He was a doctorprotagonist of one of the more media judgments of the twentieth century, Professional fighter For a brief period … and The man who devised One of the most iconic wrestling keys: The commandible Claw. We talk about Sam Sheppardwho inspired the 1993 film The fugitive starring Harrison Ford.
► Sam Sheppard's unusual story
In 1954, the doctor in surgery Sam Sheppard was accused of Brutally kill his wife Marilyn Reese at his home in Ohio. Although he claimed to be innocent, He was convicted. The sentence made him a public figure hated, until more than a decade later, he was acquitted In a new trial after demonstrating that his first process had been unfair.
Despite this, Sheppard was left without a license to continue exercising medicine and her reputation was destroyed. So, found an unlikely path: professional wrestling. He did it by the hand of who his friend was and later became his father -in -law, George Strickland; Shortly before they died at age 40 as a result of his alcohol addiction, he had married Colleen Strickland.
In 1969, Sheppard debuted as a fighter with Strickland. Taking advantage of the accompanying controversy, they promoted him as “the doctor who survived justice” or “the doctor who beat the system” and used his judicial history as part of the character. He would fight in territories of the National Wrestling Alliance mainly in Ohio, sharing the ring with recognizable fighters such as The Assassins, Don Carson or The Magnificent Maurice.
He did not have a long career in the quadrilaterals but still left his mark. Thanks to his medical training, Sheppard spoke of a pressure point under the tongue and in the jaw that could immobilize a person. This anatomical theory is considered the conceptual basis of the commandible Clawthe surrender key that Mick Foley would popularize worldwide. Originally, it was called Mandibular Nerve Pinch.
His life and trajectory in the pro wrestling They touched their death in an end with their death in 1970. Despite the brief and strange of their passage through the world and the wrestling, the figure of Sam Sheppard remains one of the most unusual that have crossed the border between real life and the embeddies, where his influence lives discreetly, but with historical weight.
