Ex-Harvard Med School Professor turned Cross-Dressing Murderer Hangs Himself in Jail Cell
Wife-killer and cross-dresser Richard Sharpe made one final round of headlines this morning after hanging himself in his Norfolk, Mass. jail cell. The former Harvard Medical School professor and millionaire was nearly eight years into his life sentence for killing his wife Karen in 2000. To be more specific, Sharpe shot the mother of his three children in the chest with a hunting rifle in the foyer of their home while her family watched.
But wait—there’s more. Not only did Sharpe enjoy the occasional stroll in fishnets and heels, he also stole his wife’s birth control pills in an attempt to grow bigger breasts. The cross-dressing seems innocent compared to the brutal murder, but Sharpe lost all sense of humanity after allegedly plotting to kill the district attorney who convicted him in 2001. (The nutty professor was acquitted of these charges in 2007 after a jury decided that Sharpe’s rapist cellmate wasn’t the most trustworthy witness.)
The case is old news now having run the true-crime gamut from a Court TV special to a pulpy paperback entitled Twisted. Each detail—from Sharpe’s abusive father to Harvard’s knack for psychopaths—reveals the story to be both frightening and tragic. It’s only a matter of time until Lifetime options the book for their library of can’t-stop-watching movies.
