What Everybody Ought to Know About the Sam Sheppard Murder Case

This Unsolved Murder -- the Subject of Controversy and Misinformation for more than 56 Years -- has More Secrets to Reveal

The "powers that be" wish we would go away and stop stirring this pot! But we keep digging into old records, compiling facts and comparing evidence -- and we think something is very fishy (other than Lake Erie) about the State of Ohio's prosecution and persecution of Dr. Sam Sheppard.

Still, we are presenting everything we found as objectively as possible because we want YOU to analyze and compare the facts, claims and new revelations surrounding this case. With reliable and objective information -- compiled for the first time from sources dating from the 1930s through 2010 -- you will have the complete story and be able to make an informed decision about who did (and who did not) murder Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard.

As a Research Member of this website and subscriber to our online magazine, you will have password-protected access to:

Information from a wide variety of sources, compiled here for easy access and comparative analysis.

Information never-before-available to the public, including new documents, interviews, photographs, out-of-print publications and other materials provided by Sheppard family members or released from the Sheppard Archives.

As a Savvy Member you'll have all that and more. You will be able to ask the questions you've always wanted to ask, read transcripts of 1981/82 interviews with key witnesses, join the more detailed discussion in the Member Forum, and submit your articles for publication on this website.

The content of this website is provided by Dr. Sam Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, and his niece, Janet Sheppard, in cooperation with other Sheppard and Reese family members, lawyers, investigators and authors connected with this unsolved murder.

We invite you to Join Now! for immediate access to:

Biography of a Murder -- An Online Mystery Magazine

Dr. Paul Leland Kirk's affidavit -- reporting on his 1955 investigation of the crime scene.
Important clues never allowed into court and hidden from the public . . . until now.
Repressed forensic research findings, including results of recent DNA analysis.
Excerpts from out-of-print publications, unpublished documents, personal journals and memoirs from both sides of the case.
Photographs and historical information from private family collections and the Sheppard Case Archives.
Exclusive interviews with family members, neighbors, law enforcement officials, criminal investigators, newspaper reporters and others associated with this case.

Opportunity to Solve this Crime - A side-by-side comparison of the evidence mounted against Dr. Sam Sheppard and that pointing toward other suspects (presented as objectively as possible by family members who believe Sam Sheppard is innocent) will let you decide: What really happened? Who murdered Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard?
Members' Forum – Exchange ideas and theories with other members, and submit questions for family members and key people involved with the case.
Member Profiles - Share information about yourself with other members.
Complete Bibliography - List of references and links to other resources.

Join Now for access to every magazine issue, all articles and the entire website. Articles listed below with a yellow star on the page icon are available to members only.

Membership fees support the work of the Sam and Marilyn Sheppard Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping violence against women and children, helping victims of homicide, and working for criminal justice reform.

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Recent articles

Issue 4: Holmes and Kirk Chapter Three: Sam's Story (in: NEW! MAGAZINE ISSUE 4): Dr. Paul Leland Kirk reads Dr. Sam Sheppard's sworn statement regarding the events of July 3 and 4, 1954. He tells Sherlock Holmes that more people believe Sam Sheppard to be guilty because of his story than from any other single reason.

Issue 4: We Interviewed Sam Gerber, Mary Cowan, Esther Houk and other Key Witnesses in 81/82 (in: NEW! MAGAZINE ISSUE 4): During 1981 and 1982 Janet Sheppard, journalist Richard Dalrymple and criminalist James Chapman traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, and other parts of the east to interview key figures involved with the Sheppard murder case. These unique interviews -- taped and transcribed -- offer new insight into the case. Notes from these fact-finding trips are included in Issue #4 of our online mystery magazine. Actual transcripts of the interviews are available to Savvy Members only.

Issue 3, Article #1: Holmes and Kirk, Chapter Two: The Bloody Imprint (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 3): As Kirk pulled a sheaf of notes from his brief case, I was surprised to see Holmes remove a small notebook from his vest pocket and begin flipping through the pages - obviously searching for a particular notation. Finally satisfied, he looked at Kirk and smiled thinly.

"I have always found it curious, Dr. Kirk, that the coroner in this case identified the murder weapon as a surgical instrument. His testimony certainly influenced the jury against Dr. Sheppard, and yet such an instrument, evidently, never existed. Upon what physical evidence did he base that damning conclusion?"

Issue 2, Article # 1: Blood in the Murder Room (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 ): The most respected forensic scientist of the time, Dr. Paul Leland Kirk, investigated the murder room and the Sheppard home January 22 through 26, 1955. As crazy as it sounds today, the defense was not allowed to conduct its own analysis of the crime scene until after Dr. Sam's conviction. Based on just the pattern of blood spatter in the murder room, Kirk concluded that Dr. Sam Sheppard could not have murdered his wife. And he found much more -- all strangely overlooked by the coroner's office. Kirk submitted his findings to the court in a formal 27-page affidavit, reproduced here in full.

Issue 2, Article # 2: Sherlock Holmes and Paul Leland Kirk Investigate the Sam Sheppard Murder Case (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 ): What if a time warp enabled Sherlock Holmes to collaborate with Paul Leland Kirk in the investigation of Marilyn Sheppard's murder?

Issue 4: A Gratuitous Offering by Dr. Stephen A. Sheppard (in: NEW! MAGAZINE ISSUE 4): Window washer Richard Eberling, picked up for burglary in 1959, spontaneously tells police why drops of his blood can be found throughout Marilyn and Sam Sheppard's home.

Issue 3, Article # 2: The Murder Weapon (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 3): In 1954 Cuyahoga County Coroner Sam Gerber stated that the murder weapon was a surgical instrument -- represented by a bloody imprint on Marilyn's pillow -- effectively slanting public opinion and the entire investigation toward Dr. Sam Sheppard. He never found a surgical instrument that matched the imprint nor, more importantly, the wounds inflicted upon Mrs. Sheppard. So what WAS the murder weapon?

Issue 1, Article # 1: Solving this Mystery (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): Seven key points, and the questions that arise from each, are central to unraveling this unsolved murder mystery.

Issue 1, Article # 2: Coroner Gerber, M.D., Denigrates Osteopaths (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): One of the most important questions surrounding the murder of Marilyn Sheppard has always been: Why was Coroner Samuel Gerber so quick to decide that Dr. Sam Sheppard killed his wife the morning Marilyn's body was found and before any investigation was carried out? Part of the answer lies in The Torso Murders of the 1930s.

Issue 1, Article # 3: Gerber's "Inner Circle" Links Sheppard's Osteopathic Clinic with 1930s Torso Murders (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): A startling view behind the scenes explains why Coroner Gerber was so quick to decide Sam Sheppard murdered his wife and why the Cleveland newspapers pilloried the entire Sheppard family.

Issue 1, Article # 4: Chief of Police Confirms Unsolved Mystery (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): Bay Village Chief of Police confirms that the Sheppard murder case is open and unsolved.

Issue 1, Article # 5: Clothing and Belongings, Area Maps, Home Layout and Photographs (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): The Crime Scene Report provides you with information collected the day of the crime. It includes scanned copies of original police reports, area maps, floor plans of the Sheppard home, neighbor statements, photographs and the coronor's report.

Issue 1, Article # 6: Bay Village Police, Offense Report. July 4, 1954, 5:57 A.M. (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): Bay Village Police Officer Fred Drenkhan, one of the first officers to arrive at the Sheppard home on the morning of July 4, 1954, filed this 8-page Offense Report.

Issue 1, Article # 7: Sam Sheppard's Statement, July 8, 1954 (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): As part of Officer Drenkhan's Offense Report, he attached a sheet containing his notes regarding Dr. Sam Sheppard's statement.

Issue 1, Article # 8: Erle Stanley Gardner on the Sheppard Murder Case (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): Once a person has been wrongfully convicted, it is virtually impossible to do anything about it under our present form of government.

Issue 1, Article # 9: Paul Holmes on the Sheppard Murder Case (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): This happened to a family that chanced to be named Sheppard, but could as easily have been yours.

Issue 1, Article # 10: "Enforcers of Patriarchy" Murder Girls and Women with Implied Authority from Our Culture (in: MAGAZINE ISSUE 1): Evidence strongly suggests that Marilyn Sheppard was murdered by an "enforcer of patriarchy." And if Coroner Sam Gerber and Cleveland detectives had been open to finding the truth . . .; if their investigation had been professional and thorough . . .; if they had not worn blinders concerning Dr. Sam Sheppard . . . it is very likely that the lives of at least two other women would have been saved.

Reliable, Insider Information (in: Home): Created by Sheppard and Reese family members, this website is the one and only source for information that has never been available to the public . . . until now. Thanks to the Internet, we can finally tell you about crucial pieces of evidence that were ignored by the coroner's office and prosecution in their determination to convict Sam Sheppard. And we can now share behind-the-scene information that helps to explain this tragic miscarriage of justice.