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(Indicate page, name of [newspaper, city and state.] E1 The Plain Dealer (Mount Clipping in Space Below) CleveIand, Oh Date: 11/23/82 Edition: Character: or 62D-2664 Classification: Submitting Otfice: CV Tool may be Indexing: Sheppard weapon By John P. Coyne !I However, "It could have been put there preliminary (xamination by the Cuyahog 28 years ago or it might have. .More .than 28 years after! Jounty coroner's office matche. been there only a few years," he Marilyn R. Sheppard was bludg-j the tool to some of the 35 blows said, adding it could have been! eoned to death in her Bay Village to the head and body which killed planted in the yard by a publicity home, law enforcement officials Marilyn Sheppard near daybreak seeker. said they might have uncovered July 4, 1954, Gray said. The find came just days after .the long-missing murder weapon. "Some of the blows would be a movie, "Guilty or Innocent: The ?. . Bay Village Police Chief Peter consistent with the object wq Sam Sheppard Murder Case," was .J. Gray yesterday confirmed a fpund,..while some.others..would re-run on television here depicting tool was found, buried five inches hot be," Gray said, speculatin! the life of the man known as Dr. deep in a yard near the Sheppards Ithat two weapons could have been Sam, who was convicted of the former lakefront home, 28924 used. murder in a dramatic trial five .Lake Rd. He cautioned that officials have months after his wife's death. The neighbor who unearthed the not yet determined if the tool had He was freed 10 years later in find gave it to Gray Friday, set! been manufactured at the time a' complicated round of appeals. Jting off new inquiries into Greater Marilyn Sheppard, 31 and four Two years Iater, in 1966, the U.S. Cleveland's most publicized slay. months pregnant, was killed. Supreme Court, citing extensive, ing, which led to the conviction "We have to get positive iden. prejudicial publicity, reversed his and Iater acquittal of the victim's conviction. A new trial found him tification on it and go from there, husband, Dr. Samuel H. not guilty: Sheppard died in 1970 Gray said. Sheppard. 'at age 46:. Two FBI agents took the in- "I don't know if it has anything i strument to the FBI laboratoryy Gray said the weapon always to do with the Marilyn Sheppard had been a loose end in the in Quantico, Va., where agents will . case," Gray said. "Over the years investigation. He said police got, there have been many, many phone calls offering tips whenever! 1 COMMISSIONERS things turned in that could bav. the movie was shown. None has wade been potential weapons.. checked for fingerprints, he's turned up any new evidence, he! This may or may not be the It was .not known how long the said. . tool had been buried, but Gray ' Coroner Samuel R. Gerber, who jaid the coroner's office' found offered key testimony in both of he said. Gray would not descrite oot fibers attached to it, indicat! Sheppard's trials, declined to dis. the find except to call it a "to Ing it had been underground fof ,cuss the Iatest findings. Mary .E. Tof sorts." He also would not iden- - 'at least several years. Cowan, senior medical technglo. tify who found it. gist, who worked on the original Jicase, examined the tool but would not comment about it. ... BI/DOJ