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A DuPont Family Father-Son Fight Goes to Court
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Candidate
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| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Edited | RBH Feb 04, 2008 01:05am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, December 11, 1992 07:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Edgar Newbold Smith has spent the last seven years trying to extricate his son, an heir to the Du Pont chemical fortune, from the extremist political organization of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.
But Mr. Smith, a securities analyst here, has little to show for his efforts, apart from his son's enmity. And now Mr. Smith is scheduled to stand trial in Alexandria, Va., on Federal charges that he conspired with cult specialists to kidnap his 36-year-old son, Lewis duPont Smith, so the son could be "deprogrammed," or freed from Mr. LaRouche's influence.
The discussions among Mr. Smith and the specialists were revealed to the authorities by a private investigator who had been hired to follow Mr. Smith's son. Eventually the authorities tape recorded 60 hours of conversations. If convicted, Mr. Smith and the three cult specialists could receive sentences ranging from probation to life in prison. The trial begins Monday.
Mr. Smith denies there was a kidnapping plan, but he does not deny that he had considered abduction. "It's just like my son is being held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon, with very much the same set of emotions," Mr. Smith said as he and his wife, Margaret duPont Smith, were interviewed at their home in this affluent Philadelphia suburb.
"When I think of all that's been lost, it's tragic," said Mrs. Smith, who accuses the LaRouche organization of turning her son against his parents, sister, two brothers and childhood friends, not to mention the Du PontChemical Company, which the son, a shareholder, says is run by gangsters. |
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