Mockery of Justice: The True Story of the Sam Sheppard Murder Case
In 1996, Sam Reese Sheppard spoke onAll Things Considered: "My mother and dad were very flamboyant people.... They were out of step ... in the Bible Belt of Ohio at that time, but, very quickly, and it happens today, a high-profile case spins out of control, and hatred and hysteria rise in the community. When a pregnant woman dies in an ugly way in our community, people are stricken with fear ... the blame on my dad got pinpointed by the newspapers." Dr. Sheppard was convicted of the 1954 murder of his wife. In 1966 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he'd been denied a fair trial. He was re-tried, found innocent, then died a few years later.Mockery of Justicegoes into all the details: Dr. Sheppard's own account of that night, the role of a powerful coroner, the media frenzy, the mysteries surrounding the case records, and the recent investigation of a likely suspect for the murder. The analysis of forensic riddles posed by the complex crime scene makes for especially intriguing reading. The book includes map, timeline, footnotes, and index.