Sam Sheppard, alcoholic
SEPTEMBER 2004
The Sam Sheppard Story
If I’d been able to land a copy of “The Sam Sheppard Story” in time for this issue, I would have reviewed it. Unfortunately, it was a movie made for television and cannot be rented. While the top story is long enough to forego a review, the Sheppard story, which also inspired the movie and television series “The Fugitive,” is worthy of a brief discussion.
Sheppard was accused of murdering his wife in 1954. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently freed him due to the prejudicial atmosphere surrounding his trial. A second jury trial in 1966 resulted in acquittal.
The “Sam Sheppard Story” was, apparently, written by his son in an attempt to offer an alternative theory of the murder. While impossible to confirm his guilt or innocence, Sheppard was a full-blown addict at the time of his second trial. His attorney, F. Lee Bailey, refused to let him testify because he was drinking heavily and using a “variety of pills.” Such obvious addiction suggests a high probability of early-stage alcoholism a dozen years earlier, since the progression to easily identifiable addiction often takes decades.
If Sheppard committed the murder, he did so in an extraordinary sudden rage. If Peterson committed murder, he likely did so in careful premeditation, which is the modus operandi of serial murderers. While some compare Peterson with Sheppard on the basis that both are innocent, I would suggest that a more apt comparison might include the possibility that both are alcoholics, capable of grotesque crimes in their own styles.