Marilyn Reese Sheppard
Both were well educated, Sam had been class president in high school three years in a row and was accomplished both in sport and academics.
On July 3rd, 1954 Sam and Marilyn were entertaining neighbors at their lakefront home on Lake Erie, in Bay Village, Ohio. While they were watching the movie Strange Holiday, Sheppard fell asleep on the daybed in the living room. Marilyn walked the neighbors out.
On July 4th, 1954, Marilyn was murdered in her own bed. Blood was splattered everywhere. She was hit 35 times by a left handed person with an unknown weapon. She did not die from these injuries. She drowned in her own blood. All of this happened while her 7 year old son was sleeping in the next room.
Some items from the house, such as Sam Sheppard's wristwatch, key chain and key, and fraternity ring, appeared to have been stolen. They were later found in a canvas bag in bushes behind the house.
On January 7th, 1955, Sam was told that his mother, Ethel Sheppard, had committed suicide by gunshot. Eleven days later, Sam's father, Dr. Richard Sheppard, died of a bleeding gastric ulcer and stomach cancer. Sam was permitted to attend both funerals but was required to wear handcuffs.
On February 13th, 1963, Sam's father-in-law, Thomas S. Reese, committed suicide in an East Cleveland, Ohio motel.
On June 6th, 1966, the Supreme Court, by an 8-to-1 vote, struck down the murder conviction. Sam served ten years of his sentence.
Three days after his release, he married Ariane Tebbenjohanns, a German divorcee. The two had been engaged since January 1963.
On October 7th, 1969, Sam and Tebbenjohanns divorced.
Retrial
Unlike in the original trial, neither Sam nor Susan Hayes took the stand. After deliberating for 12 hours, the jury returned on November 16 with a "not guilty" verdict.
It was during this trial that Paul Kirk presented the bloodspatter evidence he collected in Sheppard's home in 1955 which suggested that the murderer was left handed (Sam was right handed) proved crucial to his acquittal.
After
Marilyn Sheppard's body was exhumed, in part to determine if the fetus she was carrying had been fathered by Sam. Terry Gilbert, an attorney retained by the Sheppard family, told the media that "the fetus in this case had previously been autopsied", a fact that had never previously been disclosed. This raised questions about the coroner's office in the original case possibly concealing pertinent evidence. The passage of time and the effect of formaldehyde on the fetus's tissues, paternity could not be established.
The Handyman Richard Eberling
During the civil trial, plaintiff attorney contended that Richard Eberling, an occasional handyman and window washer at the Sheppard home, was the likeliest suspect in Marilyn's murder. Eberling found Marilyn attractive and he was familiar with the layout of the Sheppard home.
Back in 1959...
Detectives were questioning Richard Eberling on various burglaries in the area. He confessed to the burglaries and showed the detectives his stolen goods. Among them there were two rings that belonged to Marilyn Sheppard. Eberling stole the rings in 1958, a few years after the murder, from Sam Sheppard’s brother's house, taken from a box marked “Personal Property of Marilyn Sheppard”. In questioning, Eberling admitted his blood was at the crime scene of Marilyn Sheppard. He said that he cut his finger while washing windows just prior to the murder and bled in the house. Eberling took a polygraph test with questions about the murder of Marilyn. The polygraph examiner concluded that Eberling did not show deception in his answers, although the polygraph results were evaluated by other experts years later who found that it was either inconclusive or Eberling was deceptive.
DNA analysis of blood at the crime scene showed that there was presence of blood from a third person, other than Marilyn and Dr. Sam Sheppard.
With regard to tying the blood to Eberling... A plaintiff DNA expert was 90% confident that one of the blood spots belonged to Richard Eberling. According to the rules of the court, this was not admissible.
The defense argued that the blood evidence had been tainted in the years since it was collected, and that an important blood spot on the closet door in Marilyn Sheppard's room potentially included 83% of the adult white population. The defense pointed out that the blood collected from the closet door was Type O, while Eberling's blood type was Type A.
Throughout his life, Richard Eberling was associated with women who had suspicious deaths. He was convicted of murdering Ethel May Durkin, a wealthy, elderly widow. Durkin's 1984 murder in Lakewood, Ohio was uncovered when a court-appointed review of the woman's estate revealed that Eberling, Durkin's guardian and executor, had failed to execute her final wishes, which included stipulations on her burial. Durkin's body was exhumed and additional injuries were discovered in the autopsy that did not match Eberling's previous claims of in-house accidents.
In subsequent legal action, both Eberling and his partner, Obie Henderson, were found guilty in Durkin's death.
Both of Durkin's sisters, Myrtle Fray and Sarah Belle Farrow, had died under suspicious circumstances as well. Fray was killed after being "savagely" beaten about the head and face and then strangled; Farrow died following a fall down the basement steps in the home she shared with Durkin in 1970.
Although Eberling denied any criminal involvement in the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, Kathy Wagner Dyal, who worked alongside Eberling in caring for Durkin, testified that Eberling had confessed to her in 1983. A fellow convict also reported that Eberling confessed to the crime. Eberling died in an Ohio prison in 1998, where he was serving a life sentence for the 1984 murder Durkin.
The defense asked in the Civil Trail....
Why Sheppard had not called out for help, why he had neatly folded his jacket on the daybed in which he said he had fallen asleep, and why the family dog, which several witnesses had testified (in the first trial) was very loud when strangers came to the house, had not barked on the night of the murder (implying that the dog knew the killer).
The jury deliberated just three hours on April 12, 2000, before returning a unanimous verdict that Samuel Reese Sheppard had failed to prove that his father had been wrongfully imprisoned.
Another Suspect...
James Call was an Air Force deserter who passed through Cleveland on a multi-state crime spree at the relevant time. Neighbors saw a military lurking around the morning of the murder.
The delay in reporting the murder and inconsistencies in story
Signs of a staged sex crime and robbery
27 blows: a sign of passion?
Sam's infidelity and troubled marriage
Sam's thumbprint on the headboard
Sam's bloody watch
The missing table lamp?
No type A blood
According to Sam, he was sleeping soundly on a daybed when he heard the cries from his wife. He ran upstairs where he saw someone in the bedroom and then he was knocked unconscious. When he awoke, he saw the person downstairs, chased the intruder out of the house down to the beach where they fought and Sam was knocked unconscious again. He awoke with half his body in the lake.
At 5:40 am, a neighbor received an urgent phone call from Sheppard who pleaded for him to come to his home. When the neighbor and his wife arrived, Sheppard was found shirtless and his pants were wet with a bloodstain on the knee. Authorities arrived shortly after. Sam seemed disoriented and in shock.
On October 18, 1954, Sam's first trial began.
A federal judge later criticized the media, "If ever there was a trial by newspaper, this is a perfect example." The U.S. Supreme Court later called the trial a "carnival atmosphere".
Prosecution
Prosecutors learned during their investigation that Sam had carried on a three-year-long extramarital affair with Susan Hayes, a nurse at the hospital where Sam was employed. The prosecution argued that the affair was Sam's motive for killing his wife. The prosecutor emphasized the inconsistencies in Sam Sam's story and that he could not give an accurate description of the intruder in his house.
A federal judge later criticized the media, "If ever there was a trial by newspaper, this is a perfect example." The U.S. Supreme Court later called the trial a "carnival atmosphere".
Prosecutors learned during their investigation that Sam had carried on a three-year-long extramarital affair with Susan Hayes, a nurse at the hospital where Sam was employed. The prosecution argued that the affair was Sam's motive for killing his wife. The prosecutor emphasized the inconsistencies in Sam Sam's story and that he could not give an accurate description of the intruder in his house.
Other issues brought up at trial involved why there was no sand in his hair.
Sam's missing T-shirt, which the prosecutor speculated would or should contain some of Sam's blood.
Prosecutor Mahon chose to make these assertions despite no T-shirt ever being found or presented as evidence. Also, part of the prosecution's case centered around questions like why a burglar would first take the belongings in the canvas bag, only to later ditch them in bushes outside the Sam home.
Sam's missing T-shirt, which the prosecutor speculated would or should contain some of Sam's blood.
Prosecutor Mahon chose to make these assertions despite no T-shirt ever being found or presented as evidence. Also, part of the prosecution's case centered around questions like why a burglar would first take the belongings in the canvas bag, only to later ditch them in bushes outside the Sam home.
It was under these circumstances that Mahon openly speculated Sam had staged the crime scene.
Lack of a murder weapon.
County Coroner Samuel R. Gerber nearly circumvented this discrepancy by testifying that a blood imprint found on the pillow beneath Marilyn Sheppard's head was made by a "two-blade surgical instrument with teeth at the end of each blade" such as a scalpel.
Sam's lawyers left this vague assertion unchallenged. Sam's lawyer was denied access to the physical evidence by the judge and therefore could not argue any assertions as to blood droplets, murder weapon marks, blood spatter, physical marks on the body, etc.
Defense
Sam's attorney, argued that Sheppard had severe injuries and that these injuries were inflicted by the intruder.
This argument was based his argument on the report made by neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Elkins, M.D., who examined Sheppard and found he had suffered a cervical concussion, nerve injury, many absent or weak reflexes, and injury in the region of the second cervical vertebra in the back of the neck.
Dr. Elkins stated that it was impossible to fake or simulate the missing reflex responses.
The defense further argued the crime scene was extremely bloody, however, the only blood evidence appearing on Sam was a bloodstain on his trousers.
His lawer also argued two of Marilyn's teeth had been broken and that the pieces had been pulled from her mouth, suggesting she had possibly bitten her attacker. He told the jury that Sam had no open wounds.
Observers have questioned the accuracy of claims that Marilyn Sheppard lost her teeth while biting her attacker, arguing that her missing teeth are more consistent with the severe beating Marilyn Sheppard received to her face and skull.
As criminologist Paul L. Kirk later pointed out, if the beating had broken Mrs. Sheppard's teeth, pieces would have been found inside her mouth, and her lips would have been severely damaged, which was not the case.
Sheppard took the stand in his own defense.
"I think that she cried or screamed my name once or twice, during which time I ran upstairs, thinking that she might be having a reaction similar to convulsions that she had in the early days of her pregnancy.
I charged into our room and saw a form with a light garment, I believe, at that time grappling with something or someone.
During this short period I could hear loud moans or groaning sounds and noises.
I was struck down.
It seems like I was hit from behind somehow but had grappled this individual from in front or generally in front of me. I was apparently knocked out.
The next thing I knew, I was gathering my senses while coming to a sitting position next to the bed, my feet toward the hallway....
I looked at my wife, I believe I took her pulse and felt that she was gone.
I believe that I thereafter instinctively or subconsciously ran into my youngster's room next door and somehow determined that he was all right, I am not sure how I determined this.
After that, I thought that I heard a noise downstairs, seemingly in the front eastern portion of the house."
Sam ran back downstairs and chased what he described as a "bushy-haired intruder" or "form" down to the beach below his home. Then he was knocked out again.
The defense called eighteen character witnesses for Sam, and two witnesses who said that they had seen a bushy-haired man near the Sheppard home on the day of the crime.
County Coroner Samuel R. Gerber nearly circumvented this discrepancy by testifying that a blood imprint found on the pillow beneath Marilyn Sheppard's head was made by a "two-blade surgical instrument with teeth at the end of each blade" such as a scalpel.
Sam's lawyers left this vague assertion unchallenged. Sam's lawyer was denied access to the physical evidence by the judge and therefore could not argue any assertions as to blood droplets, murder weapon marks, blood spatter, physical marks on the body, etc.
Defense
Sam's attorney, argued that Sheppard had severe injuries and that these injuries were inflicted by the intruder.
This argument was based his argument on the report made by neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Elkins, M.D., who examined Sheppard and found he had suffered a cervical concussion, nerve injury, many absent or weak reflexes, and injury in the region of the second cervical vertebra in the back of the neck.
Dr. Elkins stated that it was impossible to fake or simulate the missing reflex responses.
His lawer also argued two of Marilyn's teeth had been broken and that the pieces had been pulled from her mouth, suggesting she had possibly bitten her attacker. He told the jury that Sam had no open wounds.
Observers have questioned the accuracy of claims that Marilyn Sheppard lost her teeth while biting her attacker, arguing that her missing teeth are more consistent with the severe beating Marilyn Sheppard received to her face and skull.
As criminologist Paul L. Kirk later pointed out, if the beating had broken Mrs. Sheppard's teeth, pieces would have been found inside her mouth, and her lips would have been severely damaged, which was not the case.
Sheppard took the stand in his own defense.
"I think that she cried or screamed my name once or twice, during which time I ran upstairs, thinking that she might be having a reaction similar to convulsions that she had in the early days of her pregnancy.
I charged into our room and saw a form with a light garment, I believe, at that time grappling with something or someone.
During this short period I could hear loud moans or groaning sounds and noises.
I was struck down.
It seems like I was hit from behind somehow but had grappled this individual from in front or generally in front of me. I was apparently knocked out.
The next thing I knew, I was gathering my senses while coming to a sitting position next to the bed, my feet toward the hallway....
I looked at my wife, I believe I took her pulse and felt that she was gone.
I believe that I thereafter instinctively or subconsciously ran into my youngster's room next door and somehow determined that he was all right, I am not sure how I determined this.
After that, I thought that I heard a noise downstairs, seemingly in the front eastern portion of the house."
The defense called eighteen character witnesses for Sam, and two witnesses who said that they had seen a bushy-haired man near the Sheppard home on the day of the crime.
Verdict
On December 21st, after deliberating for four days, the jury found Sam guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
On December 21st, after deliberating for four days, the jury found Sam guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
On January 7th, 1955, Sam was told that his mother, Ethel Sheppard, had committed suicide by gunshot. Eleven days later, Sam's father, Dr. Richard Sheppard, died of a bleeding gastric ulcer and stomach cancer. Sam was permitted to attend both funerals but was required to wear handcuffs.
On February 13th, 1963, Sam's father-in-law, Thomas S. Reese, committed suicide in an East Cleveland, Ohio motel.
Three days after his release, he married Ariane Tebbenjohanns, a German divorcee. The two had been engaged since January 1963.
On October 7th, 1969, Sam and Tebbenjohanns divorced.
Unlike in the original trial, neither Sam nor Susan Hayes took the stand. After deliberating for 12 hours, the jury returned on November 16 with a "not guilty" verdict.
It was during this trial that Paul Kirk presented the bloodspatter evidence he collected in Sheppard's home in 1955 which suggested that the murderer was left handed (Sam was right handed) proved crucial to his acquittal.
After
On August 6th, he went back to his practice. He nicked the right iliac artery on a 29-year old patient who bled to death internally.
Sam resigned from the hospital staff a few months later after wrongful death suits had been filed by the patients' families.
He debuted in August 1969 at the age of 45 as "Killer" Sam Sheppard, wrestling Wild Bill Scholl. He wrestled over 40 matches before his death. During his career, Sam used his anatomical knowledge to develop a new submission hold, the "mandible claw". It was popularized by professional wrestler Mankind in 1996.
On April 6th, 1970, Sam was found dead in his home in Columbus, Ohio. The official cause of death was Wernicke's encephalopathy (biochemical lesions in the brain caused by a thiamine deficiency)
Sam resigned from the hospital staff a few months later after wrongful death suits had been filed by the patients' families.
On April 6th, 1970, Sam was found dead in his home in Columbus, Ohio. The official cause of death was Wernicke's encephalopathy (biochemical lesions in the brain caused by a thiamine deficiency)
Sam's son, Samuel Reese Sheppard, has been attempting to clear his father's reputation.
1999
Alan Davis, a lifelong friend of Sheppard and administrator of his estate, sued the State of Ohio County Court of Common Pleas for Sheppard's wrongful imprisonment.
Marilyn Sheppard's body was exhumed, in part to determine if the fetus she was carrying had been fathered by Sam. Terry Gilbert, an attorney retained by the Sheppard family, told the media that "the fetus in this case had previously been autopsied", a fact that had never previously been disclosed. This raised questions about the coroner's office in the original case possibly concealing pertinent evidence. The passage of time and the effect of formaldehyde on the fetus's tissues, paternity could not be established.
During the civil trial, plaintiff attorney contended that Richard Eberling, an occasional handyman and window washer at the Sheppard home, was the likeliest suspect in Marilyn's murder. Eberling found Marilyn attractive and he was familiar with the layout of the Sheppard home.
Back in 1959...
Detectives were questioning Richard Eberling on various burglaries in the area. He confessed to the burglaries and showed the detectives his stolen goods. Among them there were two rings that belonged to Marilyn Sheppard. Eberling stole the rings in 1958, a few years after the murder, from Sam Sheppard’s brother's house, taken from a box marked “Personal Property of Marilyn Sheppard”. In questioning, Eberling admitted his blood was at the crime scene of Marilyn Sheppard. He said that he cut his finger while washing windows just prior to the murder and bled in the house. Eberling took a polygraph test with questions about the murder of Marilyn. The polygraph examiner concluded that Eberling did not show deception in his answers, although the polygraph results were evaluated by other experts years later who found that it was either inconclusive or Eberling was deceptive.
DNA analysis of blood at the crime scene showed that there was presence of blood from a third person, other than Marilyn and Dr. Sam Sheppard.
The defense argued that the blood evidence had been tainted in the years since it was collected, and that an important blood spot on the closet door in Marilyn Sheppard's room potentially included 83% of the adult white population. The defense pointed out that the blood collected from the closet door was Type O, while Eberling's blood type was Type A.
In subsequent legal action, both Eberling and his partner, Obie Henderson, were found guilty in Durkin's death.
Both of Durkin's sisters, Myrtle Fray and Sarah Belle Farrow, had died under suspicious circumstances as well. Fray was killed after being "savagely" beaten about the head and face and then strangled; Farrow died following a fall down the basement steps in the home she shared with Durkin in 1970.
The defense asked in the Civil Trail....
The jury deliberated just three hours on April 12, 2000, before returning a unanimous verdict that Samuel Reese Sheppard had failed to prove that his father had been wrongfully imprisoned.
James Call was an Air Force deserter who passed through Cleveland on a multi-state crime spree at the relevant time. Neighbors saw a military lurking around the morning of the murder.
Do you think Sam did it?
The dog that didn't bark.
Lack of forced entry.
Where's Sam's T-shirt?
Signs of a staged sex crime and robbery
27 blows: a sign of passion?
Sam's infidelity and troubled marriage
Sam's thumbprint on the headboard
Sam's bloody watch
The missing table lamp?
No type A blood
Do you think he is innocent?
Sam's hard to self-inflict wounds
Marilyn and Sam appeared lovely that night.
Sam's lack of previous violence.
The damaged trophies.
Where's all the blood on his pants?
Moreover, according to DNA expert Dr. Mohammed Tahir, the blood stain on Sam's pants did not come from either himself or Marilyn--but, presumably, from the killer.
DNA analysis of the closet blood stain.
Only 1 of out of 42 people have a DNA profile consistent with a large blood stain found on a closet door near Marilyn's bed, and Richard Eberling is one of those rare persons.
Sam's apparent lack of motive
If he did it, he'd have a better story
A forensic expert, after examining blood spatter evidence, concluded the killer was left-handed. Sam Sheppard is right-handed.
The sperm in Marilyn did not come from Sam.
The murder weapon was not, as first alleged, a surgical instrument.
A forensic expert concluded the murderer bled from a cut hand.
Sam had no cut on his hand when examined after the murder.
Sam's refusal to confess.
Eberling stole Marilyn's ring and admitted bleeding in the Sheppard home.
Eberling's alleged "confessions".
Before i studied this case and the evidence, i thought he was probably innocent... Now i'm leaning slightly the other way. I wonder if they did any tests to see if he was under the influence.
Without a known history of violence, i don't see him committing the murder. If he was intoxicated at the time and he found his wife cheating or that she cheated and the baby wasn't his.... maybe. If it wasn't him, it was a lover that she had. That i am sure.
Sam's hard to self-inflict wounds
Marilyn and Sam appeared lovely that night.
Sam's lack of previous violence.
The damaged trophies.
Where's all the blood on his pants?
Moreover, according to DNA expert Dr. Mohammed Tahir, the blood stain on Sam's pants did not come from either himself or Marilyn--but, presumably, from the killer.
DNA analysis of the closet blood stain.
Only 1 of out of 42 people have a DNA profile consistent with a large blood stain found on a closet door near Marilyn's bed, and Richard Eberling is one of those rare persons.
Sam's apparent lack of motive
If he did it, he'd have a better story
A forensic expert, after examining blood spatter evidence, concluded the killer was left-handed. Sam Sheppard is right-handed.
The sperm in Marilyn did not come from Sam.
The murder weapon was not, as first alleged, a surgical instrument.
A forensic expert concluded the murderer bled from a cut hand.
Sam had no cut on his hand when examined after the murder.
Sam's refusal to confess.
Eberling stole Marilyn's ring and admitted bleeding in the Sheppard home.
Eberling's alleged "confessions".
Without a known history of violence, i don't see him committing the murder. If he was intoxicated at the time and he found his wife cheating or that she cheated and the baby wasn't his.... maybe. If it wasn't him, it was a lover that she had. That i am sure.
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