UNSOLVED: The Murder of Marilyn Sheppard 2

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Murder: True Crime Stories

Episode: UNSOLVED: The Murder of Marilyn Sheppard 2

Host: Carter Roy
Date: July 30, 2026

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Overview

In the gripping second part of "The Murder of Marilyn Sheppard," Carter Roy unpacks the decades-long saga surrounding the 1954 murder of Marilyn Sheppard, a case that became a landmark in both legal and media history. Roy navigates through the details of the investigation, the sensationalized trials, the tragic fallout for the Sheppard family, and the enduring questions that still haunt this unsolved crime. The episode focuses on how media manipulation, flawed police work, and shifting public opinion complicated the quest for justice, while also highlighting the overlooked humanity of Marilyn herself.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Morning of the Murder & Initial Investigation

[05:48 - 15:43]

• Discovery & Sam Sheppard's Story:
  Officer Fred Drentkin arrives at the Sheppard home to find Dr. Sam Sheppard, injured and distraught, reporting that a "bushy haired form" attacked his wife as he slept downstairs. Sam claims to have fought the intruder twice, losing consciousness both times, and awakening on the beach without his shirt and watch.
• Crime Scene Oddities:
  • No forced entry; items (watch, ring, keys) are found in a bag behind the house, staged rather than stolen.
  • Medical bag emptied, house rifled through, but with a curiously neat approach - suggesting a staged robbery.
• Immediate Suspicions:
  Coroner Samuel Gerber arrives and quickly concludes this is a domestic homicide, focusing solely on Sam based on his preconceptions, and limits forensic investigation accordingly.

"Gerber was so certain about his theory, he cut corners with standard forensic procedures like fingerprint recovery. ...He just let that potential evidence go uncollected."
—Carter Roy [08:12]

• Emergence of Motive:
  Sam’s affair with Susan Hayes becomes public knowledge, providing investigators with a possible motive.

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Media Influence & Public Outcry

[15:43 - 24:50]

• Press Sensationalism:
  The Cleveland Press, led by editor Louis Seltzer, begins a "trial by media," portraying Sam as a privileged man shielded by his influential family rather than a grieving husband.
• Public Pressure:
  • Headlines such as "WHY NO INQUEST? DO IT NOW, DR. GERBER" provoke public outrage and prompt officials to act.
  • Prosecutors and investigators increasingly cater their actions to the press and public opinion, accelerating the legal proceedings.

"The paper was calling for Sam's head on a stake and its provocative headlines were rallying the public to the cause."
—Carter Roy [17:30]

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The Inquest & First Trial

[21:17 - 34:12]

• The Inquest as Spectacle:
  • Held in a school gymnasium packed with spectators; Sam is not allowed legal counsel by his side.
  • Sam’s clinical, detached demeanor further alienates the public and jurors.
• Trial Dynamics:
  • The trial is fraught with sensational press coverage, jury contamination, and questionable prosecutorial tactics—reporters and even celebrity journalists cover each twist.
  • Prosecution leans on circumstantial evidence, including testimonies about Sam’s alleged capacity for deceit, lack of forced entry, and the bloody scene.
  • Coroner Gerber adds drama by suggesting a surgical instrument was used—a claim never evidenced.

"Gerber had planted the image of a surgeon standing over his wife with one of his own tools in hand. It was vivid and awful, even if it was only ever Gerber's interpretation."
—Carter Roy [30:43]

• Defense Efforts:
  • Attempts to highlight lack of physical evidence, the possibility of another suspect, and Sam's lack of blood evidence on his person mostly fail.
  • Sam testifies, but his flat delivery and detachment harm his credibility.

"For a man whose wife had been beaten to death... he sure sounded like he was dictating a report about a stranger."
—Carter Roy [32:00]

• Verdict:
  Jury convicts Sam of second-degree murder. He's sentenced to life in prison with parole possible after a decade.

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Tragedy & Aftermath

[34:12 - 42:45]

• Personal Destruction:
  • Sam’s mother dies by suicide shortly after his conviction; his father dies of cancer days later.
• Forensic Challenges:
  • Forensic scientist Dr. Paul Kirk reviews the case, argues for possible third-party involvement, and highlights blood evidence suggesting a left-handed killer (Sam was right-handed).
  • Discovery of Marilyn’s ring in possession of Richard Eberling, the Sheppards' window washer, raises suspicions but cannot clear Sam.

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Legal Odyssey & Landmark Supreme Court Decision

[42:45 - 50:00]

• F. Lee Bailey's Crusade:
  • Newly hired lawyer F. Lee Bailey files habeas corpus, focusing on the prejudicial media environment of the trial.
  • Revelations about trial judge’s bias (as reported by Dorothy Kilgallen) bolster claims of fundamental unfairness.
• Supreme Court Ruling (Sheppard v. Maxwell, 1966):
  • Supreme Court overturns conviction due to a "carnival" atmosphere and lack of jury protection from media bias.
  • Precedent established for balancing press freedom with fair trial rights, impacting future high-profile cases.

"The court made it clear that judges were responsible for balancing the First Amendment’s freedom of the press with the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a fair trial."
—Carter Roy [46:00]

• Second Trial & Acquittal:
  • In the retrial, prosecution pivots to forensic testimony; the defense effectively counters.
  • Sam does not testify; the jury acquits him.

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The Fallout, Renewed Theories, and Modern Investigation

[50:00 - End]

• Sam's Decline:
  • Freed but broken, Sam’s attempt to return to medicine fails; he turns to professional wrestling under the macabre persona "Killer Sheppard."
  • Dies of liver disease at 46 after a turbulent post-prison life.
• Chip Sheppard’s Quest for Vindication:
  • Decades later, Sam’s son Chip pursues Eberling as the real murderer after Eberling is convicted for another killing.
  • DNA evidence from the scene does not match Sam, but is too degraded for certainty; Chip's wrongful imprisonment suit fails after a lengthy court battle.

"In the end, the DNA named no one. ...The case closed the way it had always lived. Unresolved."
—Carter Roy [53:21]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the tragic impact on the Sheppard family:
  "Within a month of his sentencing, his mother died by suicide... Eleven days later, Dr. Sheppard Sr. died of cancer."
  —Carter Roy [34:27]

• On the role of media:
  "The judge may have overruled them, but there was no denying that the jury knew about the case ahead of time. All but one member said they'd read about it or seen televised coverage throughout the trial."
  —Carter Roy [27:15]

• On Sam’s transformation post-acquittal:
  "As a wrestler, Sam developed a new persona... He called himself Killer Sheppard. The name was either a horribly distasteful joke or an insight into who he really was."
  —Carter Roy [48:43]

• On the central tragedy:
  "Somewhere in the decades of legal back and forth, the woman at the center of it all got buried a second time. ...She was a person, a woman who deserved more than she got."
  —Carter Roy [53:55]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [05:48] – Initial investigation, Sam’s account, crime scene peculiarities
• [15:43] – Press involvement and public crusade against Sam
• [21:17] – Coroner’s inquest spectacle, Sam’s demeanor
• [27:15] – Start of first trial, media contamination of jury
• [34:12] – Aftermath: Sheppard family tragedy and forensics
• [42:45] – F. Lee Bailey’s entry and legal appeals
• [46:00] – Supreme Court ruling: Precedent set (Sheppard v. Maxwell)
• [50:00] – Second trial, acquittal, Sam’s doomed life after release
• [53:21] – Chip Sheppard’s failed attempt to clear family name
• [53:55] – Closing reflection on Marilyn as the lost victim

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Closing Thoughts

Carter Roy’s sensitive, in-depth retelling underscores how the Sheppard case was not simply the story of a sensational crime, but a reflection of America’s evolving relationship with justice, media, and truth. The case’s enduring ambiguity, failed attempts at closure, and the overshadowed life of Marilyn herself serve as sobering reminders of the real costs behind notorious headlines.

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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. In the summer of 1954, a doctor named Sam Shepard told police he'd woken up to find his pregnant wife Marilyn beaten to death in the house they shared in Ohio. Sam said an intruder did it, but almost no one believed him. What followed was one of the most notorious murder cases in American history and one of the first to be tried in the headlines. The papers reached their verdict long before the jury did. Whether they got it right is something people still argue about today. Was Sam Shepard a cold blooded killer or an innocent man who was ruined by a story that was too good to pass up? Decades of legal battles never fully settled it, but along the way, the case would change the way America thinks about a fair trial. The one thing that's never been up for debate is that Marilyn Sheppard was murdered in her own home. And that somewhere in all the noise, the woman at the center of it all was nearly forgotten. 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, the 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 Story show page on Apple Podcasts. Please note this episode contains discussions of suicide. Please listen with care. This is the second 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. Last time I told you Marilyn's story, the lonely childhood that left her longing to be chosen and the rocky marriage that Sam's affairs kept threatening to pull apart. By the summer of 1954, the two of them finally seemed to be turning a corner. But they never got the chance to see it through. Today I'll explain what happened. Once authorities arrived at the Shepherd's home that Fourth of July, it wasn't long before investigators narrowed in on Sam as their prime suspect. But that was only the beginning. Even after the jury handed down a verdict, lawyers and judges and the media would argue about the case for decades. And in the end, no one would really know who to blame. All that and more coming up.

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That's T a L K I A. By the time the sun came up on the morning of July 4, 1954, the Shepherd House on Lake Erie was crawling with people. Patrolman Fred Drinkin was the first officer on the scene. He arrived around 6am and found 30 year old Dr. Sam Sheppard in his downstairs den. Sam was shirtless and holding his injured neck. The Mayor and the mayor's wife were on either side consoling him. They had been the ones to call the authorities after Sam called them first. Sam told Drinkin what had happened. He said a bushy haired form had broken in and attacked his wife, 31 year old Marilyn. Sam heard her calling out for him so he jumped up from where he'd fallen asleep on the daybed downstairs and rushed to their bedroom. There he saw the form standing over Marilyn in the bed. Sam said he fought with them but was knocked out. When he came to, he ran outside and chased them down to the lake. Sam tried to fight again but the form got the best of him and knocked him out cold. When Sam woke back up on the beach, he was wet and missing his shirt and watch. Drinkin was a little confused listening to Sam describe the intruder. He asked Sam what he meant by form. Sam said the two knockouts had left him confused and now he couldn't remember the gender of the attacker. That sort of made sense, but Drinken still thought it was weird that Sam didn't just say intruder or stranger or attacker. But maybe Sam was just in shock and having a hard time stringing words together. Trenkin filed it away for the time being, leaving Sam with the mayor and his wife. Trenkin braced himself and went upstairs. Trenkin found Marilyn on her back in the bed. Her pajamas had been pulled off leaving her exposed. Her face had been beaten so badly that she was nearly unrecognizable. Blood covered the bed, the walls, and the closet doors across the room. Drentkin took a deep breath. Then he kept moving through the house, seeing what other clues might have been left behind in the hallway. Sam's medical bag had been emptied, its contents scattered across the floor. In the living room, trophies had been knocked off a shelf in the office. Every desk drawer had been pulled open. On first glance, it looked like a robbery. On second glance, something felt off. The desk drawers had been pulled out almost perfectly, evenly. There was no sign of forced entry anywhere in the house. The few things that seemed to be missing Sam's watch, his ring, his keys soon turned up together, stuffed in a green canvas bag in the bushes behind the house. A real thief doesn't take a man's valuables then leave them a few feet from the back door. Trenkin didn't say it out loud yet, but he was already thinking it. Maybe it had been staged. When County Coroner Samuel Gerber arrived at 8am Trinkin shared his thoughts with him. Gerber looked at the scene and agreed immediately. This was a domestic homicide, and Sam Sheppard was responsible. As the county coroner, Gerber was an elected official with real authority here. He had the power to investigate a death and officially rule on its cause. And reaching that kind of conclusion was quite literally his job. The problem was he was supposed to investigate first, not walk in, decide Sam was guilty, and work backward from there. But Gerber was so certain about his theory that he cut corners with standard forensic procedures like fingerprint recovery. Gerber only did a superficial sweep because in his mind, there was no point in doing more. Sam's prints would have been everywhere in his own home regardless. He didn't think for a second that he might find someone else's fingerprints. He just let that potential evidence go uncollected. From the house, Gerber drove to Bayview Hospital, where Sam had been admitted and sedated for shock and neck injuries. Sam was still groggy from the sedatives, but Gerber questioned him anyway. The interrogation lasted 10 minutes. Then Gerber collected Sam's clothes for further testing. On the left knee of Sam's pants, he saw a large blood stain, the kind someone might get from kneeling in blood. Later that day, Gerber told a detective exactly what he thought. Sam Sheppard had killed his pregnant wife. Other investigators would soon reach the same conclusion. Cleveland City police and Bay Village detectives all cycled through Sam's hospital room that afternoon. They weren't subtle about where they stood. One of the detectives looked Sam in the eye and straight up told him, quote, I think you killed your wife. Sam didn't crack. He just kept saying he loved Marilyn. But Sam also understood what was happening. He knew he needed someone in his corner who wasn't looking at him the way the detectives were. So he got ahold of a big time criminal defense attorney named Bill Corrigan. And by the end of the day, Corrigan was sitting at Sam's bedside. There would be be no more unsupervised questioning. Meanwhile, the shepherd home was sealed off and preserved as evidence. Sam and Marilyn's son, 7 year old Chip, who had slept through the entire night, was picked up by his aunt and uncle. Marilyn's body was taken to the morgue. The medical examiner placed her time of death at around 4:30am the autopsy confirmed that she'd been four months pregnant. Follow up tests confirmed the child was in fact Sam's. That ruled out an early theory that Sam might have killed Marilyn over a pregnancy that wasn't his. Instead, investigators soon learned that Sam was the one who'd been cheating. Nancy Ahern, one of the friends who'd been with the Shepherds the night before Marilyn's death, told police that Sam had been seeing a woman from the hospital, someone he'd been involved with for a while. Apparently, it was a bit of an open secret. Just like that, police had a motive for why Sam might kill his wife. He wanted her out of the way so he could be with his mistress. When asked about it, Sam denied everything. He loved his wife. He was innocent. That was all he had to say. Initially, the local press took Sam at his word and reprinted his version of events about the Intruder. The whole thing was a tragedy, and Sam was the grieving husband. But that sympathetic coverage didn't last long. Within days, information about the investigation began to leak to the press. And suddenly they had a very different opinion of the doctor. On July 8, four days after the murder, the Cleveland press fired the first shot. The paper ran a story accusing the shepherd family of shielding Sam from questioning and interfering with the homicide investigation. The assistant prosecutor was quoted directly saying he'd never seen such flagrant stalling from a family with this kind of influence. And that influence was real. The Shepherds were osteopathic royalty. Sam's father had built Bayview Hospital and the family still ran it. The same standing that once made Sam untouchable in Bay Village was now turned against him. Proof in the public's eyes of a powerful family closing ranks to keep one of Their own above the law. The man behind the decision to run the story was 56 year old Lewis Seltzer, the paper's editor. He was known around the city as Mr. Cleveland, and the nickname wasn't ironic. If the Shepherds wielded power over Bay Village, Seltzer wielded power over an entire city. He had decided very publicly whose side he was on. And that was only the beginning. The next day, the paper reported that Sam had refused to take a polygraph test. Sam pushed back, saying he and his family weren't stalling. Since the murder, he'd been given instructions to rest and not undergo intense corporation questioning. He was just following doctor's orders. A doctor who happened to be his big brother, Stephen. That detail didn't help his case. So to avoid further PR damage, Sam showed up the next day at the sheriff's headquarters. Apparently, he had found the strength to deal with their questions. Investigators didn't waste any time. They had one big thing. They wanted to talk to Sam about his affair with Susan Hayes, the lab technician he'd met at the hospital. But while Sam had shown up at the station, he had no intention of answering those questions. Truthfully, he denied the affair, telling officers that he and Susan were just friends. Nobody believed him. As investigators tried to build a case around Sam, the Cleveland press grew impatient. To editor Seltzer, it seemed like they had their suspect. So what was the hold up? After two and a half weeks of no progress, Seltzer's paper published a front page editorial that practically screamed its headline in all caps. Why no inquest? Do it now, Dr. Gerber. The paper was calling for Sam's head on a stake and its provocative headlines were rallying the public to the cause. It wouldn't be long before authorities caved to the pressure.

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moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. 48 hours. That's how long detectives have before the trail begins to go cold. From A E and Crime House, this is the official podcast from the famous true crime series the first 48 step inside the critical window. The interrogations, the dead ends and the breakthroughs that crack a case wide open. I'm Carter Roy. Each week I revisit a landmark homicide investigation with the depth you know and immersive, long storytelling built for your ears. Real detectives, real cases, real stakes. This is the first 48 new episodes every Thursday. Listen to and follow the first 48 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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By late July 1954, the Cleveland Press had been hammering the shepherd case for weeks, and on July 21, the paper finally got the thing it had been demanding, an inquest into Marilyn's murder with 30 year old Sam Sheppard called in to answer for it. The addition hit in the morning, and by that afternoon, coroner Sam Gerber had scheduled one to begin the very next day. He booked a Bay Village school gymnasium as the location to accommodate the crowds he thought might show up. Gerber was right to anticipate a huge audience. On July 22, hundreds of people packed into the gym, shoulder to shoulder. Sam arrived still wearing his neck brace. Whispers went up throughout the gym about whether he was legitimately injured or faking it to try to get sympathy. Sam took his seat alone. Gerber barred his attorney Bill Corrigan from sitting beside his client. Instead, Corrigan had to watch from the stands like everyone else. The inquest lasted three days. Throughout it all, Sam was oddly composed, detached in a way that rubbed people the wrong way. When Gerber asked whether he had run or walked when he chased the intruder to the beach, Sam replied, I can't give you a specific recollection. I proceeded as rapidly as I could. It was an answer that technically said something while saying nothing at all and exactly the kind of statement that made people distrust him. Gerber went on to ask Sam about Susan Hayes. Sam kept denying the affair. Gerber kept pushing, getting more and more specific. He asked about the trip Sam and Marilyn took to California in March of 1954, just four months before her murder. On that trip they had split up. Marilyn went off with her girlfriends, while Sam was supposed to stay with his own friends. Instead, he spent the week with Susan. Gerber had so many details it was hard to explain away. But Sam just kept repeating his mantra that he and Susan were nothing more than friends. The inquest brought a brief pause to the media crusade. But even that didn't last the week. When nothing seemed to happen, the Cleveland press started publishing headlines demanding Sam's arrest. Just like with the inquest, the paper's pressure produced results. On the night of July 30, police arrived at Sam's parents home where he was staying and arrested him under suspicion of killing his wife. For the next two days, detectives grilled Sam for a total of 22 hours. But he never broke. They still couldn't get a confession out of him. Despite that, a grand jury convened in August. Prosecutors brought them no physical evidence tying Sam to the murder, but plenty that was circumstantial. There was the mayor who said that Marilyn had once described Sam to him as a Jekyll and a Hyde. And then there was Susan Hayes. The prosecutor flew her out from California to testify. While under oath, she contradicted everything Sam had been saying. They were not just friends, they'd been having a full blown affair. Sam had brought up the possibility of divorcing Marilyn more than once. Another investigator said they'd found evidence that Marilyn had refused to give Sam the divorce he wanted. The detective also said that the sheer number of blows to her face pointed toward premeditation. A crime driven by rage, not panic. Or in other words, committed by someone she knew, not a stranger. On August 17, despite a lack of physical evidence, the grand jury returned a first degree murder indictment against Sam. They'd been under a lot of pressure to reach that verdict. And the next jury was about to feel that same intensity. Sam's trial began in October 1954, just four months after Marilyn's murder. It drew reporters from newspapers across the country. Even celebrity journalists like Dorothy Kilgallen descended on Cleveland to report. She wrote, that the case was so juicy because it was a true puzzle. You could believe Sam was guilty or innocent, and there was plenty to back up either side. All that publicity didn't bode well for the defense. Sam's attorneys tried to get the trial moved to another county, arguing that there was no way they could get an impartial jury in Cleveland. But Judge Edward Blythen said no. That meant the defense had a serious uphill battle. The judge may have overruled them, but there was no denying that the jury knew about the case ahead of time. All but one member said they'd read about it or seen televised coverage throughout the trial. They weren't sequestered, so they heard all kinds of rumors and theories in the media that were never actually introduced in court. Sorting it all out in their heads must have been nearly impossible. One moment stood out as almost surreal. Deep into the trial, the radio and television Star Wars. Walter Winchell, one of the most powerful broadcasters in the country, went on the air with a bombshell. He said a woman in New York was claiming she'd secretly had Sam's child. None of it was ever introduced as evidence. But when the defense asked the jurors whether they'd heard the broadcast, two of them admitted that they had. Then to make matters worse, the Cleveland papers published the jurors names in photos. If the verdict didn't go the way the public wanted, everyone would know exactly who to blame. But noise isn't proof. Whatever the public had already decided, the state still had to make its case in court. The prosecution's argument was straightforward. Sam and Marilyn had been fighting about his affair. He killed her because of it. His story about a bushy haired intruder was a lie. They came at him from several directions. One witness testified that Sam had once told her a head injury was the easiest kind to fake. Another medical witness said Sam's neck injury was a possible chip fracture, but nothing major, implying that Sam was faking the severity of his injuries. Officers testified to inconsistencies in Sam's account. Bloodstains found in the basement and garage suggested the killer had moved through the house after the murder, which didn't fit with Sam's story of immediately chasing the intruder outside. Officer Drinkin, who'd been the first on the scene told the jury there'd been no signs of a struggle inside the home, no forced entry and no reports of prowlers in the neighborhood that night. Then came coroner Gerber, the prosecution's star witness. Gerber testified that a bloodstain on Marilyn's pillow looked like it had the impression of a murder weapon. He paused for effect, then told the jury that he believed it was the outline of a surgical instrument. Sam's lawyer was on his feet immediately objecting. But the judge overruled him. On cross examination, Corrigan suggested the imprint was simply the marks of wet fabric, rumpling and then drying. But even if that was a valid alternative, the damage was already done. Gerber had planted the image of a surgeon standing over his wife with one of his own tools in hand. It was vivid and awful, even if it was only ever Gerber's interpretation. Then finally, 24 year old Susan Hayes took the stand. She reiterated everything. She told the grand jury that she and Sam were having an affair and there'd been conversations about divorce. But this time she said all those things in a public trial with the whole world listening. So now it was clear as day Sam had lied about his affair, which begged the question, what else was he lying about? When it was the defense's turn, Bill Corrigan called 18 character witnesses. Two said they'd seen a bushy haired man near the shepherd home the day of the murder. Corrigan pointed out that the crime scene had been extremely bloody. But apart from one small stain on Sam's pants, there was no blood on him at all. Corrigan also called Sam's brother Stephen and a team of doctors and nurses to speak to the true severity of Sam's injuries. But in the end, the only witness who really had a chance of saving Sam was Sam. He took the stand on December 9th and testified for three days. It didn't go the way his attorneys hoped. Sam had always been very clinical in his descriptions and it showed. He didn't say he saw things, he visualized them. He didn't find Marilyn hurt or dead. He found her in a bad condition. The intruder wasn't a man, but a form. For a man whose wife had been beaten to death in her bedroom, he sure sounded like he was dictating a report about a stranger. The trial lasted a total of nine weeks. The jury was sent to deliberate on a Friday. They came back on Tuesday, December 21, just over five months after Marilyn's death, they had made a decision. 30 year old Sam hadn't planned on killing his wife. So he wasn't guilty of first degree murder, which required premeditation, but he was guilty of second degree. Judge Blythen sentenced Sam to life in prison with the possibility of parole in a decade, although the likelihood he'd ever be granted his freedom was slim. For Sam, life as he knew it was over. But he refused to go quietly. He was going to fight the court's decision with everything he had.

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[Carter Roy]

In December 1954, a jury found 30 year old Sam Sheppard guilty of his wife Marilyn's murder. The ink was barely dry on that verdict when Sam's world collapsed even further. Within a month of his sentencing, his mother died by suicide. In her note, she said she could not go on without her husband, who was on death's door himself. Eleven days later, Dr. Sheppard Sr. Died of cancer. Sam knew that his parents had been devastated by his conviction. But to lose both of them so quickly was one right after another must have been incredibly hard to deal with. They had been his supporters. Now they were gone and he was alone in prison. Sam's sentencing had satisfied the witch hunt drummed up by the Cleveland papers. Now that he was locked up, it seemed like the world had moved on. But there was one person who couldn't let it go. A California forensic scientist named Dr. Paul Kirk. He started working with Sam's defense and managed to get his hands on enough materials from the case file to run additional tests. According to his findings, he believed there was a third person in the room like Sam said. He also believed that based on the patterns of the blood splatter, the killer was left handed. That was great news for Sam, who was right handed. Three months later, a new piece of evidence surfaced in Sam's favor. One of his old neighbors had been out swimming in Lake Erie, and they'd found a dented flashlight near the shore. Could that have been the missing murder weapon? Sam was trying to appeal the court's decision during that time, and every little piece of contradictory evidence helped. But until it was something much bigger, no appeals court was going to overturn his conviction. Sam had to wait four long years before there was another potential big break. That happened in November 1959, when a man named Richard Eberling was arrested for larceny. The Shepherds had actually hired Eberling as a window washer for their Lake Erie home before Marilyn's murder. After he was arrested, authorities searched his home and found a ring that had belonged to Marilyn. Eberling insisted he wasn't a killer, just a thief. But then he volunteered something startling. He said his own blood might be inside the shepherd house. He claimed he'd caught himself removing a storm window a couple of days before the murder and dripped blood as he moved through the home. If that were true, it meant investigators in 1954 had blood evidence from someone other than Sam and may have overlooked a suspect entirely. It was the first suggestion that maybe, just maybe, Sam had been wrongfully convicted. By then, Sam was in his mid-30s and had been trying to appeal his conviction for years without any success. When his lawyer, Bill Corrigan, passed away in 1961, it gave him a chance to reset. Sam hired a new, young and aggressive lawyer named F. Lee Bailey. Bailey would go on to represent a host of famous clients, including Patty Hearst and O.J. simpson. But Sam was one of his first big cases. The first thing Bailey did for Sam was file a habeas corpus petition, arguing that the publicity of the first trial violated Sam's constitutional rights to a fair trial. If they couldn't overturn Sam's conviction on the evidence, then Bailey was confident they could get it thrown out on the technicality. Then Bailey got a gift. At a press event in New York, he crossed paths with Dorothy Kilgallen, the same columnist who had covered the 1954 trial. She told him about a conversation she had never forgotten. She said that back during jury selection, Judge Blythen had called her into his chambers and apparently a little starstruck, asked Kilgallen for her autograph. Then, in Nearly the same breath, he offered his private verdict on a case the jury hadn't even heard yet. According to Kilgallen, he said, it's an open and shut case. He's guilty as hell. By the time Kil Gallen went public with that story, Blythen had been dead for years and couldn't confirm or deny a word of it. Which is exactly why the state insisted her account be thrown out. But the claim was staggering all the same. That the judge had made up his mind about Sam's guilt before the jury was ever seated. Bailey put it straight into his petition. But the fight over Sam's conviction was no longer confined to the courts. It was spilling out into the world again. In 1963, the TV series The Fugitive debuted. It was a drama about a doctor wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, hunting for the real killer while being chased across the country. The show is widely believed to be based on Sam's case, even though its creator denied it. Whether it swayed public opinion directly is hard to measure. But something was shifting. More people were beginning to ask whether Sam had gotten a fair shake. Now that wasn't the case for Marilyn's father, Thomas Reese, who always believed Sam was guilty. But in 1963, Thomas died by suicide. By then, the murder had hollowed out both families. Sam's parents were already gone. His mother to suicide just after the conviction, his father weeks later. Now Marilyn's last parent was gone too. There was no one left to speak up for her. About a year later, in July 1964, a federal district judge weighed in on the habeas corpus petition. He overturned Sam's conviction on due process grounds, calling the 1954 trial a mockery of justice. He cited the newspapers that had openly demanded Sam's arrest, the coverage that had reported incriminating details never introduced in court, and a jury that had been left exposed to all of it without protection. Just like that, 40 year old Sam was a free man. Almost immediately, he married a German woman named Ariana. She was a pen pal who had started writing to him from overseas while he was still incarcerated. They'd gotten engaged after she came to visit him in prison. Unfortunately for the lovebirds, Sam's freedom was still up for debate. And soon a new appeals court court overruled the latest decision reinstating Sam's original conviction. Sam couldn't believe it. He was just being yanked back and forth. But Bailey told him they weren't done fighting yet. They would appeal Sam's case all the way to the U.S. supreme Court until the nine justices weighed in. Sam was allowed to remain out of prison on Bailey. In June 1966, it was the Supreme Court's turn to rule on Sam's case. And once again they reversed the previous decision. They agreed with the initial appeal ruling, calling the 1954 trial a carnival in which the judge had failed to shield the jury from media contamination. It was a landmark decision, Shepard v. Maxwell, that set precedent for future due process complaints. The court made it clear that judges were responsible for balancing the First Amendment's freedom of the press with the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a free trial. With that, it seemed like Sam's conviction was officially overturned, except the way the law worked, he could be retried in Ohio, since the conviction had been thrown out rather than reversed to an acquittal. And within two days, Cleveland prosecutors announced they planned to do just that. The second trial began in October 1966. The atmosphere couldn't have been more different from the first. The new judge made sure to keep his courtroom orderly and by the books. The prosecution largely abandoned the strategy that had worked for them during the first go around. Susan Hayes didn't take the stand. Coroner Gerber didn't bring up his theatrical claim about the surgical instrument impression. Instead, the state centered its case on a single forensic expert who testified that blood spots found on the rim of Sam's watch were spatter, not transfer, the kind of blood pattern that could only have gotten there if Sam had been swinging the murder weapon. As for the defense, Bailey didn't put Sam on the stand. He brought in his own forensic expert instead. They argued the watch stains came from contact transfer, the kind Sam might have picked up checking Marilyn's pulse. Bailey also leaned on Paul Kirk's forensics from years earlier. That a third person had been in that room. The real killer. And the blood spatter showed that person was left handed. Sam wasn't. This time the jury took it all in and they acquitted. 42 year old walked out of his second trial a free man. He was also by most accounts, a broken one. He went back to medicine, but prison had taken something from him that couldn't be restored. His surgical skills had deteriorated. He also started drinking heavily and taking barbiturates. During his brief return to practice, two of his patients died and both of their estates sued him for malpractice. Between the lawsuits and his drinking, his career as a doctor was finished. Then his new wife, Ariana divorced him after he allegedly cheated on her. His relationship with his son Chip, who is now 19, was strained and distant, with nothing Left of his old life, 45 year old Sam took a hard pivot and turned to a new career as a professional wrestler. Sam debuted as a wrestler at the Akron Armory in Ohio, teaming up with a pro named Hoss Strickland. Sam went on to marry and quickly divorce Strickland's daughter. As a wrestler, Sam developed a new Persona. Despite years of swearing he was innocent, he chose a nickname that played into everyone's worst assumptions. He called himself Killer Shepherd. The name was either a horribly distasteful joke or an insight into who he really was. Either way, it was a harsh fall for a man who had once been a prominent resistance respected doctor. But his time as a pro wrestler didn't last long either. In April 1970, Sam collapsed in his kitchen, vomiting blood. By the time medics were called to the scene, it was too late. They couldn't revive him. Sam had died of liver disease at the age of 46. But the story didn't end there. Nearly two decades later, in 1989, Sam and Marilyn's son Chip began a public effort to solve his mother's murder and clear his father's name. His relationship with his father may have been strained, but chip was now 42, almost the same age as his dad had been when he died. For Chip, it had become about the family's legacy. Chip believed another man was responsible for his mom's murder. Richard Eberling, the shepherd's old window washer who had stolen one of Marilyn's rings. Remember, decades earlier, Eberling had been arrested for theft. But in 1989, he was convicted of a much worse crime. The murder of an elderly widow he had befriended as part of an insurance scheme. For Chip, it was proof that Eberling was capable of extreme violence. Eberling seemed to stoke the flames, telling various interviewers around that time that he knew more than he would say about the Sheppard case. Then, according to one of Eberling's cellmates, he confessed to killing Marilyn. But that confession would never be tested in court. Eberling died in prison in 1998. Chip wasn't done, though he had already taken the state to court. A civil suit against both the county and Ohio, filed on his father's behalf for wrongful imprisonment. Later, the law would change so that only the person imprisoned, not their family, could bring that kind of claim. But for the moment, the suit went ahead. Chip and his legal team built their case around Eberling as the true killer. They suggested that the murder followed an attempted sexual assault, that Marilyn had tried to resist. This Time the family had something Sam's lawyers never DNA. Sam's body was exhumed so a forensic scientist could re examine the old blood evidence. With modern testing, his conclusion was striking. The blood from the murder scene wasn't Sam's, which suggested someone else had been there. According to the forensic scientist, Eberling couldn't be ruled out as the source. It sounded like the proof Chip had spent years chasing. But under cross examination, it came apart. The samples were decades old and degraded. And the state's experts argued the genetic markers the forensic scientists found were so common that thousands of people could have matched them. In the end, the DNA named no one. Beyond all that, the prosecution's position hadn't changed in 46 years. This was a domestic homicide. Sam had not wanted his wife's pregnancy, so he'd killed her, plain and simple. After 10 weeks, 76 witnesses and decades of frustration on on both sides, the jury returned a unanimous verdict. Chip had failed to prove that his father had been wrongly imprisoned. It was the third jury to weigh in on the case in nearly half a century. And it was also the last. The first had convicted Sam. The second had set him free. This one only found the death. Chip hadn't proven his father was innocent, which isn't the same as proving him guilty. But that distinction didn't do much to comfort Chip. He'd set out to clear his dad's name once and for all. Instead, the case closed the way it had always lived. Unresolved. The murder of Marilyn shepherd and the case of Dr. Sam Shepard has been an enduring mystery since the 1950s. But in all the legal wrangling, it's easy to lose sight of the real victim here. Marilyn. All the trials, appeals, the TV show, none of that was really about her. It was about Sam and the legal system, about media and fairness and constitutional rights. Those are all important things. But somewhere in the decades of legal back and forth, the woman at the center of it all got buried a second time. Marilyn wasn't a plot point in some crazy story. She was a person, a woman who deserved more than she got. She was 31 years old, with her whole life ahead of her. But she never got to find out how it all unfolded. Because someone murdered her in cold blood and got away with it. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of a new murder 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, Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate RA. Review and follow 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 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 Murder True Crime Stories page. We'll be back on Friday. 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 Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertovsky, Alyssa Fox, Alex Burns, Cassidy Dhillon and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.

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[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 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 every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.