The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case

The Wrong Man is a gripping and provocative look at the sensational murder trial(s)of Sam Sheppard. While in high school in the 70's, I member first reading about the case in F. Lee Bailey's book 'The Defense Never Rests'. Neff's book takes you behind the headlines of this infamous case and moves forward from the day of the crime and through the various incarnations of the case in the state and federal courts. He looks in depth at the participants and suspects in one of the century's greatest 'unsolved murders.' This case is a clear example of a man and a family destroyed by politicians and the press. These folks refused to let the facts get in the way of a good story. Sheppard's life and reputation were lost because the case was tried in the newspapers and television, instead of the court room. Oddly enough, through three trials in a 'search for truth' justice was never served. It is ironic that Neff's objective review of the case as a journalist and a 'member of the press' may be the closest the Sheppard family ever gets to finding the truth and obtaining justice. This is not simply a regurgitation of the headlines but a probing anatomy of an infamous crime and what happens when a 'good story' over takes the facts, a community, and our system of justice. It also shows why our freedoms guaranteed by the constitution (including the freedom of the press) must be jealously guarded against all who would take them away. I could not put the book down once I started reading it and strongly recommend it to any one who enjoys the true crime genre or reading law related novels. Here, the facts are stranger (and more interesting) than any fiction one could invent.

James Neff's The Wrong Man not only is a good read but a compelling one. Though the title (subtitled, "The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case")gives one the ending, the drama of the story keeps the reader going as well as any good mystery. Neff's investigative talent and what he uncovers helps build that drama. Neff connects the revelations of the passions built by media/political forces in Cleveland during this 1950s case to the McCarthy era mentality and to the growth of what was then considered the "safe" suburbs.(The book has been relatively ignored by the local Cleveland newspaper despite its massive previous coverage. But don't expect a whitewash of its main character. The content also has relevance to today's media frenzy in some of the highly emotional cases that become media spectacles and a warning that what seems to be might not be at all. Neff's detective work, obviously tenaciously done, has a Holmes-like quality. It's hard to put it aside once into the book.

Some people feel that the 'not-guilty' verdict at the 1966 re-trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard following his release from prison, coupled with the fact that he died over 30 years ago, makes any discussion of his case pointless. Many others however, view the Sheppard case as a tragic miscarriage of justice that put the wrong man behind bars for a decade--and feel that nothing less than a total exoneration is called for.Dr. Samuel Sheppard was living an idyllic early-1950's life. Along with his father and two brothers, the handsome young doctor ran a small private hospital in a quiet suburb of Cleveland. He had a beautiful wife, Marilyn, a young son nicknamed 'Chip,' and large lakefront home with a Lincoln and a Jaguar convertible in the driveway. He had it all. On the morning of July 4, 1954, life as he knew it came to a crushing end when Marilyn --four months pregnant at the time-- was discovered brutally murdered in her bed. Sam claimed to have been asleep on a couch downstairs when the attack occurred. After being startled awake, he confronted a "bushy-haired" man who attacked him (fracturing Sam's second cervical vertebra in the process), and ran from the house, disappearing into the night. Sam, however, made a convenient suspect. Certainly, it was more comforting for the public to think that the crime was a case of a domestic argument gone to a horrible extreme than to believe that a murderous lunatic was randomly slaughtering housewives. Then there was the affair: rumored; denied; and ultimately acknowledged.James Neff's "The Wrong Man" is a fascinating account of this notorious case. While Sheppard made an understandable suspect for the reasons stated above and more, the details of his first trial are absolutely shocking. From the judge presiding over the case who, at the start of the trial declared (to columnist Dorothy Kilgallen), Sheppard "guilty as hell" during a conversation she only acknowledged years later, to the selective cover-up of any evidence that could prove Sam's innocence, this heavily-researched book exposes an outrageous miscarriage of justice.Neff even interviewed a more plausible suspect. Richard Eberling, a handyman whose window-washing accounts included the Sheppard home, acknowledged that he had cut himself while in the house some days prior to the murder, and though he dripped blood throughout the house, neglected to clean up the trail. He was ultimately convicted and imprisoned on an unrelated murder charge, but Neff reveals that this was the tip of the iceberg. Eberling's past is seemingly filled with women who have died under mysterious circumstances. If that were not enough to cast some serious doubts upon the original verdict, he confessed the Sheppard murder directly to one individual, and indirectly to the author himself.All in all, it's spellbinding and thought-provoking look at a man that had it all and lost everything.

Given the antiquity of the Sheppard case, the loss of physical evidence and the death of virtually all of its chief figures, it is unlikely that this baffling murder case will ever be solved beyond the shadow of a doubt. But James Neff has come closer than anyone yet in penetrating to the core of this anguished puzzle. Well-researched and well-written, it demolishes many myths and misconceptions about the case and renders virtually every previous book on the case obsolete. Hard-core followers of the Sheppard phenomeon may be no more swayed by Neff's faith in the DNA evidence proffered in the 3rd Sheppard trial last year (the jurors weren't convinced)but he nonetheless makes a compelling argument for the guilt of Richard Eberling, a familiar and repugnant suspect to Sheppard buffs. True, Neff sidesteps the ludicrous implausabilities of Sheppard's "bushy-haired intruder" story but his evidence and arguments will be the starting place for any further controversy on this celebrated case. In a word, don't exhale until you've read this book.

The Wrong Man is a gripping and provocative look at the sensational murder trial(s)of Sam Sheppard. While in high school in the 70's, I remember first reading about the case in F. Lee Bailey's book "The Defense Never Rests". Neff's book takes you behind the headlines of this infamous case and moves forward from the day of the crime and through the various incarnations of the case in the state and federal courts. He looks in depth at the participants and suspects in one of the century's greatest "unsolved murders." This case is a clear example of a man and a family destroyed by politicians and the press. These folks refused to let the facts get in the way of a good story. Sheppard's life and reputation were lost because the case was tried in the newspapers and television, instead of the court room. Oddly enough, through three trials in a "search for truth" justice was never served. It is ironic that Neff's objective review of the case as a journalist and a "member of the press" may be the closest the Sheppard family ever gets to finding the truth and obtaining justice. This is not simply a regurgitation of the headlines but a probing anatomy of an infamous crime and what happens when a "good story" over takes the facts, a community, and our system of justice. It also shows why our freedoms guaranteed by the constitution (including the freedom of the press) must be jealously guarded against all who would take them away. I could not put the book down once I started reading it and strongly recommend it to any one who enjoys the true crime genre or reading law related novels. Here, the facts are stranger (and more interesting) than any fiction one could invent.