Sam Sheppard Case Spotlight

On July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard, the wife of a prominent local doctor from a Cleveland suburb, was found bludgeoned to death in her bed. Her husband, Sam Sheppard, stood trial for the murder, although he claimed his wife was murdered by a “bushy-haired intruder.” The Sheppard conviction caused a media sensation, long before the advent of digital or social media. 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.

In 1999, Sam and Marilyn’s son, Sam Reese Sheppard, unsuccessfully sued the state of Ohio for the wrongful imprisonment of his father. The documents collected and used by the prosecutor’s office in this trial are the CSU College of Law Library’s Sam Sheppard Collection. Our collection includes court materials from the 1954, 1966, and 2000 trials, coroner files and inquests, police investigations, newspaper coverage, and letters from the public. All materials have been carefully digitized and are available online.

If you have questions about this collection, contact us at sheppard.feedback@law.csuohio.edu.