the Sheppards

Marilyn Reese-Sheppard, her unborn son, and the ashes of her husband are in a Mayfield Hts. mausoleum.

Is there a locale in this country that does not have a famous murder? In the 1930s Cleveland had a serial killer with many similarities with London's 'Jack-the-Ripper', Kingsbury Run, or Torso murderer. Elliot Ness did not have the evidence to arrest the politically connected doctor, who murdered street people. The doctor admitted himself to a mental hospital, in state but well out of town. I would wager that the most interesting is the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, which the political community (both parties) and establishment pinned on her physician husband (peculiarly he was often pointed out to be an osteopath).

She was beaten to death in the early morning of Independence Day 1954, at home in the suburb of Bay Village. Immediately the Cleveland Police, and the editor of the Cleveland Press insisted that her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard was the killer. The story did not stop. The trial was a national media circus. Soon after the verdict of guilty, Dr. Sheppard's mother shot herself, his father died a few days later. Marilyn's father years later would also use a gun for suicide.

Official Cleveland has always maintained (they made a campaign of it) the doctor's guilt. Much of the country did not think so. The remarkable television show, "The Fugitive" (120 episodes, 1963-1967), was partially based on Doctor Sam, though denied. In 1964 it is ruled that the trial was unfair, and he is freed. In 1966 there is a second trial, and he is not found guilty. When i grew up, most people did not like Dr. Sam Sheppard, and considered him guilty. F. Lee Bailey won the argument 8-1 before the Supreme Court,  Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333 (1966), that Sheppard did not receive due process. Many people, here, did not like Bailey.

The tale has more acts. Sam Sheppard marries an in-law of Goebbels, the nazi propagandist. Dr. Sam becomes a professional wrestler, and marries the daughter of his coach and partner.

Years earlier, the family hired a forensic biochemist. Paul Kirk examined blood splatter evidence to prove a man other than Sheppard was the killer. Sheppard was arrested without blood, the killer had to have been bloodied. In 1989 Richard Eberling [click] is found guilty of murdering another woman. The Sheppards' son, Sam Reese Sheppard, found the murderer of his mother. It was Eberling, a serial murderer, thief, interior decorator.

videre:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/chronology.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2613sheppard.html

masons and catholics in the same building

 32°

 33°

 St. Anthony of Padua and Lisbon

section with several masonic emblems (male and female), many from the 1950s

 after All Saints and All Souls

These crypts have some Catholic dead entombed. Mayfield area has many Italians, and certainly not all are Catholics, but the tendency is there; and for many ethnic Catholics there are grave visits at the beginning of November. In sections of the mausoleum where there are many masonic emblems on the crypt marble, the decorations are absent. 

O Signore, fa' di me uno strumento della tua pace!

O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

This packet has a picture of Padre Pio, and the beginning of the Prayer of St. Francis in Italian, and a rosary.

Tiffany in the mausoleum

Knollwood Cemetery Mayfield Heights Ohio is a well landscaped graveyard. It has a very large mausoleum, with white marble. It has a lower, and upper floor. The upper floor, especially, has museum quality stained glass. In most of the alcoves there is artful glass; some decorative in design, and some in figure image. One can see some of these have been grouped, others must have been client selected. A few windows are still clear. The manufactures are not listed on most of the windows, though some are: Willet of Philadelphia, Westminster of New York City, and these christian tri-partite windows (at the end of halls) by Tiffany. All have quotes from the King James Version (KJV) of Scripture.

He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. — Matthew 28.6. 

 The spirit shall return unto God who gave it. — Ecclesiastes 12:7.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. — Matthew 11:28.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. — Psalm 42:1.

Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people — 1 Kings 8:56.

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some were abbreviated, here are all five complete:

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay .

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest .

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

birds at erie street

I have been checking a bird watchers' page on daily sightings [click].  There are many sparrow sized birds, and if they are active in fidgeting movement, it is not always easy to get a clear glimpse, nor a foto snap. A few of the recent postings concerns a clay colored sparrow at Erie Street Cemetery Cleveland. How big a deal is this amongst local birders, i don't know. 

Well, that cemetery is directly opposite the Cleveland Indians ball park. Now, this is the oldest extant cemetery in the city. Early last century the street which it sits on was re-named, 'East Ninth'. Also, this is one of the streets that has been in the process of resurfacing, this year; as are several nearby streets, and the big innerbelt highway bridge.

Wednesday, i got around to visit again. That night Cleveland was to host a playoff game with Tampa Bay. Also, the gate house to the cemetery was being put up again, after disassembly.

The cemetery is a green island in this part of downtown Cleveland, that has various trees and shrubbery, and regular grass cutting. The care of the gravestones and grounds is uneven. Bums overnight under the greenery, and next to walls. They leave debris. What looked like, to me, a raccoon skeleton is weathering away.

Infra, are a few of the fotos i took. I also took pictures of branches, and patches that had a bird or birds in that spot a second or two before; and what i thought was the subject for the camera to focus upon, was not always what the camera decided upon. Please correct any misidentified birds. I am posting this on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who famously spoke to birds.

 gray catbird

 acadian flycatcher

white throated sparrow

little lamb

at Wellington's Greenwood Cemetery

In the late XIXth century many marble lambs were placed on children's graves. Most to-day are indistinguishable lumps, they have eroded smooth. After a time, the lambs went out of fashion. This one, is not of marble, and late in the time frame.

woodland woodchuck

this dusty fellow just popped up in his hole

where think you doth said woodchuck reside?

in a burrow to the left and fore of this building

Quoting Camus

Albert Camus was the great French existentialist, and the most important writer in the modern age in French, and maybe any language. He, himself, was not interested in death memorials. He is very quotable, and people may pick up a sentence of his without knowing it was from him.

O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.  — Return to Tipasa (1952)

« Au milieu de l'hiver j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été. »

translation found in 1960s English anthologies:
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.