John Eleuthère du Pont

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John du Pont (bottom left) while studying at the University of Pennsylvania (1960)

John Eleuthère du Pont (born November 22, 1938 in Philadelphia , † December 9, 2010 in the State Correctional Institution - Laurel Highlands ) was an American ornithologist , conchologist and billionaire who came from the Franco-American industrial family DuPont .

In 1957 he founded the Delaware Museum of Natural History , in which he exhibited his collection of several hundred thousand specimens of mussels and bird eggs. As a sports patron , he promoted numerous athletes, especially from swimming and triathlon , and later also wrestlers, including wrestlers Mark Schultz and his brother David Schultz . In the 1990s, du Pont showed increasingly eccentric behavior. In 1996 he killed his friend David Schultz and was sentenced to a long prison term for this act. He died in prison in 2010.

Based on the events surrounding the crime, the drama Foxcatcher was produced in 2014 , in which Steve Carell played du Pont . In the film adaptation, du Pont is reduced to his role as a patron of wrestlers, aspects such as his activities in swimming , triathlon and modern pentathlon or the fact that he was in the qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games when his mother died in 1988 were even included in the film not shown or wrongly shown.

Life

John Eleuthère du Pont was born in 1938 as the youngest of four children from the marriage of William du Pont, Jr. (1896–1965) and Jean Liseter Austin (1897–1988). He was a great-great-grandson of the chemist Eleuthère Irénée du Pont . Since his parents separated when he was three years old and his siblings were grown up by then, he grew up alone with his mother on Liseter Hall Farm, the family home in Newtown Square , Delaware County, Pennsylvania . He attended Haverford School until 1957 . He then began studying at the University of Pennsylvania , which he dropped out after a year. He then began studying at the University of Miami , graduating in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in zoology . He traveled to the Philippines, Samoa and Fiji, among others. Various ornithological books have been published since 1970. In 1972 the Delaware Museum of Natural History , founded by du Pont in 1957, was opened to the public with its extensive collection of mussels and bird eggs. In 1973, du Pont received a doctorate from Villanova University .

The Philatelist du Pont acquired the British Guiana 1 ¢ magenta in 1980 for a record price of $ 935,000, making the stamp the most expensive philatelic collector's item in the world.

His marriage to the therapist Gale Wenk, entered into in 1983, was divorced after just a few months.

John du Pont got his interest in sport from his mother. Jean Liseter Austin du Pont won around 3,000 ribbons, cups, trophies and prizes at horse, cattle and dog shows in the course of her life. He had no close relationship with his father, the horse breeder William du Pont Jr.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, du Pont joined the Santa Clara Swim Club . In the sixties and early seventies du Pont sought unsuccessfully to qualify for the Olympic team in the modern pentathlon . At the Olympic Games in Montreal, du Pont was part of the US team as a supervisor.

As early as the mid-1960s, he set up his own training center on his family's spacious Liseter Hall Farm (400 acres or around 3 km 2 ) with a swimming pool with a 50-meter lane , running track, fitness rooms, sauna and shooting range. In 1967 the American championships in modern pentathlon took place at Liseter Hall Farm. After the death of his mother in August 1988, which he learned about during the swimming qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games in Seoul, he renamed the farm, based on his father's racing team, into Foxcatcher Farm .

John du Pont was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Swimming Hall of Fame .

The Foxcatcher Team set up by John du Pont included the US swim team at the Olympic Games a. a. Dave Wharton (silver medal in over 400 m individual medals at the Olympic Games in Seoul and fourth at the Olympic Games in Barcelona ), Trina Radke, Dan Jorgensen, David Berkoff and Sean Killion.

To his triathlon team, which competed with the "Team J. Daniels" founded in 1983 with Mark Allen , Scott Tinley , Scott Molina , Julie Moss , and others. a. stood, belonged u. a. Ken Glah , Jeff Devlin, Joy Hansen Leutner, Steve Fitch, Brooks and Greg Clark, Freddy Klevan and Jody Schmidt. Glah and Devlin finished third at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in 1988 and 1991, respectively , while Joy Hansen won bronze at the 1990 World Championships in Orlando and 1995 in Cancún.

As early as the 1980s, John du Pont was a regular source of irritation when he presented himself as the "father of triathlon". For example, he succeeded in producing a special stamp for the Kingdom of Redonda showing him swimming, cycling and running - with a jersey with the Foxcatcher logo and the text "John du Pont - father of triathlon". Du Pont also sponsored the US Triathlon Series in Fort Lauderdale in the 1980s. In March 1986 John du Pont graced the cover of the special interest magazine "Tri-Athlete".

At Villanova University in 1985 du Pont supported the construction of a sports center with an athletics hall with a 200 m lane, a swimming pool, a basketball arena, tennis courts and training rooms, which the university named after du Pont. A wrestling program introduced at the university in 1986 under John du Pont was terminated in 1988. Mark Schultz, Olympic wrestling champion in 1984 and assistant coach in Villanova, were accused of violating NCAA regulations, including a. he admitted to having organized drunken parties with minors.

At the end of the 1980s, du Pont also increasingly turned to wrestling. From 1989 to 1995 he donated US $ 400,000 annually to the US Wrestling Association, which is why the team competitions bore his name. He initially supported Mark Schultz, later David Schultz. In 1991 up to 86 wrestlers trained in the training center on du Pont's farm. The swimmers at Foxcatcher Farm were also among the leaders in the USA at the time.

On January 26, 1996, John Eleuthère du Pont shot and killed David Schultz in the driveway of his house. On 26 February 1997 du Pont was for manslaughter ( voluntary manslaughter sentenced to Schultz to 13 to 30 years in prison). He died 13 years later in the State Correctional Institution - Laurel Highlands. During the trial against him, psychiatrists testified that du Pont had paranoid schizophrenia . He was convinced that Schultz was part of a conspiracy and wanted to kill him.

Works

  • Living Volutes: A Monograph of the Recent Volutidae of the World. (with Clifton S. Weaver) Weidner & Sons Publishing, 1970, ISBN 978-0-913176-01-6 .
  • Philippine Birds. Delaware Museum of Natural History, 1971.
  • Birds of Dinagat and Siargao, Philippines: An Expedition Report. (with DS Rabor), Delaware Museum of Natural History, 1973.
  • South Sulu Archipelago Birds: An Expedition Report. (with DS Rabor), Delaware Museum of Natural History, 1973.
  • South Pacific Birds. Delaware Museum of Natural History, 1976, ISBN 978-0-913176-04-7 .
  • Off the Mat: Building Winners in Life. Jameson Books, 1987, ISBN 978-0-915463-54-1 .
  • Never give up. Jameson Books, 1990.

literature

  • Carol Turkington: No Holds Barred: The Strange Life of John E. Du Pont. Turner Publishing, 1996, ISBN 978-1-57036-365-8 .
  • Tim Huddleston: Wrestling With Madness: John Eleuthere Du Pont and the Foxcatcher Farm Murder. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4826-4396-1 .
  • Mark Schultz : Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold. Dutton Adult, 2014, ISBN 978-0-525-95503-0 .
  • Fatal Match: Inside the Mind of Killer Millionaire John du Pont , Avon, 1998, ISBN 978-0380791057
  • Carlon Smith: Blood Money: The Du Pont Heir and the Murder of an Olympic Athlete, St. Martins , 1996, ISBN 978-0312960803

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jere Longman: John E. du Pont, Heir Who Killed on Olympian, this at 72 ( English ) In: The New York Times . December 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ dpa : This is now the most expensive postage stamp in the world . In: The world . June 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ Donna St. George: Jean Liseter Austin Du Pont, 91, Leading Breeder Of Welsh Ponies ( English ) In: The Philadelphia Inquirer . August 12, 1988.
  4. ↑ Rand Harvey: Signposts to a Tragedy: Du Pont Heir, Accused of Murdering Olympic Gold Medalist, Is Sports Philanthropist With a History of Eccentric Behavior ( English ) In: Los Angeles Times . January 31, 1996.
  5. ↑ Alice Higgins: Trials Of A Busy Pentathlete ( English ) In: Sports Illustrated . August 28, 1967. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012.
  6. ↑ Remembering Swimmer John DuPont - 1938 - 2010 ( English ) International Swimming Hall of Fame .
  7. ^ Nancy Nowicki ,: Cornelius, Wharton Pace Foxcatcher At Mids . In: The Philadelphia Inquirer . 18th December 1986.
  8. ↑ a b Ray Didinger: Here, They Build Champions Du Pont Home Now A Factory For Olympians ( English ) In: Philadelphia Daily News . May 20, 1992.
  9. ^ Compilation of Media Highlights regarding Jeff Devlin . Jeff Devlin. Archived from the original on October 6, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.devlincoaching.com
  10. ↑ Jere Longman: A Main Course For Hansen ( English ) In: The Philadelphia Inquirer . September 15, 1990.
  11. ↑ Bill Fleischman: Firecracker-hot Liberty Triathlon Defending Champ Decries Poor Cycling Sportsmanship ( English ) In: Philadelphia Daily News . July 7, 1986.
  12. ↑ Tim Panaccio: Memorial Fund Honors Swimmer ( English ) In: The Philadelphia Inquirer . February 2, 1989.
  13. ↑ Timothy Carlson: John du Pont dies in prison ( English ) In: slowtwitch.com . December 10, 2010.
  14. ↑ Associated Press: Du Pont stamp makes claim that doesn't stick . In: Reading Eagle, Reading (Berks County, Pennsylvania) . February 16, 1996.
  15. ^ Ralph Vigoda: Expressing Himself. Where Du Pont Literally Put His Stamp On Things ( English ) In: The Philadelphia Inquirer . February 15, 1996.
  16. ^ Portrait of John du Pont in the official program of the Ft. Lauderdale Bud Light US Triathlon Series 1982 . 1982.
  17. ^ Cover Tri-Athlete March 1986 . March 1986.
  18. ↑ Paul Domowitch and Kevin Mulligan: New Villanova Sports Complex Is Named For John E. Dupont ( English ) In: Philadelphia Daily News . January 23, 1986.
  19. ↑ Diane Pucin and Tim Panaccio: Wrestling Is Dropped By 'nova ( English ) In: The Philadelphia Inquirer . August 6, 1988.
  20. ↑ Paul Domowitch and Kevin Mulligan: 'nova Wrestling: Two Years Of Turmoil ( English ) In: Philadelphia Daily News . 3rd December 1988.
  21. ↑ Tim Panaccio: John du Pont builds top amateur wrestling club in United States ( English ) In: The Baltimore Sun . July 28, 1991.
personal data
SURNAME Du Pont, John Eleuthère
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Du Pont, John E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ornithologist, conchologist, and wrestler trainer; convicted murderer
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2010
Place of death State Correctional Institution - Laurel Highlands , Pennsylvania , United States