John du Pont

During the 1920s and 1930s, du Pont's parents acquired more land and developed Liseter Hall Farm for Thoroughbred breeding, showing, and racing.

He grew up at Liseter Hall, a mansion built in 1922 in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, by his maternal grandfather on more than 80 hectares (200 acres) of land given to his parents at their wedding by his maternal grandfather.

John Eleuthère du Pont (November 22, 1938 – December 9, 2010) was an American convicted murderer.

An heir to the du Pont family fortune, he was a published ornithologist, philatelist, conchologist, and sports enthusiast.

Du Pont died in prison while serving a sentence of thirty years for the murder of Dave Schultz.

John du Pont was born on November 22, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest of four children of William du Pont, Jr. and Jean Liseter Austin (1897–1988).

His mother retained Liseter Hall Farm after the couple divorced in 1941.

She added a dairy herd of Guernseys and bred Welsh ponies at the farm.

John was aged 2 when his parents divorced.

He had two older sisters, Jean and Evelyn; an older brother, Henry E. I. du Pont; and a younger half brother, William du Pont III, born of their father's second marriage.

Du Pont graduated from Haverford School in 1957.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he belonged to the Zeta Psi fraternity, but withdrew before completing his freshman year.

He later attended college in Miami, Florida, where he studied under and was mentored by scientist Oscar T. Owre.

He founded the Delaware Museum of Natural History in 1957.

He graduated from the University of Miami in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology.

In 1972, du Pont founded and directed the Delaware Museum of Natural History and contributed to Villanova University and other institutions.

As a young man, he served on the board, helping guide the institution toward opening in 1972.

After having been part of scientific expeditions, he served as director of the museum for many years.

He went on to complete a doctorate in natural science from Villanova University in 1973.

In the 1980s, he established a wrestling facility at his Foxcatcher Farm estate after becoming interested in the sport and in pentathlon events.

Du Pont became a prominent supporter of amateur sports in the United States and a sponsor of USA Wrestling.

At the age of 45, on September 3, 1983, du Pont married 29-year-old Gale Wenk, an occupational therapist.

They met after he injured his hand in an auto accident.

They lived together for less than six months.

Du Pont filed for divorce when they had been married for ten months.

Wenk sued du Pont for $5 million, claiming he had pointed a gun at her and tried to push her into a fireplace.

The divorce became final in 1987.

Du Pont's will excluded her from inheriting any of his estate.

In 1987, it was estimated that John du Pont was worth $200 million.

Du Pont was also a philatelist.

By the 1990s, friends and acquaintances were concerned about du Pont's erratic and paranoid behavior, but his wealth shielded him.

On February 25, 1997, he was convicted of murder in the third degree for the January 26, 1996, shooting of Dave Schultz, an Olympic champion freestyle wrestler living and working on du Pont's estate that was located in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

He was ruled to have been mentally ill but not insane and was sentenced to prison for thirteen to thirty years.

Du Pont died in prison at age 72 on December 9, 2010.

To date, he is the only member of the Forbes 400 richest Americans to be convicted of murder.

During an October 2015 podcast, Mark Schultz revealed that when du Pont was about thirty years old, a horse he was riding threw him onto a fence, resulting in injury to his testicles.

They became infected and had to be removed, resulting in androgynous characteristics for the remainder of his life.

During his graduate work, du Pont participated in several scientific expeditions to study and identify species of birds in the Philippines and South Pacific.

As an ornithologist, du Pont is credited with the discovery of two dozen species of birds.

Both his parents' families had emigrated from Europe to the United States at the beginning of the 19th century and became highly successful.