Da: "coalit" A: "amici coalit" Oggetto: [listacoalit] Fw: "THE WRONG MAN" New Book on the Sheppard Case Data: marted́ 13 novembre 2001 14.56 > > Dear Friends, > > > > On Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2001, "The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on > > the Sheppard Case" became available in book stores. It's been long in > > coming, and having made possible and sat through a number of author James > > Neff's interviews with Sam Reese Sheppard, I am looking forward to reading > > it. The Sheppard case holds many lessons for those interested in our > legal > > system and justice (two different things) in the United States. I urge > you > > to read this important new book. > > > > Below are two reviews of the book. The first is by Steve > > Weinberg, a writer in Columbia, MO who is currently leading a nationwide > > study of prosecutorial misconduct, and how it sometimes leads to wrongful > > convictions. Of interest is the fact that this review appeared in the > > Cleveland Plain Dealer, which has been notoriously anti-Sheppard. The > > second is from yesterday's USA Today. A full page ad, and possibly a > > review, will appear in this Sunday's New York Times. > > > > You can support Sam's anti-death penalty activities by buying > this > > book via the link on Sam's web page: . > > > > Abraham J. Bonowitz > > for Sam Reese Sheppard > > > > > > ***** > > > > The below is from: > > > /html_standard.xsl?/base/entertainment/10044447622834358.xml> > > > > A masterful look at the Sam Sheppard case > > 10/30/01 > > Steve Weinberg > > Special to The Plain Dealer > > > > Cleveland loyalists are almost certain to be offended by "The Wrong Man," > > which details 47 years of areawide corruption, incompetence, indifference, > > willful blindness, class clashes and professional disagreements. The > > villains are police, forensic scientists, prosecutors, jurors, judges, > > journalists, physicians and a significant segment of the general > citizenry. > > > > The offense taken is quite likely to be all the more stinging because the > > author until recently was one of their own - James Neff, who grew up in > > Cleveland, lived in Cleveland with his wife and family and worked at The > > Plain Dealer for 10 years. (Earlier this year, Neff left Ohio for > Seattle.) > > > > Finally, the offense taken might be especially hurtful because Neff's book > > about one of the most renowned murder cases in U.S. history is completely > > persuasive. It's a painstakingly researched, compellingly written true- > > crime masterpiece. Any holes in Neff's case were not evident to me. > > > > Marilyn Sheppard, pregnant and the mother of a 7-year-old son, turned up > > bludgeoned to death in her Bay Village home on July 4, 1954. At first, it > > made sense for everybody to suspect her physician-husband, Sam. After all, > > his story seemed suspect: He said he had been sleeping during the pre-dawn > > attack, in a different room from his wife but seemingly close enough to > > have been awakened by a struggle. He had blood on his pants. > > > > Although in many ways a doting husband and father, the handsome, athletic > > physician was a ladies' man. He and Marilyn had argued about extramarital > > affairs. > > > > The murder investigation was flawed from the start. Bay Village police, > > lacking experience with homicides, failed to secure the crime scene, thus > > allowing physical evidence to become contaminated as Sheppard's family and > > friends bustled around the house and yard. Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. > > Samuel Gerber arrived within hours. His experience with homicides helped > > bring order out of chaos, but Gerber's near-immediate belief that Sam was > > guilty skewed just about everything he did or said. > > > > Like most Cleveland-area residents, Neff knew about Sheppard's December > > 1954 conviction, and his long-futile appeals from prison. Neff had heard > > about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that led to a new trial for Sam in > > 1966, his acquittal, and the downward spiral of Sam's personal life. > > Sheppard died at age 46 in 1970. The continuing belief in the popular > > literature was that Sheppard had been freed on a technicality, and had > > indeed killed his wife. > > > > But there was a great deal Neff did not know about the case. In fact, Neff > > says, "Nearly everything I thought I knew about the case would turn out to > > be wrong." > > > > In 1989, Richard Eberling had been convicted of murdering an elderly > > Cuyahoga County woman named Ethel May Durkin. Durkin had trusted the > > charming middle-aged Eberling, who had become a fixture in Cleveland-area > > society. Few knew that before the 1984 murder of Durkin, Eberling had > > committed petty crimes much of his life. > > In 1954, while employed part-time at the home of Marilyn and Sam Sheppard, > > Eberling had stolen Marilyn's ring. Several investigators working the > > Marilyn Sheppard murder had briefly considered Eberling a suspect, but > > eventually dismissed that thought. > > > > Neff knew the tenuous Eberling-Sheppard connection. He wanted to > understand > > Eberling better, so he requested a prison interview. After that interview, > > Neff believed Eberling was hiding a secret. So Neff pulled together > > everything about the murder from the public record, then began the arduous > > work of locating missing police reports, court records, lawyers' > > correspondence and people who might shed light on the truth. Part Three of > > Neff's book explains how his investigation unfolded, and how he concluded > > that Eberling murdered Marilyn Sheppard. > > > > For nine years, Neff stayed in touch with the imprisoned Eberling. In July > > 1998, Neff and Eberling talked yet again. During the in-person interview, > > Eberling "took himself back to 1954," Neff relates. "He described himself > > as snapping to alertness and finding himself in the Sheppards' > > blood-splashed bedroom. He saw a crimson mess everywhere. He was > horrified. > > My God, I had never seen anything like it,' he said. I got out of there.' > I > > asked a follow-up question but Eberling wouldn't answer. Catching himself, > > he wouldn't talk about it anymore. It turned out to be as close to a > > confession as I could get. Richard Eberling died before I could return." > > > > Weinberg is a writer in Columbia, Mo. He is currently leading a nationwide > > study of prosecutorial misconduct, and how it sometimes leads to wrongful > > convictions. > > > > > > ****** > > > > The below is from: > > > > > > 11/08/2001 - Updated 09:27 AM ET > > 'Wrong Man' makes case for Sheppard's innocence By Deirdre Donahue, USA > TODAY > > > > One strongly hesitates to call a book about the tragic murder of a > pregnant > > woman escapist reading, but James Neff's The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict > > on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case proved compelling, sympathetic, > > informative. And an excellent alternative to reading news stories about > > anthrax. > > > > The Sheppard case is imbedded in the American psyche. The 1954 story of a > > prominent Cleveland physician convicted of killing his wife was believed > by > > the public to influence the TV series The Fugitive and the 1993 movie > > starring Harrison Ford. The public's imagination was gripped by the story > > of a "bushy-haired" intruder and the question of Sheppard's guilt or > innocence. > > > > A clear, well-organized writer, Neff does an outstanding job examining the > > famous case, setting out the facts, and then illuminating the subsequent > > trials as seen through the prism of the evolving science of DNA and crime > > psychology. Neff does this without bogging the reader down in excessive, > > self-indulgent research. > > > > Far more than a true-crime book, the story can be seen as a meditation on > > the rapid societal changes from the mid-'50s to today in areas such as > > press coverage, sex and the psychology of murder. Athletic, handsome Sam > > Sheppard was a good doctor and an affectionate father and husband. But he > > was not a faithful spouse to his young wife. > > > > When his wife was found hideously beaten to death in their bedroom, his > > story of being hit by an intruder did not sway the police from their > belief > > that this was a domestic violence case probably involving adultery. The > > very vagueness of his story, which he consistently repeated, would suggest > > that it wasn't a lie. > > > > The Cleveland newspapers played a vital and unsavory role in the push to > > convict Dr. Sheppard. They played on working-class resentment against the > > well-off Sheppard doctors. (There were four.) And medical tensions > surfaced. > > > > The Sheppards were osteopath doctors, a group the powerful coroner, an > > allopathic doctor, loathed for a number of reasons. (The American Medical > > Association also hated them.) The jury was not shielded from press > > coverage. Members were identified in the press, making them celebrities to > > their neighbors. And probably making it hard for them to acquit Sheppard. > > > > The trial's notoriety was on par with the Lindbergh kidnapping case. > > Nationally known "sob sister" journalists hit town to cover the case for > > the nation. Before the jury had even been chosen, the judge told Hearst > > columnist Dorothy Kilgallen that Sheppard was "guilty as hell." She waited > > almost a decade before revealing this crucial information. > > > > Neff gives the reader a sense of the trial and the doom Sheppard must have > > felt upon being convicted. (His brothers, particularly Steve, would be > > rocks of support.) Although Sheppard's aged lawyer Bill Corrigan failed in > > certain key areas, he tried his best and recognized that he should have > > gotten more and better scientific analysis to refute the coroner. > > > > Enter crime-lab pioneer Paul Kirk, known as the "father of > criminalistics." > > He was an expert in what blood drops reveal about a crime through their > > size, shape and spray pattern. > > > > And a dynamic, 27-year-old lawyer named F. Lee Bailey emerges. He would > > defend Sheppard, who served nine years, in his successful 1964 appeal that > > would throw out his manslaughter conviction on constitutional grounds. The > > judge ruled that Sheppard's rights to due process and a fair trial were > > violated. The judge particularly criticized the news media. (Neff > > interviews five of the surviving jurors from the original 1954 case who > > were heavily influenced by press stories about Sheppard's adultery, > > including false ones.) > > > > When Sheppard walked out of prison, he was a different man. Neff cogently > > explains how he changed. "Gone were the physician's temperament and > > judgment. He was filled instead with rage and a self-pitying sense of > > entitlement." His friends were tough ex-cons. His second wife was a > > beautiful but strange German heiress with a compulsion to dominate. (Women > > drawn to men in prison usually have their own issues.) Sheppard's erratic > > behavior and alcoholism would continue until his death at 46. > > > > Briefly a professional wrestler, Sheppard was drinking a quart or more of > > liquor a day by the end of his life and died of a liver ailment. His son > > would become an anti-death-penalty advocate. > > > > Yet the case would live on, thanks to the mysteries of DNA. Specimens > taken > > from Marilyn Sheppard's body would reveal the sperm of a man other than > > Sheppard. There was also blood from a third person at the crime scene. > > > > Almost from the beginning, the police had known there was a local man > named > > Richard Eberling who had done work for the Sheppards. An abused foster > > child, he would eventually be arrested for stealing jewelry in 1959. > > (Marilyn Sheppard's rings would be found in his possession.) Later, > > Eberling would be convicted of murdering an old lady in a manner similar > to > > the death of Marilyn Sheppard. To friends, he would confess that he had > > killed Marilyn Sheppard. Neff makes a very convincing case that he has > > found the right man in Marilyn Sheppard's murder. > > > > The Wrong Man is a perceptive look at the intricacies of the justice > > system. Real life, it seems, is no Hollywood movie. > > > > > > EXCERPT > > > > At 5:40 a.m. on July 4, 1954, the mayor of Bay Village was awakened by a > > telephone call. It was his neighbor Sam Sheppard, shouting, "My God, Spen, > > get over here quick! I think they've killed Marilyn!" > > "What!" > > "Oh, my God, get over here quick!" > > Spencer Houk jumped up and got dressed, waking his wife, Esther. She hated > > to get up early, but she knew something terrible had happened. She pulled > > on a dress and shoes. They lived only two houses away from Sam and > Marilyn, > > but Spen, a butcher, had a bad knee, so they got in their car and drove to > > the Sheppards' house. > > > > ******* > > > > SENT BY: > > Abraham J. Bonowitz > > > > > > > > "In recording for my boy what I have been subjected > > to, it will be necessary to make known American injustice > > perpetrated not by the laws of our land, but by those who > > have sworn themselves to uphold those laws... A frightening > > breach of American rights has taken place, and the important > > point is that the breach has happened here in America, not > > who it has happened to." > > > > 1955, Dr. Sam Sheppard > > From his prison journal > > > > Please visit