Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU All Articles Newspaper Coverage 4-6-1970 70/04/06 Dr. Sheppard is Dead Cleveland Press Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/newspaper_coverage How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Cleveland Press, "70/04/06 Dr. Sheppard is Dead" (1970). All Articles. 61. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/newspaper_coverage/61 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Newspaper Coverage at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Articles by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 4 .LJ.\JV ..LV No. 23189 Monday, April 6, 1970 Phone 623-1111 By HASKELL SHORT, third Mrs. Sheppard said. "He thought Press Ohio Bureau Chief he had the flu or something like that. He had all the symptoms of flu." COLUMBUS - Dr. Sam Sheppard, the . Bay Village osteopath who figured in FRANKLI N COUNTY CORONER Rob­ Bailey: "I Knew one of the nation's most sensational and ert A. Evans said Sheppard had given #'~ '-1-~ · - ?D controversial murd·er cases, died unex­ hims'elf a shot of an unknown drug last pectedly today in his suburban Columbus night as part of his self treatment. home. He was 46. He Was Dying" Relatives said Sheppard died on the He had been ill for three days with floor, twisting in agony. with his mother· Press Washington Bureau what Dr. Sheppard himself diagnosed as in-law trying to save him with mouth-to­ influenza. mouth resuscitation. WASHINGTON-"l'm not surprised," -s aid F. Lee Bailey, the attorney who "Last night he was shaking violently. Mrs. Strickland said she believed Shep­ won Dr. Sam H. Sheppard's acquittal in This morning 9bout 7 a.m . he died," pard had suffered from internal bleeding, a second murder trial, when he learned said his sobbing bride of six months, saying that she smelled blood when she of Sheppard's death here today. the former Colleen Strickland, daughter breathed into his mouth in a desperate of .Dr. Sheppard's wrestling partner. effort to save his life. 'I knew !he was dylng," Bailey said. "He told me recently he had cancer and "He had been sick a few days," the Turn to Page C 8 did not have long to live. " I He said Sheppard told him he did not want to go through the long agony of death by .cancer. Sam Sheppard Ariane jJ~ J../-~ 70 DEATH George Strickland Had Hint camera) points behind Colleen Strickland to the place in the diriing room where ·of Trouble died today. "I have had a very strange feeling for ;the past two 111 o n t h s that something would happen to Sam-that he was in trouble. I can't e~plain the feeling but it was there." So Ariane Sheppard greeted the news today that her forme1r huSband-a man she crossed the ocean to meet and marry - had died in Columbus. "Maybe it's better this way,'' she said wilh tears in ber eyes as she talked to Barbara Benson, reporter for the Holly­ wood Sun-Tat t 1 er, a Scripps-Howard newspaper. "He wasn't really himself. He was in a another world from taking drugs," she continued. "No, of course I wasn't in love with him any more. I felt sorry for him." Miss Benson asked her twice if he had ever admitted to her that he killed his first wife, and Ariane snapped "no comment" to each question. Turn to Page C 8. Dr. Sam Sheppard Dies in His Home Continued From Page One brother Dr. Richard Sheppard about fu­ neral and burial" the mother-in-law said. "He thought he had the flu but last ' night he became vioiently ill and we Dr. Sheppard went to Columbus to -es­ ·wrapped him in blankets and kept him tablish a practice after divorce from his lying. on the floor," said Mrs. George second wife. Strickland. The young widow of Dr. Sam whoS'e "He has been drinking some lately' career as a surgeon was broken by his but he wasn't on any drugs as far as first . murder trial and subsequent 10 we knew," she said. years in prison said Dr. Siheppard's prac­ DR. SHEPPARD'S BODY was taken to tice was beginning to grow in the Colum­ the Franklin County · morgue at Ohio bus ·area. State University fo r an autopsy. Detec­ Before going to Columbus Dr. Shep­ tives were at the home of w r e s t 1 e r pard practiced briefly in Youngstown at George Strickland where Sheppard 'lived a Youngstown osteopathic hospital. He and maintained an offi ce. Police said later resigned from the hospital staff af­ their investigation was routine. ter two malpractice s u i t s were filed The death immediately raised specula­ against him. tion that Dr. Sheppard may have been a Dr . Sam's death removes another of victim of cancer. t.he central figures in thie 1954 murqer H1s brother, Dr. Stephen Sheppard, trial that focused world-wide attention lhad cliaimed during Dr. Sam's imprison­ on Cleveland and resulted in tb·e U. S. ment for the slaying of his first wife, of Supreme Court calling the trial a "RQ­ which he later was acquitted, that injec­ man carnival." tions given him during voluntary tests on cancer virus may have resulted in Dr. Others in the dramatic trial wiho pre­ Sam's contracting cancer. ceded Dr. Sam in death inducted his mother and father, his attorney and the MRS. STRICKLAND, mother of the trial judge. Dr. Sheppard's young widow said "Sam told us he had cancer because of that." Survivors include his two brothers Drs. Richar d and Stephen Sheppard and "He told us at one time he would not his son Samue'1 H. Jr. (Chip). live another year when we first got to­ gether a year ago." Ohio Pen ~ tentiary records show that Sheppard was returned from the Marion The pretty, young 20-year-old blond Correctional Institute, a penitentiary SHEPPARD FAMILY TOGETHER - Sam Sheppard and his second wife, widow described a happy rmarri:ed life af­ branch, for an examination when his Ariane, are shown with his son, Sam Jr. (Chip), after his prison release ter they were married in Mexico last brother,' Dr. Stephen Sheppard, claimed in 1964. Oct. 21. Sam may have developed cancer from "He was an excellent husband in every the tests. way. He was so kind, so wonderful. Just :Sampiles of the sore tissue w~re three weeks ago, for no reason at all ·ex­ examined by Dr. W. H. Walker, chief cept his love for me, he bought me a lit­ prison surgeon, on June 24, 196.1, ~nd tle ocelot." specimens of tissue were also b10ps1ed AriOne Says She Believed at Ohio State University Hospital and IT WAS DURING a trip to California at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Colum­ last fall fo r wrestling matches with bus. Slides also were sent to the Sloan­ ·Strickland, a C o 1 u m bus professional wrestler with ·whom Sheppard became Kettering Cancer Research Institute in New York, the foundation making the associated last year, that the romance be­ "Sheppard Was in Trouble" tween Sam and Strickland's daughter tests. rblossomed, and she became is third wife. "MEDICAL EXAMINATION including Continued From Page One isaid. " rormally ·one of the family would biopsy of a swollen area in the ~eft His first wife, the former Marilyn breast region of inmate Samuel H. Shep­ bring me news of him. But nobody had Sheppard, was bludgeoned to death in Ariane said she plans to fly to Cleve­ pard indicates no evidence of cancer ITT.eard anything of him. I last saw him their Bay Village home on July 4, 1954, land from Hollywood, Fla. for the funer­ nor an y relationship with the cancer al. She is currently vacationiing there a:t the day of rthe divorce. Of course, he was a killing that made Dr. Sam a household iproject in which inmate·s paritiidpated," word. 'Dhey 1had a son, Oh:Lp. the home Qf friends-former Oleveland­ out of town a lot with his wrestling and the prison report shows. ers Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Eppler. he 1had the new wif.e." While servin·g a life sentence for her "The pathology report was consiste~t slaying which he denied he struck up a with an inilamation of the small ducts m "HE WAS A VERY tragic figure," she Ariane received word of her former mail romance with blond Ariane Teb­ the breast," Corrections Director M. C. said. "He was a victim of everything that husband's death early today when Dr. benjohanns of Dusseldorf Germany. She Koblentz said the record shows. has happened to him for the past 16 came to this country and they were mar­ years. Sheppard's new mother-in-law, Mrs. ried in July 1964 three days after he He said reports of the medical •e·xami­ George Strickland!, telephoned her from was released from prison and 'Ordered a nation, tncluding Dr. Walker's negative "He was a very tragic figure. It doesn't Columbus. new trial. ' finds, were · given to the Sheppard fam­ make any. difference. yoo.f.~lflff-- ----------·-- ily, the same procedure in medica mat­ he committed murder or not. He just "Shoe called me right after the rescue THEIR MARRIED LIFE was tempes­ ters followed for any ,prisoner. tuous and ended in divorce last year.