Samuel Sheppard(1923-1970)
Sheppard was a young doctor working with his family at Bay View
Hospital near Cleveland when his wife was brutally murdered on 4 July
1954. Suspicion centered on him immediately, and he was convicted of
his wife's murder in December 1954, despite his claims of innocence,
his cooperation with authorities, and the lack of any physical evidence
linking him to the crime. Sheppard obtained a reversal of his
conviction in the federal courts, and on his release in 1964, he
immediately married his penpal and sweetheart. Two years later, in
1966, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the reversal of his conviction in
a landmark case, and Sheppard was tried again. This time, without the
media hysteria surrounding the first trial, Sheppard was acquitted. He
was unable to overcome the effects of his ten-year imprisonment,
however, and died a broken man.
