Early on July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard, who was thirty-one and pregnant with her second child, was murdered in her bed. Evidence later indicated that the assailant may have raped her before killing her. Marilyn's husband, thirty-one-year-old Sam Sheppard, was a well-known doctor in the community of Bay Village, a suburb located just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Sheppard was found guilty of his wife's murder and sentenced to imprisonment in an Ohio institution.
The doctor vehemently denied any involvement in the crime and repeatedly pleaded for release from his alleged wrongful imprisonment. More than ten years after the murder, a judge finally listened to Dr. Sheppard's pleas. He granted Dr. Sheppard a new trial in 1966, during which he was represented by F. Lee Bailey. At the close of the second trial, the jury found Dr. Sheppard not guilty. Although Sheppard regained his liberty, the public continued to doubt his innocence. Dr. Sheppard turned to alcohol and died of liver failure in 1970 at the age of forty-six.
Sam and Marilyn Sheppard left behind one child, Sam Reese Sheppard, who was sleeping upstairs in the family home while his mother was murdered. Sam Reese Sheppard was just seven years old at the time of his mother's murder. As an adult, Sam Reese Sheppard spoke openly about what he believed took place. Sam Reese Sheppard stated that he believed strongly in his father's innocence.
In particular, Sam Reese Sheppard believed his father's version of events, in which a bushy-haired figure attacked Marilyn Sheppard as Dr. Sheppard slept on the couch, awaking too late to save her life but soon enough to wrestle with her attacker as he fled and to catch a quick glimpse of him. Both Dr. Sheppard and his son believed that this assailant was Richard Eberling, a window-washer who worked on the Sheppard home shortly before the murder. This theory gave rise to the plot of a television series and a major motion picture, both entitled "The Fugitive." In the television series and the movie a doctor,who is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, escapes custody to find the real killer.
Another theory is that Marilyn Sheppard's infidelity ultimately led to her death. Marilyn Sheppard may have been murdered by her neighbor, Esther Houk, who was outraged when she discovered that her husband, Bay Village Mayor Spencer Houk, was involved with Marilyn Sheppard.
Sam Reese Sheppard believed so strongly in his father's innocence that he brought a $2 million civil lawsuit against the State of Ohio for the alleged wrongful imprisonment of his father. The civil trial lasted for over two months, during which time Dr. Sheppard's body was exhumed so that DNA evidence could be taken to compare it to blood found at the scene of the murder. Although the DNA evidence was found to indicate that there may have been a third person at the scene of the murder, the jury considering the case ultimately did not clear Dr. Sheppard from the murder. The burden of proof in a wrongful imprisonment case is a stringent one: Sam Reese Sheppard was required to demonstrate that his father was not guilty of his mother's murder beyond any doubt. The standard is, thus, even higher than that used in criminal trial, which requires evidence beyond any reasonable doubt in order to find a defendant guilty of the crime. Sam Reese Sheppard's book, Mockery of Justice: The True Story of the Sheppard Murder Case, contends that it was Eberling who committed the crime.
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