About this Book

In the early morning hours of July 4, 1954, while her seven-year-old son lay sleeping in the next room, Marilyn Reese Sheppard, the pregnant wife of Dr. Sam H. Sheppard, was bludgeoned to death in the family's home in Bay Village, a West Side suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Before anything even remotely approaching a complete investigation was conducted, an overzealous media called for Dr. Sheppard's arrest. Under such unprecedented pressure from the media, police and prosecutors rushed to indict, try, and convict Dr. Sheppard. After Dr. Sheppard served ten years in prison, the United States Supreme Court overturned his conviction, ruling he was denied a fair trial because of excessive prejudicial press coverage and the judge's inability (or unwillingness) to control the courtroom's "carnival" atmosphere. At a second trial, represented by F. Lee Bailey, Dr. Sheppard was found innocent of his wife's murder. But the question remained: Who killed Marilyn Sheppard? Now, through exhaustive reinvestigation of the case, Sam Reese Sheppard, Dr. Sheppard's son, and Cynthia L. Cooper expose the truth. Cooper and Sheppard follow a fascinating trail of secret contacts, false leads, confessions, tips, and new evidence to unravel the mysteries surrounding the case. With the assistance of AMSEC, a private investigative agency, they delve into original files, recently recovered documents, Sheppard family papers, forensic evidence, and interviews with new witnesses and prime suspects. They find fabricated and suppressed evidence that worked to secure the initial conviction of Dr. Sheppard. And they uncover convincing evidence pointing to a long-ignored suspect that could bring this case to a compellingconclusion.