Ralph J. Perk

In 1976 the mayor of Cleveland was Ralph Joseph Perk (January 19, 1914 – April 21, 1999) who once famously set his own hair on fire.

Mayor Perk banned Playboy magazine from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. He also banished chewing gum from the facility. He spearheaded a major expansion of the airport, and the creation of the Regional Transit Authority (RTA.)

The Mayor's wife, Lucille Perk, turned down a dinner invitation from First Lady Pat Nixon because it was her bowling night.

Ralph J. Perk won the Republican nomination for Mayor in 1971 against George Voinovich, and upon his election became the first Republican mayor of Cleveland in 30 years. Perk served three two-year terms before losing to Kucinich in 1977.

Perk ran for Senate in 1974 but lost to John Glenn, who then held the seat for a quarter century.

He declared May 6, 1974 as Jesse Owens Day.

He presided over the dedication of Aviation High School on Sept. 1, 1974.

Ralph J. Perk was against women's reproductive freedom, handgun restrictions, and draft amnesty. Perk was also for Nixon before he was against him.

Amusingly, for his 62nd birthday political fundraiser party on January 17, 1976 the theme is the musical Hair. (Get it?)

Perk also appointed Richard Eberling to chair a committee to redecorate City Hall. Eberling was soon convicted of petty thievery, and later of murder. Eberling is also the prime suspect, according to the son of Sam Sheppard, as the true murderer Marilyn Sheppard.


Have you seen the video?
Perk Plaza, named for the mayor, sits at the corner of East 12th and Chester, across the street from the always exciting Reserve Square apartments. It's plain, concrete-slab walls, hiding large parts of the part from street view, are a typical example of late 70s design and short-sightedness and after a fatal shooting in early 2009, plans were quickly made to finally give the place a renovation.


Perk Plaza at Chester Commons was officially reopened at a ribbon-ccuting ceremony on November 21, 2011.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Cleveland Memory Project

Chip Sheppard

Samuel Reese "Chip" Sheppard (b. May 18, 1947) was sleeping in the next room when his mother was savagely bludgeoned to death. It happened some time before 5:50 in the morning, when his father called the neighbors over to the house. It was Independence Day.

Sometime before 7 AM young Chip was taken from the house by his Uncle Richard while police officers, neighbors and journalists invade his home, touching and looking into everything they own. All this seven year-old boy was told was that his mother had "gone to be with the angels."

His father had been injured, his mother was dead. Due to extensive publicity, the boy would not be allowed to attend his mother's funeral three days later.

Happy birthday, Chip.

Sources:
PBS.org
Sam Reese Sheppard: Seeking The Truth

Sam Sheppard

Let's dig right in, shall we?

Dr. Samuel Holmes Sheppard (December 29, 1923 – April 6, 1970) was an osteopath who lived in Bay Village, Ohio, my hometown.

The end, moving on.

*Big sigh.*

Okay, let's try again.

Dr. Samuel Holmes Sheppard (December 29, 1923 – April 6, 1970) was an osteopath, living in Bay Village, Ohio. He was married to Marilyn Reese Sheppard, mother to their son, Sam, whom they called Chip.

In the early morning on July 4, 1954 Marilyn was brutally murdered in their lakefront home. Sheppard gave conflicting reports about the events in question, claiming he had seen a "bushy-haired intruder" assaulting her, with whom he got into a fight and was knocked out. Pursuing the assailant to the beach, he was struck unconscious again.

The trail of Sam Sheppard for the murder of his wife ... Jesus, I can't even write this, everybody knows this story. The Fugutive, The Cleveland Press, Louis Seltzer, F. Lee Bailey, it makes my head hurt.

How's this ... the made-for-TV movie Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case was released on November 17, 1975 starring George Peppard as Dr. Sam. Someone in my family watched it. It couldn't have been my father - he had absolutely no interest in this case, the man was guilty, full stop. It was probably Denny, who was in eighth grade. In any event, I took in this horrid story, told in the form of a horrid TV movie, at the tender age of seven. My daughter is seven.


So, since the second grade I have been aware of this gruesome tale, of what the word "bludgeon" means, to know that justice does not exist, that truth can be unknown, what the 46 year-old George Peppard looked like without a shirt ... a child does not need to know these things.

And to think that it happened in my home town.