13- to 30-year prison sentence
when he was found in his cell at about 7 a.m. in Laurel Highlands state prison in western
Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press.
The county coroner has not yet determined an official cause of death, according to prison
spokeswoman Susan McNaughton.

"He had some illnesses, so we are considering it natural," McNaughton told The Associated Press.
Dave Schultz: Wrestler Murdered in Training Compound
Du Pont, who killed Schultz in January of 1996, was convicted, though he was considered mentally
ill. After the shooting, du Pont barricaded himself in his mansion for two days before he was taken
into custody.

At the time of the murder, Schultz was training at the Foxcatcher National Training Center built by
du Pont on his 800-acre estate. Schultz had won an Olympic medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1984
Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Schultz was 36 at the time of the murder and lived in a house on the property with his wife and two
children. He was training for the 1996 Olympic Games.
Dave Schultz: Wrestling Accomplishments
In addition to earning an Olympic gold medal, Schultz also won six world championship medals: gold
in 1983, silver in 1985, 1987 and1993, and bronze in 1982 and 1986. He was a three-time college
All-American and a 10-time senior national champion.
Schultz and his brother, Mark, were the first American brother wrestlers to win Olympic gold
medals. Schultz was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1997.
Today, a memorial international wrestling tournament is held at the Olympic Training Center
complex in Colorado Springs, Colo., in February each year. Men's and women's freestyle and men's
Greco-roman events are contested in the Dave Schultz Memorial International. After his death, the
Dave Schultz Wrestling Club was formed and sponsored elite wrestlers such as Kurt Angle, Brandon
Slay, Patricia Miranda and Stephen Neal before the club folded in 2005.
John du Pont, Heir to the du Pont Fortune
Du Pont, the great-great-grandson of E.I. du Pont, used much of his fortune to support elite-level
wrestlers, swimmers and pentathletes, With an approximated net worth of $42.6 million at the time
of the murder, du Pont also built the Delaware Museum of Natural History to house his collection of
66,000 birds and two million sea shells, according to The New York Times.
Du Pont also funded scholarships and the wrestling program at Villanova University in 1986, naming
himself head coach. The program was dropped two years later after an assistant coach sued the
millionaire, alleging that he had been fired because he refused to become du Pont's lover. The suit

was settled out-of-court.

Du Pont himself tried to qualify for the Olympic Games several times in modern pentathlon. Though
he never achieved that goal, he was a team manager of the U.S. modern pentathlon team at the
1976 Olympic Games.
John du Pont: Alleged Erratic Behavior
Before the murder of Schultz, du Pont's behavior became increasingly strange, according to many of
the athletes training on his property. In addition to allegedly driving multiple Lincoln Continentals
into a pond on his estate, according to The Los Angeles Times, du pont reportedly waved guns at
other athletes before Schultz's death, believed he was being spied on and that bugs were living
inside his body.
According to his lawyers at trial, du Pont was a paranoid schizophrenic. According to prosecutors,
du Pont's delusions were brought on by substance abuse. Those who knew du Pont well believed his
increased delusions were brought on by the death of his mother, his divorce and a car accident,
according to The New York Times.
Du Pont, the youngest of four children, did not have any children of his own. He was 72 at the time
of his death.
Sources:Dave Schultz. National Wrestling Hall of Fame."John du Pont dies at 72; heir to chemical
fortune and convicted murderer." The Associated Press, Dec. 9, 2010.Longman, Jere. "John E. du
Pont, Heir Who Killed an Olympian, Dies at 72." The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2010.Quinn, Rose.
"From the Jan. 1996 Daily Times Files: Who is John E. DuPont?" The Delaware County Daily Times,
delcotimes.com.
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