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HARRIS, JEAN 1923-

MURDERER

Early Years

Jean Harris was born Jean Struven on 27 April 1923 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a successful but bigoted engineer who was verbally abusive to those who disagreed with him. Despite his attitude, she enjoyed a privileged upper-middle-class lifestyle and did well in school. She married James Harris and they led a happy existence, with Jim working at a carburetor manufacturer and Jean working as a teacher. However, a silent growing discontent was awakening in Jean. In 1964 she finally decided to end the marriage, and she obtained a divorce the next year. She later left the teaching field to enter the academic administration arena for the increased income it provided. But the nonstop work was beginning to take its toll and her social life was virtually nonexistent until December 1966.

Introduction

A friend invited Harris to a dinner party in an attempt to fix her up. It was there that she met Dr. Herman Tarnower. Like Jean, Tarnower was also something of a social climber, and over the years he had established a large practice for himself and had founded the Scarsdale Medical Center in Scarsdale, New York. Hi, as he liked to be called, and Harris hit it off from the start. Correspondence followed, and they first dated in March 1967. The affair between the two continued off and on throughout the 1970s. During this time Hi once proposed to Jean but later backed out, citing the fact that he was a confirmed bachelor. As the decade wore on, Tarnower openly dated other women, including his secretary, Lynne Tryforos. While Harris appeared to be happy and did not seem to mind the other women, in fact she was under increasing pressure. Tension between her and Tryforos increased, and Harris began receiving anonymous telephone calls suggesting that she take sex lessons or calling her old and pathetic.

The Scarsdale Diet

In January 1979 Tarnower published The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, and it immediately became a best-seller, earning Tarnower millions of dollars. Tarnower went on a book tour and took Tryforos with him, effectively shutting Harris out of a large part of his life. Harris was suffering from depression and exhaustion from trying to compete with the younger Tryforos for Tarnower's attention. On 10 March 1980, suffering from withdrawal from an antidepressant that Tarnower had prescribed for her and that she had run out of, she decided to commit suicide at Tarnower's house.

Fact or Fiction?

According to her testimony, Harris pulled into the driveway of Tarnower's house. The house was dark and she was disappointed that Tarnower had not left a light on for her. He was already asleep when she went upstairs to the bedroom. She wanted to talk to him but he abruptly told her to be quiet and go to sleep. She entered the bathroom, saw a nightgown and hair curlers that were not hers, and threw the curlers at the dresser, breaking the glass. Tarnower appeared at the bathroom door and, for the first time ever, struck her across the face and told her to get out. She took a gun out of her purse, placed it against her head, and pulled the trigger. At that moment Tarnower jumped for it from behind her and was shot in the hand. A struggle for the gun ensued and he was shot in the torso. Harris then tried to shoot herself again only to realize that the gun was empty. The police arrived shortly thereafter and she admitted that she had shot Tarnower. Later that night he was pronounced dead, and Harris was charged with murder. After a trial that many thought might have resulted in her acquittal were it not for her insistence to take the stand in her own defense, she was found guilty of intentional murder. She was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. A model inmate, she suffered two heart attacks in prison, and as she was awaiting quadruple-bypass heart surgery, Gov. Mario Cuomo pardoned her on 29 December 1992.