The Case of Dr. Samuel Sheppard

The inquest was held in the auditorium of nearby Normandy Elementary School, packed by spectators the Plain Dealer described as "mostly Bay Village housewives." There were four days of banner headlines on Page One and, inside, page after page of "Q and A" from the transcript.

Since this was not a court proceeding, Gerber ruled that Corrigan, Dr. Sam's lawyer, could not participate. Since his client by now was obviously a suspect, Corrigan could have told him to refuse to answer questions on Fifth Amendment grounds. He didn't.

After the Aherns, Spencer and Esther Houk, Drenkhan and others had given their accounts, the star witness was called. Dr. Sam once more told his story and was questioned at length by the coroner.

Two of his answers were to haunt him. He said he and Marilyn had not discussed divorce — "not in a serious fashion" — and that he never had a sexual relationship with Susan Hayes, though he admitted he had seen her on a recent trip to Los Angeles.

Gerber asked him: "You didn't sleep in the same bedroom four nights in a row?" He replied, "No."

On the last day of the inquest, attorney Corrigan tried to get the court stenographer to insert some material in the record. Gerber ordered him to stop and the two exchanged words. A Plain Dealer banner headline described the result: "CORRIGAN EJECTED AMID CHEERS."

Said the story: "Spectators cheered wildly as William J. Corrigan, criminal lawyer representing Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard, was half-dragged from the room in the closing moments of the Marilyn Sheppard inquest in Bay Village."

It was the afternoon headlines that sealed Sheppard's fate as far as most Clevelanders were concerned: "SUSAN HAYES ADMITS AFFAIR, FLIES TO CITY." A three-column picture showed prosecutor Mahon and detective Schottke boarding a plane with her at Los Angeles Airport.

Stories about and pictures of "brown-eyed Susan Hayes" filled 80 percent of Page One of the next day's Plain Dealer. A News headline under a three-column picture said, "Tan, Freckles Give Susan Her Appeal." She posed willingly, but let Cleveland Police Chief Frank Story do her talking.

It turned out she had been talking for herself on the flight from Los Angeles — and to a Press reporter: "DOCTOR LIES, SUSAN CHARGES; TELLS OF GIFTS, MARRIAGE TALK." She told of trysts with Dr. Sam in his car and in rooms above the Sheppard Clinic in nearby Fairview Park starting three years earlier when she was 21, and of staying with him in Los Angeles earlier in 1954.

This time the Page One Press editorial said: "Why Don't the Police Quiz No. 1 Suspect?" By now the Press editorials had become a subject of debate in the paper's letters to the editor.

Some writers were horrified — "What is happening to our sense of justice?" — and some laudatory — "'Somebody Is Getting Away With Murder' certainly was a fine public effort on the part of the courageous Cleveland Press.'"

On July 29, 25 days after the murder, County Prosecutor Frank Cullitan gave Bay Village officials an ultimatum: If they didn't arrest Sheppard, Cleveland police would withdraw from the case.

Bay Village Law Director Richard Weygandt took the facts under review. By now the pressure had gotten to Houk, a part-time public official whose full-time job was operating a meat market across the street from City Hall. He was in bed under sedation.

The Press editorial the next day was to live in memory. It ran full eight columns across the top of Page One: "Quit Stalling and Bring Him In!"

Dr. Sam was arrested that evening at the home of his father, next to Bay View Hospital. His father tried to chase away a crowd of reporters and photographers in his yard without success. The television lights attracted a crowd of neighbors.

Sheppard led away, handcuffed to a
police officer (CORBIS)

While they watched and the photographers snapped pictures, Sheppard was led out in handcuffs, still wearing his orthopedic collar and, under television light, placed in a police car. He was taken to Bay Village City Hall where he was arraigned by Council President Gershom Barber; Houk had bowed out on the grounds he was a witness in the case. Then Sheppard was taken to County Jail. "Apparently the Press had its way," he said as he was again placed in a police car.

Corrigan showed up at the jail at 12:45, law book in hand, but was denied admission. "No attorneys are allowed in here after 7 p.m.," a deputy sheriff told him. He had gone first to Bay Village City Hall only to find it locked. Corrigan had a bitter statement: "We discovered that everyone had been notified by the authorities except us ... newspapers, radio, television and the public were in the vicinity of where the arrest was made."

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Police were finally able to give Sheppard the "intensive" questioning they had in mind. He later wrote that four teams of detectives questioned him in relays for 12 hours: "Hour after hour, they shouted at me, accused me, insulted me and members of my family. They tried to trick me by questioning me about facts they knew were not correct. Each time I told them I didn't kill my wife." After three days, they gave up.

In Dr. Stephen's 1964 book My Brother's Keeper he tells a story that illustrates the state of mind of the family.

They were horrified to learn one evening that Sheppard had just been led out of the jail in handcuffs and hustled into a police car. Then they got a call that lights were on in the murder house and police were inside.

"Dad's imagination conjured up the outlines of a police murder plot which, in view of all we had experienced at police hands, did not appear the least bit fantastic," Dr. Steve wrote.

"Could it be, he asked himself, that the police, in despair of getting either a confession or a conviction, were taking him back to his home in the dead of night so they could shoot him on the pretext he had tried to escape?"

He and Dr. Richard jumped in their car and sped to the house, where the elder Sheppard pounded on the door. When police opened it he demanded to know if Sam was inside and shouted "Sam, Sam!" No one answered and the police assured him that he was not there; they were merely conducting an examination of the premises.

Dr. Steve, meanwhile, had grabbed his medical bag and driven downtown to the jail in the belief that "Sam was going to be in need of medical attention when, if ever, he got back to the jail." He set up a vigil outside the rear door, but deputies brought Sam back through the front door. It turned out they had taken him to City Hospital for examination of his injuries by their doctors. Gradually the stories about the case — new suspects questioned and released, unsuccessful motions by Corrigan to release Sheppard on bail — moved to the inside pages of the papers.

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Then came a shocking development: Spencer Houk, the mayor who had held out against the demands for Sheppard's arrest, was picked up and brought to Cleveland's Central Police Station. Chief Story said it was "for questioning as a suspect in the Marilyn Sheppard murder case."

It turned out that Dr. Steve had given police "new leads" implicating Houk. When the osteopath was brought into the room, Houk leaped to his feet. "You liar!," he shouted. Police questioned Houk for four straight hours, then released him. It wasn't the last time he was to be mentioned as a suspect in the case.

As the trial date neared, the defense hired Dr. Anthony Kazlauckas, a pathologist and former deputy county coroner, as an expert and announced he would make an intensive search of the murder house. Assistant County Prosecutor Mahon said he would turn over the keys when asked, but the request never came.

The only explanation offered came years later from Sheppard. He wrote, "... this could only be done under the watchful eye of a police guard, who would just be a pipeline to the prosecutor's office."