Hadden Clark
{{Short description|American serial killer}}
{{Infobox serial killer
| alias = The Cross Dressing Cannibal
The Rockville Rocket
| birth_name = Hadden Irving Clark
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|7|31}}
| birth_place = Troy, New York, U.S.
| victims = 2+
| country = United States
| states = Maryland
| beginyear = 1986
| endyear = 1992
| apprehended = November 6, 1992
| conviction = Second degree murder (2 counts)
Robbery
| sentence = 70 years imprisonment
| imprisoned = Eastern Correctional Institution, Westover, Maryland, U.S.
}}
Hadden Irving Clark (born July 31, 1952){{cite web|title=Hadden Clark Prison Record|url=https://www.dpscs.state.md.us/inmate/search.do?searchType=detail&id=678857456|work=Maryland Department of Corrections|access-date=February 20, 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220828080020/https://www.dpscs.state.md.us/inmate/search.do?searchType=detail&id=678857456|archive-date=August 28, 2022}} 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.{{cite web|last=Van Olsen|first=Cora|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/blog/2012/11/20/serial-killer-spotlight-hadden-clark/index.html|title=Serial Killer Spotlight: Hadden Clark|access-date=9 April 2014|date=20 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210070507/http://www.crimelibrary.com/blog/2012/11/20/serial-killer-spotlight-hadden-clark/index.html|archive-date=February 10, 2015|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last1=Curreri|first1=Frank|title=Judge views tape of accused killer's interrogation|url=http://www.gazette.net/gazette_archive/1999/199912/wheaton/news/a43801-1.html|accessdate=25 January 2017|work=www.gazette.net|date=March 17, 1999|ref=gazette|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202042530/http://www.gazette.net/gazette_archive/1999/199912/wheaton/news/a43801-1.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last1=O'Brien|first1=Dennis|title=Suspect charged in 1986 slaying of 6-year-old|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1998/09/24/suspect-charged-in-1986-slaying-of-6-year-old/|access-date=January 25, 2017|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|date=September 24, 1998|ref=baltimoresun1998}}{{cite news|last1=Shaver|first1=Katherine|last2=Duggan|first2=Paul|title=Murder Charge Is Filed In '86 Case of Missing Girl|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/sept99/dorr092498.htm|accessdate=January 25, 2017|work=www.washingtonpost.com|date=24 September 1998|ref=washingtonpost091998}} He was also given a 10-year sentence for robbery after stealing from a former landlord.
==Family==
Clark is the second of four children, and was born and raised in Troy, New York.{{cite web|last=Havill|first=Adrian|title=Hadden Clark|work=Crime Library|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/clark/index_1.html|access-date=April 3, 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023062139/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/clark/index_1.html|archivedate=October 23, 2013|url-status=dead}} In 1964, his brother, Bradfield Clark, strangled a woman in California before eating several body parts.{{cite news|last=Jennings|first=Veronica T.|title=Murder Suspect's 'Lifestyle Is Getting Even'|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=November 15, 1993|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/library/dorr/dorr111592.htm|accessdate=May 2, 2013}}{{cite news|last1=Haworth|first1=Jessica|title=Cannibal killer and his sick brother who killed girl, 6, and drank her blood|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gruesome-catalogue-cannibal-killer-sick-9351062|accessdate=January 25, 2017|work=Daily Mirror|date=November 28, 2016|ref=mirror2016}}{{cite web|title=Search turns to Clark's past|url=http://web.mit.edu/~mkgray/afs/bar/afs/net/user/tytso/usenet/americast/twt/news/857|publisher=AmeriCast.Com|accessdate=January 25, 2017|date=November 14, 1992|quote=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}}{{cite news|last1=West|first1=Dan|last2=Jack|first2=Pippa|title=Bones found are not human remains|url=http://www.blockislandtimes.com/article/bones-found-are-not-human-remains/28271|accessdate=25 January 2017|work=Block Island Times|date=June 9, 2011|ref=blockislandtimes}}
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.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
Clark's mother dressed him in girls' clothes when drunk and called him "Kristen".{{cite news|first=Maria|last=Bovsun|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cross-dressing-cannibal-tops-brother-alleged-slay-12-women-article-1.2888424|title=Jailed 'Cross Dressing Cannibal Serial Killer' tops brother's violent history, claims he slayed at least 12 women|newspaper=The New York Daily News|date=November 26, 2016|accessdate=May 23, 2022}} His father, who is said to have suffered from "manic depression", eventually committed suicide in 1982 .{{Cite news |last=Jennings |first=Veronica T. |title=Family Trouble Plagued Alleged Bethesda Killer |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/11/15/family-trouble-plagued-alleged-bethesda-killer/d26b6dde-bcf9-4f34-83d0-1272ac3f0a37/ |magazine=Washington Post |date=November 14, 1992}}
Clark trained as a chef and served in the United States Navy until he was discharged after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1985. 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.
Murders
On May 31, 1986, Clark was ordered by his brother Geoffrey 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.{{cite web|title=Hadden Clark – Radford University |url=http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Clark,%20Hadden%20_2005_.pdf|author= Mike Aamodt |access-date=April 6, 2024}}
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.{{cite web|title=Crime Stories: Dark Secrets: Hadden Clark|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4525226|website=imdb.com|accessdate=October 29, 2017|date=2002}}{{cite web|last1=Limited|first1=GipsyMedia|title=Dark Secrets - Hadden Clark - Crime Stories|url=https://digiguide.tv/programme/Documentary/Crime-Stories/94531/season-1/episode-0/Dark-Secrets-Hadden-Clark/308583|website=digiguide.tv|accessdate=October 29, 2017}}
Alleged murders
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.{{cite web|title=Lady in the Dunes - COLD CASE|url=http://www.darkvomit.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=236|accessdate=March 12, 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112842/http://www.darkvomit.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=236|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}} 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 28, 2023.{{Cite web |title=Guy Muldavin |url=https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/guy-muldavin-birth-1923-death-2002/14370459 |access-date=2022-11-03 |website=AncientFaces |year=1960 |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior |url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt33081933/?ref_=nm_flmg_tp_t}}
Media
=Books=
- 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.{{cite book|last1=Havill|first1=Adrian|authorlink1=Adrian Havill|title=Born Evil|date=2001|publisher=St. Martin's Paperbacks|location=New York City|isbn=9780312978907|url=https://archive.org/details/bornevil00havi|accessdate=October 29, 2017|url-access=registration}}{{cite web|title=Book Titles by Adrian Havill|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com:80/about/authors/havill/books.html|website=crimelibrary.com|accessdate=October 29, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220223127/http://www.crimelibrary.com/about/authors/havill/books.html|archivedate=February 20, 2007|url-status=dead}}
- 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.{{cite web|author1=Robert Keller|title=Serial Killers: Hadden Clark|url=http://www.robertkellerauthor.com/2015/07/serial-killers-hadden-clark.html|website=robertkellerauthor.com|publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC|accessdate=October 29, 2017|date=March 24, 2013}}{{cite book|last1=Keller|first1=Robert|title=True Crime: American Monsters Vol. 3: 12 Horrific American Serial Killers|date=March 24, 2013|publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC|url=https://www.amazon.ca/True-Crime-American-Monsters-Horrific-ebook/dp/B00C11HCH0|accessdate=October 29, 2017|quote=Hadden Clark: a cross-dressing cannibal who was convicted of two murders, but had a trophy stash that suggested many more|asin=B00C11HCH0}}
=Television=
- 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.{{cite web|title=Born To Kill - Channel 5|url=http://www.channel5.com/show/born-to-kill/|website=Channel 5|publisher=Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd|accessdate=October 29, 2017|date=August 24, 2016|quote=The Cross Dressing Cannibal S3 E6 : Profile of American serial killer Hadden Clark.}}{{cite web|title=Born to Kill: The Cross-Dressing Cannibal|url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/born-to-kill/episode-6-season-4/the-cross-dressing-cannibal/348018|website=TVGuide.com|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc.|accessdate=October 29, 2017|quote=A cross-dresser is accused of two murders in Maryland.}}
- 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.{{cite web|title=Evil, I: Dressed to Kill|url=http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/evil-i/episodes/episode-guide-11.html|website=investigation.discovery.com|publisher=Discovery Communications, LLC.|accessdate=October 29, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802073603/http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/evil-i/episodes/episode-guide-11.html|archivedate=August 2, 2012|quote=When 23-year-old Laura Houghteling goes missing police suspect the family gardener, an eccentric man with a history of cross-dressing.}}{{cite web|title=Evil, I: Dressed to Kill|url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/evil-i/episode-11-season-1/dressed-to-kill/376230/|website=TVGuide.com|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc.|accessdate=October 29, 2017|date=August 3, 2012}}
- Court TV released multiple crime-documentary episodes from different shows covering the Hadden Clark crimes.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
- 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.{{cite web|title=Mugshots: Portrait of a Serial Killer: Hadden Clark|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0928294|website=imdb.com|publisher=Court TV|accessdate=October 29, 2017|date=June 1, 2002}}
- The true crime and on-the-scene police investigation series Crime Stories episode "Dark Secrets: Hadden Clark", aired: 2002.
- The series The Investigators episode "Dark Secrets", aired: 9 September 2002.{{cite web|title=The Investigators|url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-investigators/episode-4526510/198009|website=TVGuide.com|accessdate=October 29, 2017}}{{cite web|title=The Investigators (US) Season 3 Episode 17 - Hadden Clark: Dark Secrets - Watch Series|url=http://www.ewatchseries.ac/episode/the_investigators_us__s3_e17.html|website=ewatchseries.ac|accessdate=October 29, 2017}}{{cite web|title=The Investigators: Dark Secrets|url=http://www.tv.com/shows/the-investigators/dark-secrets-1152501|website=TV.com|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc.|accessdate=October 29, 2017|date=September 9, 2002|archive-date=October 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029174354/http://www.tv.com/shows/the-investigators/dark-secrets-1152501/|url-status=dead}}
- 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.{{cite web|title=Forensic Files - Season 03 (1998)|url=http://crimedocumentary.com/forensic-files-season-3-1998/|website=crimedocumentary.com|accessdate=October 29, 2017}}
- In September 2024, Investigation Discovery aired a seven-episode documentary about Clark.{{cite web |title=Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior (TV Series 2024– ) |url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt33081933 |website=IMDb |access-date=September 16, 2024}}
=Podcasts=
- The Last Podcast on the Left covered Clark in a two-part episode, "Hadden Clark Part I: Mommy's Basement Bakery" and "Hadden Clark Part II: Women's Panties", aired November 2019.[https://www.lastpodcastontheleft.com/episodes/2019/11/2/episode-389-hadden-clark-part-i-mommys-basement-bakery Episode 398 Hadden Clark Part I- Mommy's Basement Bakery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726045943/https://www.lastpodcastontheleft.com/episodes/2019/11/2/episode-389-hadden-clark-part-i-mommys-basement-bakery |date=2020-07-26 }}, lpotl.libsyn.com; accessed July 26, 2020.[https://www.lastpodcastontheleft.com/episodes/2019/11/8/episode-390-hadden-clark-part-ii-womens-panties Hadden Clark Part II- Women's Panties] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726052727/https://www.lastpodcastontheleft.com/episodes/2019/11/8/episode-390-hadden-clark-part-ii-womens-panties |date=2020-07-26 }}, lpotl.libsyn.com; accessed July 26, 2020.
- Small Town Murder covered Clark in episode #573, "Serial Killing Schizophrenic Cannibal – Bethesda, Maryland", aired February 2025.{{cite web |title=Small Town Murder, Episode #573 – Serial Killing Schizophrenic Cannibal – Bethesda, Maryland |url=https://open.spotify.com/episode/1RpJcKvqez9yNPTgHRbVYK |website=Spotify |access-date=4 March 2025 |language=en |date=27 February 2025}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Clark,%20Hadden%20_2005_.pdf Hadden Clark] Profile of Clark. It cites inter alia the Crime Library article cited above, an article at mayhem.net, and Born Evil as sources.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110928011849/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/clark/index_1.html TruTV Crime Library: Hadden Clark]
- [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/library/dorr/dorr1.htm Prime Suspects: The Michele Dorr Story (5 chapters, August 1997)], washingtonpost.com; accessed July 26, 2020.
{{DEFAULTSORT:CLARK, Hadden, Irving}}
Category:American murderers of children
Category:American people convicted of murder
Category:People convicted of murder by Maryland
Category:People from Troy, New York
Category:People with schizophrenia