Sharpe spun ideas in prison

By Gail McCarthy
Staff Writer

January 08, 2009 05:55 am

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While facing a life in prison for killing his estranged wife, the mind of Gloucester's Dr. Richard Sharpe spun a web of ideas, from his alleged plot to hire a hit man to kill the prosecutor in his 2001 murder trial to the writing of a scientific paper about tissue regeneration.

Sharpe was found hanged from a bedsheet in his cell Monday night at the state prison in Norfolk, where he had previously been moved after an earlier apparent suicide attempt at MCI Cedar Junction in Walpole. Prison officials have not confirmed his death as a suicide, and the state Medical Examiner's office has not determined the cause of death.

He was convicted in the July 14, 2000, shooting death of his wife, Karen, who had left him months earlier. She had moved to Wenham and taken out a restraining order against him because she feared continued domestic abuse.

While serving his life term, it's now apparent that Sharpe continued to try to carry on a career in medicine. Just last year, the cross-dressing dermatologist claimed to have treated a 79-year-old white male, a Marine who served in World War II. He outlined the treatment of the patient in a 25-page paper titled "Gamma Interferon Induced Organ Regeneration," published online on Oct. 12.

Sharpe's paper focused on how he treated the man, suffering from advanced pulmonary fibrosis, with exceptionally high doses of inhaled gamma interferon over a period of less than 14 months. Sharpe concluded that the condition went into remission, and there was restoration of lung function. This result he attributed to the regeneration of lung tissue from the treatment.

"Although the preliminary data in this report deals with lung regeneration," Sharpe wrote, "I believe that by delivering very high dose gamma interferon to other organs or tissues, it may be possible to induce a regenerative response.

"Treatment of the heart can use the same inhalational protocol described herein," the longtime, Gloucester-based doctor wrote. "Treatment of other organs can be accomplished via continuous infusion of gamma interferon via the arteries feeding the target organ. "

It is not clear from the papers — still posted online as of yesterday — whether the patient was an inmate or whether he was treated before or after Sharpe was incarcerated. And there is no confirmation of any such treatment.

Nearly half of the references cited, however, were published after he killed his wife.

Spokesmen in the Norfolk District Attorney's Office and the state Department of Corrections knew nothing about the paper.

David Gardiner, a professor of cell biology at the University of California Irvine who perused the paper, told the Times yesterday there's not much to say about Sharpe's paper in particular.

"I took a quick look but it was an anecdotal report, not experimental," Gardiner said. "There is no way to evaluate it. If you're an MD, and you treat a patient and they get better, maybe it did facilitate it. But you don't know what would happen if he was treated differently, or treated at all, or with a different diet. You can't make any conclusions from the paper."

He merely called the report "intriguing scientifically." However, the research related to the reprogramming of cells was dubbed the scientific breakthrough of the year, according to Science Magazine just a few weeks ago.

Gardiner noted that the late actor Christopher Reeves put the issue of regeneration into the public spotlight through his foundation, which supports research into the regeneration of spinal cord cells.

"It's an emerging field," Gardiner conceded. "There's a fundamental shift in the way we think of medicine. We have a long history of surgery and now pharmaceutical medicine, and now there's a growing appreciation for our intrinsic regenerative abilities that has profound implications."

Sharpe, who was at one time affiliated with both Addison Gilbert and Beverly hospitals, also worked as an instructor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

Over the years, he had hundreds of patients on Cape Ann. When he first came to Gloucester, he had his office at Cape Ann Medical Center at Blackburn Industrial Park. He later moved to an office near O'Maley Middle School and, lastly, had an office at the Shaw's plaza on Eastern Avenue.

While he was remembered as a smart doctor who helped patients, he was also known as a doctor who often unnerved patients who would go for an office visit for a specific mole or skin lesion, then be asked to remove all of their clothes, with virtually no bedside manner.

Financially, he was a successful doctor, who branched off into other businesses including laser hair removal, and made millions of dollars.

But several people recall sensing an emotional and mental decline. And his killing of his wife drew national attention when photographs of him wearing slinky dresses and fishnet stockings were widely published after his arrest.

Karen Sharpe had said in earlier affidavits that he stole her birth control pills in an effort to enlarge his breasts.

The cross-dressing doctor was convicted of his wife's murder in 2001. In 2007, he was acquitted of charges he plotted to kill the prosecutor in his murder trial.

Gail McCarthy can be reached at gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.

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