Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz sat down with MMA History Podcast host Mike Davis to speak openly about the passing away of his brother Dave Schultz and the complicated aftermath that followed John DuPont’s time at Foxcatcher Farm.
Recalling the day he learned of Dave’s death, Schultz said he was working in his office at BYU when he received a call from his father.
“My dad called me and he goes, ‘Are you sitting down?'” Schultz recalled.
His father then delivered the devastating news.
“He goes, ‘Dupont drove up to Dave’s house and sh*t him, k*lled him.'”
The surprise immediately turned into anger and disbelief.
“And I threw the phone at the wall and I threw a bunch of other stuff at the wall,” Schultz said.
In the hours that followed, Schultz watched events unfold on television as DuPont barricaded himself inside his Pennsylvania estate. The standoff lasted roughly 48 hours before police ultimately convinced DuPont to leave the mansion by offering to restore heat to the property, leading to his arrest.
The discussion then shifted to Pat Goodale, DuPont’s head of security, who was riding in the vehicle with DuPont on January 26, 1996, when Dave Schultz was m*rdered. Goodale escaped after DuPont opened fire, taking cover behind a metal barrel.
While Schultz acknowledged that Goodale may not have known what DuPont was about to do, he argued that Goodale played a role in reinforcing DuPont’s increasingly distorted view of reality in order to maintain his position at Foxcatcher.
“He was definitely turning the volume up on somebody that was having issues with reality,” the host said. “That’s a fact.”
Schultz agreed, saying, “Yeah, that is a fact.”
The conversation later turned to Bulgarian wrestling legend Valentine Jordanov, who trained at Foxcatcher and famously declined to testify for the prosecution during DuPont’s trial.
The prosecutor who would later handle the Jerry Sandusky case publicly criticized Jordanov’s decision, calling him a “little punk because he can’t tell the truth.”
According to Schultz, Jordanov’s relationship with DuPont continued long after the m*rder. He claimed Jordanov visited DuPont in prison, moved into a house near the correctional facility, remained on DuPont’s payroll, and was eventually named the sole beneficiary of his estate.
“His whole family is worth hundreds of millions of dollars now,” Schultz said.
He then detailed what he believes various members of Jordanov’s family received from the inheritance.
“I think Valentine himself got 10 million and then Valentine’s brother got 10 million, his parents got 10 million, everybody’s got 10 million.”
Despite the financial benefits, Schultz believes Jordanov has never escaped the weight of those decisions.
“You can see he’s bothered even until today,” the host said. “He’s still haunted. You can look at him. He’s haunted. You can’t even look at the camera in the eye.”
Schultz agreed, saying, “He’ll be that way forever cuz you can’t get away from that.”
