The Case of Dr. Samuel Sheppard
Second Time Around
Francis Talty, the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge assigned to the second Sheppard trial, was determined to avoid Blythin's fate. He issued a set of orders which met the criticisms of the Supreme Court and then some.
There were to be no cameras on the premises of the court building and not even sketch-makers in the courtroom. No press table inside the bar. No room for radio equipment. No freedom to move about the courtroom — nobody could enter or leave while court was in session. No statements to the press by lawyers or witnesses.
He cut the number of benches for spectators and reporters to three — 42 seats. And he determined which media would be given seats. There were four for the two Cleveland newspapers (the News had folded in 1960), eight for local radio and TV stations and one each for the Associated Press and United Press International. There were none for out-of-town newspapers, for national publications or for television networks.
The media were upset at the order, which threatened to set an ominous precedent. But, still smarting from their tongue-lashing by the Supreme Court, they didn't challenge it.
Paul Holmes was back, having retired from the Chicago Tribune a few months earlier. Now he was both an author planning a sequel to The Sheppard Murder Case and a member of Bailey's investigative team.
Even though Holmes was a lawyer, Talty refused to let him sit at the trial table because of his former newspaper connection. Unofficially, though, Holmes, along with a Columbus reporter and backup reporters from AP and UPI, was allowed to sit in the seats supposedly reserved for spectators.
Leo Spellacy assisted County Prosecutor Corrigan (no relation to William Corrigan, Sheppard's first lawyer). Bailey was assisted by Russell Sherman of nearby Elyria. Bailey opened the proceedings with a motion for a change of venue. Talty might have played it safe and granted it but, like Blythin before him, he said he would wait to see if a jury could be empanelled.
As in the first trial, it was done quickly. Seven men and five women, plus three alternates, were seated — and then given the news they would be sequestered in a downtown hotel for the duration of the trial. A bailiff would monitor their phone calls and their only news would come from newspapers from which stories about the trial had been clipped.
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On Nov. 1, 1966 — 16 days short of 12 years after the first trial — the State of Ohio vs. Sam Sheppard began again.
Prosecutor Corrigan's brief opening statement was notable for what he did not mention — no faked injuries, no "surgical instrument" and, most striking, no Susan Hayes or talk of divorce.
Bailey raised eyebrows when he told the jury, "You will be satisfied that Sam Sheppard did not kill his wife and you will have a pretty good idea who did." Earlier, he had dropped hints the real killer was a left-handed woman.
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Deputy Coroner Lester Adelson, who had spent two days testifying in the first trial, was on and off the stand in less than an hour. Before the first day was over, Corrigan had also disposed of Spencer and Esther Houk, Doris Bender (the woman who had noticed lights on in the house in the early hours) and Fred Drenkhan, who since the first trial had become Bay Village police chief.
There was nothing unexpected in their testimony, but some of Bailey's questions took a new tack. In answer, Spencer Houk denied he had ever been in Marilyn's bedroom or been given a key to the house.
And Esther Houk — now Spencer's ex-wife — recalled lighting a fire in the fireplace on the fateful July night — she said it was chilly — and conceded it was possible to get from the Houk home to the Sheppard home by walking on the beach.
When Drenkhan told of questioning Dr. Sheppard, he said, "We then asked him if he had any extramarital affairs and he said the only one he had was with Susan Hayes." Bailey jumped to his feet with an objection and Judge Talty ordered the answer stricken.
When Detective Schottke testified the next day, he read Sheppard's July 10 statement to police in which he had denied having an affair with Susan Hayes and said they were just good friends. It was the last mention of her during the trial and the only one that survived into the official record.
Nancy Ahern, the dinner guest, testified but was not asked about Marilyn's talk of divorce. (Its admission in the first trial was criticized as hearsay by appeals courts.)
Dr Gerber, the star witness of the first case, was more subdued this time. He avoided using the words "surgical instrument" in talking about the bloody pillowcase — only "There was an outline or impression of some object in the stain."
Bailey wouldn't let it drop. On cross-examination he got Gerber to say the instrument was "similar to a pair of pliers — or a surgical instrument."
Bailey jumped on that and got Gerber to admit "I hunted all over the United States for an instrument that would fit" but couldn't find one. It was a point William Corrigan had failed to press in the first trial.
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Mary Cowan, the coroner's medical technologist, came up with the only new prosecution contention. She said the blood on Sheppard's wristwatch was not from contact with a wound but was caused by blood in motion — spattering blood. That had to mean Sheppard was there when she was beaten to death.
The prosecution rested after nine days. On Nov. 10, Bailey called his first witness, Jack Krakan, who in 1954 had been the Sheppards' "bread man." In those days bakeries and dairies delivered to homes, and Krakan worked for the Spang Baking Co.
He said that twice he saw a "distinguished- looking" man in the Sheppard home whom he assumed to be Dr. Sheppard until he observed Marilyn giving him a key with the admonition "Don't let Sam see this."
Bailey didn't follow up on that during the trial; later, he wrote that the judge wouldn't let him introduce the evidence he wanted to produce.
It was time for the star defense witness. In the first trial the jury was impressed by the scientific testimony of detectives and Cowan; William Corrigan presented no expert witness to rebut it. This time Bailey called Dr. Paul Kirk, the nationally known criminologist who had examined the Sheppard house after the first trial.
Carefully retracing his steps, he explained his conclusion that one blood spot was from someone other than Sam or Marilyn and that the killer was left-handed. He offered as his expert opinion that the blood on Sam's watch came from touching the body, presumably when he felt for a pulse.
The closing arguments came Nov. 15. Corrigan held up the watch to the jury. "This watch tells more than time," he said. "It tells who the murderer of Marilyn Sheppard is."
He graphically described the brutal murder, creating an imaginary bed and flailing the air with his arm as he imitated the killer striking Marilyn "over — and over — and over."
Bailey also described the killer: "Somebody had an awful hate for Marilyn," he said. "Somebody had hate this defendant could never have known —and that person spread that hate around Marilyn's room in her blood.
The story the murder room had to tell went unheard because nobody listened to it," he said. "Society has given Sam Sheppard a promissory note and it is payable now."
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The jury began deliberations after lunch on Friday, Nov. 16. Sheppard and his lawyers waited nervously. The jury went to dinner and came back to the jury room. The wait continued.
At 9:20 Judge Talty called the lawyers to come to his courtroom while he dismissed the jury for the night. At 9:30, as they were on their way, the jury buzzer rang in the courtroom. A bailiff brought the judge a note: "We have a verdict."
The judge wasted no time in reading it: "We the jury duly empanelled in the above case find the defendant not guilty."
Sheppard started to jump to his feet, but his lawyers restrained him until the judge left the courtroom. Now Sam jumped to his feet and shouted "I want my wife!" — just as a fictional Rocky, 10 years later, was to stand in the ring shouting "Adrienne!"