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trial
Sometime between 3:00 and 4:45 a.m., Marilyn Sheppard is brutally murdered in her bed. At 5:40 a.m., Sam Sheppard calls Spencer Houk, the mayor of Bay Village, Ohio. He tells his friend Spencer to "get over here quick! I think they've killed Marilyn!" By 6:02 a.m., the first police officers arrive on the scence and discover the body, a trail of blood, and evidence of an apparent robbery. At about 8:00 a.m., Coroner Sam Gerber arrives at the Sheppard home. He immediately suspects Sam as the -
trial
The Sheppard murder makes frontpage headlines in all the Cleveland papers. Lines of cars drive by the Sheppard home on the shore of Lake Erie. Sheppard is interviewed again by police and examined by a neurologist. -
trial
Sheppard voluntarily appears at sheriff's headquarters, where he is questioned at length by detectives Robert Schottke and Patrick Gareau. He is asked whether he ever had an affair with lab technician Susan Hayes. Sheppard says that he and Hayes were nothing more than good friends -
trail
Sheppard appears at a preliminary hearing. He is released on $50,000 bail. At the same time, a grand jury is meeting to consider the case. Mayor Houk tells the grand jury that Marilyn called Sam "a Jekyll and a Hyde." Other witnesses testify about the crime scene investigation or Sheppard's womanizing. -
trial
The Sheppard trial opens in Cleveland before Judge Edward Blythin. The trial is covered by such celebrity journalists as Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen (a regular on the popular television quiz show, "What's My Line?"). Jury selection begins -
trial
Prosecutor John Mahon and defense attorney Frank Garmone give opening statements. The prosecution calls its first witness. -
trial
The jury returns a verdict: guilty of murder in the second degree. Sam Sheppard tells the judge, "I'd like to say, sir, I am not guilty...." Jurors report that their decision was influenced by Sheppard's delay in reporting the crime, the apparent removal of blood from the crime scene, the failure of Sheppard's dog to bark, and Sheppard's extramarital affairs -
trial
Richard Eberling, a man who washed windows at the Sheppard home, is arrested for larceny. A search of Eberling's home turns up, among many other stolen items, a cocktail ring owned by Marilyn Sheppard. Asked by police why is blood was found in the Sheppard home after the murder (this was a stab in the dark; police had found no such evidence), Eberling says he cut himself a few days before the murder and dripped blood throughout the Sheppard house. He is given a polygraph test, but the results -
trial
Sam Sheppard dies of liver failure at the of 46.