Jean Harris

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Jean Harris (b. Jean Struven in Cleveland on April 27, 1923) was the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia who made national news in 1980 as the defendant in a high-profile murder case of her ex-lover Dr. Herman Tarnower, the well-known cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Scarsdale Diet.

Jean Harris attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she graduated magna cum laude in May, 1945 as a steady-eyed economics major. She subsequently married and had two sons.

Harris met Tarnower about two years after her divorce in 1965 and became his mistress. He showered her with gifts and took her on exotic vacations during their 14-year relationship. Tarnower was a lifelong bachelor and had several affairs in addition to his trysts with Jean Harris. Tarnower was a very respected cardiologist who was as much a ladies' man as he was a doctor. He hired a petite young divorcee named Lynne Tryforos to work as a secretary-receptionist at the Scarsdale Medical Center. Within a short period of time, Tryforos and Tarnower began an affair lasting several years and it became clear that Jean Harris was in the process of being displaced by the younger woman; the two women were 20 years apart in age.

Harris had been prescribed multiple medications by Tarnower over the years as she attempted to cope with her demanding role as headmistress of the Madeira School for Girls, as well as Tarnower's ongoing relationship with his secretary.

The mounting tensions of the Harris/Tarnower affair came to a boiling point on March 10, 1980, when Jean drove from the Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia to Tarnower's home in Purchase, New York, with an unused handgun in her possession, with which she said she had planned to commit suicide after talking in person with Tarnower one last time. When she arrived at the house, however, she noticed Lynne Tryforos' lingerie in the bedroom, an argument ensued, and Herman Tarnower allegedly said to her, "Jesus, Jean, you're crazy! Get out of here!" Harris shot Tarnower four times at close range, wounding him mortally. She was arrested and booked for second-degree murder. She pled not guilty, insisting that the shooting was an accident and that the gun had gone off accidentally while he tried to wrestle it away from her.

Harris was released on $40,000 bail raised by her brother and sisters and signed into the United Hospital of Port Chester for psychiatric evaluation and therapy. She then contracted the services of attorney Joel Aurnou to plan her defense. The case went to trial on November 21, 1980, and would last 14 weeks, becoming one of the longest in state history. The New York press sensationalized the trial and made Harris a household name from coast to coast. The jury was ultimately unable to believe her testimony and convicted her of second degree murder.

Many legal experts wondered why Harris did not put forth a defense of "extreme emotional disturbance," which would have resulted in a manslaughter conviction and a much shorter jail term. Harris has always maintained, however, that she had not intentionally killed Tarnower. Joel Aurnou would later state that he gave her other options but she refused them. Judge Russell R. Leggett ordered her confined to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, New York, for the minimum of 15 years to life. Numerous appeals followed the conviction, but the higher courts determined that she had received a fair trial.

Eleven years after Harris' conviction (during which she tutored young female prisoners), Governor Mario Cuomo pardoned her on December 29, 1992, as she was being prepped for quadruple bypass heart surgery. Jean Harris was one of very few people to serve less than 12 years in prison for a murder conviction. Upon her release, her plan was to live in a cabin in New Hampshire. Jean Harris survives to the present at age 83.

Literary and cinematic treatments

Harris' story was told by Diana Trilling in Mrs Harris, and by the journalist Shana Alexander in Very Much a Lady: The Untold Story of Jean Harris and Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris's murder trial was depicted in the 1981 made-for-television movie, The People vs. Jean Harris. She was portrayed by Ellen Burstyn, who was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the performance. In 2006, a made-for-TV movie depicting Jean Harris's story called Mrs. Harris starred Annette Bening, with Ben Kingsley opposite her as Herman Tarnower. Both Bening and Kingsley received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the film.

The 'Scarsdale diet doctor murder' is referred to on the sitcom Seinfeld as the basis for the fictional musical 'Scarsdale Surprise'.

Further reading

• Trilling, Diana . Mrs Harris. New York: Viking, December 1982. ISBN 0-14-006363-3
• Alexander, Shana. Very Much a Lady: The Untold Story of Jean Harris and Dr. Herman Tarnower. New York: Little Brown & Co, 1983. ISBN 0-316-03125-9

References

• Jean Harris' bio
• The Madeira School

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