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BACKGROUND TO THE CASE
Sam Sheppard was a prominent doctor in Cleveland during the nineteen
forties and fifties. He was staying at his lake house in Bay Village with
his wife Marilyn and his son Sam Sheppard Jr. and they were enjoying a pleasant
Fourth of July weekend in the company of friends and family. The Sheppard's
had hosted a party at the house on July third, and by midnight that night,
all of the guests had left. At that point, Marilyn Sheppard went upstairs
to bed and Sam fell asleep downstairs on the couch. Early on the morning
of July 4th, Sam woke up only to hear his wife screaming from upstairs.
He raced upstairs and saw an unidentifiable man had entered the room. Sheppard
struggled relentlessly to subdue the man, but that got him nowhere and he
ended up getting knocked out unconscious. Eventually, Sheppard woke up in
the bedroom and saw his wife lying in front of him in a pool of blood. He
stood up and heard a noise coming from outside, when he rushed outside to
see what was
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Marylin and Dr. Sam Sheppard
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going on he saw the same man he had been struggling with earlier rustling
through some bushes. A foot race ensued and Sheppard was finally able to
catch up with him on the beach. Again, Sheppard got into a wrestling struggle
with the man and again he was knocked unconscious. This time when he awoke,
his body was immersed in Lake Erie and the man was nowhere to be seen. Sheppard
ran back to his home to call the authorities and then took off immediately
to the hospital with the help of his two brothers. When police arrived at
Sheppard's house, they found his wife, Marilyn, badly beaten to death and
they found a canvas bag containing some of Sheppard's personal belongings
opened and presumably looked through. The murder case as I just described
it seems very cut and dry but here is where the case takes a turn in the
direction of the Supreme Court. Sheppard had been discovered to have a sexual
affair with one of his assistants at work, which made people suspicious
of Sheppard and began the media propaganda that pushed for Sheppard to be
the main suspect of the investigation. On top of that, police could not
produce any other real suspect and they were never able to come up with
fingerprints from the house or a viable sign that a break in had occurred.
Also, the Sheppard's dog was never heard barking and young Sam Sheppard
who was sleeping in the room next door never got out of bed even when his
father was supposedly struggling with the intruder. All of this evidence
mounted up against Sam Sheppard and he was eventually arrested and charged
with his wife's murder.
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