Hadden Clark | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hadden Irving Clark July 31, 1952 Troy, New York, U.S. |
| Other names | The Cross Dressing Cannibal The Rockville Rocket |
| Conviction(s) | Murder, Robbery |
| Criminal penalty | 70 years in prison |
| Details | |
| Victims | 2+ |
Span of crimes | 1986–1992 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Maryland |
Date apprehended | November 6, 1992 |
| Imprisoned at | Eastern Correctional Institution, Westover, Maryland, U.S. |
Hadden Irving Clark (born July 31, 1952)[1] is an American veteran, murderer and suspected serial killer, currently serving two 30-year sentences at Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, Maryland 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]
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]
Clark's parents were both alcoholics and often fought with each other in front of their children. Clark's mother dressed him in girls' clothes when drunk.[11] His father eventually committed suicide. As a teenager, Clark tortured and killed animals owned by children who bullied him.[12]
Clark trained as a chef and served in the United States Navy until he was discharged after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 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]
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 her up to an upstairs room and stabbed Michele to death. Clark then drank some of her blood and stuffed her in a duffel bag. He buried her in a park 12 miles away.[11]
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 pillow 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.[13][14]
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 in 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.[15] The decedent was identified in 2022 as Ruth Marie Terry, who was married at the time of her death to Guy Rockwall Muldavin, who is considered a person of interest in Terry's death as well as multiple others.[16] 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.[13][14]