Remembering Our Dead

Jean Shelley Boushard Fox (Jeannie Sheppard)

Jean was shot and killed by her husband, Robert Fox.

At the time Robert was helping her pack for a a trip to Canada for reassignment surgery, when he came across letters from a former lover in Toronto. An argument ensued which led to her death on Monday, December 15. Robert's daughter called the police on Tuesday but the police were not able to get him to leave the house until Wednesday.

He Paid For Her Sex Change Operation

Husband Held For Slaying Of Wife

HOWELL, N.J. (AP) - A truck driver who raised money to pay for his wife's sex-change surgery, then found love letters she wrote to someone else, was being held today on a murder charged in her death after a 12-hour siege, officials said. Robert Fox, 41, was arraigned by Superior Court Judge Patrick McGann Jr., after the siege at his home here. He was taken to Monmouth County Jail in Freehold in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Fox surrendered without resistance after his younger brother, who was not identified, entered the two-story frame house shortly before midnight Tuesday. Before his surrender, a police officer spent 10 hours negotiating with Fox by telephone. "We talked about many things as the night went on," said Detective Thomas Hilliard, who has received special FBI training in hostage negotiations.

Hilliard said Fox was very upset and threatened to kill himself several times as the two discussed the shooting death of Jean Shelley Boushard Fox, 34, the former Donald Shephard. Mrs. Fox's body was taken to Freehold Area Hospital shortly after her husband surrendered. An autopsy was being held today, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Alexander Lehrer.

Mrs. Fox, who had undergone two phases of sex-change surgery, was shot Monday, but police didn't learn of the incident until a Tuesday phone call from Fox's 19-year-old daughter, Jeannie, Lehrer said. Authorities said Fox and his wife began fighting as the woman packed for a trip to Canada for the final stage of transsexual surgery. The $5,500 operation was to be financed by Fox, who had raised the money with a second mortgage on his house, Lehrer said.

As he helped his wife pack, Fox discovered letters the woman had written to a former lover, a Toronto man, and a dispute ensued that ended in the shooting, Lehrer said. Mrs. Fox's body, partly covered with a quilt, was found between a bathroom and hallway, near a wall splattered with blood, police said. A fully loaded handgun was found on a dresser and additional ammunition was found in the house, authorities added.

Source: Boston Globe, December 17, 1980.

http://gayhistory.wikidot.com/jean-shelley-boushard-fox

http://www.digifind-it.com/redbank/_1980-1991/1980/1980-12-17.pdf

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/154299831/

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/107228523/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0

Report added: 24 Feb 2019. Last updated: 18 Nov 2023

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