Thursday, February 24, 2000
Witness says handyman admitted Sheppard killing
But 'somebody else paid the bill'
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Richard Eberling, the man Sam Reese Sheppard thinks killed his mother in 1954, confessed to the slaying in a late-night conversation, a woman who once worked with Mr. Eberling testified Wednesday.
Kathie Collins Dyal said Mr. Eberling confessed to her in 1983, when she was a home health care worker for an elderly widow. Mr. Eberling hired her for the job and later fired her from it.
He later was convicted of killing the widow, Ethel May Durkin, and died in prison while serving a life sentence for that slaying.
Mr. Eberling never told authorities that he killed Marilyn Sheppard, who was beaten to death at her suburban Bay Village home on July 4, 1954.
Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, was convicted of murder and spent a decade in prison before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the verdict.
He was acquitted at a retrial and died four years later at age 46.
The doctor told authorities a bushy-haired intruder killed his wife and knocked him unconscious when he heard her cries and ran to help her.
Sam Reese Sheppard, the couple's only child, is suing the state of Ohio because he claims his father was wrongfully imprisoned.
Mr. Eberling worked as a window washer for the Sheppards in 1954 and got to know Ms. Durkin years later.
Ms. Dyal said one night while they were discussing a movie about the Vietnam War, Mr. Eberling asked Ms. Dyal if she had ever seen someone die.
He then told her he killed Mrs. Sheppard, she said.
“He said that he had killed her and that he hit her husband on the head with a pail,” Ms. Dyal said. She also said Mr. Eberling told him that Mrs. Sheppard “bit the hell out of him” and that “somebody else paid the bill” for the slaying.
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Witness says handyman admitted Sheppard killing
