This article starts with the events that took place the day before Marilyn Shepard murder and continues to the day of the murder and the trial that came after.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/newspaper_coverage/1441/thumbnail.jp

American Weekly

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All Articles Newspaper Coverage 
4-3-1955 
55/04/03 The Mystery Woman in the Sheppard Case, Part I 
American Weekly 
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Intimate details of the day Dr. Sam's wife -became ... 

BY 
• ELEANOR HARRIS 
Although Marilyn Sheppard was the victim of one of 
the most publicized murders of modern times, she re­
mained a shadowy figure all through the sensational 
trial that ended in life imprisonment for her husband. 
Last week Eleanor Harris, one of the country's top 
reporters, told how she spent weeks interviewing rela
tives, friends and neighbors ·of the dead woman in an 
attempt to reconstruct Marilyn Sheppard/s personaUty. 
These interviews made it possible to piece together 
a vivid picttire of Marilyn's childhood in <Jleve'land, her 
schoolday romance with Sam Sheppard, their marriage 
and their busy lives as a popu'lar young couple in the 
Cleve'land suburb of Bay Village. 
People who knew the Sheppards intimately supplied 
a picture of their private problems- Sam's faithless­
ness and desire for a divorce-Marilyn's determinati0n 
to keep their marriage alive. They particu'larly remem
bered Marilyn's haWY plans for a Fourth of July 
picnic on the last day of her life. 
PART II 
par Marilyn, July 3 started like any other summer 
f Saturday-xcept that Sam spent a great part of 
the day in surgery at Bay View Hospital. For this 
reason the Sheppards couldn't enjoy their favorite 
sport of water-skiing on Lake .Erie. However, plans 
were made for a wienie roast and an afternoon of 
water-skiing the next day. The hospital interns and 
their wives were coming over. 
Marilyn spent part of the day marketing, buying 
along with the long week end's supplies the picnic food 
for the next day: hot dogs and rolls. (The following 
afternoon, only a few hours after her blood-drenched 
body had been found, her two thrifty sisters-in-law 
entered the house to remove the unused hot do~ and 
rolls from the refrigerator.) 
Marilyn spent part of the day cleaning her house 
with extra care, because the Ahenis and their children 
were comiJig to dinner that night. She made Sam's 
favorite dessert: blueberry pie. 
For a couple of hours, with her hair pinned up, she 
sat in Sam's never-to-be-finis!ted den, the walls of 
which had recently been paneled. As yet. she had 
chosen no draperies for the windows. 
She had always typed all of Sam's medical papers 
and kept his files for him, for which he paid her a 
small fee. Now she typed out the paper Sam intended 
to read at the .American Osteopathic Association Con­
vention in Toronto a few days later. (Says Dr. Rich­
ard, '-rhree days after her murder, when Sam got out 
of the hospital, he returned to the house to get this 
paper, together with the slides that accompanied it. 
He sent them to the convention to be delivered in his 
absence ... He's very conscientious." ) 
Lying in Marilyn's sewing basket was a half-knit 
Argyle soclC which had been started months earlier by 
her aunt Henrietta Munn. She had promised ·to finish -: 
knitting the sock as a Christmas present for her uncle 
Worth Munn. But she left it untouched in the basket. 
She fed Koko, the mongrel dog they had taken 
from Cleveland's dog pound two years earlier. Then 
she put the finishing touches on her dinner and pre­
~ to see the Ahenis for the evening. Because of 
the likelihood of holiday accidents which might keep 
Sam at the hospital indefinitely, it had been arranged 
that she, Sam, and Chip would visit the Ahern house 
for pre-dinner cocktails whenever Sam returned from 
the hospital. 
She dressed in white shorts, a bright blouse and 
white moccasins-since, on the telephone, Nancy Ahern 
le THE AMERICAN WEEKLY April 3. 1955 
THE 

MYSTIRY 

WOMAN 

IN THI 

SHIPPARD 

CASI 

None of Marilyn•8 high school-sorority 
8isters fore81lw her tragic end during 
the happy days · when 8he proudly 
wore athletic Sam Sheppard•s 8weater. 
had said she, too, would wear white shorts. 
Sam drove into the driveway in the late after­
noon and by siX o'clock the Sheppard family 
arrived at the Ahern house. Chip promptly began 
playing with the two Ahern children, nine-year-old 
Michael and seven-year-old Leslie. Sitting in the 
Ahern breakfast room, the adults had two drinks 
each, with Sam alone choosing martinis. The 
others drank whisky sours. 
Sam wore what was to become a famous out­
fit: brown corduroy trousers, a white T-shirt, a 
canvas jacket, white sweat socks and loafers. 
(After the murder was made known, just before 
six the next morning, he wore nothing but the 
moccasins, socks, and pants. ) · 
Around seven o'clock Sam received a telephone 
call from Bay View Hospital and rushed out on 
an emergency call. Marilyn, meanwhile, returned 
home to look at the cottage ham she was roasting. 
By eight o'clock Sam was back again and 
they had all gathered at the Sheppard house for 
dinner. The three children were fed first in the 
kitchen, and then the four adults sat on the porch 
for their meal. With (Continued on fK19e 12) 
one of the two chairs borrowed from the Aherns, andTHE MJS'iEBY WOMAN IN THE .SHEPPARD CASE raontiriued trom page 10) then moved again to the couch-where he fell asleep. / 
the ham Marilyn served applesauce, string beans and 
tossed salad. For dessert they had the blueberry pie 
she had Iml.de that day. No drinks were taken at the 
Sheppard house that evening. 
As always, Sam ate with enormous appetite, and 
before starting his meal he put on a brown corduroy 
coat in place of his earlier canvas jacket, against the 
chilly evening. While they ate, they all listened to 
the radio broadcast of the Cleveland-Chicago base­
ball game. 
After dinner Don Ahern ·went home briefly with 
his two children to put them to bed. (By 6 a. m. the 
next day there was to be no sign that the four Aherns 
had ever been in the Sheppard home-not a single 
Ahem fingerprint remained. For that matter, the 
Sheppard furniture, the telephone, even the kitchen­
ware would be barren of any prints at all There 
would only be two clear prints in the entire house: 
Sam's left thumb-print on the headboard of MarilYo's 
bed, and one of Chip's palm-prints on the inside of the 
li\!ing room desk. Both this desk and the den desk, 
with drawers roughly pulled out and papers spewing 
from them, would show odd scratch-marks, as if made 
by a rough cloth being passed thoroughly over them­
but no fingerprints.) 
·On his return to the Sheppard house Don Ahern 
found Marilyn, Sam.· and his wife Nancy in the living 
room. The radio was still on but they were watching 
a television program. 
Upstairs, in one bedroom, little Chip slept soundly. 
In another bedroom stood the suitcases of the Shep­
pard house guest, Dr. Lester Hoversten, .who had gone 
away for the week end to visit other friends. In the 
living l'OOQ1, still listening to the 15-inning gaine by 
radio, the two couples began watching a film on 
the television ~t. 
Sam had begun watching on the floor. As the 
evening progressed he moved to sit with his wife on 
He still wore his brown corduroy coat, and the T-shirt 
which was to disappear permanently some time be'~ 
tween midnight and the next morning. 
The Aherns went home around midnight and Mari­
lyn sleepily saw them to the door fo ' say good-by­
forever, as it turned out. Sam still lay 8151eep on the 
couch in the living room. As often before on windy 
nights, the Ahems decided not to sleep in their own 
bedroom, but to use the guest room over16oking Lake 
Erie. "It's fun listening to the waves," Nancy Ahem 
often told friends. 
Meanwhile, at the Sheppard home, Marilyn left 
Sam on the couch and climbed the st\ir& for the last 
time. For the past few months sM and Sam had been 
sleeping in the bedroom on the!lake side. She had 
told her cleaning woman that its twin beds were 
more suitable than their ~ble bed, because Sam 
had a cold 
Finally, in her pa~, · she went into the familiar 
lakeside room with its few pieces of furniture. Besides 
her Grandmother Reese's twin beds it held the Boston 
---~-----....._ _____ ~----
roeker Sam had once bought her, a bedside table 
holding a telephone, and a chest of drawers on which 
stood a framed picture of herself taken with Sam. 
Switching off the ceiling light, she got into bed. 
Near by slept her son Chip, who was not to awaken all-­
night, even when somebody who dripped blood stood 
on the threshold of his room peering in at him. Down­
stairs was the dog Koko, which was not to bark 
throughout the night's eerie events. AISo downstairs, 
Sam slept on the living room couch. 
At the time it must have seemed to Marilyn that 
she was ending another average day. That it actually 
ended far differently for her was known to the world 
within 24 hours. 
There was Sam's telephone call made to Mayor 
Houk at 5:45 the next morning, with the cry, "They've 
killed Marilyn!" (By that time, she had been dead 
between two .and three hours.) There was Houk's 
dazed arrival at Sam's house, accompanied by his Wife, 
a few minq_tes later. There was Mrs. Houk's telephone 
call to the Bay Village police-and to Sam's brother 
Ri~hard Sheppard. 
(Richard arrived, started up the stairs to where 
Marilyn lay dead and came down again. Then he went 
back upstairs and was in Marilyn's room three or 
four minutes.) 
There was Stephen's arrival; with him he carried 
not his medical kit, but a pistol for which he had no 
permit. There was the hurried carrying ·of Sam by 
Stephen and others to Stephen's car. He was quickly 
driven to Bay View Hospital, where Cleveland homi­
cide men later ·talked with him. 
There was John Eaton's decision, after looking 
around the Sheppard home in his capacity as Bay 
Village police chief, that the case needed the crime­
detecting technique of the Cleveland Homicide Squad. 
He called them and they arrived on the scene. 
Also, on the day of the murder, there was the 
hiring by Sam's brothers of the mast famous criminal 
lawyer in Ohio, William J. Corrigan. 
Three days later there was Marilyn's funeral, to 
which Sam came in a wheelchair, while wearing a 
neck-brace for his neck-fracture-which later turned 
out to be non-existent. 
Seven days later, although Sam was not yet 
arrested for his wife's (Continued on folloWing page) 
Just before the j~ was picked that convicted Dr. Sam 
Sheppard of m ardttmg lais wife, he was comforted hy 
his father, who recently di in the h08pital he founded. 
I IE!JUW W 
THE MYSTERYWOMAN 
IN THE SHEPPARD CASE 
(Coatifuled from precedUlg page) 
murder. there was a day of grilling at ~s 
CrimjnaJ OJln;ts Building. During this session de­
~ WCllldered aloud if Sam might .not 'bave 
disposed of a blood-stained T-5birt in the SbelJpal'd­
amtroned BayV.JeW HcJ&pital Jaundry, where~ 
clothes were expected-and if the DiUrder weapon 
might not hDe been cleansed in the hospital's dis­
infectant tanks. 'lliey further wondered if the 
Sheppard house Jmd. not been cleaned up before 
Jlayor Houk had been teleplMmed. 
Eighteen da.Js later, OD .July 2Z came the 
mrooer's inquest during which Sam was further 
interrogated. 'Ibe inquest was held in the gym­
nasium of a. Jocal sc:booL 
Twenty-six da.Js later, OD .July 30, Sam finally 
was aITeSted fOl" the lllUrder of bis wife 11arnJ>n. 
At 10 o'clock that night, handcuffed, be was Jed out 
of bis father and mother's home where be had 
been staying. Someone, among bystanders OD the 
lawn. .shouted: "Jlmderer!" 
It was three and a haJf Dllllltbs before be werrt 
OD triaJ. CID OdOOer 1B-moatlls filled wtth aecu&a­
tians made by Sam. Riduml. and Stephen Sbe(Jpanl 
against a1most eveeyone Sam bad ever known. · 
Many friends were called Jlarilyn.•s n;aurderer. 
Among the many J>OOP.le accused were ~Houk. 
Mrs. Houk. Dr. Hoversten. and Jlarilyn's eousin 
Keith Weigle. 'Ibe polic:e felt that. none of these 
peaple was ewen faintly open to suspicicm. Nevel'­
j 
On the last day of her life Marilyn Shep­ Two weeks after her - Sem was sen­
pard typed a :mediW paper {or Dr. Sem aea.ced to life ~ Elbel Shep­
and went shopping to pick up sapplies panl ~tted suicide. lier farewell 
for a picnic: wiah tHHDe of their friends. note didn't mention the murder trial. 
theless, Dr. Hoversten offered to take a He spoke of being "stimulated" to 
lie detector test, while Mayor Houk and go to .Marilyn after hearing her .cry out. 
Dr. Weigle insisted upon taking it. They He said that in her bedroom he could 
passed superbly. Sam alone, on at least "visualize a form of some type with a 
15 different occasions, refused to take light top." As he tried to reach Mari­
the test at alL lyn he was "intercepted or grappled." 
During the trial itself, as at the in­ Then. after looking at Marilyn's 
quest, Sam told, from the witness · beaten body, and at his sleeping son, 
stand, his story of what happened afte:r Chip, he heard a noise downstairs. "I 
midnight on Marilyn's last night. It can't explain my emotions," he said, 
turned out to be a hazily inexact story, "but I was stimulated to chase or get 
told in oddly dreamlike language. whoever or whatever was responsible.'.'..' 
In the living rooi:n he "v.isualized a 
form" which he says he chased to the 
beach where he "lost visualization." 
The 12 members of the jury did not 
believe him, and they revealed their 
disbelief by their verdict of guilty. But 
neither did they believe that Sam had 
planned the mµrder ahead of time. 
They felt that the crime had been com­
mitted in a demoniac outburst of rage 
and, for this reason. their verdict read 
"murder in the second degree"-giving 
Sam life imprisonment in pl8ce of the 
electric chair. 
The trial ended just before Christ­
mas on December 21. Two weeks later 
tragedy struck again. After many weeks 
in Bay Vrew Hospital following a stroke, 
Sam's mother took her son Stephen's 
gun and killed herself. Behind .her she 
left a note that did not mention Sam. 
It read: "I cannot go on without Dad 
Thanks for everything. Steve." Eleven 
days after her suicide the tragedy was' 
compounded when her husband, who had 
also spent many weeks in Bay view 
Hospital. also died. 
This modem counterpart of an 
ancient Greek tragedy is not yet played 
out, even though both the elder Shep­
pards are now at rest in Sunset Memo­
rial Park-and, some distance away, 
Dr. Sam's older brothers (Dr. Richard, 
shaking hands wiah the lll1U'der llUSped. 
and Dr. Stephen) tried bard to diTert 
11USpiciea from Marilyn's haslNmd. 
Susan Hayes was - · mystery to Mari)ya 
Sheppard. who kaew &bat Dr. Sa- lalMI 
been naking )o,,e to the young ­
in California and even in Bay Village. 
Marilyn lies in the Reese family maus­
oleum at Knollwood. 
Like a cloud of poison gm; banging 
over Bay Village are the animosities 
caused by the Sheppard family's whole-. 
sa,le murder accusations, and the Shep­
pards themselves speak with uncon­
cealed bitterness of Marilyn-as if they 
cannot forgive the fact that her murder 
somehow dynamited their comfortable 
way of life forever. 
Seven-year-old Chip. now living with 
his uncle Stephen, still attends a grade 
school in near-by Rocky River. At his 
uncle's house he was told that his 
mother had gone to Heaven to help care 
for a baby cousin who died last spring; 
but at school it is said that some of bis 
fellow-students shouted at him, ..Your 
father kill~ your mother!" 
J)erhaps tlie' · strangest result of ·the 

I tragedy is revealed in Sam himself. 

Some of those who have seen ium in 

his jail cell say, "The Sam we used to 

know could never have killed Marilyn-- ~ 

but he's not the same Sam we saw t~ 

day in jail. That man is a stranger." 

He has now developed several of the 
qualities · he criticized in bis dead wife. 
He has become a fanatic smoker of 
cigarettes, and a reader of nov.els and 
books of hist0ry. With almost maniacal 
intensity, he insists that he is innocent. 
Marilyn. who, ironicaDy, turned out 
to be the mystery woman in the Shep­
pard case, seems just as much a part of 
Bay Village as she was while 8live. Her 
neighbors remember her vividly. She 
contiriues to be a lively topic of con­
versation. But Bay Villagers also .re­
member Something else-that for good 
behavior, Sam Sheppard can be paroled 
from prison by the time he is in bis 
early forties. 
"He'll be back in 10 yeilrs." Bay 
Villagers say. Then, as they have for 
months, they sit staring at one another. 
Perhaps Marilyn Sheppard's story 
will never be truly ended THE END 


55/04/03 The Mystery Woman in the Sheppard Case, Part I

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55/04/03 The Mystery Woman in the Sheppard Case, Part I

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