ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996           TAG: 9609230040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: MEDIA, PA. 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

HEIR SAID TO BE IN FANTASY LAND DEFENDANT DU PONT THINKS HE'S JESUS, EX-ATTORNEY SAYS

Murder defendant John E. du Pont lives in a fantasy world of Republican killers and Nazi henchmen and fancies himself Jesus, the Dalai Lama and the last of the Romanovs, his ex-lawyer testified Friday at a hearing on whether the millionaire is competent to stand trial.

``Every time I tried to talk about the case, I would be taken off into these other grandiose world events,'' said Richard Sprague, the first witness at du Pont's competency hearing.

Du Pont, a 57-year-old heir to the DuPont Co. chemical fortune, is to stand trial Sept. 30 for the murder of world-class wrestler David Schultz unless Common Pleas Judge Patricia Jenkins rules that he is incapable of understanding the charges against him.

If he is found incompetent, du Pont will be confined to a mental hospital until he is deemed fit to stand trial.

Du Pont last week fired Sprague, considered one of Philadelphia's best defense lawyers, and co-counsel William Lamb, accusing them of conspiring against him with the CIA.

``I think he is incompetent. I think he is mentally ill. I think he is severely in need of treatment and he should be in an appropriate mental facility for the best possible treatment,'' Sprague said.

Sprague said du Pont called himself the head of the Communist Party and president of Bulgaria. ``He told me that he was the Dalai Lama. He told me he was the Christ child. He told me he was the last surviving heir of the ruling family of Russia,'' the lawyer said.

Sprague quoted du Pont as saying that Schultz was ``killed by the Republicans because I didn't contribute to them.''

At another point, Sprague testified, du Pont said Schultz was shot on the millionaire's estate in suburban Newtown Square because he had smuggled a Nazi flag with mystical powers into Russia.

While Schultz's widow, Nancy, and friends listened in the courtroom, Sprague said du Pont thought he and the wrestler shared a title - Nazi Fuehrer.

Schultz was living with his wife and two children on du Pont's Foxcatcher Estate while training and coaching at a sports complex there. Du Pont holed up inside his mansion for two days after the shooting before his arrest.

LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   FILE  John E. du Pont leaves the Delaware County Court.
          His ex-lawyer, Richard Sprague, testified he didn't understand the 
          case against him.