Jean Harris, who killed Scarsdale Diet Doctor Herman Tarnower in 1980, dead at 89

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Jean S. Harris, Killer of Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Is Dead at 89 (New York Times)
Jean S. Harris, the private-school headmistress whose 1981 trial for the murder of a prominent Scarsdale, N.Y., physician galvanized a nation mulling feminist perspectives with its story of vengeance by an aging woman scorned, died on Sunday at an assisted-living facility in New Haven. She was 89.
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For more than a year — from her arrest on March 10, 1980, to her sentencing for second-degree murder on March 20, 1981 — Mrs. Harris’s case was front-page news.

The trial provided the fascination of a love triangle involving the cultivated headmistress of an exclusive girls’ school, a wealthy cardiologist whose book, “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet,” had been a best-seller and an attractive younger rival for his affection. If Mrs. Harris was to be believed, it was the story of an attempted suicide by a jilted woman that turned into the unintentional shooting of the man who had ditched her.
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much more at link above
 
Back in it's day this story dominated the news. After Jean was imprisoned a friends husband became obsessed with her case and began writing to her to try to help free her. Jean wrote back and thanked him for his concern but refused any of his help. Instead she told him that she knew of a women in prison with her that might need his help. He wasn't a private detective or even close to it but thought he could do some good. He left his wife of 35 years to be near the prison. Last I ever heard of him he fell in love with a women prisoner who killed her husband. True story.
 
I always felt bad for her.


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I always felt bad for her.

I did, too, but I don't think anything justifies murder. (Not that you said it did, Linda. I'm just adding on here.)

I can even understand how she may have been out of her mind and out of control when she shot the doctor. But then it really isn't safe to let her wander among the rest of us. At the least, she should have been in a hospital.
 
Back in it's day this story dominated the news. After Jean was imprisoned a friends husband became obsessed with her case and began writing to her to try to help free her. Jean wrote back and thanked him for his concern but refused any of his help. Instead she told him that she knew of a women in prison with her that might need his help. He wasn't a private detective or even close to it but thought he could do some good. He left his wife of 35 years to be near the prison. Last I ever heard of him he fell in love with a women prisoner who killed her husband. True story.

Another loser!!
 
I always felt bad for her.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I never felt bad for her, EVER! No one on God's green earth should ever take another person's life. It doesn't matter how "upset", "vengeful", et.al. she was!! Take the gun and kill yourself - not others!! :banghead:
 
I felt like she had remorse and didn't seem like a psychopath like Betty Broderick.
 
Ya know, I think I, too, was justified in being VERY angry when my husband of 20 years screwed a 17 year old high school student friend of our sons.

But murder??? Uh, no.

If we, as a society, say that is ok, then we're all going to he'll in a hand basket. Just about everyone will be murdering someone when they get mad enough. And everyone will define for themselves exactly what "mad enough" is.

Uh, no.
 
Ya know, I think I, too, was justified in being VERY angry when my husband of 20 years screwed a 17 year old high school student friend of our sons.

But murder??? Uh, no.

If we, as a society, say that is ok, then we're all going to he'll in a hand basket. Just about everyone will be murdering someone when they get mad enough. And everyone will define for themselves exactly what "mad enough" is.

Uh, no.

Sorry that happened to you OneLove. That must have hurt you on so many levels. I'm glad that you've come out of it a healthy persom. Love.
 
Thanks 4Jacy. :) Truth be told, looking back, he relieved me of any fragment of attachment to the marriage. That was the turning point, the end of my denial, and the beginning of what has turned out to be a wonderful new life for me.

I always felt very badly for the young girl though. What he did was a crime against her and she has had to live with that as a lifelong memory from an impressionable age. He was 47 at the time, he should have known better. I truly hope she has been okay.
 
Thanks 4Jacy. :) Truth be told, looking back, he relieved me of any fragment of attachment to the marriage. That was the turning point, the end of my denial, and the beginning of what has turned out to be a wonderful new life for me.

I always felt very badly for the young girl though. What he did was a crime against her and she has had to live with that as a lifelong memory from an impressionable age. He was 47 at the time, he should have known better. I truly hope she has been okay.

Well, I am so glad that you came out of all this, and that your life is now happy and healthy. God bless you girlfriend.

On another note, I do agree that it was horrible what he did to the young woman. However, as far as the shooter goes, to me, it was her vanity, jealousy, and the fact that she was the "older woman" that set her off. How dare this bit-h take another persons' life. How dare she!!
 
Well, I am so glad that you came out of all this, and that your life is now happy and healthy. God bless you girlfriend.

On another note, I do agree that it was horrible what he did to the young woman. However, as far as the shooter goes, to me, it was her vanity, jealousy, and the fact that she was the "older woman" that set her off. How dare this bit-h take another persons' life. How dare she!!

I very much agree with you on the vanity and jealousy. I'll add to that a huge dose of "sense of entitlement". I think her attitude toward him was "how dare he". But he didn't murder HER. If he had, i don't think anyone would be feeling sorry for HIM, no matter what her character defects might have been.

I am shocked at blaming the murdered victim and excusing the homicidal maniac. Murder is in a whole different category than cheating.
 

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