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Hadden Clark

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Hadden Clark
Born
Hadden Irving Clark

(1952-07-31) July 31, 1952 (age 72)
Troy, New York, U.S.
Other namesThe Cross Dressing Cannibal
The Rockville Rocket
Conviction(s)Murder (2 counts)
Robbery
Criminal penalty70 years in prison
Details
Victims2+
Span of crimes
1986–1992
CountryUnited States
State(s)Maryland
Date apprehended
November 6, 1992
Imprisoned atEastern Correctional Institution, Westover, Maryland, U.S.

Hadden Irving Clark (born July 31, 1952)[1] is an American murderer and suspected serial killer currently serving two 30-year sentences for the murders of 6-year-old Michele Lee Dorr in 1986, and 23-year-old Laura Houghteling in 1992.[2][3][4][5][6] He was also given a 10-year sentence for robbery after stealing from a former landlord.[3]

Family

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Clark is the second of four children, and was born and raised in Troy, New York.[3] His brother, Bradfield Clark, strangled a woman in California before eating several body parts.[7][8][9][10]

While by all appearances an affluent and happy family to outsiders, Clark's parents were both alcoholics and often fought with each other in front of their children. Clark's father having a PhD in chemistry worked for many different companies but unhappy with his pay he often changed jobs which meant that the family moved frequently. As a teenager, Clark tortured and killed animals owned by children who bullied him.[citation needed]

Clark's mother dressed him in girls' clothes when drunk and called him "Kristen".[11] His father who is said to have suffered from "manic depression" eventually committed suicide in 1982 .[12]

Clark trained as a chef and served in the United States Navy until he was discharged after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1985[12]. Over the years, he held a number of menial jobs but was mostly homeless. Clark was arrested multiple times for theft and retaliation. He was arrested for robbery after he vandalized a former landlord's property and committed several thefts.[11]

Murders

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On May 31, 1986, Clark was ordered by his brother to move out of the latter's home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Michele Dorr, a six-year-old friend of his niece, came over looking for her. Clark took Michele to an upstairs room and slashed her throat with a chef knife. Clark then attempted to sexually assault her corpse, drank some of her blood, ate a piece of her flesh, and stuffed her in a duffel bag. He buried her in a park 12 miles away.[11][13]

On October 18, 1992, he killed 23-year-old Laura Houghteling in Bethesda, Maryland. Clark was working as a gardener for Laura's mother Penny when she accused Clark of stealing tools from her backyard shed. Clark entered the house through the back door and stabbed Laura to death in her bedroom with a kitchen knife and suffocated her with a pillow. He carried her body in a bedsheet through a wooded area and buried her a half-mile away. He left behind a pillowcase with his fingerprint as he moved the body. He later returned and dressed up in a wig and women's clothes and left through the front door to make people think Laura left the house alive to buy time to clean the scene. Police soon discovered the bloody pillow and linked the print on it to Clark. Clark confessed and led police to Laura's body eight months after the murder. Police began looking at him for Dorr's murder after discovering he lived two houses down from Dorr's father at the time she disappeared. Police later tested his brother's old house for blood and found Dorr's blood in the wooden floorboards of an upstairs bedroom. Clark later led police to her body in January 2000.[14][15]

Alleged murders

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Clark has confessed to murdering dozens of people starting as a teenager. In 2004, he sent a letter claiming he had killed a then-unidentified woman on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1974 known as "Lady of the Dunes". Clark explained that he had buried evidence from the crime in his grandfather's garden and that he knew the woman's identity but was not going to tell authorities because he claimed they mistreated him. As he has paranoid schizophrenia, police doubt the accuracy of the confession.[16] The decedent was identified in 2022 as Ruth Marie Terry, who was married at the time of her death to Guy Rockwall Muldavin, who was identified as her killer on August 28th, 2023.[17] Clark led police on December 15, 2000, to his grandparents' former property where they discovered a plastic bucket with more than 200 pieces of jewelry. Among the items were Laura Houghteling's high school class ring. He claimed the items were "trophies" he took from his victims.[14][15][18]

Media

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Books

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  • Author Adrian Havill's book Born Evil: A True Story of Cannibalism and Sexual Murder (2001) is a true crime story of Hadden Clark's crimes.[19][20]
  • Author Robert Keller's book True Crime: American Monsters Volume 3: 12 Horrific American Serial Killers (2013) one of the 12 murderers reported on in the book is Hadden Clark. The author focuses on Clark's cross-dressing cannibalism and his stash of mementos suggesting there are more victims.[21][22]

Television

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  • The Channel 5 (UK) series Born to Kill episode aired: 17 September 2013, reports on Clark's formative years and their impact on his adult criminal behavior.[23][24]
  • The Investigation Discovery network series Evil, I season 5 episode 32, "Dressed to Kill", aired August 3, 2012, reports on Houghteling's disappearance and law enforcement suspects the family gardener Clark is responsible. When police search his storage shed they discover evidence tying him to her death.[25][26]
  • Court TV released multiple crime-documentary episodes from different shows covering the Hadden Clark crimes.[citation needed]
  • Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 25: "Dressed to Kill", aired March 29, 2003, covers Michele Lee Dorr's case. Her dad is mentally traumatized by his daughter's passing and provides detectives with a false confession. However further investigation uncovers evidence leading to the real killer.
  • The series Mugshots episode "Portrait of a Serial Killer: Hadden Clark", aired June 1, 2002.[27]
  • The true crime and on-the-scene police investigation series Crime Stories episode "Dark Secrets: Hadden Clark", aired: 2002.[14][15]
  • The series The Investigators episode "Dark Secrets", aired: 9 September 2002.[28][29][30]
  • Forensic Files - Season 3, Episode 9: "Beaten by a Hair", aired: November 26, 1998, covers Laura Houghteling's disappearance. Police find the victim's hair brush with 30 hairs, one of which was artificial and did not belong to Laura. The artificial hair, along with other forensic evidence, directly tied Clark to her death.[31]
  • In September 2024, Investigation Discovery aired a seven-episode documentary about Clark.[32]

Podcasts

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  • Two-part series The Last Podcast on the Left episodes "Hadden Clark Part I- Mommy's Basement Bakery" and "Hadden Clark Part II- Women's Panties", aired: November 2019.[33][34]
  • Episode 65 of Radio Rental contains a first hand account of an elementary student's encounter with Clark

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Hadden Clark Prison Record". Maryland Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  2. ^ Van Olsen, Cora (20 November 2012). "Serial Killer Spotlight: Hadden Clark". Archived from the original on February 10, 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Havill, Adrian. "Hadden Clark". Crime Library. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  4. ^ Curreri, Frank (March 17, 1999). "Judge views tape of accused killer's interrogation". www.gazette.net. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  5. ^ O'Brien, Dennis (September 24, 1998). "Suspect charged in 1986 slaying of 6-year-old". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  6. ^ Shaver, Katherine; Duggan, Paul (24 September 1998). "Murder Charge Is Filed In '86 Case of Missing Girl". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  7. ^ Jennings, Veronica T. (November 15, 1993). "Murder Suspect's 'Lifestyle Is Getting Even'". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  8. ^ Haworth, Jessica (November 28, 2016). "Cannibal killer and his sick brother who killed girl, 6, and drank her blood". Daily Mirror. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  9. ^ "Search turns to Clark's past". AmeriCast.Com. November 14, 1992. Retrieved January 25, 2017. Bradfield Clark pleaded guilty in June 1985 to one count of second-degree murder and one count of mutilation of human remains in the July 23, 1984
  10. ^ West, Dan; Jack, Pippa (June 9, 2011). "Bones found are not human remains". Block Island Times. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Bovsun, Maria (November 26, 2016). "Jailed 'Cross Dressing Cannibal Serial Killer' tops brother's violent history, claims he slayed at least 12 women". The New York Daily News. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
  12. ^ a b Jennings, Veronica T. (November 14, 1992). "Family Trouble Plagued Alleged Bethesda Killer". Washington Post.
  13. ^ Mike Aamodt. "Hadden Clark – Radford University" (PDF). Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  14. ^ a b c "Crime Stories: Dark Secrets: Hadden Clark". imdb.com. 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  15. ^ a b c Limited, GipsyMedia. "Dark Secrets - Hadden Clark - Crime Stories". digiguide.tv. Retrieved October 29, 2017. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ "Lady in the Dunes - COLD CASE". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  17. ^ "Guy Muldavin". AncientFaces. 1960. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  18. ^ "Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior".
  19. ^ Havill, Adrian (2001). Born Evil. New York City: St. Martin's Paperbacks. ISBN 9780312978907. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  20. ^ "Book Titles by Adrian Havill". crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2007. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  21. ^ Robert Keller (March 24, 2013). "Serial Killers: Hadden Clark". robertkellerauthor.com. Amazon Digital Services LLC. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  22. ^ Keller, Robert (March 24, 2013). True Crime: American Monsters Vol. 3: 12 Horrific American Serial Killers. Amazon Digital Services LLC. ASIN B00C11HCH0. Retrieved October 29, 2017. Hadden Clark: a cross-dressing cannibal who was convicted of two murders, but had a trophy stash that suggested many more
  23. ^ "Born To Kill - Channel 5". Channel 5. Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd. August 24, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2017. The Cross Dressing Cannibal S3 E6 : Profile of American serial killer Hadden Clark.
  24. ^ "Born to Kill: The Cross-Dressing Cannibal". TVGuide.com. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved October 29, 2017. A cross-dresser is accused of two murders in Maryland.
  25. ^ "Evil, I: Dressed to Kill". investigation.discovery.com. Discovery Communications, LLC. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2017. When 23-year-old Laura Houghteling goes missing police suspect the family gardener, an eccentric man with a history of cross-dressing.
  26. ^ "Evil, I: Dressed to Kill". TVGuide.com. CBS Interactive Inc. August 3, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  27. ^ "Mugshots: Portrait of a Serial Killer: Hadden Clark". imdb.com. Court TV. June 1, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  28. ^ "The Investigators". TVGuide.com. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  29. ^ "The Investigators (US) Season 3 Episode 17 - Hadden Clark: Dark Secrets - Watch Series". ewatchseries.ac. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  30. ^ "The Investigators: Dark Secrets". TV.com. CBS Interactive Inc. September 9, 2002. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  31. ^ "Forensic Files - Season 03 (1998)". crimedocumentary.com. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  32. ^ "Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior (TV Series 2024– )". IMDb. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  33. ^ Episode 398 Hadden Clark Part I- Mommy's Basement Bakery Archived 2020-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, lpotl.libsyn.com; accessed July 26, 2020.
  34. ^ Hadden Clark Part II- Women's Panties Archived 2020-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, lpotl.libsyn.com; accessed July 26, 2020.
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