Editor' Not: The following r.rticle by qualified
observer is presented to our readers for its intrinsic
interest, but family weekly takes no position regard
ing the merits of Mr. Holmes' opinions.
What Now
for
Dr. Sam
Sheppard?
This famous convict seemed
likely to win parole until a
beautiful blonde fell in
love with him; now people
again ask: is he a victim of
fate or his own emotions?
By PAUL HOLMES
Author of "Th SHopoard Murttor Com." mtifibir of tho
Stat Jar of Wisconsin, and crimo reporter who
covorod th SHoppard trial and lubtoqwont dovoJopmonti
AS A NEWSPAPER REPORTER who COV-
XjL ered the famous murder trial of
Dr. Samuel Sheppard in 1954, I went
to Columbus, Ohio, earlier this year hop
ing to watch proceedings which would
lead to the parole of this man convicted
of killing his wife.
Over the years, as a newspaperman, crime
writer, and lawyer, I have studied the case thor
oughly, even written a book about it I think
that Dr. Sam was innocent of the crime.
Aa I traveled toward Columbus, it waa my
feeling that Dr. Sam's evil star, after nearly
nine yean of ascendancy, was Anally on the way
down. I hadn't taken into consideration love,
headlines, and a beautiful blonde who I knew
had entered Dr. Sam's life. I should have.
You will recall that the Sheppard murder case
began July 4, 1964, when the pregnant wife of
Dr. Sam, handsome, 29-year-old member of a
4 Family Wtkly, An I, I MJ
prominent Cleveland medical family, was bludg
eoned to death in her bed. Only Sam and their
sleeping son, 7, were known to have been in the
house when she was killed. Sam said he was
awakened by his wife's screams and twice
- knocked unconscious by one or two intruders
when he went to her aid.
The jury which heard his story and it took
him the best part of three courtroom days to tell
it disbelieved him end convicted him of second
degree murder.
Dr. Sam began serving a life term on July 20,
1955. Ohio law requires that he serve 10 years
before he can ask parole, so last January his
attorneys tried another approach. They sought to
make h'im eligible for immediate parole through
a commutation of his life sentence solely on the
basis of his excellent institutional record. The
attorneys presented this case:
Assigned to the prison hospital, Dr. Sam had
earned his keep by working as an anesthetist,
technician, and male nurse. On one occasion he
had saved, the life of an inmate patient who had
stopped breathing after surgery. He had par
ticipated in a cancer-research experiment by bar
ing his arm to implantation of live cancer cells.
Dr. Sam had been adjudged worthy of honor
status in 1960 by prison authorities and early in
1961 had been transferred from the dank, pre
Civil War prison in Columbus to a modern, medium-security
institution at Marion, Ohio. Here he
had set up a course in hospital and nursing tech
niques and as an inmate teacher had given train
ing which enabled several convicts to get jobs
upon release from prison.
The job of the parole commission, when it
convened Jan. 29, was to decide whether this
record entitled Sam to a recommendation for
gubernatorial clemency, advancing his parole
eligibility by two years. And he might have made
Ariane Tebbenjohann th woman who waits.
it except that fate suddenly intervened.
When his attorneys arrived at the hearing,
they were accompanied by a glamorous woman
with platinum-blonde hair and features of classic
Nordic 'beauty. She was swathed in furs, bedecked
liberally with jewels, and surrounded by an aura
of Continental sophistication.
No one in the room had to ask her identity be
cause' the morning papers had been full of her
sudden advent into the case. This waa Ariane
Tebbenjohanns of Dusseldbrf, Germany, a well
tordb divorcee who had professedly fallen in love
with Dr. Sam through correspondence and was
in this country to fight for his liberation and
marry him upon his release.
She would go to Washington, D.C., she said;
she would make a personal appeal to President
Kennedy and to his brother, the Attorney Gen
eral ; she would write articles about the case for
German magazines, exposing American injustice.
AriaiM MakM Matters Worn
This made exciting reading but not for mem
bers of the parole commission, pondering their
decision. They fumed with irritation; so did Ohio
prison authorities. Even more exciting reading
was provided later in the day by press cables
from Dttsseldorf with information that Ariane
was indeed all she said she was and more. She
was a half-siBter-in-law of the late Dr. Joseph
Paul Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister.
This disclosure turned Ohio public opinion
swiftly against Dr. Sam. As the public saw it,
here was a man serving a life term for wife-murder
after a trial which proved marital infidelity,
if nothing else. Now he was involved with another
woman. Knowledge that Ariane was a half-sister
of the late Magda Goebbels clinched matters.
Retaliation against Sam was swift. On Jan. 30,
the day following the commutation hearing, Ohio
prison authorities revoked his privileges to re
ceive visits and letters from the German woman.
On Jan. 31, the parole commission unanimously
voted to recommend that commutation be denfed.
The following day Gov. James A. Rhodes formal
ly refused clemeYicy.
But Ariane wasn't through. Stung by the rul
ing she could no longer write to Sam, she handed
to a Columbus newspaper a love letter she had
tried to send to Sam but -which prison-authorities
had returned to her unopened. The newspaper
published it on its front page.
To the prison administration, this, was the last'
straw. On orders of Maury C. Kbblentz; commis
sioner of corrections, Dr. 'Sam was- awakened in
the dead of night, manacled and chained, and1
unceremoniously hauled from Marion back- to'
the prison at Columbus, his honor status gone:
Koblenti said, the publicity was- embarrassing
the prison administration and that he. had reason
to suspect Ariane's effort to evade his edict
against communication between her and the pris
oner was carried out with Sam's possible con
nivance. Here was a plain hint that Sam's hither-