Sam Sheppard, Jessica Lange: Inside Their Relationship.
Samuel Sheppard was an American neurosurgeon.He was acquitted of the murder of his wife in 1966.The case was controversial from the beginning.
The "carnival atmosphere" surrounding Sheppard's first trial made due process impossible, and he was acquitted at a second trial.
Richard Allen Sheppard, D.O. was the youngest of Sheppard's three sons.He was an excellent student at Cleveland Heights High School and was class president for three years.Sheppard and Marilyn Reese met in high school.Although several small Ohio colleges offered him athletic scholarships, Sheppard chose to follow in the footsteps of his father and older brothers and pursue a career in medicine.He took courses at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland after taking pre-osteopathic medical courses in Indiana.The Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree was awarded to Sheppard after he finished his medical education at the Los Angeles School of Physicians and Surgeons.
Sheppard had an internship and residency at Los Angeles County General Hospital.On February 21, 1945, he married Marilyn Reese.After returning to Ohio, he joined his father's practice at Bay View Hospital.
Sheppard and Marilyn hosted neighbors at their lakefront home on the night of July 3, 1954.Sheppard fell asleep in the living room while they were watching the movie.The neighbors were walked out by Marilyn.
Marilyn Sheppard was killed in her bed in the early morning hours of July 4, 1954.The bedroom was covered with blood spatter and there were drops of blood on the floors.Sam Sheppard's wristwatch, key, and ring appeared to have been stolen.They were found in a bag behind the house.Sheppard said that he heard his wife's cries while he was sleeping.He was knocked unconscious when he saw a white biped form in the bedroom.When he woke up, he saw the person downstairs and chased them down to the beach, where they fought and Sheppard was knocked unconscious.
A neighbor received a phone call from Sheppard who begged him to come to his home.Sheppard's pants were wet with a blood stain on his knee when the neighbor and his wife arrived.Soon after, authorities arrived.Sheppard was in shock.Sam Reese "Chip" Sheppard, the family's seven-year-old son, was asleep in the adjacent bedroom throughout the incident.[5]
The trial of Sheppard began in October of 1954.The trial and the murder investigation received a lot of publicity.Some newspapers and other media in Ohio were accused of bias against Sheppard and inflammatory coverage of the case, and were criticized for immediately labeling him the only viable suspect.This is a perfect example of a trial by newspaper being criticized by a federal judge.The Cleveland Press was an example.The newspaper took on the role of accuser, judge, and jury.[5]
The investigators were influenced by the local media.The Cleveland Press ran an editorial calling for a public inquest on July 21, 1954.The coroner announced that he would hold an inquest the next day.The Cleveland Press ran an editorial titled "Why Isn't Sam Sheppard in Jail?"It was titled "Quit Stalling and Bring Him In!" on July 30.Sheppard was arrested for a police interrogation.[9]
salacious front-page stories inflammatory to Sheppard were run by the local media.During the trial, a popular radio show broadcasted a report about a New York City woman who claimed to be his mistress and the mother of his illegitimate child.Two of the jurors admitted that they heard the broadcast, but the judge did not dismiss them.It is possible that jurors were contaminated by the press before and during the trial.The trial was called a "carnival atmosphere" by the Supreme Court.[13]
The high-profile nature of the case helped lead prosecutor John J. Mahon, who was running for a seat on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas as the trial began.He served until his death on January 31, 1962.During their investigation, prosecutors learned that Sheppard had been having an extramarital affair with a nurse at the hospital where he worked.Sheppard's motive for killing his wife was argued by the prosecution.There was no evidence against him other than that he was inside the house when Marilyn Sheppard was killed.Sam Sheppard's story was inconsistent and he couldn't give an accurate description of the person in his house.
Sheppard's missing T-shirt and sand in his hair were some of the issues brought up at the trial.Despite no T-shirt being found or presented as evidence, the prosecutor chose to make these assertions.Part of the prosecution's case centered on speculative questions like why a burglar would first take the belongings in the canvas bag, only to later ditch them in bushes outside the Sheppard home.Sheppard was speculated to have staged the crime scene.The lack of a murder weapon made it difficult for the prosecution to prove their case.Sheppard's lawyers left this vague assertion unquestioned.Sheppard's lawyer was denied access to the physical evidence by the judge and therefore could not argue against it.
William Corrigan argued that Sheppard had injuries that were inflicted by an invader.Sheppard was found to have suffered a concussion, nerve injury, weak reflexes, and injury in the region of the second in a report made by a neurosurgeon.It was not possible to fake the missing responses.There is a citation needed.
The only blood evidence on Sheppard was a blood stain on his trousers, according to the defense.Two of Marilyn's teeth had been broken, and it was argued that she might have bitten her attacker.He told the jury that Sheppard didn't have any open wounds.Some?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 she received to her face and skull.If the beating had broken Mrs. Sheppard's teeth, pieces would have been found inside her mouth, and her lips would be severely damaged, which was not the case.There are no comments at this time.
In his defense, Sheppard testified that he had been sleeping downstairs when his wife screamed.
I ran upstairs to see if she was having convulsions like she did in the early days of her pregnancy, after she cried or screamed my name once or twice.I charged into our room and saw a form with a light garment, I believe, at that time grappling with something or someone.I could hear groaning and loud moans during this time.I was hit.It seems like I was hit from behind but had wrestled this individual from in front of me.I was knocked out.I was gathering my senses while sitting next to the bed and moving toward the hallway....I looked at my wife and felt that she was gone.I am not sure how I determined that he was all right, but I think I subconsciously ran into his room next door.I thought I heard a noise in the front eastern part of the house after that.[15]
Sheppard ran back downstairs to chase the "form" down to the Lake Erie beach below his home, but was knocked out again.The defense called eighteen character witnesses for Sheppard, and two witnesses who said they saw a bushy-haired man near the Sheppard home on the day of the crime.There is a citation needed.
Sheppard was found guilty of second-degree murder after four days of deliberations.He was sentenced to life in prison.On January 7, 1955, shortly after his conviction, Sheppard was told that his mother had committed suicide.Sheppard's father died of cancer eleven days later.Sheppard was allowed to attend both funerals, but had to wear handcuffs.[20]
Sheppard took part in cancer research in 1959 that allowed live cancer cells to be injected into his body.[21]
On February 13, 1963, Sheppard's father-in-law, Thomas S. Reese, committed suicide in an East Cleveland, Ohio, motel.There are 18 and 22 words.
William Corrigan spent six years trying to get Sheppard's case heard.F. Lee Bailey became Sheppard's chief counsel on July 30, 1961.The United States district court judge who granted Bailey's petition called the trial a "mockery of justice" and shredded the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.If the prosecutor didn't bring charges against Sheppard within 60 days, the case would be dismissed.On March 4, 1965, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the federal judge's ruling.The case in which Bailey appealed will be heard by the Supreme Court.The murder conviction was struck down by the Supreme Court.The decision said that the trial judge was biased against Sheppard because he refused to sequester the jury.There's no question about it.
Sheppard was sentenced for ten years.He married a German divorcee three days after his release from prison.The two were engaged in January 1963.Shortly after the engagement had been announced, Tebbenjohanns found out that her half- sister was the wife of a Nazi propaganda chief.She held no Nazi views.Sheppard and Tebbenjohanns divorced on October 7, 1969.[28]
October 24, 1966 was when jury selection began.The jury was sequestered because of high media interest.Twelve years earlier, the prosecutor presented the same case.Bailey tried to get rid of each prosecution witness.Bailey led the Coroner to admit that they never found a murder weapon and had nothing to link Sheppard to the murder.The prosecution's case against Sheppard was dismissed by Bailey as "ten pounds of hogwash in a five-pound bag".
The strategy of not taking the stand was successful, unlike in the original trial.The jury returned with a "not guilty" verdict after 12 hours of deliberations.Bailey's rise to prominence among American criminal defense lawyers was influenced by the trial.It was during this trial that Paul Kirk presented the bloodspatter evidence he collected in Sheppard's home in 1955 that suggested that the murderer was left-handed.[28]
Three weeks after the trial, Sheppard was a guest on The Tonight Show.
The book Endure and Conquer gave insight into Sheppard's years in prison after he was acquitted.
George Strickland, Sheppard's friend and soon-to-be father-in-law, introduced him to wrestling and trained him for it.He made his wrestling debut at the age of 45 as "Killer" Sam Sheppard.30
Sheppard wrestled over 40 matches before his death in 1970, including a number of tag team bouts.He was a strong draw.[32]
The "mandible claw" was developed by Sheppard during his career.It was popularized by a professional wrestler.[33]
Sheppard opened a medical office after his release from prison.Sheppard was granted surgical privileges on May 10, 1968, but his skills as a surgeon had deteriorated and much of the time he was impaired by alcohol.He performed a discectomy on a woman five days after he was granted privileges, but the patient died the next day.The 29-year-old patient bled to death after he nicked the right iliac artery.After wrongful death suits were filed by the patients' families, Sheppard resigned from the hospital staff.There are 37 and 35 words.
Colleen was married to Sheppard six months before his death.Sheppard drank as much as two fifths of liquor a day towards the end of his life.Sheppard was found dead in his home on April 6, 1970.According to early reports, Sheppard died of liver failure.Wernicke encephalopathy is a type of brain damage associated with alcoholism.He was buried in Columbus, Ohio.His body remained there until September 1997 when he was exhumed to have his name cleared in a lawsuit.After the tests, the body was cremated and the ashes were placed in a mausoleum at a cemetery in Ohio.[46]
Samuel Reese Sheppard is trying to clear his father's reputation.[47]
In 1999, Alan Davis, a lifelong friend of Sheppard and administrator of his estate, sued the State of Ohio in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas for Sheppard's wrongful imprisonment.[49]
Marilyn Sheppard's body was exhumed to determine if the fetus she was carrying was fathered by Sheppard.Terry Gilbert, an attorney retained by the Sheppard family, told the media that the fetus in this case had previously been autopsied.Gilbert argued that the coroner's office may have concealed evidence in the original case.The effects of formaldehyde on the fetus's tissues made it impossible to establish the identity of the father.There is a citation needed.
According to Terry Gilbert, the most likely suspect in Marilyn's murder was Richard Eberling, a window washer at the Sheppard home.Eberling was familiar with the layout of the Sheppard home.50
Richard Eberling was questioned by detectives in 1959 about a number of burglaries in the area.Eberling showed the detectives his loot, which included two rings that belonged to Marilyn Sheppard.A few years after the murder of Sam Sheppard, Eberling stole the rings from his brother's house.Eberling admitted his blood was at the crime scene.He bled on the premises after cutting his finger washing windows just prior to the murder.Eberling took a polygraph test with questions about the murder of Marilyn.The polygraph examiner concluded that Eberling did not lie in his answers, despite the fact that other experts found that he was deceptive.[52]
In his testimony in the 2000 civil lawsuit, Bailey stated that he rejected Eberling as a suspect in 1966 because he thought he passed a good polygraph test.Bailey stated that he probably would have presented Eberling as a suspect in the 1966 re trial if he had known about the polygraph expert's findings.[54]
The civil trial was important because of the lack of DNA evidence in the two murder trials.There was a third person with blood at the crime scene, other than Marilyn and Dr. Sam Sheppard.[55]
The DNA analysis that was allowed to be admitted to the trial was not conclusive when it came to tying the blood to Eberling.According to the rules of the court, the blood spots that the expert thought were from Richard Eberling were not allowed to be used.According to the defense, an important blood spot on the closet door in Marilyn Sheppard's room could have been used by as many as 83% of the adult white population.The defense pointed out that Eberling's blood type was Type A and that the blood collected from the closet door was type O.[56]
Richard Eberling was convicted of murdering an elderly widow without her family present.When a court-appointed review of the woman's estate revealed that Eberling had failed to execute her final wishes, the murder was uncovered.There is a citation needed.
Eberling's previous claims of in-house accidents, including a fall down a staircase in her home, were not found in the autopsy.Eberling and his partner, Obie Henderson, were found guilty in the death of Durkin.Both of Durkin's sisters died under suspicious circumstances.Farrow died from a fall down the basement steps of the home she shared with Durkin in 1970, in which she broke both legs and arms.There is a citation needed.
Although Eberling denied any criminal involvement in the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, a co-worker testified that he confessed to her in 1983.Eberling confessed to the crime according to a fellow convict.The 2000 civil trial was called into question by the defense.Eberling died in an Ohio prison in 1998 while he was serving a life sentence for murder.There is a citation needed.
Dean Maynard Boland and Kathleen Martin were assistant prosecutors for the State of Ohio.They presented expert testimony suggesting that Marilyn Sheppard's murder was a textbook domestic homicide, and argued that Sheppard was the most logical suspect.They argued that Sheppard had not welcomed the news of his wife's pregnancy, he wanted to continue his affairs with other women, and he was concerned about the social stigma that a divorce might create.They said the evidence showed that Marilyn Sheppard may have hit Sam Sheppard.During the trial, he was the first to suggest that the murder weapon used by Sam Sheppard was a bedroom lamp.
The defense wanted to know why the family dog was very loud when strangers came to the house, why Sheppard didn't call out for help, and why he folded his jacket on the daybed.