The life of surgeon and cancer researcher, Mary Sherman, was one of careful attention to academics and work. Yet, her 1964 murder remains a mystery, with evidence suggesting a strange, brutal, and chaotic end to her life.

She was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Walter Allen Stults and Monica Graham. Upon graduating from Evanston Township High School, she enrolled at the Institute de Mme Collnot in Paris, France. Later, she returned to the United States to earn a bachelor of arts from Northwestern University. Shortly thereafter she earned a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago.

Important to her later career, the University of Chicago was, at that time, renowned as the American headquarters for nuclear, bio-chemical, and genetic research. Following those first years of higher education, she became an instructor at the University of Illinois French Institute in Paris. After two years of teaching she returned to graduate school, earning a medical degree from the University of Chicago. She conducted her medical internship at Bob Roberts Hospital, also in Chicago.

Within a few years, she was appointed assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Billings Hospital, also connected to the University of Chicago. At this point, she had a long and successful academic career ahead of her. However, in 1947, she accepted a position as director of the bone pathology laboratory at The Ochsner Clinic Medical Foundation. Founded by famed surgeon Alton Ochsner, the New Orleans-based facility was considered prestigious. The following year she switched back to teaching, as an associate professor at Tulane University Medical School, also in New Orleans. Specializing in cancer research, she also served as the senior visiting orthapedic surgeon at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Other professional and academic accolades included membership in the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Her precise, highly successful life and career stands in stark contrast to her murder. Sometime during the early hours of July 21, 1964, Mary Sherman was found dead in her apartment on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. According to the autopsy, her right arm and rib cage appeared to have been burned away and were missing. However, the rest of her body was unburned. The body had been stabbed several times in the heart, liver, arm, leg, and stomach. The autopsy indicated the stab to her heart was the cause of death. While a small fire had been started in her apartment, resulting in a scorched mattress and burned underwear, police determined that the severe burns she sustained could not have occurred in her apartment. Speculation regarding Sherman's death continues today, particularly theories including a possible connection to events leading up to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.