Scarsdale Diet Doctor | Herman Tarnower

 Scarsdale Diet Doctor

While his acquaintances and friends knew him as Dr Herman Tarnower, by the masses, he was commonly referred to as the doctor who gave them the Scarsdale Diet.

Needless to say, the diet became insanely popular as his book sold copies to the tunes of millions. However, many don’t know several facts about Herman Tarnower and we have decided to explain them to you via this article.

The Scarsdale Doctor

                He was born on March the 18th, 1910 and his name got propelled into mainstream media because of the circumstances of his death.

While the diet he came up with was really effective, it wasn’t after his death that it garnered the immense amount of popularity that it did. Yes, we do agree that things like these are tragedies of monumental proportions.

Not just that, the circumstances of his death will make you wonder whether the way things were handled after it was right or wrong. Allow us to tell you more about his murder. Yes, you read it right, murder.

Doctor Is Murdered

                Little did Herman knew what the fateful day of 10th March 1980 that it was going to be his last. It was his lover Jean Harris who fired those fateful shots and he died at her hands. To know more about the backstory, consider reading this article about the love triangle that caused it all.

And here is a thing, in a book out of the three books that Jean Harris went on to write later in her life, she bashed the ‘third person’ who was in this bizarre love triangle, Lynne Tryforos.

While people may think that she felt remorse for what she had done, she didn’t. She instead told people how much she loved Herman and never acknowledged that it was she who had killed him. You will know more about her antics in the section related to her criminal trial.

Death And Trial

                Jean had shot the doctor four times. Yes, you read the number right, four times. This led to his death as the shots were fired at almost point-blank range.

During the trial, Harris shameless tried to defend herself by saying that, “The bullets were fired while they (her and Herman Tarnower) were struggling to take control of the gun”. But the jury saw through her lies and sentenced her to prison for a decade and a half.

The reason behind her shooting the doctor is attributed to her jealousy of Herman’s other affairs and one particular with Lynne Tryforos who was quite young and beautiful.

It was a classic case of jealously gone to an extreme extent. But the sad thing was Jean never considered herself to be accountable.

Scarsdale Diet & Tarnower

His legacy was built on the fact that he gave the world to lose weight in a way that was practical and healthy, unlike other diets that came up later. But here was the thing, Scarsdale Diet as those who have tried it may know, is quite strict.

And people with time began to look for ‘easier’ alternatives. And with time, the diet went into what we can refer to as a less popular state. But Tarnower’s legacy was sealed as his book went on to sell millions of copies throughout the United States.

Jean Harris Pardoned

The sad part about the whole thing was the then governor of the state of New York, Mario Cuomo gave clemency to Harris in 1992 before she could complete her sentence. While many might criticize or praise the move, it wasn’t exactly something that a sane and logical person would approve of.

The Killing of Scarsdale Diet Doctor Herman Tarnower

It was perhaps one of those cases that shook the country like anything. The main thing, in this case, was that the media glamorized it around Jean Harris and the victimhood of Herman Tarnower got left behind somewhere.

However, many might feel that the punishment or sentence given to Jean Harris wasn’t hard enough. While critics of this view might defend this by saying that it was a crime of passion, but it was a crime nonetheless.

FAQ

Why The Killer Shot the Scarsdale Diet Doctor?

While as we said before, the main motive was jealousy, the thing that triggered Jean was when she saw the clothes of Lynne on Tarnower’s bed, she went berserk and in a fit of rage shot him.

Who Shot the Scarsdale Doctor?

Jean Harris aka Jean Struven shot Herman Tarnower. The incident was the basis of a number of TV shows and movies too like Mrs Harris and Murder Made Me Famous.