Mockery of justice : the true story of the Sheppard murder case
In the early morning hours of July 4, 1954, 31-year-old Marilyn Sheppard was bludgeoned to death in her lakeside Cleveland home. Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, a prominent osteopath and police surgeon, became the chief suspect and was arrested. His trial began on October 18, and ended on December 21, 1954. It was one of the longest criminal trials in American history, but the real trial was held by the Cleveland area press, in an unending stream of salacious front-page stories featuring invented, inflammatory "facts". After a series of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that the "carnival atmosphere" created by the Cleveland media had denied Dr. Sheppard a fair trial. He was re-tried, found innocent, then died a few years later. Mockery of Justice goes into all the details: Dr. Sheppard's own account of that night, the role of a powerful coroner, the media frenzy, the mysteries surrounding the case records, and the recent investigation of a likely suspect for the murder. The analysis of forensic riddles posed by the complex crime scene makes for especially intriguing reading. The case inspired the television show "The Fugitive."
Print Book, English, ©1995
Northeastern University Press, Boston, ©1995