'Foxcatcher' book details wrestler's du Pont murder plot

Seven years before his brother was murdered by John du Pont, a seething Mark Schultz hatched a detailed plan to kill du Pont, the multimillionaire who had manipulated him and destroyed his athletic career.

The 1989 scheme was precise.

Schultz would hide in the bushes at du Pont's 880-acre Foxcatcher Farm estate in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, and shoot an arrow into du Pont's head.

The U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler would then stand over the du Pont heir as he was dying, so he would know it was Schultz who had killed him.

Schultz planned to plunge arrow after arrow into his body with the last shot reserved for du Pont's eye or throat as he begged for his life.

In Schultz's dark and meticulously crafted fantasy, he would be careful not to get too close, so none of du Pont's blood would get on him.

Afterward, he would drive to Brazil, marry a Brazilian woman and have a child so he could avoid deportation.

Schultz never got past buying a miniature crossbow and practicing on a milk jug, which he imagined to be du Pont's head. He decided to let du Pont live and push past his maddening time in which he was trapped in du Pont's perverted world. It was a world that would eventually swallow his brother Dave.

"Murder is a huge step," Mark Schultz, 54, told The News Journal in a recent interview from his Oregon home, explaining why he didn't go through with the assassination. "To fantasize about something and to actually do it are two different things.

"I'm not a murderer."

Du Pont had created a sports facility at Foxcatcher Farm in the 1980s as a place for top-flight athletes, mostly wrestlers and triathletes, to train. Mark Schultz was the wrestling coach, succeeded by his brother Dave. He lived there with his family in a guest house, working at the 14,000-square-foot Foxcatcher National Training Center.

In 1996, du Pont shot Dave Schultz to death in a driveway of the guest house as his wife Nancy looked on in horror. Mark Schultz was working as a wrestling coach at Brigham Young University when his brother was shot multiple times with a .44-caliber revolver by du Pont.

The troubled du Pont committed the act from the driver's seat of a silver Lincoln Town Car before calmly driving back to his mansion before being arrested.

Timed to coincide with the release of the feature film "Foxcatcher," starring Steve Carell and Channing Tatum, Schultz's autobiography of the same name includes several other revelations from his years training with du Pont and living on his sprawling estate:

-- Schultz, who believes du Pont faked incompetency during his trial, writes that he felt compassion for du Pont only once. One day at the mansion, du Pont revealed that he was in a horse-riding accident when he was young, landing on a fence after being thrown from his horse. His testicles became infected, were removed and replaced with plastic gonads. "I actually felt genuine pity for him. And I still do. It's taken a long time for me to get to that point, but I feel sorry for him," Schultz says.

-- During a tour of Greenville's Delaware Museum of Natural History, which was founded by du Pont and housed his extensive collection of birds, bird eggs and sea shells, Schultz says he felt sick. Seeing one of du Pont's most sacred places filled with real stuffed animals made him realize that was how du Pont looked at him and the other wrestlers: as collectibles. "We were his newest trophies," he wrote. "If you didn't want to be displayed on his wall, he threatened to ruin you."

-- Schultz saw first-hand how powerful du Pont was because of his wealth. Du Pont regularly made donations to the local police department, allowed them to train at his gun range and even received a badge and a volunteer position with the force. One night, du Pont showed Schultz what appeared to be a kilo of cocaine in a police evidence bag kept in a dresser drawer – a bag Schultz believes du Pont stole from the police station. "John shoved a straw into the bag and took the biggest hit of coke I have ever seen anyone take," writes Schultz, who admits he did cocaine with du Pont at times.

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The book gives readers an in-depth look behind Foxcatcher's gates, showing du Pont's year-by-year unraveling, which culminated with him fatally shooting Dave Schultz – who also had won a gold medal for the United States in wrestling – on his estate in January 1996.

The closely followed case, which gained national attention, ended with the 58-year-old du Pont being found mentally ill and guilty of third-degree murder. He was sentenced to 13 to 30 years in prison. He died in 2010 at 72 of natural causes at a prison hospital in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Nearly 20 years after Schultz's killing, the story has been made into a Hollywood film directed by Bennett Miller ("Moneyball," "Capote"), with Carell playing du Pont and Tatum as Mark Schultz. Dave Schultz is played by Mark Ruffalo.

While "Foxcatcher" opened in limited release Nov. 14, it made its Delaware debut a few days ago at Brandywine Town Center 16 in Brandywine Hundred. It will be added at Peoples Plaza Cinema 17 in Glasgow on Dec. 19, according to film representatives.

Downright creepy

Loser. Idiot. Bastard. Demon.

Those are the words that Schultz uses to describe du Pont in the book, co-written by David Thomas, an author and former sports journalist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The scene he describes of their first meeting is downright creepy. Du Pont, he said, was in the same condition he was nearly all the time: high on something.

Du Pont abused alcohol, prescription drugs and cocaine regularly in a quest for instant gratification and now the 26-year-old Olympic champion, who built his career on self-discipline, honor and respect, was staring at his direct opposite.

Du Pont wanted to start a wresting program at Villanova University, to which he donated heavily. The school let him begin work on creating an NCAA Division I wrestling team.

The first meeting was at a hotel and Schultz writes that when the door opened that he was suddenly "staring at a loser" looking very much like "Richie Rich all grown up and hooked on drugs."

"My gut reaction was a feeling of revulsion," Schultz wrote, noting du Pont's bad dye job of Ronald McDonald red hair with graying roots, thick dandruff and yellowed teeth covered in chewed food. "I wanted to ask him if he had looked in a mirror recently."

While training on du Pont's estate, where he would later build a 14,000-square-foot Foxcatcher National Training Center for wrestling, Schultz saw plenty of bizarre behavior out of du Pont, later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

There was the night when du Pont barged into Schultz's living quarters – he kept a key – and pointed a rifle at Schultz and his girlfriend while the two were in bed.

Another time, he showed up to practice waving a gun around. Schultz said the other wrestlers scattered as he just looked at du Pont.

"He was trying to act like a big man. Nobody thought du Pont would shoot, much less kill, another person. Why would anyone with his money, power and influence risk losing all that to live in a prison cell? John was unstable, but he was not insane," Schultz wrote.

Du Pont was obsessed with a wrestling move he called the "Foxcatcher Five," which involved him grabbing a wrestler's testicles with all five fingers. He came up with the idea after Schultz told him about one of his matches where he was on his back and unable to move. His hand was pinned to the mat by his opponent's genitals so Schultz did the only thing he could – he squeezed. Du Pont used the move on fellow coaches and other wrestlers, but never Schultz.

He tried once, but Schultz wrote that he gave him a look that said, "Touch me and you're dead."

Du Pont believed there were spies and spirits inside his home, even having the mansion's columns X-rayed. One day, he had wrestlers search his property, convinced there were Nazi spies hiding in the trees. Another wrestler was once told to take his hat off because du Pont believed it was transmitting signals.

"His behavior was usually dismissed with, 'That's just John' or attributed to his alcohol or cocaine use," Schultz wrote.

When Schultz watched du Pont snort the large amount of cocaine from the evidence bag, he said he asked du Pont if he should call 911 if he ever overdosed. Du Pont's responded, "No, call my lawyer."

"It didn't surprise me. He had so much power and so much money," Schultz said. "Everybody had their hand out and looked the other way just to keep making money."

A sheltered world

After being raised alone in the mansion by his mother, du Pont's sheltered world never expanded.

His was a world of loneliness. Combined with some of his behavior, there were rumors that he was gay. But after Schultz heard du Pont's story about his horse-riding accident, he had a fuller understanding of du Pont's demeanor and appearance.

Du Pont told Schultz he had to give himself testosterone shots every day and sometimes forgot. Schultz believed every word as he closely watched him tell the story, detecting "no deception or ulterior motive," which Schultz described as a rarity.

"I believed the story because it made things I had noticed about John suddenly make sense. He had androgynous characteristics. He could act feminine," he wrote. "He had emotional issues and a lack of confidence. Maybe that was why he drank so much.

"That was the one time I felt genuine pity for John."

Deception and ulterior motives were du Pont's strong suit. He reveled in using his money to make people compromise their principles, seeking out the price it would take to make even the strongest person bend.

Given his upbringing, isolation, mental illness and the protection and power that his fortune gave him, Schultz doesn't believe du Pont ever had a chance at living a normal life.

"I think he was trapped. He had so much inherited wealth that there was nothing to fight against to strengthen him," Schultz says. "He was the weakest man I ever met physically and mentally. It made me sick."

Even du Pont's philanthropy was tied to power. Schultz said his donations were in exchange for ego-stroking recognition and media attention, like when his donations led to his name being emblazoned on buildings at Villanova and Crozer-Chester Medical Center. He would orchestrate elaborate awards ceremonies to honor himself. He also financed and produced films and books about himself.

Schultz said he saw the true du Pont when there was no attention to be gained, like the time a woman contacted him asking if she could bring some orphans to the property to swim in his pool. "We're not bringing the have-nots out here to see what the haves have," du Pont responded, according to Schultz.

Another time, du Pont kicked three black wrestlers off his estate, saying "the Ku Klux Klan ran Foxcatcher," Schultz wrote.

Even du Pont's move to open the Delaware Museum of Natural History was an exercise to show off his large collection. By the time Schultz toured it, more than a decade after it opened in 1972, the wrestler says it gave him a view into du Pont's soul.

"It didn't seem filled with philanthropy, kindness and generosity. Instead, his soul seemed dark, small and cramped," Schultz wrote. "He killed [animals], owned them, controlled them and hung them on walls for other people to admire."

Schultz could relate. That's what he felt like when du Pont would lead him by the hand to meet acquaintances he wanted to impress or when he made a huge poster of an oiled-up Schultz flexing his muscles with the words "TEAM FOXCATCHER" in capital letters underneath.

Du Pont was taking credit for Schultz's hard work and accomplishments at a time when du Pont had turned against him, explicitly telling Schultz he would ruin his career.

"He climbed to the top of USA Wrestling using the credibility he got from my name," said Schultz, who fought in Ultimate Fighting Championship MMA matches for a short time after his retirement from wrestling.

Schultz's career came crashing down at the 1988 Olympic trials before the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Schultz refused to give a win to "Team Foxcatcher" and its deranged leader.

He purposely lost 14-0 to Turkish wrestler Necmi Gençalp, who went on to win the silver medal at the Olympics that year. "I went out a loser. I was depressed for about eight years after that," he said.

He added, "In [du Pont's] mind, our lives only existed to glorify him. And he would do anything to get what he wanted, which was respect. But he didn't earn it though. That was the problem. He thought he could buy it."

A carthartic experience

It has been almost 19 years since Schultz was at Brigham Young University working as a wrestling coach when he got a call from his father telling him du Pont had just shot and killed his brother, who had replaced him as a coach at Foxcatcher Farm.

Over the past few years, Schultz has been re-living that time in his life while writing his book, spending time on the film's Pittsburgh-area set and doing media interviews tied to both releases. He is writing a screenplay for a film and planning a move to Los Angeles. He also gives motivational speeches, represented by Keppler Speakers Bureau.

He said he thinks about his brother every day. He has a Leroy Neiman painting of Dave Schultz just outside his bedroom.

Schultz has seen the film five times, finally being able to separate it (and Carell's haunting performance) from his real life tragedy during his most recent viewing.

"It's been cathartic for me," he says. "The greatest feeling I have is that my brother will now be immortalized."

Contact Ryan Cormier at (302) 324-2863 or rcormier@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/ryancormier.

IF YOU GO

"Foxcatcher" is in limited release, first opening at Brandywine Town Center 16 in Brandywine Hundred last week. It will be added at Peoples Plaza Cinema 17 in Glasgow on Dec. 19, according to the film's representatives.