The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case

Written by James Neff

Narrated by Charles Constant

"My God . . . I think they've killed Marilyn!"

At 5:40 a.m. on July 4, 1954, the mayor of Bay Village, a small suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, received a frantic phone call from his neighbor Dr. Sam Sheppard. The news was too terrible to comprehend: Marilyn, Sam's lovely wife, was dead, her face and torso beaten beyond recognition by an unknown assailant who had knocked Sam unconscious and escaped just before dawn. In the adjacent bedroom, Chip, the Sheppards' seven-year-old son, had slept through the entire ordeal.

Almost immediately, the police began to suspect Sam Sheppard. The local press rushed to cast judgment on the handsome, prosperous doctor. After a misguided investigation, Sheppard was arrested and charged with murder. Sentenced to life in prison, he served for nearly a decade before he was acquitted in a retrial. Until his death, he maintained his innocence.

Culled from DNA evidence, testimony that was never heard in court, prison diaries, and interviews with the Sheppard family and other key players, The Wrong Man makes a convincing case for Sheppard's innocence and reveals the identity of the real killer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781515942610

James Neff

James Neff is a prizewinning investigative journalist and editor. He is the author of five books, including The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case and Unfinished Murder: The Capture of a Serial Rapist, both of which were Edgar Award finalists; Mobbed Up: Jackie Presser’s High-Wire Life in the Teamsters, the Mafia, and the FBI, which was adapted into the HBO movie Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story; and Vendetta: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Neff was a reporter and columnist at the Plain Dealer; a writer and editor at the Seattle Times, where he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and is currently deputy managing editor for investigations at the Philadelphia Inquirer.  

Reviews for The Wrong Man

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastically researched and very surprising to someone who honestly thought (wrongly) that The Fugitive was actually based on this case. Sam Sheppard had his faults, but he was railroaded so thoroughly (and represented so poorly in the first case), that it is hard to even fathom. The most shocking part to me, however, was how Dr. Sam spent the last few months of his life. So sad and so grotesque for someone who had worked so hard to be a successful doctor. The only knock I had on the book is that it was very dry in spots (I kept zoning out as I was reading it) and it was somewhat repetitive at times. Other than that, I would definitely recommend it not only for fans of true crime, but for anyone who wants to get a little 1950's zeitgeist fix.

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This 2001 book recounts the Marilyn Sheppard muder, the trial of her husband, the reversal of his conviction by the U.S. Supreme Court. the second trial when he was represented by F. Lee Bailey, his life after prison, and his death in 1970. I found the first two-thirds of the book told an interesting story in non-scintillating prose, but the final secion, when the Sheppard Estate sued the County, was boring and showed that the the subtitle of the book is hype, not too accurate. The author makes at least one egregious error, when he says FDR appointed Harold Burton the the supreme Court, showing a lack of basic research on the part of the author. I am not sure the time I spent reading this book was well-spent.

[eliz12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is actually a brilliant book, though it takes work to read it. (But really, is anyone who picks it up in search of light, fun material?) The very nature of the subject demands a challenging text. So many details and trials and accounts - in fact I think Neff did an extraordinary job including them all.Before reading "The Wrong Man" I was convinced of Sheppard's guilt; now I'm not so sure.

[dara85 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book was drugery. Parts of it were interesting. A lot of it was theory and seemed to give all sides. On one page the person passed the polygraph, in the next sentence he failed and finally it was inconclusive. Which was it? It was well researched, but take a stand and stick to it.