This collection features newspaper articles about the murder of Marilyn Sheppard and the subsequent trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard. The articles appearing here are taken from scrapbooks kept by Coroner Samuel Gerber.
The media coverage of Sam Sheppard’s trial was questioned for bias and whether or not the media impacted Sam’s right to receive a fair trial. Ultimately, Sam was awarded a retrial via the Sheppard v. Maxwell decision in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that Sam had not received a fair trial in 1954 for a number of reasons including the State of Ohio’s failure of “duty to protect Sheppard from the inherently prejudicial publicity which saturated the community.”
The newspaper articles in this collection come from the Cleveland Press, the Cleveland News, and The Plain Dealer. The Cleveland Press went out of business in 1982 but was a major player in local news around the time Marilyn was murdered. The Cleveland News was purchased by the Cleveland Press in 1960. Cleveland State University has a copyright agreement with The Plain Dealer to post articles related to the Sheppard case.
(Cleveland State University was donated the archives of the Cleveland Press in 1984. Details about the donation and how to access articles and photos from the Cleveland Press can be found here.)
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54/08/03 Plain Dealer Photos
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Continuation of courtroom photos referred to in the photo caption of article dated 8/3/1954, titled, "Doctor Gets Hospital Checkup" (RS_265PlainDealerArticle). That photo caption says "More Sheppard Case Photos on Picture Page." (The photos here show more images of the courtroom).
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54/08/03 Reveal Spots Within Home
Cleveland News
Police Chief, Frank W. Story, reveals that laboratory experts discovered additional blood stains in parts of the Sheppard home that, as Story says, "indicative in tracing the movements of the slayer."
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54/08/03 Susan Slips Out Of Hotel Room
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Susan Hayes, once a medical technician at the Sheppard's hospital, Bay View, voluntarily leaves a Cleveland hotel with her parents, apparently headed to their home in Rocky River. She is also said to have made "admissions of intimacies" with Dr. Sheppard during earlier questioning by police detectives.
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54/08/04 Held After Bay Murder Boast
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Intoxicated man, a steelworker, calls police in Lorain, Ohio boasting: "He didn't do it; I Killed her." Man then brought to the central station. Cleveland police also cite the action as showing they were not ignoring leads, as lawyers for Dr. Sam Sheppard had previously been asserting.
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54/08/05 5 "Other Women" Linked to Doctor
Cleveland Press
5 "Other women" are linked to Sam Sheppard.
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54/08/05 Editorial Cartoon, Sam's face on a Sphynx: "I Will Do Everthing in My Power to Help Solve This Terrible Murder."
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Editorial Cartoon of Sam Sheppard's image on a Sphinx.
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54/08/05 Fingerprint File Started In Bay Probe
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Detectives track down former visitors to the Sheppard's Bay Village home, and obtain as many fingerprints as they can. Also, Reverend Alfred C. Kreke relates that Dr. Sam Sheppard, "is unhappy about the publicity his family is getting."
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54/08/05 Letters to the Editor
Cleveland Press
Letters to the editor [Cleveland Press] titled, "Criticizes Pastor", "Calls Pastor Mistaken", and "Feels Hospital is Unfairly Treated": First two letters in support of the police investigation and criticizing Pastor Kreke for preaching against police tactics. Third letter is from from an R.N. accusing the newspaper of "sensationalism" in its reporting, resulting in hysteria that caused Bay View Hospital to be "target for the general public's revenge." The latter also questions Bay Village Council's vote to stop transporting emergency patients to Bay View Hospital by police.
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54/08/06 Hold Detroit Nurse In Sheppard Probe
Cleveland News
Mrs. Margo Pebbles, a nurse who formerly worked with Sheppard, is questioned.
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54/08/06 'Roadblocks' By Sheppard Lawyers Hit
Cleveland Plain Dealer
legal roadblocks may "force the hand" of authorities to go straight to the grand jury.
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54/08/06 Sheppard Reward Good to 1959
Cleveland Press
$10,000.00 reward offered if there is a "final conviction".
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54/08/06 Visitors Parade In to See Doctor
Cleveland Press
A look at the persons visiting Dr. Sam Sheppard in jail.
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54/08/07 Doctor Fears Prejudice In Bay
Cleveland Press
Defense attorney, William J. Corrigan, files an "affadavit of prejudice", demanding that Bay Village council president, Gershom M.M. Barber, be barred from presiding at the preliminary hearing. Corrigan cites Sheppard's contention that he could not receive a fair hearing in Bay Village. The purpose of the preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is "probable cause" to hold Dr. Sheppard to the Grand Jury for possible indictment.
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54/08/07 Drug Theft Theory in Murder Ripped
Cleveland Press
Samuel H. Sheppard posits the theory that a drug-crazed murderer killed his wife, saying it "is supported by the fact that a large amount of narcotics was stolen and by the vicious nature of the attack." That theory was discounted by Raymond J. Ripberger of the Federal Narcotics Bureau. Also, a friend of Sam Sheppard, Gerry Flick, gives his own theories of the crime to police.
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54/08/07 Find Blood Trail To Bay Basement
Cleveland News
New blood spots are found in the basement of the Sheppard home 33 days after the murder was committed. This has led investigators to believe the killer "ran to the basement in frantic confusion to wash blood from his hands and weapon." Also, Gervase Flick, an admirer of Dr. Sheppard, gives his theories of the crime to detectives.
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54/08/07 Mystery 'Margo' Not Detroit Nurse
Cleveland News
A person by the name of "Margo", was one of five women with romantic links to Dr. Sam Sheppard. Police determined she was not the person they were seeking.
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54/08/07 Visitors Cheer Doctor In Jail
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Dr. Sam Sheppard's first "visiting" day in jail since his arrest 8 days earlier brought photographers' flashing lights, and more than 200 visitors. Young admirer of Dr. Sam, G.M. Flick, brought magazines to the prisoner and said afterward: "Dr. Sam was pretty fair, considering where he is and what's been done to him."
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54/08/07 Youth Quizzed In Murder Probe
Cleveland Plain Dealer
A 20 year old named Gervace Flick, an admirer of Sam Sheppard, said that he gave police "several leads" during his 8 hours of questioning. The article also gives an extensive summary of the happenings in the case so far.
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54/08/08 'Admirer' Refuses Lie Test
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Gervase M. (Gerry) Flick, at the suggestion of Dr. Sam's lawyer, relates a personal story to Deputy Inspector James E. McArthur. In it, Flick said that on the day of Mrs. Sheppards murder, he was driving to Erie, Pennsylvania, and happened to pick up a hitchhiker whom Flick concluded, based on the utterances from the passenger, that he was the murderer. However Flick refused a lie detector test 3 times by Inspector McArthur. In the article, McArthur conveys, among other things, that Flick is a "personal friend of Dr. Sam and his murdered wife."
Article also gives latest developments in the Sheppard case.
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54/08/09 Remove Sheppard's Furniture
Cleveland Press
Coroner Samuel R. Gerber orders the bed, on which Marilyn Sheppard was murdered, removed from the Sheppard home. Also removed was the downstairs sofa on which her husband, Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard, dozed off on the night before the July 4 slaying.
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54/08/09 Sheppard Bed, Couch, Seized In Murder Hunt
Cleveland News
The bed on which Marilyn Sheppard's body was found, and the couch on which Dr. Sam Sheppard says he sleeping at the time of the murder, is ordered removed from the home by coroner Gershom M.M. Barber. The items were brought to the County morgue as circumstantial evidence.
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54/08/09 "Sympathy in the Wrong Place?" (Letter to the Editor)
Cleveland Press
A letter from a reader wondering why it is that so many people in Bay Village are expressing sympathy for the "suspected slayer" and not for the "unfortunate victim."
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54/08/09 Take Sheppard Murder Bed
Cleveland Press
Coroner Samuel R. Gerber orders several items removed from the Sheppard home, evidently for the purpose of preparing a courtroom exhibit and to make new scientific tests.
