Wednesday, February 16, 2000
F. Lee Bailey says Sheppard fought 2
Celebrity lawyer cross-examined
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — F. Lee Bailey, who won acquittal for Dr. Sam Sheppard at the doctor's second trial on charges of murdering his wife, outlined a theory Tuesday that two neighbors killed Marilyn Sheppard in the 1954 case that partly inspired The Fugitive TV series.
Mr. Bailey's version of the murder is at odds with the theory supported by the Sheppards' son, Sam Reese Sheppard, who has sued the state claiming his late father was wrongfully imprisoned for 10 years for his mother's death.
Mr. Bailey was called as the leadoff witness in the lawsuit trial. The celebrity lawyer, who also helped defend O.J. Simpson, was on the witness stand for much of Monday and Tuesday.
Mr. Sheppard's lawyers called Mr. Bailey to show that the doctor's first trial in 1954 was unfair because of a flood of negative news reports.
A few years after Mr. Bailey took the case, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the first trial's verdict in a landmark ruling against pretrial prejudice from adverse media publicity. Dr. Sheppard's acquittal came at a 1966 retrial.
The doctor told authorities repeatedly that a bushy-haired intruder at the family home on Lake Erie early on July 4, 1954, beat his wife to death in her bed.
Dr. Sheppard said the attacker knocked him unconscious when he ran to help his wife. He caught up with the intruder on a beach behind the house, but said he was knocked out again in another scuffle.
Under cross-examination, Mr. Bailey said Dr. Sheppard told him privately he had the impression — although he couldn't be certain — that he had confronted two people during the fatal attack.
Assistant Prosecutor Steve Dever, part of the state's defense team, said during an argument without the jury present that Mr. Bailey's testimony is important because it showed Dr. Sheppard changed his story about the killing.
But Mr. Bailey said Dr. Sheppard was consistent.
“I think the bushy-haired man got a life of his own,” Mr. Bailey said. “That was one feature of the assailant that Sam could remember.”
Sam Reese Sheppard thinks a window washer for the family, Richard Eberling, was the murderer. Mr. Eberling was later convicted of stealing Mrs. Sheppard's rings in a 1959 burglary and was convicted in 1989 of killing an elderly widow. He died in prison.
Mr. Bailey said he adopted the theory that a couple in the Sheppards' neighborhood, Spencer and Esther Houk, were responsible for Mrs. Sheppard's beating death.
Mr. Bailey suggested in 1966 and still thinks that Mrs. Houk might have delivered the fatal blows to Mrs. Sheppard after catching Mr. Houk having sex with her.
“Somebody was with her man and she didn't like it,” Mr. Bailey said.
Both Houks have been dead for years. After Dr. Sheppard's 1966 trial, Mr. Bailey's theory of the murder was presented to a grand jury, which decided against indicting the Houks.
Mr. Houk was a butcher and mayor of the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village. The couple were the first people Dr. Sheppard called after his wife was killed.
According to Mr. Bailey, Dr. Sheppard “talked about the possibility” that his wife had an affair with Mr. Houk but had no firsthand knowledge of one.
“He never told me that he caught her at it,” Mr. Bailey said.
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