UNSOLVED: The Murder of Marilyn Sheppard 1

Summary

Murder: True Crime Stories — UNSOLVED: The Murder of Marilyn Sheppard (Part 1)

Host: Carter Roy
Date: July 28, 2026
Episode Focus: A deep-dive into the life, marriage, and murder of Marilyn Sheppard, the roots of the infamous 1954 case that partly inspired "The Fugitive." This episode explores Marilyn's early life, her troubled marriage to Sam Sheppard, and the fateful events leading up to her murder, laying the foundation for next episode’s focus on the ensuing investigation and media firestorm.

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode sets out to humanize Marilyn Sheppard, moving beyond her murder and the tabloid fascination with her husband to focus on the life she lived and the relationship that ultimately led to tragedy. Carter Roy emphasizes understanding the people at the center of notorious cases, not just the events, and outlines how the case shaped American media and justice.

“People’s lives are like a story. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end, but you don’t always know which part you’re on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don’t always get to know the real ending.”
— Carter Roy [03:32]

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Real Life to Pop Culture (00:48-03:32)

• Carter opens by discussing the cultural echoes of Marilyn Sheppard’s case, specifically its parallels with "The Fugitive" TV show and film, noting that the real story remained unresolved.
• Insight: The case’s ambiguity and the real-life tragedy behind pop culture "dramatizations."

2. Marilyn Reese’s Early Life & Psychological Desires (07:28-12:48)

• Born in Cleveland, 1923; lost her mother at six and was sent away by her grieving father, fostering a lifelong need to be chosen and loved.
• Eventually returned to her father and his new family, never quite feeling at home.
• Notable Quote:
  “Unlike her mom, [her father] was still alive. He’d just chosen not to keep her. That was a wound that would never fully close.”
  — Carter Roy [08:43]

3. Meeting Sam Sheppard — Teenage Sweethearts (12:49-15:02)

• Met in junior high; their on-and-off romance began in earnest, marked early by Marilyn’s need for commitment and Sam’s ambivalence.
• The “pinning” ceremony as a sign of devotion was pivotal to Marilyn’s sense of security.
• Quote about her sense of achievement:
  “For the first time since she was 6 years old, she’d proven to herself that someone had finally chosen her. Even if she had to orchestrate the whole thing to make it happen...”
  — Carter Roy [13:59]

4. Rocky Romance, Long Distance, and Early Betrayal (15:03-20:30)

• Marilyn and Sam’s long-distance college relationship becomes fraught, as Sam explores dating others and Marilyn struggles with jealousy and insecurity.
• After a brief breakup initiated by Marilyn, Sam dates another and even gives his "pin" to another girl, before realizing he truly loves Marilyn. They reconcile, but the relationship’s instability is set.
• Memorable Moment: Marilyn returning Sam’s pin in heartbreak—a foreshadowing of their future struggles.

5. Marriage, California, and Transformation (21:02-29:30)

• Sam and Marilyn marry at 21, moving to LA for Sam’s medical school. Marilyn becomes the supportive wife, working and supporting Sam’s career.
• Carter details Sam’s moral shift, influenced by newfound West Coast freedom and an acquaintance’s encouragement to take a mistress. Sam becomes increasingly unfaithful, often openly, as Marilyn suffers alone, isolated with a newborn.
• Memorable Observation:
  “She would do anything for Sam... She was athletic, a little competitive, and the kind of person who kept a bowling trophy out on display in the den.”
  — Carter Roy [34:20]

6. Affairs and Marital Decline (29:31-32:14)

• Marilyn suspects and later learns of Sam’s repeated affairs, including a serious involvement with the wife of another doctor and a nursing instructor.
• The Sheppards attempt reconciliation, spurred by family intervention, and return to Cleveland in hopes of a fresh start.

7. Returning Home, New Scandals (34:01-41:15)

• In Bay Village, Sam quickly resumes infidelity, now with lab technician Susan Hayes, which becomes public knowledge.
• Marilyn discovers evidence—love letters, receipts—and contemplates divorce but changes course after discovering she’s pregnant again.
• Their fragile, public-facing happiness hides their chronic marital wounds.

8. The Night of the Murder (41:16-50:02)

• July 3, 1954: The Sheppards host friends; Marilyn puts son Chip to bed and says goodnight. Sam falls asleep on the daybed; Marilyn retires alone.
• Sam’s story: Woken by Marilyn’s screams, he runs upstairs, describes encountering a “form” standing over her bleeding body, claims to have grappled with the intruder, and is knocked out twice (once in the bedroom, again by the lake). He then calls the mayor, not police.
• Key Quote:
  “He tried to tell them what had happened, but he was vague on the details and he used oddly stilted language. Instead of just saying a man had been in the bedroom. He said he'd seen a form.”
  — Carter Roy [45:06]

9. Crime Scene Observations & Early Suspicions (47:45-49:45)

• Officer Fred Drenkin’s observations: the brutality of Marilyn’s death, the apparently staged robbery, and Sam’s strangely cold demeanor.
• “The whole thing felt staged. Sam himself had seemed so cold so detached telling it. Drenkin couldn’t stop the question forming in his mind: What if it hadn’t been a stranger?”
  — Carter Roy [49:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “History did the same thing to the real Marilyn, and she was remembered through the lens of what her husband did or didn’t do. The difference? The Fugitive gave its audience an answer real life never did.”
  — Carter Roy [02:50]

• “She didn’t have names, but she had instincts, and those instincts were right. By that point, Sam had already had several affairs.”
  — Carter Roy [28:47]

• “A baby might be a bandaid, but it doesn’t heal the wound underneath. And all of Sam and Marilyn’s problems were still there, bubbling just below the surface.”
  — Carter Roy [40:22]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Pop culture parallels & case intro: 00:48–03:32
• Marilyn’s childhood & wounds: 07:28–12:48
• Meeting & pinning with Sam: 12:49–15:02
• Rocky courtship and breakup: 15:03–20:30
• Marriage & California era: 21:02–29:30
• Affair revelations, family intervention: 29:31–32:14
• Moving home to Bay Village: 34:01–41:15
• Night of the murder (setup): 41:16–45:30
• Sam’s story & aftermath: 45:31–49:45

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Tone & Style

• The episode is reflective, compassionate, and immersive, foregrounding Marilyn’s humanity and the raw emotional landscape of her marriage.
• Carter Roy blends historical detail with empathetic narration, seeking to evoke both the era and the personal stakes.

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Next Episode Preview

• The story will continue with the media firestorm, prosecution of Sam Sheppard, and the enduring controversy over guilt, innocence, and the impact on American law.

“The fight over that question would drag on for decades and rewrite the rules between the press and the American courtroom for good.”
— Carter Roy [05:25]

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking a thorough and vivid recounting of Marilyn Sheppard’s life, the context of her marriage to Sam Sheppard, and the haunting beginning of one of America’s most debated unsolved murders.

Transcript

[Carter Roy]

Hi listeners, it's Carter. Before today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories, I want to tell you about another podcast I am hosting I know you'll love. Crime House and AE are teaming up on the podcast version of the famous true crime series the First 48. Each week, I'll take you inside a landmark homicide case. The interrogations, the dead ends, and the breakthroughs in the critical first 4048 hours. Listen to and follow the first 48 every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is crime house. It's easy to get swept up in a good story, especially when Hollywood tells it. But most great dramas don't appear out of thin air. Writers pull from real life whether they admit it or not. The creator of the 1963 television series the Fugitive always insisted his show had nothing to do with a real case. That was a little hard to believe because there were so many parallels to one in particular, that case involved a doctor, his murdered wife, a conviction that wouldn't hold up, and a relentless chase for the truth. The show ran for four seasons. It ended with one of the most watched finales in television history. Decades later, Harrison Ford brought the whole thing back to the big screen in the form of a hit movie. But the real story, the one the writer swore he'd never heard of, happened all the way back in 1954 on the shores of Lake Erie. A woman named Marilyn shepherd was beaten to death in her own bed. In the Fugitive, the murdered wife is barely there alive just long enough to die and send the hero running. History did the same thing to the real Marilyn, and she was remembered through the lens of what her husband did or didn't do. The difference? The Fugitive gave its audience an answer real life never did. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end, but you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Friday's episodes covering the cases that deserve a deeper look. Thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow the show and for early ad free access to every episode. Subscribe to Crime House. Plus you'll get part one and part two at the same time, plus exclusive bonus content. To join go to crimehouseplus.com or tap try free on the Murder True Crime Stories show page on Apple Podcasts. This is the first of two episodes on one of the most infamous cases in American history, the murder of 31 year old Marilyn Shepherd. On the morning of July 4, 1954, when she was four months pregnant, Marilyn was beaten to death in her own home. Investigators narrowed in on a suspect almost immediately, but finding justice proved to be harder than anyone expected. Today I'll introduce you to Marilyn, a woman who just wanted to be loved and spent years trying to hold together a marriage that was never quite right. In her final months, it seemed like she and her husband Sam had finally found their footing until she was killed and he became the prime suspect. Next time I'll explain how the press turned the case into a witch hunt, pressuring the authorities into a trial that gripped the country. But did investigators have the right man? Or did they lock onto one theory too soon? The fight over that question would drag on for decades and rewrite the rules between the press and the American courtroom for good. All that and more coming up. If you've ever tried to find a psychiatrist, you know how frustrating it is to hear that there's a six month waiting list or that they don't take your insurance. It can make managing your mental health feel completely overwhelming. But Talk Iatry is changing that. Talk Iatry is a full service virtual psychiatry practice that helps you skip the long wait times and get rid of real medical care in just a few days. Unlike regular talk therapy, talkiatry focuses on specialized psychiatric care. Their licensed clinicians take the time to truly understand your needs, offering professional diagnoses and ongoing medication management for conditions like adhd, anxiety, depression and more. You get a personalized treatment plan and see the same provider every time you so you can actually measure your progress. Plus, tokyotry accepts major insurers making expert clinical care accessible and affordable. Head to toky.commtcs to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. That's T A L K I a t r y.com MTCs Summer always makes

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[Carter Roy]

Marilyn Reese was born in April 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, Thomas, wasn't the warmest, but he was generous. He was an inventor and a vice president at a manufacturing company who made sure his daughter had everything she wanted. That's what Marilyn remembered about him in the early years. And we have memories like that one and so much of the rest of her story, thanks to journalist James Neff, who spent years reconstructing her life for his book the Wrong Man. But her mother, Dorothy, was a different story. Marilyn barely knew her. Dorothy's pregnancy with Marilyn had been brutal. So brutal that she waited six years before trying for another child. She hoped the second time would go better. It was worse. Dorothy's second delivery was complicated, catastrophically so neither she nor her infant son survived. Marilyn was 6 years old, and just like that, her mom was gone. Her father didn't know what to do with his grief. He certainly didn't know how to raise a young daughter in the middle of it. So he made a decision. He sent Marilyn away to live with her aunt and uncle. Marilyn was too young to really understand why. All she knew was that she'd lost her mom and now she'd lost her dad, too. In a way, losing him was worse. Unlike her mom, he was still alive. He'd just chosen not to keep her. That was a wound that would never fully close. A few years later, Marilyn moved back to Cleveland to live with her dad, who had remarried. But things between them never really mended. There was always a distance There. A canyon, really. It became Marilyn's fatal flaw. She couldn't have explained it yet, but it was there. A desperate need to find someone who would never send her away. Someone who would choose her above everything else. She found him in junior high. His name was Sam Sheppard. He was a year behind her. A good looking athlete from one of the most prominent families in town. His father had founded the local hospital and basically ran the place. The Shepherds were well respected, well off and well known. But more importantly for a teenage Marilyn, Sam was cute. One day, Marilyn convinced a friend to introduce her to Sam before his basketball practice. It was a little awkward. It was middle school, after all. But Sam was interested right away. Marilyn was pretty, with long brown hair and hazel eyes. And he was flattered that a girl a year ahead of him even knew who he was. In junior high, a one year age gap felt enormous. It was exciting. That was pretty much all it took. They became middle school sweethearts. Marilyn and Sam kept dating all through high school, and they just seemed to work. They were both in student government. Sam was class president, and Marilyn served on the student council. They came from the same kind of comfortable and privileged world, and both their families seemed happy they'd found each other. But as Marilyn reached her senior year, the future started to loom. She was going to leave for college while Sam stayed behind. She didn't want anyone getting any ideas. Not other girls, and certainly not Sam. Marilyn wanted it crystal clear that he was hers. There was a custom back then called pinning. When a boy gave a girl his pin, it was a promise of sorts, of not quite an engagement ring. But the step right before meant that in a few years, he intended to propose. Marilyn wanted Sam's pin. So at a school dance that year, she pulled him outside. Standing there in the dark, she told him she loved him. That he was the only one for her. Sam was caught a little off guard, but he said he felt the same way then. Because that was what you did back then when someone said I love you. Sam gave Marilyn his pin. Marilyn must have felt a huge wave of relief. For the first time since she was 6 years old, she'd proven to herself that someone had finally chosen her. Even if she had to orchestrate the whole thing to make it happen as planned. In the fall of 1941, Marilyn graduated and left Cleveland for Skidmore College, a small women's liberal arts school in upstate New York. She wasn't happy about it. Skidmore wasn't really her choice. It was just what girls from good families did he went to college and got an education or you found a husband? But Marilyn already had Sam back home, and all she wanted was to go back to him. She wrote him every single day. If he didn't write back fast enough, she spiraled. Her grades reflected exactly where her attention was. Anywhere but the classroom. Her Spanish teacher made that pretty clear. On one of her report cards, they wrote, quote, very mediocre student who made little effort, showed little interest, and cut too often. So no one was exactly surprised when Marilyn dropped out. By the end of freshman year, she packed her bags and went home to Cleveland Heights. Now the situation was reversed. Marilyn was home, and Sam was the one leaving. He had buckled down and excelled in his final year of high school. He had a family legacy to uphold. After all, his dad had gone to medical school and so had his older brothers. That was the plan for Sam, too. That fall, he enrolled at Hanover College in rural Indiana. Marilyn sent him off with an expensive watch and one keep writing every day. They agreed they could see other people while they were apart. Just casual dates, nothing serious. They were still together, but Sam thought it was important they spread their wings a little. Marilyn only seemed to agree because it was what Sam wanted. She didn't want to risk losing him. So Marilyn dutifully told Sam about every guy she went out with. But her motive was clear. She only told him because she wanted him to tell her to stop, to say he didn't want her seeing anyone but him. He never did. He told her it was fine. He even encouraged it. Then, after only two months at Hanover, Sam pulled a full 180. He called Marilyn and asked her to come to Indiana. He missed her. He loved her, and he wanted to get married. He was caught up in the mood of the time. All around him, men his age were getting married before they enlisted or got drafted into the war. As a future physician, Sam was exempt from the draft. But he still felt the urgency of the moment, and he wanted to be a part of it. It was everything Marilyn supposedly wanted. But for some reason, she didn't jump at it. In that little hesitation, Sam started to have doubts of his own. Maybe they were too young. Maybe there was more out there. One afternoon, Sam was home from school, visiting his parents. He was working on his car in the driveway when a girl walked up to him. Her name was Rudy Bails, and she was clearly interested. Impulsively, Sam asked her out. She said yes. Sam was thrilled. Until his mom found out. She basically forced him to tell Marilyn about the date before he went. Sam figured it wouldn't be that big a deal. They dated other people before he ever brought up marriage. Surely they could still date other people now that Marilyn had pushed the idea off. But when he told Marilyn, she was heartbroken. He'd just been talking about marriage, and now he was going on a date with another girl. They clearly were not on the same page. Marilyn was so hurt that she broke up with him on the spot. She fumbled with a pin on her chest, the one he'd given her two years earlier and wore every single day. She unclipped it and handed it back. If this was how he was going to treat her, they were done. Sam was blindsided. He hadn't seen that reaction coming at all. But he went ahead and dated Rudy anyway. After only a few dates, he gave her his pin. When word got back to Marilyn, she was inconsolable, depressed. Even the one person who was always supposed to choose her had turned around and chosen somebody else. At that point, Sam seemed to realize that he'd really messed up. He liked Rudy, but he loved Marilyn. And although she'd been the one to end things, he still had feelings for her, and he wanted to make it right. So he got his pin back from Rudy and offered it to Marilyn all over again. It was a lot of back and forth, but they were young and figuring it out. Marilyn accepted his pin and his apology, and everything seemed fine again, at least on the surface. But the truth was, Sam had gotten a taste of what it was like to be with other women, and he wasn't sure he was ready to let that feeling go. That tension between the life Sam was building with Marilyn and the life he sometimes imagined without her would come to define their entire marriage. And Marilyn was the one who would pay the price.

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[Carter Roy]

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[Carter Roy]

1942, 19 year old Marilyn Reese and her boyfriend, 18 year old Sam Shepard, had patched things back together. The whole business with Rudy Bales was behind them and they were looking toward the future. Sam was flying through his undergraduate courses. He moved so fast that within two years he was already applying to medical school. His top choice was in Los Angeles, the same school his older brothers had gone to. If Sam didn't get in, he'd never hear the end of it from his siblings. Luckily for him, the acceptance letter came. He was off to the West Coast. Marilyn didn't go with Sam right away but they kept writing every day. And Sam started bringing up marriage again. By the end of 1944, he was serious about it. He was ready. And for the first time, so was Marilyn. Conveniently, both their fathers had plans to travel to California that winter. So Sam and Marilyn arranged a small wedding around those trips. In February 1945, they got married in a Hollywood church. They were both 21. Afterward, the dean of Sam's school threw a reception for them at his house. It wasn't the wedding Marilyn had imagined. She and Sam used to talk about the perfect day. Something dreamy and romantic with a honeymoon right after. Just the two of them. The reality was different. Sam didn't think he could take any time away from school. So there was no honeymoon. Marilyn simply moved. Moved to LA to live with him. And he went right back to his normal life. Marilyn told herself it was fine. Sam would be a doctor soon and everything would work out. They'd have money and stability and a real life together. They could take all the vacations they wanted then. She clung to that version of the future. And she did whatever she could to help Sam get there. She quizzed him for his exams. She typed up his report so he could focus on other things. She even took a part time job at a research lab to help cover their bills. On top of that, her dad sent them $50 a month. For all practical purposes, Marilyn was keeping them both afloat. She would do anything for Sam. In those early California years their marriage genuinely seemed good. Marilyn. Marilyn and Sam loved the LA weather and the openness of it all. They played tennis. On Sam's days off, they'd drop the top on their convertible and drive to the beach. Marilyn made friends with the other doctors wives. Life was easy in a way Cleveland never quite had been. One couple they grew especially close to were Randall and Joe Chapman. The four of them took trips together, played doubles tennis and lingered over long dinners. Sam and Randall became especially close when the wives weren't around. Randall introduced Sam to an idea that would reshape his whole marriage. Randall called it his LA wife. Anyone else would just call it a mistress. Whenever Joe was out of town, there was another. Another woman Randall would call. He told Sam he could have the same kind of arrangement if he wanted it. Sam had dated around before he got married, but this felt different. Back home, affairs weren't something people did or at least weren't something people talked about so openly. But Sam wasn't in the Midwest anymore and California had already been changing him in other ways. He drank at parties now, when he never used to, he'd taken up a pipe. He told off color jokes with women in the room. Piece by piece, he'd been loosening up. Then, with Randall's encouragement, he let go of the last of his reservations. Sam started openly flirting with other women, even with Marilyn right there. At one party, a young wife sat down on Sam's lap while Marilyn stood a few feet away. Marilyn said nothing and pretended not to notice. But of course she noticed. And she suspected there was a lot more going on behind closed doors. Back in Cleveland, Sam's father also seemed to sense that something was off. He wrote to the couple and suggested it might be time to start a family. He even sweetened it with an offer. If Marilyn got pregnant and had to leave her lab job, he'd make up the difference in their income every month. Whatever was simmering between them, Sam and Marilyn agreed that Sam's dad had a point. They should have a child. Within a month, Marilyn was pregnant. Like her mothers, Marilyn's pregnancy was hard. She developed a chronic cough and dealt with painful spasms throughout her first trimester. When it finally came time to deliver, she fought through 16 hours of labor. But on May 18, 1947, she delivered a healthy baby boy. They named him Samuel Reese Shepherd. Everyone just called him Chip. At first, Marilyn and Sam had family in town to help them adjust to life with a newborn. But those helping hands didn't stay. One by one, the relatives left Los Angeles. Sam went back to his relentless medical school schedule. And Marilyn was left alone with an infant in a city far from home. No more tennis, no more beach, no more driving around with the top down. All she could do was stay home with the baby. She felt trapped, exhausted, and completely on her own. Looking back, Marilyn was pretty clearly suffering from what we'd now call postpartum depression. But Marilyn didn't have the words for it at the time. After a few months, Sam grew frustrated. His main gripe was that she had no interest in sex. He thought about it the way a doctor might. He figured she connected her unhappiness to the new baby, and the baby had come from sex, so she'd shut sex out entirely. The idea that she might just need her husband's support never seemed to cross his mind. All Sam could think about was that he needed someone to. To want him. So he found someone who did. The next year, Sam officially became a doctor. Marilyn had hoped that would be the turning point for them. Instead, he got assigned overnight shifts in the maternity ward and even longer hours away from home. Marilyn felt more abandoned than ever. She also suspected he was having affairs. Maybe with hospital staff, maybe with other women in his orbit. She didn't have names, but she had instincts, and those instincts were right. By that point, Sam had already had several affairs. One was with the wife of a resident doctor, another with a nursing instructor. Who knows how many others there were? Sam later claimed Marilyn knew about the affairs and that it wasn't really a problem. He said he still loved her. She just wasn't interested in intimacy, so he had to find it somewhere else. That was how he justified it to himself. Whether or not Marilyn knew the specifics, she knew something was wrong and she wanted to go home to Cleveland. Sam's father and brothers were all pulling for him to come back and join the family hospital. Honestly, that sounded pretty good to Marilyn, who hadn't been happy in California for a long time. Sam wasn't convinced. He loved Los Angeles. He had friends there, colleagues, and of course, his affairs. So while he weighed whether he could give all of that up, Maryland took a trip. In the summer of 1950. She took their son and went home to Ohio. Unsurprisingly, leaving Sam alone in Los Angeles led to exactly one thing. He started another affair. This one got serious enough that the woman pushed him to leave Maryland. Sam hesitated. Then, in what had become a strange habit of his, he wrote to Marilyn and told her all about his feelings for this other woman. Marilyn couldn't believe she was going through this again. She asked him why he'd even bothered telling her. Did he want a divorce? Sam didn't say no. He just said it was up to her. At first, Marilyn thought about giving up. She'd been riding the same back and forth for years. Sam loved her. Then he loved someone else. She was happy. Then. She was lonely. She was tired of it. But she also realized she wasn't going to let her marriage go that easily. So she went to the one person she believed could talk some sense into Sam. His father. At the end of the summer, Sam drove to Cleveland to pick up Marilyn and Chip. But when he got there, his family was basically waiting to stage an intervention. His father, his brothers, even his sisters in law. They all knew what he'd been up to back in la. And they were squarely on Marilyn's side. Sam's dad didn't mince words. Sam needed to get over himself and grow up. One by one, the whole family gave him a piece of their mind. By the time it was over and Sam and Marilyn had to make the drive back to California something had shifted in him. He cared deeply about what his family thought. He didn't want to let them down. In the car heading west, there was nothing for the two of them to do but talk. So they went through all their options. By the time they reached Los Angeles, they'd made two decisions. First, they were staying together. Second, they were moving back to Cleveland. They hoped life back in Ohio would finally be better. They could not have been more wrong.

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CTS and C's 21+ sponsored by Chumba Casino in 1951, 28 year old Marilyn shepherd and her husband, 27 year old Sam moved home to the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village. Sam joined the staff at Bayview Hospital, landing The job wasn't exactly hard and Sam quickly became one of the area's most prominent osteopathic surgeons. Osteopaths were trained licensed doctors who took a more hands on, whole body approach to medicine. But in the 1950s, the mainstream medical world still looked down on them. For decades, the American Medical association had called osteopathy a cult and told its own members it was unethical to even consult an osteopathic. But that was the establishment's view, not the public's. In Bay Village, Sam was no second class doctor. He came from the family that had built the local hospital and his neighbors treated him accordingly. He and Marilyn bought a two story house right on the shores of Lake Erie. The couple became friendly with the mayor. Their neighbor was Cleveland Brown's quarterback, Otto Graham. Graham's wife Beverly became one of Marilyn's good friends. In the summers, while Otto was away at training camp, Sam would take Marilyn and Beverly out water skiing on the lake. Marilyn loved it. She was athletic, a little competitive, and the kind of person who kept a bowling trophy out on display in the den. On the surface, it looked like everything she'd ever wanted. She was home, she was respected. She had a beautiful house on the lake, a young son and a successful husband. Marilyn let herself believe they'd finally put all the messiness of California behind them. That was wishful thinking. You could take the man out of California, but you couldn't take California out of the man. Sam had changed out west and he was about to bring all of that home with him. That same year, Sam met a young lab technician who handled the lab work for his emergency calls. Her name was Susan Hayes. They were friendly at first, then they were more than that. By the end of 1952, they were sleeping together in his car at her apartment. Sam barely tried to hide it. Half the hospital knew and the gossip spread like wildfire. Before long, it reached Marilyn too. At one hospital party, she left early in tears because Sam was all over Susan. He'd been so obvious about it that everyone saw. According to Susan, Sam first floated the idea of divorce in early 1953. Soon after they started sleeping together. He told her he loved Marilyn as a person, just not so much as a wife. But he was hesitant to actually separate because he wasn't sure his father would approve. By the end of that year, Sam told Susan he'd raised the subject of divorce with Marilyn herself. Then in January 1954, he told Susan he loved her. A month later, Susan left Ohio for a job in Los Angeles. A Few weeks after that, Sam and Marilyn just happened to travel to California to visit friends, while Marilyn spent a few days at a ranch with a girlfriend Sam called Susan. The two of them ended up spending the entire week together. They seemed obsessed with each other. But even though Sam kept talking about leaving, it's not clear if he actually brought it up to Marilyn. He certainly never went through with it. He was too worried about how it would look and what it might do to his reputation. So when the week ended, Sam went back to Maryland. He told her the time apart had made him realize how much they were meant for each other. He wanted to stay together and make the marriage work. Marilyn must have felt the same. They agreed to start fresh once they got home. Carried away by that romantic declaration, they slept together that night. They were starting over. Or at least that's what they told themselves. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Once they got back to Bay Village, Marilyn found receipts for a gift Sam had bought for Susan, and she was furious. Then she learned Susan had sent Sam a letter at his office. A letter someone on staff had opened. Marilyn got her hands on that letter and she held onto it. She told friends she wanted a divorce no matter what it meant for Sam's reputation. And she planned to use the letter as leverage to get it. But then she found out she was pregnant. Whatever plans she'd been making, she put them on hold and backed off her threats. In early June, she and Sam shared the happy news with the rest of the family. To anyone watching from the outside, it looked like the storm had passed. Sam himself wrote that month that they were as happy as they'd ever been. Whether that was true is another question. Because a baby might be a band aid, but it doesn't heal the wound underneath. And all of Sam and Marilyn's problems were still there, bubbling just below the surface. On the Evening of Saturday, July 3, Marilyn and Sam had their friends dawn and Nancy Ahern over for dinner. The Aherns brought their two young kids. It was an easy, relaxed night. Drinks, food, the sun going down over Lake Erie. Once it got dark, the children needed to go to bed. Don took his home and tucked them in. Marilyn carried her and Sam's 7 year old son, Chip, up to his room and put him down for the night. When the kids settled in, the two couples gathered back and the shepherd's living room and put on a movie called Strange Holiday. Marilyn sat on Sam's lap for a while until he asked to move. He'd had a long, draining day in the emergency room. And he needed to stretch out. He shifted over to the daybed. As the movie played on, he fell asleep. Around midnight, the Aherns said their goodbyes and headed home. Marilyn walked them to the door and waved them off. Then she went upstairs to bed, leaving Sam asleep on the daybed. She didn't want to wake him. He needed his rest. Later that day, the whole family was supposed to go on her dad's boat for a Fourth of July outing. Marilyn never made it. What happened next depends entirely on who you believe. According to Sam, he was jolted awake in the early morning hours by his wife screaming his name. He said he ran upstairs to their bedroom. It was still dark out and every light was off, so he could barely see. But when he reached the room, Marilyn was on the bed, covered in blood. Her pajama top had been pushed up, her bottoms had been pulled down, and someone was standing over her. Sam said he grappled with the intruder, trying to drag him away from Maryland. Then something struck him from behind, a blow to the back of the neck. He went down hard, knocked out cold. When he came to, the intruder was gone. Sam said he went to Marilyn's side and felt for a pulse. As a doctor, he knew exactly what he was doing. And he knew the terrible truth. She was dead. Sam said he rushed to his son's room next door to check on him. Chip was still asleep, unharmed, completely unaware. Then Sam ran downstairs and out the back of the house toward the water. He said he could see the intruder up ahead, running away. According to Sam, he chased him all the way down to the lake edge and lunged for him. But the man fought back, getting Sam into a chokehold. At that point, Sam allegedly blacked out a second time. When he came to, he was lying on the beach, soaked through with his shirt and his watch both gone. He had no idea how any of it had happened. He made his way back up to the house. And then instead of calling the police, he called the mayor. It was around 5:40am on July 4, 1954, when the phone rang at Spencer Hauck's house. Hauck was the mayor of Bay Village. He was also Sam's neighbor and friend. He picked up and heard Sam on the other end. Sam said, quote, my God, Spence, get over here quick. I think they have killed Marilyn. For a second, the mayor wasn't sure he'd heard right. Marilyn murdered? Well, there had to be some mistake. But he threw on his clothes and woke his wife, Esther. Together they drove the short distance to the Shepherd's house. They were There within minutes. Sam was in the den. When they arrived, he was still bare chested, leaning back in a swivel chair, one hand cupped around his neck. He tried to tell them what had happened, but he was vague on the details and he used oddly stilted language. Instead of just saying a man had been in the bedroom. He said he'd seen a form. In a later interview he called it a biped. He couldn't even say for sure whether it was a man or a woman. The one detail he kept coming back to was the figure had bushy hair. He said his memory would have been clearer, but he was dazed from being knocked out. The Houcks listened. Then they called the police. This was well beyond anything they could handle on their own. Bay Village Police Officer Fred Drenkin pulled up to the shepherd home around 6am he was a 27 year old patrolman who just happened to be on call that morning. He had no idea what he was walking into or that it would become one of the most notorious cases in Ohio history. Drenkin went upstairs to see the scene for himself. Marilyn was on her back in the bed. Her face was turned toward the doorway, but even someone who knew her well might not have recognized her. Her head had been struck more than 20 times. Blood soaked the bed and darkened the walls nearby. An autopsy would later put her time of death. At around 4:30 that morning, Trenkin stood in the doorway and took it in. Then he started moving through the rest of the house, and at first it did look like a robbery. Sam's black medical bag was standing upright in the hall, its contents dumped out on the floor. In the den, two trophies lay broken on the carpet, one of Sam's old high school track trophies and Marilyn's bowling trophy. The desk drawers had been pulled open, but they'd been pulled open too neatly, each one stacked above the next. And nothing really valuable seemed to be missing. To Drinken, the scene didn't read like a burglary. It read like someone wanted it to look like one. There were no signs of forced entry, no broken window, no jimmied lock. And no one in the neighborhood had reported a prowler. That night. Downstairs, Sam had described a stranger who'd broken in, killed Marilyn, and vanished into Lake Erie without a trace. But standing in that house, Dranken had a hard time believing it. The whole thing felt staged. Sam himself had seemed so cold, so detached. Telling it, Drankin couldn't stop the question forming in his mind. What if it hadn't been a stranger? What if this was the work of someone much closer to Marilyn. Someone with a personal, specific rage toward her. Someone like her husband, Dr. Sam Shepard. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for part two on the murder of Marilyn Shepard and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, Crimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get both parts of every story dropped on Tuesday completely ad free. No waiting for Part two plus ad free and early early access to every show across Crime House and bonus episodes every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts tap, try free at the top of the True Crime Stories page. We'll be back on Thursday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertofsky, Alyssa Fox, Alex Burns, Cassidy Dillon and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. Hi listeners, it's Carter. Before today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories, I want to tell you about another podcast I am hosting I know you'll love. Crime house and A&E are teaming up on the podcast version of the famous true crime series the First 48. Each week I'll take you inside a landmark homicide case, the interrogations, the dead ends, and the breakthroughs in the critical first 48 hours. Listen to and follow the first 48 hours every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.