Foxcatcher and Du Pont: The Murder, Trial, and Contested Will

The John du Pont murder case centers on January 26, 1996, when John Eleuthère du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, shot and killed Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Schultz in the driveway of a house on du Pont’s Foxcatcher estate in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. After a 48-hour armed standoff at his mansion, du Pont was arrested, tried, and in February 1997 found guilty but mentally ill of third-degree murder. He was sentenced to 13 to 30 years in prison and died there in 2010.¹²

Who John du Pont Was

Born in 1938, John du Pont was a great-great-grandson of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, who founded E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in 1802. He grew up on Liseter Hall Farm, an 800-acre estate in Newtown Square outside Philadelphia. By the time of his 1997 trial his personal wealth was estimated at up to $250 million, making him one of the wealthiest murder defendants in American history.¹

Du Pont had earlier channeled money into pentathlon and swimming, managing the U.S. pentathlon team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and building a shooting range and Olympic-sized pool on his property. In the mid-1980s he shifted to wrestling. He funded a varsity wrestling program at Villanova University and installed himself as head coach, renamed his estate training facility “Foxcatcher Farm,” and created Team Foxcatcher, an Olympic wrestling club that provided stipends, travel money, and free housing to elite wrestlers.³ By 1992, the U.S. Olympic wrestling training center had relocated to Foxcatcher, funded entirely by du Pont.⁴

American amateur wrestling had no substantial government funding, and du Pont’s money filled the gap. In exchange, he required everyone around him to sustain the fiction that he was an accomplished wrestler himself.³

Dave Schultz

David L. Schultz, born June 6, 1959, was one of the most decorated wrestlers in American history. He won gold at the 1984 Olympics at 163 pounds, the 1983 World Championship, and accumulated seven World and Olympic medals and ten Senior National titles over his career. He learned Russian to talk to international competitors and was widely regarded as the sport’s foremost American ambassador.⁵

Schultz began training at Foxcatcher around 1989, living on the estate with his wife Nancy and their two children while coaching the team and preparing for the 1996 Olympic Trials.⁶⁷ He had been there about seven years when du Pont killed him.

Du Pont’s Descent Into Paranoia

After du Pont’s mother died in 1988, those close to him noticed a sharp change. He grew paranoid and delusional, and the behavior was compounded by heavy drinking and cocaine use.³ Witnesses documented him holding a loaded machine gun to a wrestler’s chest, walking his estate armed, driving new Lincoln Continentals into a pond, installing razor wire inside his mansion walls, and digging up the property in search of hidden tunnels.⁸

His delusions escalated. He claimed at various points to be the Dalai Lama, Jesus Christ, a surviving Russian czar, the head of the Communist Party, and the president of Bulgaria.⁹ He believed clocks on gym equipment were sending him backward in time, that nesting geese were casting spells on him, and that a war between the United States and Soviet Union was unfolding on his property. He shot the geese. Wrestler Jack Cuvo said du Pont talked to the walls of his mansion and claimed to see animals coming out of them.⁸

By 1993 he had hired a private security firm out of a paranoid conviction that his life was in danger. He spent more than $200,000 on estate security, including $38,000 to mount a .50-caliber machine gun on a vehicle. Prosecutors later argued the security firm fed his paranoia to increase its fees.¹⁰ By 1995, his animosity had turned specifically toward Dave Schultz.¹¹

People left. Coach Dan Chaid departed after eight years when du Pont threatened him with a machine gun.¹² Dave’s brother Mark Schultz, who had lived on the estate for years after the 1984 Olympics, left in 1988 following an incident involving du Pont waving a gun.⁶ Du Pont’s ex-wife Gale Wenk du Pont had filed a civil suit in 1985 alleging he threatened her with a knife and a gun and tried to push her out of a moving vehicle. The program continued, because the money continued. Dave Schultz stayed.

The Shooting and the 48-Hour Standoff

At roughly 3 p.m. on January 26, 1996, du Pont drove up to a house on the estate where Dave Schultz was in the driveway. According to Mark Schultz’s account, du Pont asked, “Do you have a problem with me?!” and opened fire, hitting Schultz in the arm, chest, and back.⁶ Nancy Schultz was present and later alleged in a civil suit that du Pont pointed the gun at her as well after shooting her husband.¹³ Dave Schultz was 36. He had the words “P.U. Kids” written on his hand, a reminder to pick up his children.¹²

Du Pont retreated into his mansion and barricaded himself inside. More than 75 police officers surrounded the estate, including 30 SWAT team members led by Springfield Police Lt. John Francis, and authorities closed a four-lane highway alongside the property.¹⁴ During the standoff du Pont tried to leverage his donations to the Bulgarian wrestling program, claiming he needed to visit the Bulgarian embassy and asserting diplomatic immunity. Prosecutors later disclosed that du Pont had once told associates, “to be truthful, I can get away with murder if I want.”¹⁵

The tactical break came when police cut off the mansion’s heating system Friday night. Du Pont, cold and isolated, burned copies of his self-published book Never Give Up in his fireplace for warmth.¹⁵ On Sunday afternoon he told negotiators he was going outside to fix the boiler. When police saw he was unarmed they moved in. He tried to run back inside but was tackled by a Newtown Township officer. No shots were fired during the capture. A bomb squad then swept the house before officers searched for the suspected weapon, a .38-caliber revolver.¹⁴

The Trial and the Guilty But Mentally Ill Verdict

Du Pont was initially charged with first-degree murder and other offenses.² The case was prosecuted in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, by newly installed District Attorney Patrick Meehan with co-prosecutors Dennis McAndrews and Joseph McGettigan.¹⁶ Du Pont’s defense team included Richard Sprague, William Lamb, Thomas Bergstrom, and Alan Dershowitz on appeal. Prosecutors estimated the defense spent roughly $50,000 per day, with total costs exceeding $2 million over seven months, and filed roughly 80 pre-trial motions or appeals in a single year.¹⁵

Competency to Stand Trial

A competency examination was ordered on February 9, 1996. A videotaped interview conducted at Delaware County Prison in mid-March 1996 captured du Pont displaying florid delusional thinking.⁹²¹¹ A second competency hearing in December 1996 found him fit to proceed.

Insanity Defense and Verdict

The trial began in January 1997 before Judge Patricia H. Jenkins. Du Pont did not dispute that he shot Schultz. The only question was his mental state. Defense experts testified he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was legally insane at the time of the killing. Prosecution experts Dr. John O’Brien and Dr. Park Dietz agreed he was mentally ill but testified he was not legally insane, and the prosecution argued his condition was in part a cocaine-induced psychosis.¹¹

Jury deliberations ran from February 18 to February 25, 1997. The jury returned a verdict of guilty but mentally ill on third-degree murder and simple assault.¹⁷ Under Pennsylvania law, “guilty but mentally ill” means the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime and was mentally ill at the time, but was not legally insane under the M’Naghten standard, which requires that the defendant either did not understand the nature of the act or did not know it was wrong.¹⁸ The distinction mattered. A not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict could have sent du Pont to a psychiatric facility with eventual release; guilty but mentally ill meant a prison sentence with the possibility of mental health treatment during incarceration.

On May 13, 1997, Judge Jenkins sentenced du Pont to 13 to 30 years in prison for third-degree murder, with a concurrent term of three to six months for simple assault. She also ordered him to pay $742,107 in prosecution costs.²¹⁰ The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the conviction in April 1999.¹¹

Nancy Schultz’s Wrongful Death Suit

One week after du Pont’s criminal sentencing, Nancy Schultz filed a wrongful death and assault lawsuit against him in Delaware County Court. The assault claim rested on her allegation that du Pont pointed the gun at her after killing her husband.¹³¹⁹²⁰

Du Pont’s Death and the Contested Will

John du Pont died on December 9, 2010, at age 72, at the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Heights in Somerset, Pennsylvania. The cause of death was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema.²

In a will signed three months before his death, du Pont left 80 percent of his estate to Bulgarian Olympic wrestler Valentin Jordanov Dimitrov, Dimitrov’s wife Zdravka, and their relatives.²¹ Du Pont’s niece and nephew challenged the will on grounds of undue influence and incapacity. A Delaware County court dismissed their petition for lack of standing, and the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed that ruling in November 2012.²² Another nephew alleged forgery, Mark Schultz and Dan Chaid questioned du Pont’s mental capacity, and the Delaware Museum of Natural History sought to intervene, claiming beneficiary status under an earlier 1994 will.

Nancy Schultz meanwhile channeled the aftermath into preserving her husband’s legacy. In March 1996, weeks after the murder, she founded the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club to support the 20 displaced Team Foxcatcher athletes through the 1996 Olympics and beyond. The club operated until 2005 and trained Olympic medalists including Kurt Angle, Brandon Slay, Patricia Miranda, and Stephen Neal.²³ USA Wrestling still hosts the annual Dave Schultz Memorial International meet at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.⁷

1
Reuters. Du Pont Heir Convicted of Murder Dies in US Prison
2
Delaware Online. John du Pont Murder Trial Timeline
3
Britannica. John du Pont
4
Penn Gazette. Grappling With Tragedy
5
National Wrestling Hall of Fame. David L. Schultz
6
LAist. The True Story of Foxcatcher
7
National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Dave Schultz Biography
8
Courier-Post. Foxcatcher Fodder: John du Pont’s Bizarre Downfall
9
Philadelphia Bar Association. Cover Story
10
Delaware Online. Du Pont’s Murder Trial and the Uphill Battle to Convict a Billionaire
11
FindLaw. Commonwealth v. John E. duPont
12
Time. Foxcatcher True Story
13
New York Times. Du Pont Is Sued by Wife of Wrestler He Killed
14
New York Times. Du Pont Shooting
15
Delaware Online. Du Pont the Murderer and His Quest to Buy His Innocence
16
Delaware County Daily Times. Former US Attorney Takes First Step to Being Governor
17
CNN. Du Pont Verdict
18
FindLaw. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 314
19
Los Angeles Times. Du Pont Heir Settles Wrongful Death Suit
20
Chicago Tribune. Du Pont Heir Settles Wrongful Death Suit
21
Delaware County Daily Times. Another Challenge Filed to Will for du Pont
22
Times Herald. Superior Court: Du Pont Relatives Have No Standing to Contest Will
23
National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Nancy Schultz Vitangeli