In the early morning hours of July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was bludgeoned to death in her bed. Her husband Sam, a prominent Bay Village doctor, maintained that Marilyn was murdered by a bushy-haired intruder. He stood trial and was convicted for his wife’s murder amidst a media storm.

Harrison Ford's character in The Fugitive is roughly based on Sam Sheppard.

The media frenzy so tainted the case that the United States Supreme Court released him and ordered a retrial in the decision Sheppard v. Maxwell. At the 1966 retrial, Sheppard was acquitted. He died just a few years later.

SOURCES:

https://famous-trials.com/sam-sheppard/2-sheppard

https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/newspaper_coverage/

law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sheppard/sheppardchonology.html

https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sheppard/#browse

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland Press

Associated Press

NY Times

https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/sheppard-murder-case

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-sam-sheppard-murder-case-972179

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sheppard/sheppardreports.html

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sam-sheppard-dies

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