# Sam Sheppard: The Bay Village Murder, the Press and the Supreme Court

- Link: https://thedarksideofhumanity.com/sam-sheppard/
- Published: 2026-10-29T09:40:44-04:00
- Author: Mandi Martyr

Content warning: this dossier describes the beating death of a pregnant woman in her bed, the suicides of two members of the victims’ families, the death of an elderly woman after a fall that a jury found was murder, and an unsolved beating death. It contains no body, scene or victim images.TDSH Case File · Bay Village, Ohio · Acquitted 1966Sam Sheppard: The Bay Village Murder, the Press and the Supreme CourtAcquitted 1966Conviction set asideSheppard v. MaxwellAcquitted, November 16, 1966Bay Village, Ohio1954 to 2002Marilyn Reese Sheppard was beaten to death in her Bay Village home on July 4, 1954. Her husband was convicted in 1954, and in 1966 the Supreme Court ruled he had been denied a fair trial; he was acquitted that November. In 2000 their son lost a wrongful-imprisonment suit. This is what the record shows.Legal status: Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard, on December 21, 1954, and sentenced to life in prison. The Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in 1956. On July 15 and 16, 1964, a federal district judge granted a writ of habeas corpus and he was released; the Sixth Circuit reversed that ruling in 1965. On June 6, 1966, in Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, the U.S. Supreme Court held that he had been denied a fair trial and ordered his release unless Ohio tried him again. Ohio did. On November 16, 1966, a jury found him not guilty. He died on April 6, 1970, an acquitted man. In 2000 his estate sued the State of Ohio to have him declared a wrongfully imprisoned individual; on April 12, 2000, the jury found for the defendant, the State of Ohio. That verdict was not a finding that he was guilty. The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed in 2002, holding that the claim should never have gone to trial, and the Ohio Supreme Court declined further review. Richard Eberling, the man the Sheppard family came to name as the killer, was never charged with Marilyn Sheppard’s murder; in 1989 he was convicted of the aggravated murder of Ethel May Durkin, a different woman, and he died in prison in 1998 serving a life sentence. Every claim in this dossier that he killed Marilyn Sheppard is an allegation and is attributed to whoever made it.Marilyn Reese Sheppard was 31 and four months pregnant when she was beaten to death in the upstairs bedroom of her home on the shore of Lake Erie in Bay Village, Ohio, in the early hours of July 4, 1954. Her seven-year-old son slept through it in a room nearby. Her husband, an osteopathic physician at the hospital his family had founded, said he had fought a “bushy-haired” intruder and been knocked unconscious twice.Within a month the Cleveland newspapers were asking on their front pages why he was not in jail. Within six months he had been convicted. Twelve years later the U.S. Supreme Court used his case to set out what trial judges must do to protect a defendant from the press, and a second jury acquitted him. The case went back to court once more in 2000, when his son tried, and failed, to have the state declare his father innocent.01Who was Sam Sheppard?Sam Sheppard came from a family of osteopathic physicians. His father, Dr. Richard A. Sheppard, founded Bay View Hospital, and his two brothers, Dr. Richard N. Sheppard and Dr. Stephen A. Sheppard, practised there. Sam joined the hospital’s staff in 1951.He married Marilyn Reese on February 21, 1945. Their son, Samuel Reese Sheppard, known as Chip, was born in 1947. Marilyn’s father, Thomas S. Reese, was a vice-president of DiNoc Chemical Arts. He and Marilyn’s stepmother, Jane Reese, had planned to take Sam, Marilyn and Chip out on their boat on July 4, 1954.The family lived in a lakeshore house in Bay Village, a Cleveland suburb, on Lake Road. Their neighbours included the mayor of Bay Village, J. Spencer Houk, and his wife, Esther. Arthur G. Paine and his wife lived directly across the street and spent a good deal of time with the Sheppards; Mrs. Paine called Sam a “very devoted husband,” and Mr. Paine said he was “the grandest fellow that ever lived.”Susan Hayes was a former medical technologist at Bay View Hospital. She and Sam had an affair. He initially denied the relationship and later admitted it. Several witnesses testified that Marilyn knew he had visited Hayes in California and bought her gifts. On June 17, 1954, according to their minister, Alfred C. Kreke, the couple had happily told him that Marilyn was expecting their second child.02July 3, 1954: dinner with the AhernsOn the evening of Saturday, July 3, 1954, Sam and Marilyn had their neighbours Don and Nancy Ahern to dinner. Afterwards they watched television in the living room. Sam became drowsy and fell asleep on a couch, which the Cleveland State University archive calls a daybed. According to the Supreme Court’s summary of his account, Marilyn partly woke him to say she was going to bed.The Aherns left around midnight, with Sam still asleep downstairs. The Cleveland State University archive records that they left with the back door locked. A friend of Sam’s from medical school, Lester Hoversten, had been staying with the Sheppards around this time but was away on an overnight golfing trip in Kent.A man driving home from a fishing trip, Leo Stawicki, said that at about 2:15 to 2:30 a.m. he saw a bushy-haired man near a tree by the Sheppard home. Another couple, Richard and Betty Knitter, said they saw a bushy-haired man in the area while driving on Lake Road early that morning.03The morning of July 4: Sheppard’s accountThe Supreme Court summarised the story Sheppard “pieced together for several local officials” that day. He remembered hearing his wife cry out in the early morning hours. He ran upstairs and, in the dim light from the hall, saw a “form” standing next to her bed. As he struggled with it he was struck on the back of the neck and knocked unconscious. When he came to, he was on the floor beside the bed. He took her pulse and “felt that she was gone.” He went to his son’s room and found him unharmed.He then heard a noise, ran downstairs, saw a “form” running out of the door and chased it to the lake shore. He grappled with it on the beach and lost consciousness again. When he recovered he was lying face down with the lower part of his body in the water. He went back to the house, checked his wife’s pulse again and “determined or thought that she was gone.”He telephoned the mayor. The Cleveland State University archive gives the words as: “For God’s sake, Spen, get over here quick. I think they’ve killed Marilyn.” Its timeline puts the Houks’ arrival at 5:50 a.m.; its who’s who page puts the call at 5:45 a.m. The Supreme Court wrote that the Houks found Sheppard slumped in an easy chair and asked “What happened?”, and that he replied, “I don’t know but somebody ought to try to do something for Marilyn.” Esther Houk went upstairs and found the body.Mayor Houk called the local police, Dr. Richard Sheppard and the Aherns. Bay Village Patrolman Fred Drenkhan arrived at 6:02 a.m., the first officer on the scene. He testified that Sheppard told him “he heard Marilyn scream, that he remembered fighting on the stairs, that he was in the water, and then that he came upstairs.” Bay Village Police Chief John P. Eaton was summoned at about 6 a.m. and called in Coroner Gerber and the Cleveland police.Chip, still asleep, was taken from the house by his uncle Richard, who also examined his brother and took him to the family’s hospital.04Marilyn Reese SheppardMarilyn Reese Sheppard was 31. The Cleveland State University timeline records that she was “bludgeoned 27 times with an unknown weapon” between 3 and 5 a.m. The weapon was never identified. She was four months pregnant. Cuyahoga County Deputy Coroner Lester Adelson performed the autopsy at about 12:30 p.m. that day.People who knew Marilyn gave different accounts of the marriage. A social acquaintance, Lavelle Miller, said the couple “always seemed very happy.” Their minister said they had a good relationship. A woman named Jessie Dill said that Marilyn, whom she had met on the beach a few weeks earlier, told her she was thinking of divorcing Sam over his infidelities and had herself been involved with another man for several months.Her funeral was held on July 7, 1954. Chip did not attend because of the press coverage. The NOVA chronology records that she was entombed the same day.Her unborn child was never named in any of the sources used here. In October 1999 both Marilyn’s body and the fetus were exhumed for testing.05Suspicion settles on the husbandCuyahoga County Coroner Samuel R. Gerber arrived at about 8 a.m., according to the timeline and NOVA; the who’s who page says 7:50 a.m. The Supreme Court wrote that “From the outset officials focused suspicion on Sheppard.” After a search of the house that morning, Gerber was reported, and it was never denied, to have told his men: “Well, it is evident the doctor did this, so let’s go get the confession out of him.” He then questioned and examined Sheppard, who was sedated, in his hospital room, and took the clothes he had worn.Cleveland homicide detectives Robert F. Schottke and Patrick Gareau were called to the house at about 9 a.m. and took Sheppard’s first formal statement at Bay View Hospital around 10:30 a.m. That afternoon Chief Eaton and two Cleveland officers questioned him at length. The Supreme Court’s text spells the detective’s name “Shotke.” Asked to take a lie detector test, Sheppard said he would if it were reliable. The detective said it was “infallible” and “you might as well tell us all about it now,” and at the end of the interview told him: “I think you killed your wife.”Doctors who examined Sheppard recorded injuries. The neurosurgeon Charles Elkins found swelling of the right eye and a possible concussion, and on July 6 decided he had a bruised spinal cord at the second cervical vertebra. His dentist, Dr. Richard E. Koch, found two loose and chipped teeth on July 15.The house stayed in what the Supreme Court called “protective custody” until after the trial. The family hired a criminal lawyer, William J. Corrigan; the archive notes Sam was criticised in the newspapers for getting a lawyer so soon. On July 8 he offered a $10,000 reward for the “arrest and conviction” of the killer. On July 9, at the coroner’s request, he walked officers through the house and re-enacted what he said had happened. That day’s front page read “Doctor Balks At Lie Test; Retells Story.” On July 10 he gave a formal statement at the sheriff’s office and denied having had an affair with Susan Hayes.06“Why No Inquest?”: the newspaper campaignThe Supreme Court’s opinion lists the coverage in detail. On July 7, the day of the funeral, the county prosecutor criticised the family’s refusal to allow immediate questioning, and from then on headlines stressed Sheppard’s lack of cooperation. One headline read “Testify Now In Death, Bay Doctor Is Ordered.” The NOVA chronology, taken from Cynthia Cooper and Sam Reese Sheppard’s book Mockery of Justice, calls it one of hundreds of articles in the following months, “many with untruths or inadmissible information.”On July 20 a front-page editorial was headed “Someone Is Getting Away with Murder.” On the morning of July 21 the Cleveland Press ran another: “Why No Inquest? Do It Now, Dr. Gerber.” Gerber called an inquest that afternoon. The Press’s editor, Louis Seltzer, was later criticised for the paper’s coverage of Sheppard and his family.The inquest opened on July 22 in the gymnasium of Normandy High School so that it could hold the crowds and the radio and television crews. It was broadcast live. Sheppard was searched in full view of several hundred spectators. His lawyers were present but not allowed to take part. When Corrigan tried to put documents into the record, the Supreme Court wrote, he “was forcibly ejected from the room by the Coroner, who received cheers, hugs, and kisses from ladies in the audience.” Sheppard was questioned for five and a half hours and again denied the affair with Hayes.On July 23 the Cleveland police took over the investigation from Bay Village. On July 24 Hayes was questioned by police in California and admitted the affair. On July 28 an editorial asked “Why Don’t Police Quiz Top Suspect” and described Sheppard as “Now proved under oath to be a liar, still free to go about his business, shielded by his family, protected by a smart lawyer who has made monkeys of the police and authorities.”On July 30 the Press asked on its front page, “Why Isn’t Sam Sheppard in Jail?” At 10 p.m. that night he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.07Bail, indictment and the run-up to trialOn August 16, 1954, Sheppard was released on $50,000 bail. NOVA’s chronology says the “Judge finds no evidence and releases Dr. Sheppard on bail.” The next day a grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder and he was arrested again.On August 18 a newspaper ran across its front page part of a typed statement Sheppard had signed: “I am not guilty of the murder of my wife, Marilyn. How could I, who have been trained to help people and devoted my life to saving life, commit such a terrible and revolting crime?” The Supreme Court noted that the record held five volumes of clippings from each of the three Cleveland papers.On October 9, nine days before trial, an editorial attacked the defence’s survey of public opinion, gathered to support a motion to move the trial, as something that “smacks of mass jury tampering.” The trial was set two weeks before the November general election, in which the chief prosecutor was running for a common pleas judgeship and the trial judge, Edward Blythin, was running to succeed himself. Twenty-five days before trial, 75 prospective jurors were called, and all three Cleveland papers published their names and addresses. All of them then received anonymous letters and telephone calls about the case.08The 1954 trial: a courtroom built around the pressExhibitThe Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland, photographed in 2008. The sources used here do not name the building in which the 1954 trial was held, so this photograph is not offered as the trial location.Photo: Mike Russell, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.Jury selection began on October 18, 1954, in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The prosecution sought the death penalty. On October 19 Judge Blythin denied defence motions to move the trial out of Cleveland and to delay it until the publicity died down. The 1954 prosecutors were John Mahon, Saul Danaceau and Thomas Parrino; the defence was William Corrigan, Arthur E. Petersilge and Fred W. Garmone.The courtroom measured 26 by 48 feet. A long temporary table was set up inside the bar, behind the single counsel table, running the width of the room, with one end less than three feet from the jury box. About 20 reporters from newspapers and wire services were assigned seats at it by the court. Three of the four rows of benches behind the bar were assigned to the press.The Supreme Court described the result: “The fact is that bedlam reigned at the courthouse during the trial and newsmen took over practically the entire courtroom, hounding most of the participants in the trial, especially Sheppard.” Witnesses, lawyers and jurors were photographed and televised whenever they entered or left.The jury was sworn on October 28. It was not sequestered during the trial. Pictures of the jurors appeared “over 40 times in the Cleveland papers alone.” The jury visited the Sheppard house with crowds and reporters around it; Sheppard, handcuffed to a deputy, was there too. One newspaper rented a helicopter to photograph the jurors on the tour. The Cleveland State University timeline dates the visit November 3; NOVA places it on the first day of trial, October 28.The opinion lists the episodes it considered most flagrant. Two days after a police officer gave testimony that tended to contradict details of Sheppard’s written statement, the broadcaster Robert Considine, on Cleveland’s WHK, likened Sheppard to a perjurer and compared the episode to Alger Hiss’ confrontation with Whittaker Chambers. The defence asked the judge to question the jury about the broadcast. He refused and said: “It is a matter of free speech, and the court can’t control everybody.” On November 24 an eight-column headline read “Sam Called A ‘Jekyll-Hyde’ By Marilyn, Cousin To Testify.” No such testimony was given.On December 9, as Sheppard took the stand, Cleveland homicide captain David E. Kerr issued a press statement denying Sheppard’s allegations about police conduct. It ran under the headline “‘Bare-faced Liar,’ Kerr Says of Sam.” Kerr never testified. A newspaper also published a photograph of Marilyn’s bloodstained pillow that had been “doctored” to show more clearly what was claimed to be the imprint of a surgical instrument.Sheppard testified, admitted that he had been unfaithful and maintained that he was innocent. The testimony ended on December 16, and the state asked for a first-degree murder conviction and death in the electric chair.09Verdict: second-degree murder, December 21, 1954The jury was sequestered for the first time once the case was submitted to it. Deliberations took “five days and four nights.”On December 21, 1954, the jury found Sheppard guilty of second-degree murder. The jurors reported that they had been split for the first four days and that at 11 a.m. on the fifth day all agreed he was guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison and again said he was innocent. NOVA calls it one of the longest criminal trials in American history up to that time. The house was unsealed and returned to the family.On January 3, 1955, Judge Blythin denied a motion for a new trial that listed 40 grounds, among them the pretrial publicity, the refusal to move the trial and the presence of the press in the courtroom.Years later, the columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, who had covered the trial, said in an unsworn statement that Blythin had told her: “It’s an open and shut case * * * he is guilty as hell.” The Supreme Court found it did not need to decide that claim.10January 1955: two deaths in the familyFour days after the new-trial motion was denied, on January 7, 1955, Sam’s mother, Ethel Niles Sheppard, killed herself. NOVA records that she shot herself. The Cleveland State University archive records the note she left: “Dear Steve, I just can’t manage alone without Father… Mother.” Her husband, Dr. Richard A. Sheppard, had fallen gravely ill on December 20, 1954, the day before the verdict. He died on January 18, 1955. The archive gives the cause as complications from stomach cancer; NOVA describes a hemorrhaging gastric ulcer and suddenly worsened stomach cancer.If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available: in Canada and the US call or text 988, and in the UK and Ireland call Samaritans on 116 123.Stephen and Betty Sheppard took in Chip after his father’s conviction.11Paul Kirk and the blood in the bedroomOn January 22, 1955, Paul Leland Kirk, a professor of criminalistics from California working for the defence, visited the Sheppard house and examined the evidence and samples the police had collected. His report, returned in March 1955, discussed what he said was evidence of a third person, the blood spatter and other items. The Cleveland State University archive says he deduced from the bloodstain pattern that the killer was left-handed and therefore could not have been Sam.The defence moved for a new trial on the strength of Kirk’s findings. NOVA says the motion was heard in April 1955, taken under advisement and denied; the archive dates the ruling May 9, 1955. The archive also says Kirk’s blood-spatter evidence was key to the 1966 acquittal.12Prison and the lost appeals, 1955 to 1963ExhibitThe Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, in a 1989 Historic American Engineering Record photograph. Sheppard’s federal habeas case was brought against E. L. Maxwell, Warden, Ohio Penitentiary.Photo: Fredrik Marsh, Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.In the summer of 1955 Sheppard was moved from the Cleveland jail to a maximum security prison near Columbus, one of two prisons where he would be held until 1964. On July 13, 1955, according to NOVA, his appeal was rejected; the Court of Appeals decision is reported at 100 Ohio App. 345. The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed in 1956 (165 Ohio St. 293). Its opinion, by Judge Bell, said that “Murder and mystery, society, sex and suspense were combined in this case in such a manner as to intrigue and captivate the public fancy to a degree perhaps unparalleled in recent annals,” and that “In this atmosphere of a ‘Roman holiday’ for the news media, Sam Sheppard stood trial for his life.” It still upheld the conviction. In December 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.In July 1961 William Corrigan had a stroke and died. A young Boston lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, flew to Cleveland to see Stephen Sheppard and agreed to represent Sam.On November 8, 1959, Richard Eberling, a window washer and handyman who had worked for the Sheppards, was arrested for larceny with a ring of Marilyn’s in his possession. After a polygraph test he was cleared of involvement in her murder on November 19. In February 1963 the Ohio Parole Board denied Sheppard parole.131962 and 1963: Myrtle Fray, Thomas Reese and The FugitiveOn May 20, 1962, Myrtle Irene Fray, 64, was beaten to death in her bed. She was a sister of Ethel May Durkin, who later employed Eberling. The Cleveland State University archive notes what it calls numerous similarities to Marilyn’s murder. Fray’s murder is unsolved, and none of the sources used here records a charge against anyone for it.On February 13, 1963, Marilyn’s father, Thomas S. Reese, killed himself with a shotgun.If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available: in Canada and the US call or text 988, and in the UK and Ireland call Samaritans on 116 123.On April 13, 1963, Bailey filed a new habeas corpus petition in federal district court, arguing that the publicity around the 1954 trial had violated Sheppard’s rights. The state was represented by John T. Corrigan, no relation to William Corrigan.In September 1963 ABC began broadcasting The Fugitive, a series about a doctor wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. NOVA says it was inspired by the Sheppard case, “according to most observers.” The Associated Press reported in 2002 that the show’s creator denied that.14July 1964: “mockery of justice”On July 15 and 16, 1964, U.S. District Judge Carl Weinman granted the writ. The Cleveland State University timeline says he called the 1954 trial a “mockery of justice” that violated Sheppard’s right to due process. The ruling is reported as Sheppard v. Maxwell, 231 F. Supp. 37 (S.D. Ohio 1964). The state was given 60 days to bring charges again or the case would be dismissed. Sheppard walked out of prison on July 16, 1964.Two days later, on July 18, 1964, he married Ariane Tebbenjohanns, who had begun writing to him in prison in 1959.The state appealed. In 1965 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed Judge Weinman by a divided vote (346 F.2d 707). The U.S. Supreme Court then agreed to review the case.15Sheppard v. Maxwell, 1966ExhibitAssociate Justice Tom C. Clark, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion in Sheppard v. Maxwell, in his official portrait dated April 13, 1956.Photo: unknown photographer, Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.The case was argued on February 28, 1966, by Bailey for Sheppard and by Saxbe and John T. Corrigan for the state. It was decided on June 6, 1966. Justice Tom C. Clark wrote for the Court. Justice Hugo Black dissented without an opinion. The vote was 8 to 1.The Court framed the question as whether Sheppard had been deprived of a fair trial because of the trial judge’s failure to protect him from the “massive, pervasive and prejudicial publicity” that attended his prosecution. It concluded that he had been, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.The opinion did not blame the press alone. “The carnival atmosphere at trial could easily have been avoided since the courtroom and courthouse premises are subject to the control of the court,” Clark wrote. The judge, it said, should have limited the number of reporters, controlled their conduct in the courtroom, insulated the witnesses, and tried to stop police, witnesses and lawyers from releasing information to the press.Where there was a reasonable likelihood that publicity would prevent a fair trial, the Court said, the judge should continue the case until the threat abated or move it to another county, and should have raised sequestration of the jury on his own motion. “Due process requires that the accused receive a trial by an impartial jury free from outside influences,” the Court wrote. “Collaboration between counsel and the press as to information affecting the fairness of a criminal trial is not only subject to regulation, but is highly censurable and worthy of disciplinary measures.”The denial of the habeas petition was reversed, and the case was sent back to the district court “with instructions to issue the writ and order that Sheppard be released from custody unless the State puts him to its charges again within a reasonable time.” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor John T. Corrigan announced that Sheppard would be retried.16The 1966 retrial and acquittalThe second trial began on October 24, 1966, before Judge Francis J. Talty, who limited the press in the courtroom. John T. Corrigan prosecuted, with Assistant County Prosecutor Leo Spellacy. Bailey led the defence, with Russell Sherman and Charles M. Burnim. Sheppard did not testify.The Cleveland State University archive records that Bailey suggested at the retrial that the Houks had killed Marilyn. NOVA notes that Spencer Houk was at one point considered a possible suspect. No source used here records a charge against either of the Houks.On November 16, 1966, after deliberating for less than a day, the jury found Sam Sheppard not guilty.17After the acquittal, 1967 to 1970In 1966 Sheppard published a book, Endure and Conquer. In 1967 he got his medical licence back, but he was sued over the death of a patient and gave up his practice. He and Ariane divorced in December 1968.In 1969 he became a professional wrestler, using the ring name “Killer,” and married Colleen Strickland, the 20-year-old daughter of his wrestling manager. The Fugitive had run its final episode on August 27, 1967; NOVA says its ratings had declined after Sheppard was found not guilty.He died on April 6, 1970, at 46. The Cleveland State University timeline gives the cause as liver failure; the Associated Press wrote in 1998 that he “died nearly penniless of liver disease.” NOVA says Paul Kirk died within a few months of him.18Ethel May Durkin and Richard Eberling’s 1989 convictionEthel May Durkin was an elderly widow who needed constant help with her daily routine. She employed several people, including Richard Eberling, his partner Oscar “Obie” Henderson, and her cousin Linda Newton. On November 15, 1983, she fell at home while Eberling was with her. She suffered two broken cervical vertebrae and died on January 3, 1984. The coroner initially ruled that she had died of complications from an accidental fall.According to the 1992 appellate opinion, Eberling and Henderson then produced wills that gave Eberling seventy percent of the estate and Henderson four percent. In 1988 Lakewood police had Durkin’s body exhumed, and an autopsy was performed on September 10, 1988.On October 13, 1988, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Eberling and Henderson on nine counts arising from Durkin’s death and estate. The jury trial began on June 6, 1989. The Cleveland State University timeline dates the conviction July 7, 1989. On count one, aggravated murder under R.C. 2903.01, Eberling was sentenced to life imprisonment and a $25,000 fine. The two were ordered to pay $1,524,453.69 in restitution, jointly, to Durkin’s estate.One trial witness, Beverly Scheidler, testified, as the appeals court summarised it, that in April 1985 Eberling told her that it was not the fall that had killed Durkin, but that he had hit her. The appeals court decided the case on April 9, 1992. The saved excerpt of the opinion ends before its ruling.The Cleveland State University archive describes Durkin as having died after being pushed down the stairs by Eberling. That is the archive’s characterisation; the court record describes a fall and the jury’s verdict of aggravated murder.19Sam Reese Sheppard’s campaign and the Eberling theoryIn October 1989 Sam Reese Sheppard, the son who had slept through his mother’s murder, began speaking publicly about what he had suffered and set out to solve the case. In March 1990 he met Eberling at the Lebanon Correctional Institution. On April 30, 1993, he and the writer Cynthia Cooper agreed to write a book; Mockery of Justice, which argued Sam Sheppard’s innocence and cast suspicion on Eberling, came out in September 1995.On October 13, 1995, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Stephanie Tubbs Jones announced an investigation. On February 22, 1996, Judge Ronald Suster held a hearing, the first in the case in more than 30 years.On April 29, 1996, Kathie Collins Dyal, a former nurse of Ethel May Durkin, said that Eberling had admitted to her that he killed Marilyn. Eberling denied saying it. In 1996 he told the Associated Press: “They have nobody else to go for except me. Heavens no, I didn’t do it. I don’t even kill wasps in my home. It’s not my nature.”Sam Sheppard’s body was exhumed for DNA testing on September 17, 1997. On March 4, 1998, the family’s lawyer, Terry Gilbert, announced that DNA tests by Dr. Mohammed Tahir of the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency showed that the blood found at the scene could not be Sam Sheppard’s; the Cleveland State University timeline adds that Tahir said Eberling’s blood was consistent with the blood type found there. The AP reported that tests on blood from the scene and swabs from the victim found DNA with genetic components similar to Eberling’s, a composition he shared with about 6 percent of the population.Eberling died at a prison hospital on July 25, 1998, at 68. He had been serving his life sentence at the Orient Correctional Institution since 1989; the cause of death had not been officially determined when the AP reported it. Prosecutors said there was not enough evidence, and there were too many holes, for Eberling to be prosecuted or for Dr. Sam Sheppard to be exonerated. On August 19, 1998, a fellow inmate, Robert Lee Parks, said that Eberling had confessed to Marilyn’s murder shortly before he died. Eberling had died without ever being charged in her death, so the claim was never tested in a criminal court.20The 2000 wrongful-imprisonment trialExhibitThe Sheppard crypt at Knollwood Cemetery, photographed in 2015. Its Wikimedia Commons description says it holds Sam Sheppard, Marilyn Reese Sheppard and their unborn child.Photo: Tim Evanson, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.Ohio law allows a person who was wrongfully imprisoned to seek compensation from the state, but a common pleas court must first declare the person a wrongfully imprisoned individual. On October 19, 1995, Alan Davis, special administrator of Sam Sheppard’s estate, filed a petition in the original criminal case, No. 64571, seeking that declaration. On July 24, 1996, the estate filed a second petition as a civil action, Davis v. State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Case No. CV-96-312322.The state argued that the statute of limitations had run, but Judge Suster refused to dismiss the case, and in 1998 the Ohio Supreme Court refused the county prosecutor’s request for a writ to stop it, in State ex rel. Tubbs Jones v. Suster, 84 Ohio St.3d 70.The state, now under Prosecutor William D. Mason, had Marilyn’s body exhumed on October 5, 1999, along with the fetus. Alan Davis died in September 1999, and Charles Murray was substituted as administrator on February 12, 2000. The jury trial began on February 7, 2000. In February Mason called “outrageous” a settlement proposal from Gilbert of $3.25 million in return for dropping the suit.The estate had to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Sam Sheppard was innocent. Prosecutors theorised that he beat his wife to death with a bedroom lamp in a “fit of rage,” and portrayed him as a husband unhappy that his wife was pregnant again and involved in an affair with a lab technician. “It breaks down to human behavior, just like any other crime,” Assistant County Prosecutor Steve Dever said.The estate argued that DNA from a third person was at the scene and pointed to Eberling. Its lawyers on appeal were Terry H. Gilbert and George H. Carr.21April 12, 2000: the jury found for the State of OhioOn April 12, 2000, the eight jurors returned their verdict after deliberating “only about three hours,” the Morning Journal reported; CBS, carrying the AP, said “less than three hours.” The verdict form is captioned Charles Murray, Administrator of the Estate of Samuel H. Sheppard, against the State of Ohio, before Judge Ronald Suster, Case No. 312322, and the jury marked that it found for “the Defendant, the State of Ohio.” The appeals court later recorded it in one line: “On April 12, 2000, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the State.”The jury did not find Sheppard guilty of murder; that was not the question before it. The verdict meant that the estate had not met its burden of proof. CBS called it “a major victory for prosecutors.” Attorneys told the Morning Journal it was the first wrongful-imprisonment suit tried before a jury in Ohio. The jurors declined to speak with the attorneys or the media.“That verdict we had today shows that the system of justice in this country does work,” Mason said. Dever said the case “was overstated from the beginning. The science didn’t stand up. Richard Eberling was a red herring.”Sam Reese Sheppard, 52, of Oakland, California, said: “The Sheppard family may be bloodied but we are unbowed.” He said of his father’s innocence, “That will come out in history I assure you.” And: “My father’s life was destroyed by the state of Ohio,” he said. “I will never forget that. I will never let you forget that.” Gilbert said, “We’re very proud of what we’ve done in this case.” He added: “It’s very difficult to prove someone didn’t commit a crime.”22Murray v. State, 2002, and the end of the caseThe estate appealed. On February 21, 2002, the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed, in an opinion by Judge Colleen Conway Cooney, with Presiding Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon and Judge James J. Sweeney concurring. It did not reach most of the estate’s complaints about how the trial was run.Instead it held that the six-year statute of limitations under R.C. 2305.07 had run, and that “the claim for ‘wrongful imprisonment’ abates upon the death of the individual who was allegedly wrongfully imprisoned.” Its conclusion: “the State’s motion to dismiss should have been granted.” In other words, the case should never have gone to trial.On August 7, 2002, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, saying it raised no “substantial constitutional question.” Mason said “it’s over after 48 years,” and that the case “probably should have died when Sam Sheppard died in 1970.” Gilbert said: “This case now is in the historical and academic realm.” Sam Reese Sheppard said, “My dad was innocent.”23Timeline February 21, 1945: Sam Sheppard marries Marilyn Reese. July 4, 1954: Marilyn Reese Sheppard, four months pregnant, is beaten to death in her bed. Sam calls Mayor Spencer Houk. July 30, 1954: Sheppard is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. December 21, 1954: The jury convicts him of second-degree murder. He is sentenced to life. January 7, 1955: His mother, Ethel Niles Sheppard, dies by suicide. November 8, 1959: Richard Eberling is arrested for larceny with Marilyn’s jewellery; he is cleared of her murder on November 19. May 20, 1962: Myrtle Irene Fray, 64, is beaten to death in her bed. The case is unsolved. February 13, 1963: Marilyn’s father, Thomas S. Reese, dies by suicide. July 16, 1964: Judge Carl Weinman grants habeas corpus and Sheppard is released. June 6, 1966: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 8 to 1 in Sheppard v. Maxwell. November 16, 1966: A retrial jury finds Sheppard not guilty. April 6, 1970: Sam Sheppard dies at 46. January 3, 1984: Ethel May Durkin dies after a fall at her home in November 1983. July 7, 1989: Eberling is convicted of aggravated murder in Durkin’s death and sentenced to life. March 4, 1998: The family announces DNA results it says exclude Sam Sheppard. July 25, 1998: Eberling dies in prison at 68, never charged with Marilyn’s murder. April 12, 2000: The jury finds for the State of Ohio. August 7, 2002: The Ohio Supreme Court declines to hear the estate’s appeal. 24FAQWas Sam Sheppard convicted of killing his wife?He was convicted of second-degree murder in December 1954, but the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1966 that the trial had denied him due process, and a jury acquitted him at his retrial on November 16, 1966. He is legally not guilty.What did the 2000 civil trial decide?Sheppard’s estate sued the State of Ohio for wrongful imprisonment and had to prove he was innocent. On April 12, 2000, the jury found for the State of Ohio. In 2002 the appeals court held the claim should have been dismissed because it was time-barred and had ended with Sheppard’s death.Was Richard Eberling charged with Marilyn Sheppard’s murder?No. Eberling was convicted in 1989 of the aggravated murder of Ethel May Durkin. The Sheppard family and its experts argued he killed Marilyn, and he denied it. He died in 1998 without being charged in her death, and prosecutors said the evidence was not enough to prosecute him.25Related case files The Cleveland Torso Murderer: Victims, Evidence & Suspects Ariel Castro: The Monster of Cleveland Unleashed Citations & SourcesSources26 Cornell Legal Information Institute: Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333 (1966) Supreme Court of Ohio: Murray v. State, 2002-Ohio-664 vLex: State v. Richard Eberling, Oscar B. Henderson Cleveland State University, EngagedScholarship@CSU: The Sam Sheppard Case: 1954-2000 (timeline) Cleveland State University, EngagedScholarship@CSU: Who’s Who in the Sheppard Cases Cleveland State University, EngagedScholarship@CSU: 1995-2002 Court Filings Cleveland State University, EngagedScholarship@CSU: Jury Verdict Cleveland State University, EngagedScholarship@CSU: Civil Case Status – Jury Verdict PBS NOVA: Killer’s Trail: Chronology of a Murder PBS NOVA: Killer’s Trail: Chronology of a Murder, part 2 PBS NOVA: Killer’s Trail: Chronology of a Murder, part 3 PBS NOVA: Killer’s Trail: Chronology of a Murder, part 4 PBS NOVA: Killer’s Trail: Chronology of a Murder, part 5 CBS News: Fugitive Jury Rules Against Sheppard The Morning Journal: Dr. Sam’s son loses wrongful imprisonment suit The Seattle Times: Richard Eberling Dies; Linked By Some To Sheppard Slaying WOIO Cleveland 19: Court Ends Last Appeal In Sam Sheppard Case Image creditsPhoto: Mike Russell, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.Photo: Fredrik Marsh, Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.Photo: unknown photographer, Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.Photo: Tim Evanson, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.