to unblemished prison record might have a black
mark when the parole commission was again
scheduled to re-examine his case, in 19.65.
So Dr. Sam will remain in the Columbus prison
indefinitely, Koblentz asserted, and will never,
whil.e there, be permitted to see or communicate
with- Ariane. -
What is this woman like?
I met Ariane the night before the Columbus
hearing. She convinced me that she sincerely
believed herself to be in love with Sam, although
simultaneously she appalled me with her plans to
use the romance as a publicity vehicle for hasten
ing his freedom. Here is the story of her romance,
as she told it to me.
She began writing to Sam nearly four years
ago. He was allowed to receive but not to an
swer her letters. Appreciative of these gay mis
sives from Europe, Sam had asked his brother
Stephen to acknowledge their receipt and to in
form Ariane that he hoped she would keep writ
ing. The correspondence thrived, with Stephen,
anxious to do anything to make life more cheer
ful for Sam, acting as a go-between.
Late in 1962 Ariane asked prison authorities
whether she would be permitted to visit Dr. Sam.
The first answer she received was no. Last Jan.
8, however, Lamoyne Green, superintendent of
the Marion Correctional Institution, wrote her
in Dilsseldorf as follows:
"Dear Madam :' We have reconsidered your re
quest to visit the above named (Sam Sheppard)
and at his request have placed you on his visit
ing list as a friend. As of this date, we are. grant
ing you permission to visit him when you make
your trip to Marion, Ohio. The visit will have to
be between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m."
Sam MMb His Admirer
Ariane arrived alone at the Marion prison on
Jan. 24, five days before the commutation hear
ing, and that day she had her first, and so far
only, meeting with Sam. He was summoned from
his prison tasks to a reception room where he
was allowed four-and-one-half hours with his
dazzlingly attractive visitor.
Small wonder that a romance nurtured for
four years by ma:! burst into full bloom in these
hours', at . least on. the part of Sam, who had
scarcely seen a woman in nine years. Nor can it
surprise anyone that Sam, at parting, threw his
arms around her. Yet this fleeting embrace is
on Sam's record as a breach of prison rules.
The timing of her meeting with Sam in rela
tion to the commutation hearing makes it plain
.that the state of Ohio must bear some of the
responsibility for what happened. The unfor
tunately timed betrothal could not have taken
place: when it did without the state's . cooperation;
If the state had sought to bait a trap in which
Dr. Sam might imperil his chance of early free
dom, it could' scarcely have done a better job.
When Ariane's Nasi connection was exposed,
she appeared genuinely puzzled that this could
Dr. Sam Sheppard still behind prison- bora.
hurt Sam. After all, she said, she was never a
Nazi, although as a child she had belonged to the
Hitler Youth movement. Her half-sister, Magda,
was 20 years her senior and had married Dr.
Goebbels in 1930, theyearthat she was. born. She
never lived in the same house or city with Magda
and barely knew her. Her parents, she said, were
anti-Nazi, especially on the question of Nazi
persecution of the Jews.
All true, conceivably. But by that time it made
very little difference what Ariane said. When I
last talked to her in April, she said she had hired
a lawyer to figure out how she could marry Sam
by proxy, and I know she has taken steps to
assist financially in legal moves to free him.
Was Sam Really Quilty7
What does Sam think of all this? He is cut off ,
from the world and cant say.
Those who believe Sam a murderer say his ap
parent susceptibility to Ariane's international
courtship points up facets in his character con
sistent with the theory of his guilt. Those who
believe him innocent think fate has once again
stepped in to hurt him. So the basic question re
mains: is Sam Sheppard guilty of killing his
wife? Let's look at the evidence.
. Injuries, including a bruise to the spinal cord
which caused loss of reflexes, were suffered by
Sam on the murder night but were scoffed at by
the state as trivia or selfrinflicted. Disorder in '
the house was blamed by the state on a clumsy
attempt by Sam to simulate burglary in support
of his intruder story. The state sent- scientific
investigators into the -House hut seized the Keys
and locked- the- place against inspection by- the
defense. No weapon -was ever fbundSam must
have hidden it, the state said and no motive was
ever established.
The state gave the- jury an excuse to guess at
- a motive, however, by proof that Sam had been
an unfaithful husband in an affair with an at
tractive, unmarried hospital technician an affair
which had been carried on up to four months be-
Familyr Weekly June t, 1963
fore the slaying of Mrs. Sheppard.
In final analysis, the state proved two things:
.that Sam was in the house at the time of the
murder and that he had been a philanderer.
So flimsy was the murder evidence against Sam
that the state waited 26 days to -arrest him and
acted then only after public pressure demanded
that the "principal suspect" Sam be taken into
custody. This pressure pictured Sam as a rich
man- trying to get away with murder by virtue
of skilled lawyers and an influential family. Pre
judice against Sam was so high at the trial and
I attended every session of it that in my opin
ion a fair trial was impossib).
The jury- needed five days to reach a verdict,
an indication that compromise and guesswork
played a part in the outcome.
The trial judge rejected as grounds for a new
trial evidence which a noted criminologist hired
by the defense found in the murder room as soon
as the state surrendered the keys to Sam's house.
This included an expert deduction that the slay
er must have been left-handed (Sam is not) and
'that one spot of blood came neither from Sam
nor his wife, hence must have been deposited by
a third person the murderer.
Two Judges Dissent
The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Ohio dis
trict and the Ohio Supreme Court later upheld the
conviction, but two judges of the Ohio Supreme
Court spoke out strongly for Sam in a minority
opinion, branding the evidence as wholly circum
stantial and insufficient to warrant conviction.
These judges said Sam had suffered prejudice
at his trial by admission of hearsay evidence, by
. erroneous instructions to the jury on the weight
of character evidence and the nature of circum
tantial 'evidence, and by telephone calls which
jurors were permitted to make to members of
their families in violation of law while deliberat
ing on verdict.
. What next for Dr. Sam? He is back where he
was when his prison career began but worse off
because avenues of legal redress then open to
him have been sealed off one by one as various
courts have ruled against his appeals.
But two legal moves aiming at Sam's vindica
tion are still in the mill. One is as appeal to the
United States Supreme Court to order Ohio pris
on authorities to permit Sam to undergo a lie
detector test, which Sam has demanded unsuc
cessfully. The other is an appeal to the Federal
to.urts- for a writ of habeas corpus on the theory
he was denied due process of law at his trial.
This habeas corpus proceeding was initiated in
April and may require years of expensive litiga
tion. Not many such actions are successful.
Thus Sam's chances at the moment are not
bright, but not dead, either. Many people, includ
ing. this writer, believe he does not and never did
belong in prison.
Blondes, love, and publicity should not ob
scure this challenge to the public conscience.
rml!y Wwkiy. Jul , IHJ
I