Kirk's testimony played a pivotal role in Sheppard's retrial, as did the efforts of defense attorney and courtroom braggart F. After doing his own assessment, he concluded that Sheppard couldn't have caused the bloodstains observed at the crime scene, adding credence to Sheppard's intruder story.
Kirk was one of the trailblazers in blood splatter analysis and lent his expertise to the Sheppard case. But according to a PBS Nova broadcast, those inscrutable death flecks took on real meaning when viewed by scientists like Paul Kirk. In the mid-1950s, bloodstain patterns generally had the analytical usefulness of Jackson Pollock paintings. Throughout the case, pathologically bad reporting seemed to play just as big a role as the actual evidence, if not more so.įorensic technology was also advancing. Another prompted the coroner to make an inquest. One editorial practically dared authorities to arrest Sheppard, which they did the same night it was published. Reporters conducted themselves like schoolyard instigators egging on a fight. The untoward onslaught tainted not just the jury, but the criminal investigation. They might as well have written that the killer's name rhymed with "Ham Leopard." They even altered an image from the crime scene, as the judge described, "to show more clearly an alleged imprint of a surgical instrument" on a bloody pillow. Journalists didn't just recount testimony they repurposed it to fit a nefarious narrative. Newspapers falsely claimed that Sheppard had fathered a child with a prison inmate and portrayed him as a Hyde in Jekyll's clothing. A judge would later abjure that abhorrent reporting, citing an avalanche of spurious accusations and speculations.