Dr. Sam Sheppard: The Story of a Woman's Savage Murder Which Inspired 'The Fugitive' (FPD CASE VAULT)

This case inspired the hit TV series and blockbuster film The Fugitive, but nearly six decades after the brutal murder of Marilyn Sheppard, it remains one of the 20th century's most infamous unsolved murders.

On July 4, 1954, beautiful, pregnant 31-year-old Marilyn was in the bedroom of the family's Bay Village, Ohio, home. Her husband Dr. Sam Sheppard, a successful osteopathic surgeon, had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. Their 7-year-old son Samuel was asleep in his room down the hall.

But the peace was shattered by Marilyn's piercing screams.

The doctor told cops he rushed upstairs, where he was briefly knocked unconscious by a shadowy bushy-haired intruder, who became the basis for the mysterious one-armed man in the TV series The Fugitive starring David Janssen and the movie starring Harrison Ford.

After he came around, Sheppard found Marilyn lying on a blood-spattered bed, her pajama top pulled below her breasts and bottoms down around her knees. She was savagely struck a whopping 35 times with a heavy object. Her hubby called police to the crime scene.

He was arrested after public outcry over his refusal to take a lie detector test.

At the sensational murder trial, prosecutors painted him as a cheating husband who desperately wanted out of his marriage.

In December 1954, Sheppard was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He served a decade behind bars before courtroom legend F. Lee Bailey convinced the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.

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He was acquitted in a new trial in 1966.

After his release, he embarked on a short stint as a professional wrestler known as Killer Sheppard. He lapsed into drug abuse and alcoholism. He died nearly penniless in 1970 at age 46 of liver disease.

No one else has ever been charged with Marilyn's murder.