The Case of Dr. Samuel Sheppard

Richard Eberling had come far since his 1950s days as a window washer and petty thief. By the 1970s he was a patron of the arts, welcoming public officials and society leaders to lavish parties in his showplace home.

His taste was such that Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk put him in charge of a $100,000 renovation of the mayor's suite in City Hall. By the late 1980s, Eberling was living on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee in a 27-room mansion stuffed with works of art.

And then, one day in 1987, police in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood got a call from a woman who said she wanted to let them know about a forged will.

Eventually, Patricia Bogar told them more. She had helped Eberling and his long-time companion, O.B. Henderson, forge a will naming Eberling as the heir of Ethel Durkin, an elderly Lakewood widow for whom he was caretaker.

Durkin died in January 1984 as the result of what was ruled — without an autopsy — an accidental fall. Her relatives were shocked to learn she had left 70 percent of her $1.5 million estate to "Dearest Richard, a gentleman who was to me the son I always wished for."

Under questioning, Bogar revealed she had also helped Eberling stage a series of phony burglaries, including one of her own home, to collect insurance. Her reason for blowing the whistle: Eberling had failed to come through with her promised share of the Durkin estate.

Beverly and Dale Scheidler, who had witnessed the signature of the will, confessed to their part in the scheme, and during a lie detector test, Beverly Scheidler broke down: She revealed that Durkin's death was actually caused by Eberling.

Police went to the Tennessee mansion where Eberling was living with Henderson and found it filled with antiques, oriental rugs and figurines — all stolen. Eberling had even stolen a painting from City Hall and passed it off as a portrait of his uncle.

Richard Eberling with
toupee after arrest
(AP)

Eberling denied killing Durkin, but when her body was exhumed the coroner examined the injuries and proclaimed the death a homicide. In July 1989 Eberling and Henderson were convicted of Ethel Durkin's murder and sentenced to life in prison.

So the man who admitted dripping blood in the Sheppard home two days before the murder was actually a murderer himself. Reporters began digging into Eberling's background — but, young Sam noted bitterly, law enforcement officials didn't.

After his City Club speech, young Sam took some time for a pilgrimage: He visited his father's grave near Columbus and, while he was in the city, went to the old Ohio Penitentiary, now closed, where as a boy he used to visit his father.

When he got back home to Boston, he found a letter waiting for him — from Lebanon Correctional Institution in Ohio.

It was from Richard Eberling.

"Sam, yes I do know the whole story...," it said.

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Young Sam and Cynthia Cooper, an investigator who was to join him later, wrote about what happened in the 1995 book Mockery of Justice. The title is taken from Judge Weinman's ruling freeing Dr. Sam in 1964. In the book he is called Sam R. or "young Sam,'' though by 1995 he was 48.

In the exchange of letters that followed the first one, Eberling told stories about the Sheppard family, such as a time when, he wrote, Marilyn asked Eberling to keep an eye on young Sam and his cousin while she went out. He sent a very accurate diagram of the rooms in the Sheppard house.

With poor spelling and punctuation, he teasingly hinted of his inside knowledge: "The true facts of Marylin Sheppards' murder have remained a secret to the public, reason being it could injure the reputations or careers of living persons. My reason for speaking out now. Is to help her son understand what happened."

Finally, young Sam went to see Eberling in prison. Over the next five years, Eberling would meet nearly a dozen times with Cooper and send over 230 pages of letters. The story he told was an amazing one:

Marilyn Sheppard, he said, had been killed by Esther Houk. Sam Sheppard and Spencer Houk together staged a cover-up.

He told of coming to wash the Sheppards' windows on the morning of July 2 and being invited by the doctor and his wife to have a sweet roll with them in their kitchen. Five minutes later Spencer Houk walked in carrying a package of meat from his butcher shop, put it in the Sheppards' refrigerator and, after some small talk, left. Sam then left.

While Eberling was washing windows, he heard a voice from another room. It was Esther Houk's, and she screamed "If you don't leave him alone, I'll kill you."

He said Marilyn took Esther downstairs and gave her a cup of tea. Later, Marilyn told Eberling that Esther was on medication and had been drinking, but was really "a sweet gal."

Later she served him lunch. She complained her husband was a workaholic and said Esther was upset because she had seen Spencer come to the Sheppard house in the morning. She said she would have to stop having her meat delivered.

It was that afternoon, Eberling said, that he cut his finger and dripped blood while going to the basement to wash it off.

There was more: Spencer Houk was actually gay, Eberling said, and Sam was bisexual. Esther thought her husband was having an affair with Marilyn, while actually he was having an affair with Sam.

After the murder, Eberling said he was washing windows at the home of Dr. Richard when Sam came in. Eberling offered his condolences then told him about Esther's threat. Sam's reply: "Don't let that be a problem. It's all taken care of." He added: "Richard, leave it alone!"

Eberling said he took that as an order, and didn't mention it to police or anybody else.

Years later, in 1969 or '70, after Sam's acquittal at his retrial, Eberling said, he ran into Sam at a local delicatessen. Sheppard told him to sit down and they talked for 40 minutes.

"Dr. Sam told me who murdered Marilyn," Eberling said.