Wednesday, February 02, 2000
Evidence disputed in Sheppard case
State resists other suspect's crimes
BY JOHN AFFLECK
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Information about Richard Eberling's conviction for killing an elderly widow and his alleged ties to the deaths of other women should be kept out of the trial aimed at deciding who murdered Marilyn Sheppard, prosecutors told a judge Tuesday.
Prosecutors asked Cuyahoga County Judge Ronald Suster not to allow the Eberling material into court during the second day of a wrongful imprisonment trial for Dr. Sam Sheppard.
Dr. Sheppard was convicted in 1954 of beating his wife to death at the couple's home in suburban Cleveland. He spent a decade in prison before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction. He was acquitted at a retrial in 1966 and died four years later.
The case partly inspired The Fugitive television series and film.
The Sheppards' son, Sam Reese Sheppard, is now suing the state of Ohio claiming his father was wrongfully imprisoned. To win the case, Mr. Sheppard and his lawyers will have to convince a jury the majority of evidence indicates his father was innocent of his mother's murder.
Judge Suster is hearing motions this week from both the Sheppard legal team and county prosecutors, who are defending the state.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.
Mr. Sheppard believes DNA samples from the crime scene, several alleged confessions and other evidence shows that Mr. Eberling, a window washer for his family in 1954, was Mrs. Sheppard's killer.
Mr. Eberling was convicted of murder in the 1984 death of Ethel May Durkin, for whom he worked as a caretaker. He was serving a life sentence for Ms. Durkin's slaying when he died in 1998.
Ms. Durkin's two sisters, both of whom knew Mr. Eberling, also died in unusual circumstances and Mr. Sheppard suspects Mr. Eberling might have killed them, too.
One sister, Myrtle Fray, was beaten to death in 1962 in a crime that remains unsolved. The other sister, Sarah Belle Farrow, died in 1970 of a fall that was ruled accidental.
Mr. Eberling also drove a car that crashed into a truck in 1956, killing a female passenger in his vehicle, Barbara Kinzel. Ms. Kinzel, who was dating Mr. Eberling at the time, had worked at Dr. Sheppard's hospital and was on duty the day Mrs. Sheppard died.
“If that's not a serial killer, I don't know what it is,” Sheppard attorney Terry Gilbert said after ticking off the list of names in court Tuesday.
But Kathleen Martin, an assistant county prosecutor, argued that the deaths are not similar enough to Mrs. Sheppard's beating death to indicate that the killer is the same person. “It doesn't prove identity,” she said.
The doctor always insisted that a “bushy-haired intruder” killed his wife in her upstairs bedroom, then knocked him unconscious when he heard her cries and ran to her aid.
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