The chemical fortune heir who killed an Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler at his palatial suburban Philadelphia estate has died in prison.
State prisons spokeswoman Susan McNaughton says John Du Pont was found unresponsive in his cell Thursday morning at the state prison at Laurel Highlands in Somerset County. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Somerset Community Hospital. Du Pont was 72.
Du Pont fancied himself a patron to wrestlers and built a world-class training facility at his estate in Newtown Square. In 1996 he shot and killed wrestler David Schultz and then barricaded himself in his home for two days. Du Pont was found guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 13 to 30 years in jail.
McNaughton says Du Pont had recently been ill, though she didn't elaborate.
