Almost always, if the the mystery is not fully resolved at the trial, subsequent admissions, previously uncovered clues, or more sophisticated forensic tests reveal what the trial did not. Not so with the Sam Sheppard case. Facing two different juries, twelve years apart, Sam Sheppard was found guilty by one jury, not guilty by the next. Even over the past decade, partisans continued the debate. A third jury in , asked to consider awarding the Sheppard family damages for wrongful imprisonment, sided with county prosecutors.
The police search turned up trophies that seemed to have been scratched or in other ways damaged. There is no reason why Sheppard, proud of his athletic prowess, would have damaged his own trophies. The damage would more plausibly have been caused by a killer who hated the Sheppards and was jealous of Sam's accomplishments.
The pants worn by Sheppard on the morning of July 4, The blood spattered on the walls of the bedroom suggests that Marilyn's blood was flying in all directions when she was killed.
If Sam was the killer, one would expect to find Marilyn's blood spots in numerous places on Sam's pants. Sam's pants, except for one significant stain, were blood free. Also, his shoes, socks, and belt were without blood stains--and blood stains are hard to wash off.
Moreover, according to DNA expert Dr. Mohammed Tahir, the blood stain on Sam's pants did not come from either himself or Marilyn--but, presumably, from the killer. According to DNA expert Dr. Mohammed Tahir, only 1 of out of 42 people have a DNA profile consistent with a large blood stain found on a closet door near Marilyn's bed--and Richard Eberling is one of those rare persons. The prosecution never really offered a clear motive for the murder.
There isn't any. Marilyn knew about Sam's affairs and seemed resigned to the situation , they had a pleasant evening the night before with friends, they had a young son sleeping in a nearby room, and talk of divorce was sometime in the past.
Why would Sam, suddenly in the middle of the night, trot up the stairs from the daybed on which he was sleeping and brutally murder his wife? It doesn't make sense. Sam was a reasonably smart guy with sometime to come up with a story. Why couldn't he have a more plausible story than the one he gave? Possibly, the very implausiblity of the story--getting knocked out by the killer TWICE, the murderer taking his wallet from his pants and then leaving it in the living room, wrestling with the murderer on the beach, Sam's description of the killer as a "bushy-haired" man--makes it more likely to be true.
A forensic expert, after examining blood spatter evidence, concluded the killer was left-handed. Sam Sheppard is right-handed. The murder weapon was not, as first alleged, a surgical instrument.
Coroner Gerber, who claimed the bloody imprint on the pillow was made by a "surgical instrument" searched high and low for a surgical instrument that could produce such an imprint. He never found one. Paul Kirk said blood on a blood trail seemed to come from a cut hand and Sam had no cut on his hand when examined after the murder. Most criminals, subjected to the gruelling hour-after-hour interrogation that Sam Sheppard faced, might be expected to confess.
Sheppard never did. Publicly at least, he maintained his innocence until his death. Even his own lawyers, to whom he might have been expected to confide his guilt, were never told by Sam that he was guilty.
Eberling stole Marilyn's ring and admitted bleeding in the Sheppard home. Arrested in for larceny, Richard Eberling, a former window washer for the Sheppards, was found to be in possession of a cocktail ring owned by Marilyn Sheppard. Questioned about the Sheppard murder by police, Eberling said that he had bled in the house just days before the murder after he accidentally cut himself.
He also knew of an obscure basement entrance to the Sheppard home. BUT: F. Kathy Wagner Dyal, a former nurse's aide to Ethel Durkin, who was murdered by Eberling, testified at the civil trial that Eberling revealed to her that he killed Marilyn Sheppard: "He told me that he had killed her and that he hit her husband on the head with a pail and that 'the bitch bit the hell out of me.
I got out of there. Did Sam Do It? The dog that didn't bark The Sheppards had a dog, Koko, that one might have expected to have barked at the sight of a nighttime intruder. Lack of forced entry Police discovered no sign of forced entry into the Sheppard home, making the intruder theory implausible. Where's Sam's T-shirt?
On April 6, , American explorer Robert Peary accomplishes a long elusive dream, when he, assistant Matthew Henson and four Inuits reach what they determine to be the North Pole. Born in Vermont in , Smith claimed in that he had been Two days after the U. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of to 50, and America formally enters World War I.
At the opening of the Athens Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60, spectators welcomed athletes from On April 6, , John Tyler is sworn in as president.
He was the first vice president to immediately assume the Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Determined to resist the growing presence of Anglo settlers on traditional tribal lands, the Sauk warrior Black Hawk is drawn into war with the United States. Called Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak by his people, Black Hawk was born in in the village of Saukenuk in the present-day Writer Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
However, he lost his
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