Origins
The Interesting Case of Dr Sam Sheppard that Sparked an Award Winning Movie
The story at the heart of The Fugitive.
Many people remember the line from the 1993 film The Fugitive, Our fugitive’s name is Dr Richard Kimble. Go get him. Very few people may realise that the story bears a remarkable resemblance to Dr Sam Sheppard’s real case.
In the film, Harrison Ford’s character is wrongly accused of killing his wife. The killer is a one-armed man, an outstanding feature. In the case of Sheppard, the man was bushy-haired, another distinguishing feature.
Dr Sam Sheppard
Sheppard was born on 29th December 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a doctor, and he came from a good family. He was described as intelligent and athletic. Having been offered several scholarships for his sporting prowess, he followed his father into medicine. Sheppard enrolled in university to become an Osteopathic Physician; different from an Osteopath, a physician in this field can operate and prescribe medication.
In 1945, he obtained his degree and married his childhood sweetheart Marilyn. He stayed in Los Angeles to practise medicine until 1951, when he returned to work in his father’s practice. The practice was in Bay Village, Ohio, and…
