Editing Murder of Marilyn Sheppard

{{Act of Villainy
|Image = Marilyn-sheppard-murder-1.jpg
|perpetrator = Unidentified
|date = July 4, 1954
|location = Bay Village, Ohio, U.S.
|motive = Unknown
|crimes = [[Murder]]<br>[[Rape]] (possibly)}}
'''Marilyn Reese Sheppard''' (14 April 1923 - 4 July 1954) was beaten to death at her home in Bay Village, Ohio, on July 4, 1954. Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, was convicted of her murder but was exonerated in 1966. The case remains unsolved. 

==History==
===Murder and Investigation===
On July 3, 1954, Sam and Marilyn Sheppard entertained neighbours at their home for dinner and watched the movie ''Strange Holiday''. Around midnight, Sam Sheppard fell asleep on the couch and Marilyn saw the neighbours out. 

At 5:40 am the following day, Mayor Spencer Houk, a personal friend of the Sheppards, received a phone call from Sam Sheppard in which Sheppard said "My God, Spence, get over here quick! I think they have murdered Marilyn!". He and his wife Esther rushed over to the Sheppard house to find Sam in his study shirtless and holding his neck in a state of pain. Marilyn was found dead in the bedroom, lying on her back with her pyjamas partially removed, beaten beyond recognition. An autopsy determined she had died around 4:30 am from blunt force trauma and was four months pregnant. There were no signs of forced entry in the house.

Sam Sheppard told police that he had been woken up at around 4:30 by Marilyn shouting his name and had run up to the bedroom to find her being attacked by a "bushy-haired white form" who struck him over the head, leaving him briefly concussed. He had come round a few minutes later and pursued the killer down to Lake Erie, where the killer knocked him out. He woke up to find he was missing his shirt and watch. The watch, alongside several other items missing from the house, was found in a bloodstained canvas bag in the shrubbery. 

The ensuing investigation was a media circus, with the ''Cleveland Press'' taking it upon themselves to see Sam Sheppard convicted and running several headlines calling for his arrest. Police focussed on Sam's alleged affair with lab technician Susan Hayes. Under media pressure, coroner Samuel Gerber held an inquest which pronounced a verdict of murder. Gerber noted at the inquest that wounds on Marilyn's body appeared to have been inflicted by a surgical instrument, which Sam Sheppard had access to in his job as a neurosurgeon. Sam Sheppard was arrested on July 30 and charged with the murder of Marilyn Sheppard.

At a highly publicised trial, medical expert Charles Elkins testified that Sam Sheppard had suffered injuries to his head and neck consistent with the alleged attack by the killer and that Marilyn had lost several teeth during the attack, suggesting she had bitten her assailant, whereas Sam had no bite marks or open wounds on his body. He also only had one spot of blood on his clothes despite the large amount of blood at the scene and three witnesses testified to seeing the "bushy-haired white form" in the area on the morning of July 4. Despite this Sheppard was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
===Aftermath===
Sheppard's brothers continued to support him after his conviction and hired attorney F. Lee Bailey to represent their brother. He uncovered that Dr. Gerber, during the inquest, had remarked "It's obvious that the doctor did it" to a police officer, and that Edward Blythin, the judge presiding over the trial, had told reporter Dorothy Kilgallen "He's guilty as hell". He appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that both these factors and Judge Blythin's failure to shield the jury from the biased media coverage prevented Sam from getting a fair trial. The Supreme Court approved Bailey's petition and ordered a new trial. 

At Sam's second trial in 1966, forensic scientist Paul L. Kirk testified that blood spatter at the crime scene showed that the killer was left-handed; Sam Sheppard was right-handed. He also testified that the killer would have been covered in blood and that the lack of damage to Marilyn's lips showed that she had indeed lost her teeth biting her attacker, supporting the defence's claims at the original trial, and that the presence of unidentified semen in Marilyn's body indicated the killer had raped her. The majority of domestic homicides do not involve rape. Most damningly, he told the court that forensic testing showed that a large amount of blood at the scene did not belong to Sam or Marilyn Sheppard. F. Lee Bailey cross-examined coroner Gerber and undermined his claims about the murder weapon by forcing him to admit he had never found one. Sam Sheppard was acquitted on November 16 and died in 1970. Posthumous DNA testing fully cleared him of the murder.
===Alternative suspects===
*[[Richard Eberling]] - The Sheppard's handyman, he had an intimate knowledge of the layout of the house, including an obscure basement entrance, and reportedly had a sexual obsession with Marilyn Sheppard. In 1959 he was arrested for stealing from two of his clients and two cocktail rings stolen from the Sheppard house were found in his possession. He also admitted to bleeding in Marilyn's room two days before the murder but was inconsistent on where he cut himself. A car resembling his was parked near the Sheppard house on the night of the murder and he bore a resemblance to the man seen nearby. Following the Sheppard case he was suspected in the deaths of multiple women and was eventually convicted of killing one. While dying in prison he allegedly made a detailed confession to Marilyn's murder.
*Esther Houk - Many people in the local area believed that Marilyn was having an affair with Spencer Houk, giving Esther Houk a motive to kill her. She had also ignited a coal fire on July 4 despite it being a warm day. The blows to Marilyn's head had not cracked her dura, perhaps indicating lack of strength from a female killer. F. Lee Bailey personally believed her to be the killer because "A jealous killing requires a woman killer". Bailey posited that Esther had walked in on Spencer having sex with Marilyn, hence the semen in her body, and murdered her before Spencer knocked Sam out to protect his wife. Sam had then chased Spencer down to the lake before being knocked out a second time.
*[[James Call]] - An Air Force pilot who went AWOL and embarked on a killing spree in 1954. According to FBI agent Bernard Conners, Marilyn's murder, which occurred during Call's killing spree, fit with Call's M.O. of breaking into houses and beating his victims to death. His main weapon was a crowbar, which could have been used to kill Marilyn. When Call was apprehended, he had an unexplained bite mark on his hand. 
*Donald Wedler - While in prison in Florida in 1957, criminal Donald Wedler confessed that he had broken into a house in the area of Lake Erie in July 1954 and beaten a woman to death with a large pipe before using it to knock out her husband when he ran up the stairs to intervene. Witnesses placed him in the general area on July 4 and he fit the general description of a tall bushy-haired man. However, his confession made no mention of the fight with Sam Sheppard down by the lake and several other details were incorrect. 
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[[Category:Karma Houdini]]
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