Du Pont

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER In his later years, John Eleuthère du Pont believed he was the Dalai Lama, Jesus Christ, and a Russian czar, according to court documents filed by a niece and nephew seeking to overturn the eccentric millionaire's will. He also believed that he was a top CIA consultant and the target of assassins, and that angry Republicans had killed Olympic wrestler David Schultz, the man du Pont murdered, according to a petition filed by William H. du Pont and Beverly Austin du Pont Gaugger.

Lawyers for John E. du Pont yesterday asked that his arraignment, scheduled for Thursday in Delaware County Court, be postponed to give the defense team time to get results from a court-ordered evaluation of du Pont's competency to stand trial. If the postponement is not granted, they requested that they be given more time before disclosing whether they plan to make du Pont's mental state an issue in their defense. The defense attorneys' requests were quickly opposed by the Delaware County District Attorney's Office.

His family is insisting that John du Pont is mentally ill, that he's been acting queerly for years. His lawyers might want that behavior to continue - at least for a while longer. The first few weeks after his arrest may prove to be the most critical to du Pont's defense if his attorneys intend to claim that du Pont was legally insane when he allegedly shot to death Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz, say lawyers who have defended mentally ill criminal defendents. "You have to get defendants when they are delusional," said Paul Conway, chief of homicide and special defense for the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

John E. du Pont didn't make it home for Christmas, and he won't be home to ring in the new year. To the surprise of no one, Delaware County Judge Patricia H. Jenkins yesterday denied bail to the millionaire accused-killer for a third time this year. Du Pont, 58, will remain incarcerated at Norristown State Hospital until his trial starts on Jan. 21. The chemicals heir is accused of shooting Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Schultz at du Pont's Foxcatcher Farms athletic compound in Newtown Square last Jan. 26. Du Pont's attorneys had asked on Christmas Eve that their client be permitted to return to his sprawling estate.

After nine weeks in a jail cell, millionaire accused killer John E. du Pont is losing his grip, and his lawyers want him out. The attorneys yesterday asked a Delaware County judge to set bail for the chemicals heir, claiming his "physical condition and overall well-being has deteriorated" since he was locked up on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 28. "We didn't think we could wait any longer," said defense attorney William Lamb. He said a court-ordered mental competency examination likely will not be held till mid-May.

For Du Pont, the chemical giant, production of chorofluorocarbons - Feon, for instance - is a $600 million-a-year business. So it has been unsurprising that the company didn't rush to join cause with scientists who wanted them banned to spare the earth's protective layer of ozone - the stuff that blocks sun rays that can cause skin cancer. But faced with new evidence that Feon-type substances are on more of a rampage than previously thought, Du Pont called boldly last week for their total phase-out, one-upping a 31-nation treaty that requires reduction by 50 percent.

A large tank containing recycled sulfuric acid exploded yesterday afternoon in Salem County, rocking Du Pont Co.'s Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, officials said. The tank exploded at 1:36 p.m. at the center of Du Pont's largest chemical plant, said Kelli Kukura, a company spokeswoman. The 30,000-gallon-capacity tank contained about 22,000 gallons of recycled sulfuric acid. The explosion created a thick cloud of smoke, officials said. The ensuing fire was brought under control in half an hour and extinguished by about 3 p.m., officials said.

If millionaire accused-killer John E. du Pont is freed on bail, he'll never return for trial, a prosecutor charged yesterday. Certain that the eccentric marksman has already plotted his escape, Delaware County Special Assistant District Attorney Dennis McAndrews told a state Superior Court panel that a lower court judge was correct in denying du Pont bail last month. "We will not bring this man to trial if he is released on bail," McAndrews told the panel. Du Pont is accused in the Jan. 26 slaying of Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Schultz.

Two of the big losers in the New Hampshire primary - Republican Pete du Pont of Delaware and Democrat Bruce Babbitt - were expected to drop out of the race today, as the big winners prepared for the critical Super Tuesday primaries in the South. Du Pont, who won just 10 percent of the GOP vote in New Hampshire, scheduled a news conference in Wilmington. Campaign sources said he will announce his withdrawal. And campaign aides and supporters of Babbitt, the former Arizona governor who placed sixth in New Hampshire with just 5 percent of the vote, said yesterday that he is expected to become the first Democrat to withdraw from the presidential race.

The board of directors of Du Pont Co. yesterday dubbed Edgar S. Woolard Jr. as its new chairman, come 1989. Woolard, with the Wilmington-based industrial giant since 1957, will replace Richard E. Heckert as chairman and chief executive, the company said yesterday. Woolard, 54, has been Du Pont's president since March 1, 1987. He will take the helm when Heckert retires after Du Pont's annual meeting next April. The mandatory retirement age for CEOs at Du Pont is 65; Heckert turns 65 in January.

DuPont Co., of Wilmington, awarded chairman and chief executive officer Ellen J. Kullman a package of short- and long-term incentives that could total $13.2 million in cash and stock, according to a company filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The figure reflects a 2012 incentive payment of $1.9 million, and future performance-based incentives. The company also gave Kullman a 3 percent salary increase, to $1.44 million annually, effective March 1, the filing said.

WHYY-FM has won the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast and digital journalism. WHYY shared the award with Harrisburg station WITF-FM and NPR for a jointly produced series of radio and Web reports on issues related to natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. The awards were announced at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City on Wednesday morning. The announcement praised the project, "StateImpact Pennsylvania," as "an important model for reporting on local issues.

DuPont Co. lied to a federal court and investors about its right to use Monsanto Co. seed technology as a central part of its defense in a patent lawsuit, a judge has ruled. DuPont "knowingly perpetrated a fraud against the court," according to a Nov. 16 order by U.S. District Judge Richard Webber unsealing sanctions he levied last December that limited the company's defenses in the lawsuit brought by Monsanto. E-mails from DuPont executives and lawyers show they knew the company didn't have an agreement allowing it to combine Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans with a second trait, while telling the court and public for years that it had such a right, Webber ruled.

Private-equity behemoth Carlyle Group stepped into the Philadelphia region again Thursday by agreeing to pay $4.9 billion for the automotive and industrial paint division of DuPont Co., which is based in Wilmington. DuPont Performance Coatings makes or sells paints in 70 countries and has 11,000 employees worldwide, including about 600 in the Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey region. It was unclear Thursday how many might lose their jobs when the unit shifts to Carlyle after the deal closes in early 2013 - or how many remaining with DuPont might be laid off in the future because of the divestiture.

Keeping up with Dave Schultz was never merely a workout, more like an adventure. Running through the woods of the Foxcatcher estate in Newtown Square, "stopping to do tai chi," then continuing on to Schultz's house to climb a rope hung from a tree. Or being woken up by Schultz to go hunt in the woods, or learning from Schultz how to skin a deer, or make deer jerky, or wrestling while listening to Schultz's favorite workout tape, consisting of the same song, "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" by Traffic, which Schultz had taped over and over.

Raymond E. Batten, 83, a retired DuPont Co. supervisor, home builder, and health store owner, formerly of Gloucester County, died of complications from emphysema on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach, Fla. After graduating from Pitman High School in 1946, Mr. Batten became an apprentice mechanic at the DuPont plant in Carneys Point, Salem County. He remained with DuPont for 36 years, retiring as senior supervisor for storage and transport. In his spare time, Mr. Batten did home improvements for neighbors.

DuPont Co. agreed Thursday to pay $725,000 in fines after New Jersey investigators found that its Salem County chemical manufacturing facility did not follow state rules on handling hazardous waste. This is the second time in five years state environmental officials have cited the company over its Chambers Works facility, a 1,455-acre site on the Delaware River in Pennsville, Deepwater, and Carneys Point. In 2006, DuPont agreed to pay $105,000 after the Department of Environmental Protection found more than 220 cases of chemicals and waste had been spilled or improperly discharged at the plant.

There are two compelling reasons for attending Wiederseim Associates' Thanksgiving weekend auction, beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. Many of the 700 lots in the sale at the Ludwig's Corner firehouse in Glenmoore will make attractive - and affordable - holiday gifts. And many of those come from one of Chester County's most famous - if ill-fated - estates: the late John E. du Pont's Foxcatcher Farm in Newtown Square. "It's a big sale for Christmas," Ted Wiederseim said this week. Wiederseim's sales have always appealed to the gentry of Chester County and their fondness for fox hunting and associated equestrian themes.

Samuel E. Walker, 92, a former executive with the Du Pont Co., died Thursday, Nov. 17, at the hospice at Kendal-Crosslands, the retirement community near Kennett Square, after a stroke. Mr. Walker was named Du Pont's man of the year in 1983, according to his wife, Joae. Born in Somerset, Pa., Mr. Walker earned a bachelor's in math and chemistry at Franklin and Marshall College in 1940. During World War II, Mr. Walker served in the Quartermaster Corps in the Pacific.