Edward J. Blythin

Edward Blythin (October 10, 1884 – February 14, 1958) was an American politician and jurist of the Republican party who served as the 46th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.

Life and career Blythin was born October 10, 1884, in the small village of Newmarket in Flintshire, Wales, United Kingdom. His father was a farmer. Relatively well-educated, he became a bookkeeper for a coal company in Wales. His stewardship of the trial was later overturned by the United States Supreme Court, which termed the trial "a Roman Holiday." In 1964, years after Blythin’s death, network television personality and newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen announced at the Overseas Press Club in New York that in a private conference just prior to the start of jury selection for Sheppard’s trial, Blythin had told her he believed Sheppard was guilty. According to statements made by Blythin’s friends and family members years after he died, this private conference never occurred and was Kilgallen’s retaliation for the judge admonishing her for allegedly having shown up late and disrupted the court proceedings. However, the appellate record contains affidavits signed by others, including court clerk Edward Murray, who claimed to have heard Judge Blythin make statements, before jury selection started, that were similar to the statement Kilgallen claimed to have heard.

Personal life and death Blythin married Jane Rankin on April 3, 1913, and they had five children, Robert, Arthur, Glen, Jane, and William.

Judge Blythin suffered a severe heart attack at his home in Parma Heights, Ohio, on February 12, 1958. He was admitted to Lutheran Hospital in Cleveland, where he suffered a second heart attack and died on February 14. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.