Excerpts from Newspaper Stories About the Sheppard Murder Cited as
Damaging Sam Sheppard's Right to a Trial by an Impartial Jury 
(Articles cited by United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Eastern Division,  in SHEPPARD v.  MAXWELL (1964) 231 F.Supp. 37. )

Cover of book by Louis Seltzer, the Cleveland Press editor
 who led a crusade to convict Sam Sheppard

"The state is already preparing its case against the killer of Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard.'
'This statement was made today by Assistant County Prosecutor John J. Mahon as he directed a surprise new search of the Bay Village home in which the 30-year-old clubwoman was beaten to death Sunday morning.
'Mahon sharply criticized the refusal of relatives to permit the immediate questioning of the victim's husband, Dr. Samuel Sheppard, also 30.
'While the prosecutor spoke, Dr. Sheppard, his injured neck supported by a brace, was being taken out of Bay View Hospital in a wheelchair to attend his wife's funeral * * *.'
Cleveland Press, July 7, 1954, p. 1.

'A forthwith subpena commanding Dr. Sam Sheppard, husband of the slain Bay Village woman, to appear at the county prosecutor's office for questioning was issued today.
'It was hastily issued by Coroner Samuel R. Gerber following a session at the doctor's bedside in Bay View Hospital.
'Deputy Sheriff Carl Rossbach entered the injured osteopath's room in the hospital which is operated by his family, in an effort to question him about the events leading to his wife's death.
'William J. Corrigan, Cleveland criminal defense attorney retained by Dr. Sheppard's family, went in, too.
'A few minutes later, Rossbach stalked out and reported to Coroner Gerber.
'Dr. Gerber angrily wrote out the subpena and handed it to Rossbach. 'Serve it forthwith,' he commanded.
'Rossbach went back into the room to attempt to resume the interrogation.
'The dramatic development came immediately after Assistant County Prosecutor John J. Mahon took control of the murder investigation and issued an abrupt ultimatum:
'Dr. Sheppard must come downtown to the prosecutor's office 'voluntarily to make a statement concerning the crime.'
'If the osteopath refuses, Mahon said, a coroner's inquest will be convened at the Morgue immediately, and Dr. Sheppard will be subpenaed and compelled to testify.
'* * * These developments came as Dr. Stephen Sheppard brother-in-law of the clain clubwoman, told reporters that his brother was eager and anxious to aid the investigation and was not physically able to withstand questioning.
'He added that William J. Corrigan, prominent Cleveland criminal defense lawyer retained by the family, was 'in complete charge from now on.'
'* * * * "In my twenty-three years of criminal prosecution, I have never seen such flagrant stalling as in this case by the family of Dr. Samuel Sheppard,' Mahon said.
'* * * *
Cleveland Press, July 8, 1954, p. 1.

'Doctor Samuel H. Sheppard declined to submit to a lie detector test for questioning about the slaying of his attractive wife, it was disclosed today * * *.'
Cleveland News, July 9, 1954, p. 1.

'Flanked by two attorneys Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard today re-enacted his version of the murder of his pretty wife, Marilyn-- and repeated it, detail by detail, word for word, over and over again.
'Earlier he had refused for the second time to take a lie detector test in 'my present emotional state.'
'* * * *
Cleveland Press, July 9, 1954, p. 1.

'Within memory no murder case in this part of the country has prompted so much discussion or speculation as that of Mrs. Sheppard.
'A good part of it centers quite naturally around the circumstances of the killing itself-- in a quiet suburban setting-- and its attendant mysterious elements.
'A good part likewise centers around the protecting ring set up by members of the Sheppard family, which in some respects has tended to add to rather than subtract from the speculation that has expanded the case to such vast proportions.
'Also the apparent fumbling of investigative authorities on both the municipal and county levels has added to the intensity of interest-- and has raised many additional questions.
'Any time a factor of special attention, or privilege, or special protection is introduced into any case it is bound to produce increased and critical attention.
'In the Sheppard murder case many of these factors are present against the original background of mystery, and it is therefore not unnatural that it occupies such intense and critical notice around the whole community.
'But the principal problem is the fact, that, for whatever reasons, the investigative authorities were slow in getting started, fumbling when they did, awkward in breaking through the protective barriers of the family, and far less aggressive than they should have been in following out clews, tracks, and evidence.
'There is nothing that helps block a solution to a murder more than a cold trail, and it is this, as much as anything, that causes such wide critical appraisal of the Sheppard case.
'Now that the investigative authorities appear finally to have catalyzed themselves into action and broken through some of the protective barriers, they ought to make up in redoubled effort the time they have already lost.'
Cleveland Press, July 9, 1954, p. 14.

'Deputy Sheriff Carl Rossbach renewed his demand that the 30-year old osteopath submit to a lie detector test.
"He doesn't have to if he doesn't want to,' Rossbach said, 'but I intend to keep on asking until he agrees.'
'* * * *.' Cleveland Press, July 10, 1954, p. 1.

'Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard again late yesterday refused to take a lie detector test in the investigation of the brutal murder of his pretty wife, Marilyn.
'Assistant County Prosecutor Thomas J. Parrino told reporters at the end of a nine-hour questioning of Dr. Sheppard: 'I felt that he was now ruling it out completely.'
Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 11, 1954, p. 1

'Still on the trial of the elusive motive for the murder of Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard 10 days ago, investigators today concentrated on a possible 'other woman' angle.
'AT THE SAME TIME, CORONER SAMUEL R. GERBER AGAIN URGED THE SLAIN WOMAN'S HUSBAND, DR. SAMUEL H. SHEPPARD, BAY VILLAGE OSTEOPATH, TO SUBMIT TO A LIE DETECTOR TEST.
"If Dr. Sheppard has recovered sufficiently to go back to work at the Bay View Hospital he is well enough *47 to take a lie detector test,' Dr. Gerber said.'* * * *.'
Cleveland News, July 13, 1954, p. 1.

'A Painesville woman late today sent police off at a new tangent in their search for the mysterious slayer of Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard.

'Mrs. Dill told reporters she had met a woman she is positive was Marilyn Sheppard on the beach at Fairport Harbor Monday, June 14.
"She seemed to be unhappy and asked me where my husband was,' Mrs. Dill said. 'I told her I was divorced and she said 'that's what I ought to do.' She said she had attempted to divorce her husband in California four years ago but his relatives had talked her out of it.'
'Mrs. Dill gave police and reporters the name of a man mentioned by the woman she identified as Mrs. Sheppard. The man had not previously entered the murder investigation.
'Mrs. Dill said the women she identified as Mrs. Sheppard told her she was to have a baby, and she was afraid if she divorced her husband her 7-year-old son, Chip, would be taken away from her.
'* * * *.' Cleveland News, July 15, 1954, p. 1.

'The worst thing about the tragic mishandling of the Sheppard murder investigation is the resulting suspicion.
'Why was it mishandled, people ask.
'You can't blame them.
'In this community generally, murder investigations are conducted with intelligence, efficiency and impartiality.
'The record is good.
'The detectives on the Homicide Squad in the Cleveland Police Department, for instance, know their job. They have a national reputation.
'Same with the coroner.
'Thanks to his close co-operation with Western Reserve University, and thanks to the voters who authorized the best equipment and facilities, the county has top standing in the relatively new filed of scientific crime investigation.
'And the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office both have good reputations for integrity and determination in solving crimes.
'What happened, then?
'Two things stood in the way of the usual complete and unfettered investigation that the citizens of Greater Cleveland have come to expect as the natural course of events.
'One was the hostility of Bay Village officials to any 'outsiders' in this case.
'They rebuffed the usual assistance immediately offered by Cleveland police experts in solving murders.
'Second was the unusual protection set up around the husband of the victim, the sole witness, according *48 to later reports, who could start the investigation on the right track.
'The protection was twofold. It came from his family and it came from his lawyer. It was unusual; to say the least.
'And then, worst of all, no law enforcement official, Bay or county, took any leadership in the face of these unusual circumstances.
'No one.
'The result of all this fumbling and delay, of course, was to start gossip, to launch rumors, to spread suspicion thick as glue.
'It was bad for everybody. Everybody, that is, except the murderer.
'What can be done, now?
'It doesn't make much difference who runs the show. The important thing is that justice is done.
'First logical step would be a meeting of all the law enforcement agencies involved.
'Let them select a leader, a single responsible boss for this particular case.
'Let him serve notice that protection, special favors and fancy ultimatums by lawyers are out from here on.
'Maybe it's too late to start again.
'But every further moment of fumbling is helping a murderer escape.'
Cleveland Press, July 16, 1954, p. 12.

'What's the matter with the law enforcement authorities of Cuyahoga County?
'Have they lost their sense of reason?-- or at least inexcusably set aside the realization of what they are hired to do, and for whom they work?
'If ever a murder case was studded with fumbling, halting, stupid, uncooperative bungling-politeness to people whose place in this situation completely justified vigorous searching, prompt and effective police work--the Sheppard case has them all.
'Was the murder of Mrs. Sheppard a polite matter?
'Did the killer make a dutiful bow to the authorities and then proceed brutally to destroy the young childbearing wife?
'Why all of this sham, hypocrisy, politeness, criss-crossing of pomp and protocol in this case?
'Who is trying to deceive whom?
'From the very beginning of this case-- from the first hour that the murder became known to the authorities by a telephone call from the husband to the town mayor-- from that moment on and including this, the case has been one of the worst in local crime history.
'Of course the trail is cold. Of course the clews have been virtually erased by the killer. Of course the whole thing is botched up so badly that head or tail cannot be made of it.
'In the background of this case are friendships, relationships, hired lawyers, a husband who ought to have been subjected instantly to the same third-degree to which any other person under similar circumstances is subjected, and a whole string of special and bewildering extra-privileged courtesies that should never be extended by authorities investigating a murder-- the most serious, and sickening crime of all.
'The spectacle of a whole community watching a batch of law enforcement officials fumbling around, stumbling over one another, bowing and scraping in the presence of people they ought to be dealing with just as firmly as any other persons in any other crime-- that spectacle is not only becoming a stench but a serious threat to the dignity of law enforcement itself.
'Coroner Sam Gerber was never more right than when yesterday he said that the killer must be laughing secretly at the whole spectacle-- the spectacle of the community of a million and a half people brought to indignant frustration by Mrs. Sheppard's killer in that white house out in Bay Village.
'Why shouldn't he chuckle? Why shouldn't he cover up, shut up, conceal himself behind the circle of protecting people?
'What's the matter with us in Cuyahoga County? Who are we afraid of? Why do we have to kowtow to a set of circumstances and people where a murder has been committed?
'It's time that somebody smashed into this situation and tore aside this restraining curtain of sham, politeness and hypocrisy and went at the business of solving a murder-- and quit this nonsense of artificial politeness that has not been extended to any other murder case in generations.'
Cleveland Press, July 20, 1954, p. 1.

'Why hasn't County Coroner Sam Gerber called an inquest into the Sheppard murder case?
'What restrains him?
'Is the Sheppard murder case any different from the countless other murder mysteries where the coroner has turned to this traditional method of investigation?
'An inquest empowers use of the subpena.
'It puts witnesses under oath.
'It makes possible the examination of every possible witness, suspect, relative, records and papers available anywhere.
'It puts the investigation itself into the record.
'And-- what's most important of all- it sometimes solves crimes.
'What good reason is there now for Dr. Gerber to delay any longer the use of the inquest?
'The murder of Marilyn Sheppard is a baffling crime.
'Thus far it appears to have stumped everybody.
'It may never be solved.
'But, this community can never have a clear conscience until every possible method is applied to its solution.
'What, Coroner Gerber, is the answer to the question--
'Why don't you call an inquest into this murder?'
Cleveland Press, July 21, 1954, p. 1.

'Too many days have passed without positive results in the several investigations of the Bay Village hack-slaying. Undoubtedly the suburb's police officials feel they have conducted the best possible inquiry; county officials and Coroner Samuel R. Gerber's office also undoubtedly feel that they have acted effectively. But there's been no sign at all of breaking the stalemate over the brutal slaying of Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard.
'We are forced to take note that Dr. Samuel Sheppard, husband of the victim has rejected suggestions of both lie detector and truth serum tests, and has submitted to questioning only when his family and his lawyer have agreed he might.
'Before charges and counter-charges, fights among officials and jealousies smother all efficiency, wouldn't it be wise to bring the whole matter out into the open, with subpenaing and examination of witnesses under oath, for example, at the county's crime laboratory at Western Reserve University? It's time all groups get together as one to find, or attempt to find the solution to this baffling crime.'
Cleveland News, July 21, 1954, p. 1.

'It is high time that strenuous action be taken in the Sheppard murder case.
'This newspaper fails to see how bickering among those who have been investigating the 18-day-old mystery can aid in the final aim-- to find the murderer, whoever he may be.
'County Coroner Samuel R. Gerber, though he has failed to produce the person who brutally murdered Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard in the bedroom of her Bay Village home, has worked long and hard, and deserves the appreciation of the whole community.
'But it is obvious that Dr. Gerber needs help. The Cleveland police department is equipped to give it. Its crime laboratories and investigators are among the best in the business. It has no Bay Village friendships which might prove embarrassing.
'True, the case is cold as ice. There has, in our opinion, been a noticeable lack of cooperation on the part of the dead woman's husband, Dr. Samuel M. Sheppard, who has refused to take a lie detector test, and who yesterday rejected proposals that he submit to a 'truth serum' test.
'He had already been subjected to interrogation, he said; he could not face further interrogation because he is still emotionally upset, and he was reluctant to put himself in a position where he might involuntarily incriminate innocent people.
'The last noble sentiment would, we feel, have been far more noble if Dr. Sheppard had said:
"I will be happy to do anything within my power to bring my wife's murderer to justice. It a lie detector test would help, by all means bring it on. If a 'truth serum' test would convince you that I have told police all I know in an honest effort to apprehend the murderer, I am at your service, gentlemen.'
'Just as it is easy to 'second-guess' a ball game, it is easy to second-guess a murder investigation.
'It is clear, now, that, because of the social prominence of the Sheppard family in the community, and friendships between the principals in the case and the law enforcement bodies of Bay Village, kid gloves were used throughout all preliminary examinations.
'Possibly the 'bushy-haired man' would have been apprehended long before this if the crime had been investigated with the vigor it deserved; perhaps some other answer might have been found to solve one of the most brutal murders in the history of Greater Cleveland.
'It is gratifying that the Cleveland police department has accepted the Bay Village Council's invitation to step into the mystery, even at this late date, after once dropping out of the case for some unexplained reason. Competent detectives may yet be able to muster enough evidence to produce the killer.
'Finding the killer should be of the greatest satisfaction to Greater Cleveland, to Bay Village, and to Dr. Samuel Sheppard.'
Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 22, 1954, p. 1.

'The audience of more than 200, mostly Bay Village housewives, applauded when William Corrigan, Dr. Sam's attorney, was forcibly ejected from the hearing after insisting vigorously on his right to insert remarks in the record.
'Coroner Samuel R. Gerber, who ordered Corrigan's expulsion, was hugged, kissed and cheered by the spectators after he recessed the three-day hearing to be reconvened later at the County Morgue * * *.'
'* * * *.' Cleveland Press, July 26, 1954, p. 1.

'Spectators cheered wildly yesterday as William J. Corrigan, criminal lawyer representing Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard, was half dragged from the room in the closing moments of the Marilyn Sheppard murder inquest in Bay Village.
'As the tumult subsided in the Normandy School auditorium-gymnasium, Coroner Samuel R. Gerber indefinitely recessed the inquiry into the brutal hack-murder of Dr. Sheppard's 31-year-old wife before dawn July 4.
'* * * *.'
Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 27, 1957, p. 1.

'You can bet your last dollar the Sheppard murder would be cleaned up long ago if it had involved 'average people.'
'They'd have hauled in all the suspects to Police Headquarters.
'They'd have grilled them in the accepted, straight-out way of doing police business.
'They wouldn't have waited so much as one hour to bring the chief suspect in.
'Much less days.
'Much less weeks.
'Why all this fancy, high-level bowing and scraping, and super-cautious monkey business?
'Sure it happened in suburban Bay Village rather than in an 'ordinary' neighborhood.
'So what?
'What difference should that make?
'When they called the Cleveland police in everybody thought:
"This is it. Now they'll get some place.'
'Now we'd have vigorous, experienced, expert, big-time action.
'They'd get it solved in a hurry.
'They'd have Sam Sheppard brought in, grill him at Police Headquarters, like the chief suspect in any murder case.
'But they didn't.
'And they haven't.
'In fairness, they've made some progress.
'But they haven't called in Sam Sheppard.
'Now proved under oath to be a still free to go about his business, shielded by his family, protected *52 by a smart lawyer who has made monkeys of the police and authorities, carrying a gun part of the time, left free to do whatever he pleases as he pleases, Sam Sheppard still hasn't been taken to Headquarters.
'What's wrong in this whole mess that is making this community a national laughing stock?
'Who's holding back-- and why?
'What's the basic difference between murder in an 'ordinary' neighborhood and one in a Lake Rd. house in suburban Bay Village?
'Who is afraid of whom?
'It's just about time that somebody began producing the answers--
'And producing Sam Sheppard at Police Headquarters.'
Cleveland Press, July 28, 1954, p. 1.

'Maybe somebody in this town can remember a parallel for it. The Press can't.
'And not even the oldest police veterans can, either.
'Everybody's agreed that Sam Sheppard is the most unusual murder suspect ever seen around these parts.
'Except for some superficial questioning during Coroner Sam Gerber's inquest he has been scot-free of any official grilling into the circumstances of his wife's murder.
'From the morning of July 4, when he reported his wife's killing, to this moment, 26 days later, Sam Sheppard has not set foot in a police station.
'He has been surrounded by an iron curtain of protection that makes Malenkov's Russian concealment amateurish.
'His family, his Bay Village friends-- which include its officials-- his lawyers, his hospital staff, have combined to make law enforcement in this county look silly.
'The longer they can stall bringing Sam Sheppard to the police station the surer it is he'll never get there.
'The longer they can string this whole affair out the surer it is that the public's attention sooner or latter will be diverted to something else, and then the heat will be off, the public interest gone, and the goose will hang high.
'This man is a suspect in his wife's murder. Nobody yet has found a solitary trace of the presence of anybody else in his Lake Rd. house the night or morning his wife was brutally beaten to death in her bedroom.
'And yet no murder suspect in the history of this county has been treated so tenderly, with such infinite solicitude for his emotions, with such fear of upsetting the young man.
'Gentlemen of Bay Village, Cuyahoga County, and Cleveland, charged jointly with law enforcement--
'THIS IS MURDER. THIS IS NO PARLOR GAME. THIS IS NO TIME TO PERMIT ANYBODY-- NO MATTER WHO HE IS-- TO OUTWIT, STALL, FAKE, OR IMPROVISE DEVICES TO KEEP AWAY FROM THE POLICE OR FROM THE QUESTIONING ANYBODY IN HIS RIGHT MIND KNOWS A MURDER SUSPECT SHOULD BE SUBJECTED TO-- AT A POLICE STATION.'
'The officials throw up their hands in horror at the thought of bringing Sam Sheppard to a police station for grilling. Why? Why is he any different than anybody else in any other murder case?
'Why should the police officials be afraid of Bill Corrigan? Or anybody else, for that matter, when they are at their sworn business of solving a murder.
'Certainly Corrigan will act to protect Sam Sheppard's rights. He should.
'BUT THE PEOPLE OF CUYOHOGA COUNTY EXPECT YOU, THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS, TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS.
'A murder has been committed. You know who the chief suspect is.
'You have the obligation to question him-- question him thoroughly and searchingly-- from beginning to end, and not at his hospital, not at his home, not in some secluded spot out in the country.
'But at Police Headquarters-- just as you do every-other person suspected in a murder case.
'What the people of Cuyahoga County cannot understand, and The Press cannot understand, is why you are showing Sam Sheppard so much more consideration as a murder suspect than any other person who has ever before been suspected in a murder case.
'Why?'
Cleveland Press, July 30, 1954, p. 1.

'It's perfect, you think at first, as you look over the setting for the Big Trial.
'The courtroom is just the size to give a feeling of coziness and to put the actors close enough to each other so that in moments of stress the antagonists can stand jaw to jaw and in moments of relaxation can exchange soft words of camaraderie.
'Modern enough for this 'See-Hear' age, with the microphone, the loud speakers on the walls, and the blazing lights for the TV cameras before and after court sessions.
'Yet somberly dignified enough to carry the authentic decor of the traditional court of justice.
'Almost inadequate, old-fashioned hanging light fixtures. Dark furnitture. A high bench for his honor, the judge. So high that if he slouches a bit just his head is visible.
'A bit of plaster has fallen from the ceiling over the clerk's desk. The unrepaired spot gives a touch of the dignity of age.
'And on the floor at the end of the trial table-- a cuspidor.
'Ah, you think, only a master arranger would have remembered that.
"The cuspidor. Put it here.'
'Perfect, you think at first, a masterpiece of setting the stage for the dramatic action of the Big Trial.
'Then it hits you. No, there's something missing.
'What?
'Can what seems to be missing be found in the cast of characters.
'Ah, the cast. Superb, you think at first.
'And complete. Not a character missing.
'And so real, you think. Just like you would expect to see. Why if you didn't know these were people and this was a real setting you would think you were watching a drama on television or a mystery play at a theater.
'His honor, the judge. A quaint Welsh accent. Quick, mobile features that can pass so rapidly through sternness, annoyance, patience and charming friendliness.
'And the chief counsel for the defense. Granite faced, shaggy haired. Now disdainful, now quizzical, now disbelieving, now coaxing, now threatening, now bored.
'These provide the perfect background for the most perfect character of all-- the accused. Was there ever more perfect typing? Was there ever a more perfect face for the enigma that is the Big Trial?
'Study that face as long as you want. Never will you get from it a hint of what might be the answer when the curtain rings down on this setting and on these characters. Is he the one? Did he do it?
'Plus of course, the other characters. The accused's two brothers. Prosperous, poised. His two sisters-in-law. Smart, chic, well-groomed. His elderly father. Courtly, reserved. A perfect type for the patriarch of a staunch clan.
'Yes, you think. They wouldn't be more true-to-life if this Big Trial were a television drama.
'Then it hits you again. No there's something-- and someone missing.
'What is it? Who is it? Who's still of stage? Waiting perhaps for a cue to come on.
'In the hallway outside the courtroom you stop to talk to Detective Chief James McArthur. He's an old timer at Big Trials. So you ask him. Isn't there someone, something missing?
"Sure,' says the detective chief. 'There always is. I'll tell you.
"It's the other side, the representatives of what in this case will be officially known as the corpus delicti, in other words, the body of the crime, in still other words-- Marilyn Reese Sheppard.
"There is no grieving mother-- she died when Marilyn was very young.
"There's no revenge-seeking brother nor sorrowing sister. Marilyn was an only child.
"Her father is not here. Why he is his own personal business.'
'What then, you wonder, will be the other side.
'It will be there, Inspector McArthur reassures. He opens a thick brief case he carries daily to the court-room.
"Here,' he says, 'are the statements and resumes of testimony that will be given by state's witnesses. Here are the theories and details of the evidence found by dozens of detectives in weeks of work.
"Here is the complete story of Marilyn Reese Sheppard. How she lived, how, we think, she died. Her story will come into this courtroom through our witnesses. Here is how it starts: Marilyn Sheppard, nee Reese, age 30, height 5 feet, 7 inches, weight 125 pounds, brown hair, hazel eyes. On the morning of July 4 she was murdered in her bedroom. * * *'
'Then you realize how what and who is missing from the perfect setting will be supplied.
'How in the Big Case justice will be done.
'Justice to Sam Sheppard.
'And to Marilyn Sheppard.'
Cleveland Press, October 23, 1954, p. 1.

Sheppard Trials Homepage