Samuel Holmes " Sam Sheppard ( ( 1923-12-29 ) December 29, 1923 - ( 1970-04-06 ) April 6, 1970) is an American neurosurgeon who was initially found guilty of 1954 murder of his wife Marilyn Reese Sheppard. The case is controversial from the start, with extensive and prolonged national media coverage.
The US Supreme Court ruled that the "carnival atmosphere" around Sheppard's first trial had made the legal process impossible; After ten years in prison he was released on the second trial.
Video Sam Sheppard
Early life and education
Sheppard was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of the three sons of Richard Allen Sheppard, D.O. She studied at Cleveland Heights High School where she is an excellent student and active in soccer, basketball, and track; he was the head of the class for three years. Sheppard meets his future wife, Marilyn Reese, while in high school. Although some small Ohio colleges offered him an athletic scholarship, Sheppard chose to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother and pursue a career in osteopathic medicine. He enrolled at Hanover College in Indiana to study a pre-osteopathic medical course, then took an additional course at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Sheppard completed her medical education at the Los Angeles Osteopathic School of Physicians and Surgeons (now the University of California Irvine) and was awarded the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O).
He completed his internship and residency in Neurosurgery at Los Angeles County General Hospital. A few years after marrying Marilyn Reese on February 21, 1945, in Hollywood, California, Sheppard returned to Ohio and joined the growing medical practice of his father at Bay View Hospital.
Maps Sam Sheppard
The Murder of Marilyn Reese Sheppard
On the night of July 3, 1954, Sheppard and Marilyn were entertaining neighbors in their lakeside home (destroyed in 1993) on Lake Erie on 28944 Lake Road in Bay Village, Ohio, suburb of Cleveland, just west of the city. The property itself is bordered by the shores of Lake Erie, near the west end of the Huntington Reservation. As they watch the Strange Holiday movie, Sheppard falls asleep on the couch in the living room. Marilyn invites the neighbors out.
In the early hours of July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was beaten to death in her bed by an unknown device. The bedroom was filled with blood splashes and blood drops were found on the floor throughout the house. Some items from home, including Sam Sheppard watches, key chains and keys, and fraternal rings, seem to have been stolen. They were later found in a canvas bag in the bushes behind the house. According to Sheppard, she slept soundly on a daybed when she heard the cry from his wife. She ran upstairs where she saw the shape in the bedroom and then she fainted. When she woke up, she saw the man below, chasing the intruders out of the house to the beach where they wrestled and Sheppard fainted again. He woke up half his body in the lake.
At 5:40 am, a neighbor received an emergency phone call from Sheppard asking him to come to his house. When his neighbor and his wife arrived, Sheppard was found without her shirt and pants wet with blood stains on her knees. The authorities arrived shortly thereafter. Sheppard looked confused and shocked. The family dogs did not hear barking to show the intruders, and their seven-year-old son, Sam Reese "Chip" Sheppard, was sleeping in the adjacent bedroom during the entire ordeal.
First trial
The trial of Sheppard began October 18, 1954.
Media
Investigations of killings and trials are noted for their extensive publicity. Several newspapers and other media in Ohio were accused of bias against Sheppard and coverage of the inflammation of the case, and criticized for immediately labeling him the only reasonable suspect. A federal judge later criticized the media, "If ever there was a trial by the newspaper, this is a perfect example, and the most dangerous example is the Cleveland Press." For some reason the newspaper took over the role of the accuser, the judge and jury. "
It seems that local media influenced the researchers. On July 21, 1954, the Cleveland Press held a front page editorial entitled "Do It Now, Dr. Gerber" calling for a public inquiry. Hours later, Dr. Samuel Gerber, the coroner who investigated the murder, announced that he would hold an examination the following day. The Cleveland Press runs another front page editorial titled "Why Not Sam Sheppard in Prison?" on July 30, entitled in subsequent editions, "Stop Removing and Bring Him in!". That night, Sheppard was arrested for police interrogation.
The local media launched stories on the front page bubbling up on Sheppard that did not have supporting facts or later denied. During the trial, the popular radio show broadcast reports about a New York City woman who claimed to be her concubine and mother of her illegitimate child. Since the jury is not alienated, two of the jurors admitted to the judge that they heard the broadcast but the judges did not fire them. From interviews with several jurors several years later, it is possible that the jury was contaminated by the press before the trial and possibly during the trial.
The US Supreme Court then called the trial a "carnival atmosphere".
Theory of the prosecutor
The prominent nature of the case proved to be a boon to lead prosecutor John J. Mahon, who ran for office in the Cuyahoga Qu'il General Court, when the trial began. Mahon won his seat, and served until his death on January 31, 1962.
Prosecutors learned during their investigation and revealed in court that Sheppard had married out of marriage three years with Susan Hayes, a nurse at the hospital where Sheppard was hired. The prosecution argued that the affair was a motive for murdering his wife Sheppard. Mahon made the majority of cases in the absence of direct evidence against the defendant, other than that he was inside the house when Marilyn Sheppard was killed. Mahon emphasizes inconsistency in Sam Sheppard's story and that he can not give an accurate description of the intruder in his home.
Another problem that arose in court was why there was no sand in his hair when Sheppard claimed to have been lying on the beach, and a lost Sheppard T-shirt, which the prosecution speculated would or should contain some of Sheppard's blood (already in alleged struggle with the perpetrator). However, Attorney Mahon chose to make this statement even though no T-shirts were ever found or presented as evidence. Also, part of the prosecution case is centered around (speculative) questions such as why a burglar will first take things in a canvas bag, only to then ditch them in the bushes outside Sheppard's home. It is in this situation that Mahon publicly speculates that Sheppard has performed at the scene.
The lack of murder weapons poses a problem for prosecution, but Cuyahoga County Coroner Samuel R. Gerber virtually avoids this distinction by testifying that the blood traces found on the pillow under Marilyn Sheppard's head are made by "two-blade surgical instruments with teeth at the tip of each knife" like a scalpel. For some reason, Sheppard's lawyer left this vague statement without a challenge. Sheppard's lawyers do not get access to physical evidence by the judge and therefore can not deny any statements about blood drops, murder weapon marks, blood splashes, physical marks on the body, etc.
Defense strategy
Sheppard's lawyer, William Corrigan, argued that Sheppard was seriously injured and that the injuries were inflicted by the intruder. Corrigan based his argument on a report made by neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Elkins, MD, who examined Sheppard and found him suffering from cervical concussion, nerve injury, many absent or weak reflexes (especially on the left side of his body), and an injury in the region of the second cervical vertebra behind the neck. Dr. Elkins states that it is impossible to fake or simulate a lost reflex response.
The defender further argues that the crime scene is very bloody, but the only evidence of blood that appears on Sheppard is blood stains on his trousers. Corrigan also believes Marilyn's two teeth have been damaged and pieces are drawn from his mouth, indicating that he may have bitten his assailant. He tells the jury that Sheppard has no open wounds. (Some observers have questioned the accuracy of the claim that Marilyn Sheppard lost his teeth while biting his assailant, arguing that his missing teeth were more consistent with the severe beatings Marilyn Sheppard received on his face and skull.) However, as criminologist Paul L. Kirk later recounted, had damaged Mrs. Sheppard's teeth, pieces would be found in her mouth, and her lips would be badly damaged, which is not the case.
Sheppard takes the stand in her own defense, testifying that she had been sleeping downstairs in a daybed when she was awakened by the screams of his wife.
I thought he was crying or shouting my name once or twice, at that moment I ran upstairs, thinking that he might have a reaction similar to the seizures he had experienced in his early pregnancy. I went into our room and saw the shape with light clothes, I believe, at that time grappling with something or someone. During this brief period I could hear loud moans or moans and voices. I feel depressed. It seems I was hit back from somehow but have gripped this person from the front or in general in front of me. I was apparently knocked out. The next thing I know, I am collecting my senses when it comes to sitting position by the bed, my legs toward the hall.... I see my wife, I believe I take her pulse and feel that she has gone. I believe that I then instinctively or unconsciously ran into my son's room next door and somehow decided that he was okay, I'm not sure how I determined this. After that, I thought that I heard a voice downstairs, apparently in the eastern front of the house.
Sheppard ran back down and pursued what he described as "rough-haired intruders" or "shapes" to the shores of Lake Erie beneath his house, before being beaten again. The defense named eighteen witnesses of the character for Sheppard, and two witnesses who said they had seen a hairy man near Sheppard's house on the day of the crime.
Verdict
On December 21, after negotiating for four days, the jury considers Sheppard guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. On January 7, 1955, shortly after his conviction, Sheppard was told that his mother, Ethel Sheppard, had committed suicide with a shot. Eleven days later, Sheppard's father, Dr. Richard Sheppard, died of a bloody stomach ulcer and stomach cancer. He was allowed to attend both cemeteries but was required to wear handcuffs.
In 1959, Sheppard volunteered to take part in a cancer study by the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, which allowed live cancer cells to be injected into his body.
On February 13, 1963, Sheppard's father-in-law, Thomas S. Reese, committed suicide in the Cleveland Cleveland motel, Ohio.
Appeal and retrial
Appeal
Sheppard's lawyer, William Corrigan, spent six years filing an appeal but all were rejected. On July 30, 1961, Corrigan died and F. Lee Bailey took over as a principal adviser to Sheppard. Bailey's plea for a habeas corpus warrant was granted on July 15, 1964 by a US district court judge who called the 1954 trial a "ridicule of justice" that ripped fourteen Sheppard Ampemen for legal proceedings. The State of Ohio was ordered to release Sheppard on bail and give the prosecutor 60 days to file an indictment against him otherwise the case would be permanently dismissed. The State of Ohio appealed the decision to the US Court of Appeals Court for the Sixth Circuit, which on 4 March 1965 reversed the decision of a federal judge. Bailey appealed to the US Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case at Sheppard v. Maxwell . On June 6, 1966, the Supreme Court, with an 8-to-1 vote, beat the assassination of murder. The decision noted, among other factors, that the "carnival atmosphere" had entered the court, and that the judge of the court, Edward J. Blythin, who died in 1958, was biased against Sheppard because Judge Blythin refused to seize the jury, the jury to ignore and ignore media reports about the case, and when speaking with newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen shortly before the trial begins, "Well, he's very guilty.
Sheppard is serving a ten-year sentence. Three days after his release, he married Ariane Tebbenjohanns, a widow from Germany who was associated with him during his imprisonment. Both had been engaged since January 1963. Tebbenjohs had a bit of his own controversy shortly after the engagement was announced, confirming that his half-brother was Magda Ritschel, wife of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. However, Tebbenjohanns emphasized that he had no Nazi views. On October 7, 1969, Sheppard and Tebbenjohann divorced.
Retrial
The jury selection began on October 24, 1966, and the opening statement began eight days later. Media interest in the trial remains high, but the jury is exiled. The prosecutor basically presents the same case as presented twelve years earlier. Bailey aggressively discredits every prosecution witness during cross-examination. When Coroner Samuel Gerber testified about the lack of murder weapons he described as "surgical weapons," Bailey led Gerber to admit they had never found a murder weapon and had nothing to bind Sheppard to the killing. In his closing argument, Bailey arrogantly dismisses the prosecution case against Sheppard as "ten pounds of nonsense in a five-pound bag".
Unlike in the early trials, neither Sheppard nor Susan Hayes took the stand, a proven strategy. After negotiating for 12 hours, the jury returned on November 16 with an "innocent" verdict. The trial was very important for Bailey's appearance to become famous among American criminal defense lawyers. It was during this trial that Paul Kirk presented the evidence of blood clippings he had collected at Sheppard's home in 1955 showing that the killer was handed over (Shepperd is the right hand) proved important for his release.
Three weeks after the trial, Sheppard appeared as a guest star on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson . In 1975, Carson told a guest of George Peppard (who played Sheppard in a TV movie), that Sheppard had told him during this conversation that he had been found guilty, he would shoot himself in court.
After his release, Sheppard helped write the Endure and Conquer book, which presented the side of his case and gave insight into his years in prison.
Professional wrestling career
Sheppard's friend and future father-in-law, professional wrestler George Strickland, introduced him to wrestle and train him for it. He debuted in August 1969 at the age of 45 years as "The Killer" Sam Sheppard, Wild Scholar Bill Scholl.
Sheppard wrestled more than 40 games before his death in April 1970, including a number of tag team bouts with Strickland as his partner. His fame made him a strong draw.
During his career, Sheppard uses his anatomical knowledge to develop a new hand grab, the "jaw claw". It was popularized by the professional wrestler of Humanity in 1996.
Late medical practice, marriage again, and death
After being released from prison, Sheppard opened a medical office in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna, Ohio, in the late 1960s. On May 10, 1968, Sheppard was granted surgery rights at Osteopathic Youngstown Hospital, but "his [skill] as a surgeon had deteriorated, and much of the time he was marred by alcohol"; five days after he was granted the privilege, he discectomy a woman and accidentally cut off the artery, and she died the next day. On August 6, he dubbed the right iliac artery in a 29-year-old patient who bleeds to death internally. Sheppard resigned from hospital staff a few months later after the wrong death suit had been filed by the patient's family.
Six months before his death, Sheppard married Colleen Strickland. Towards the end of his life, Sheppard reportedly drank "as much as two-fifths of liquor a day" (1.5 liters). On April 6, 1970, Sheppard was found dead at his home in Columbus, Ohio. Initial reports indicate that Sheppard died of liver failure. The official cause of death is Wernicke's encephalopathy (a biochemical lesion in the brain caused by thiamine deficiency). He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Columbus, Ohio. His body remained there until September 1997 when he was dug for DNA testing as part of a lawsuit his son had brought to clear his father's name. After the test, the body was cremated, and his ashes dismantled in a tomb at Knollwood Cemetery in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, along with the people of his murdered wife, Marilyn.
Civil trial for wrongful imprisonment
Sheppard's son, Samuel Reese Sheppard, has devoted much time and effort to trying to clean up his father's reputation.
In 1999, Alan Davis, a lifelong friend of Sheppard and his estate administrator, sued the State of Ohio at the Cuyahoga District Court for Public Crime for improper Sheppard imprisonment.
By court order, Marilyn Sheppard's body was dug, partly to determine whether the fetus he had brought had been the father of Sheppard. Terry Gilbert, a lawyer detained by the Sheppard family, told the media that "the fetus in this case had previously been autopsied", a fact that has never been disclosed before. This, Gilbert said, raises questions about the coroner's office in the original case that might hide the corresponding evidence. Because of the passage of time and the effects of formaldehyde on fetal tissue, paternity can not be determined.
Richard Eberling
During a civil trial, plaintiffs lawyer Terry Gilbert argues that Richard Eberling, a digger and a window washer at Sheppard's home, is the most likely suspect in the murder of Marilyn. Eberling finds Marilyn interesting and she is very familiar with the layout of Sheppard's house.
In 1959, the detectives questioned Richard Eberling about robberies in the area. Eberling confessed robbery and showed his booty detective. In between, there are two rings belonging to Marilyn Sheppard. Eberling stole the ring in 1958, a few years after the murder, from Sam Sheppard's brother's home, taken from a box marked "Marilyn Sheppard's Personal Rights". In subsequent interrogations, Eberling admitted that his blood was at the Marilyn Sheppard scene. He stated that he cut his finger while washing the window just before the murder and bleeds while on the scene. As part of the investigation, Eberling took a polygraph test with questions about Marilyn's murder. The polygraph examiner concluded that Eberling did not show fraud in his answer, although the polygraph results were evaluated by another expert several years later who found that it was not convincing or Eberling cheated.
In his testimony in the 2000 civil suit, Bailey declared that he rejected Eberling as a suspect in 1966 for "I think he passed a good polygraph test." When presented to Bailey that an independent polygraph expert said Eberling killed Marilyn or knew who was doing it, Bailey stated that he might present Eberling as a suspect in a 1966 birthday trial.
DNA evidence, which was not available in two murder trials, played an important role in civil proceedings. The blood DNA analysis at the crime scene shows that there is a presence of blood from a third person, other than Marilyn and Dr. Sam Sheppard.
With regard to binding blood to Eberling, DNA analysis allowed to be admitted to the trial can not be concluded. A plaintiff DNA expert is 90% sure that one of Richard Eberling's blood spots but, according to court rules, this is not acceptable. The defender argues that blood evidence has been tainted in the years since being collected, and that the important blood point on the closet door in Marilyn Sheppard's room potentially includes 83% of the adult white population. The defense also shows that the result in 1955 from the technique of typing the older blood, that the blood collected from the closet door is Type O, while the Eberling blood type is Type A.
Throughout his life, Richard Eberling was associated with a woman who had a suspicious death and he was convicted of killing Ethel May Durkin, a wealthy widow, an elderly man who died without a close family. The 1984 Durkin murder in Lakewood, Ohio was revealed when a court-reviewed review of the women's heritage revealed that Eberling, the guardian and executor of Durkin, had failed to execute his last wish, which included the provision of his funeral.
Durkin's body was excavated and additional injuries were found in an autopsy that did not match Eberling's claim of home accidents, including falling off the stairs at his home. In subsequent legal action, both Eberling and his partner, Obie Henderson, were found guilty of Durkin's death. Coincidentally, Durkin's two sisters, Myrtle Fray and Sarah Belle Farrow, also died in suspicious circumstances. Fray was killed after being "brutally beaten" on her head and face and then strangled; Farrow died after falling from an underground staircase in the house he lived with Durkin in 1970, a fall in which he broke both legs and arms.
Although Eberling denied criminal involvement in the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, Kathy Wagner Dyal, who worked with Eberling in caring for Ethel May Durkin, also testified that Eberling had admitted it in 1983. A fellow convict also reported that Eberling confessed to committing a crime. The defense questioned the credibility of both witnesses during the 2000 civil trial. Eberling died in Ohio prison in 1998, where he served a life sentence for murder in 1984 against Ethel May Durkin.
Defense
Steve Dever led a defense court team for the State of Ohio, which included assistant prosecutors Dean Maynard Boland and Kathleen Martin. They argue that Sheppard is the most logical suspect, and gives expert testimony that shows that the murder of Marilyn Sheppard was domestic murder in a textbook. They argue that Sheppard did not welcome news of his wife's pregnancy, he wanted to continue his business with Susan Hayes and with other women, and he was concerned about the social stigma that divorce might create. They claim the evidence suggests that Marilyn Sheppard might have hit Sam Sheppard sparking angry anger that caused her to hit. Boland evaluated the evidence that fifty years of investigators, journalists and others had considered, and during the trial he was the first to point out that the murder weapon used by Sam Sheppard was a bedroom lamp.
The defense asked why Sheppard did not ask for help, why did he neatly fold his jacket on the couch where he said he was asleep, and why the family dog, which some witnesses had testified (in the first trial in 1954) was very loud when strangers came home, barked on the night of the murder (implying that the dog knew the killer).
Verdict
After ten weeks of trials, 76 witnesses, and hundreds of evidence, the case was brought to an eight-person civil jury. The jury negotiated for only three hours on 12 April 2000, before returning a unanimous decision that Samuel Reese Sheppard failed to prove that his father had been imprisoned wrongly.
Invalidation of imprisonment claim is incorrect
On February 22, 2002, the Eighth District Court of Appeal voted unanimously that civil cases should not be handed over to the jury, on the grounds that the restriction laws have expired, and that claims for imprisonment have subsided with Sam Sheppard's death. In August 2002, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to review the appeals court decision.
Additional suspects
A 2002 book theorized that Marilyn Sheppard was murdered by James Call, an Air Force desert who went through Cleveland at a multi-state crime party at the relevant time.
Recording from casing
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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