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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:01:45
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with plans for the future I guess they're futuristic plans
00:01:53
here is the captain yeah call me Captain McFly it's good to be seen it's good to
00:01:58
see you thanks for listening thanks for Tom [Music] FR today we are casually sipping on Gray
00:02:09
Monday that's right you can kick those Monday blues with gray Monday this is an imperial stout featuring Oregon grown
00:02:16
hazelnuts toasty and nutty flavors play off bold yet smooth complexity in this Bourbon Barrel AED Imperial Stout garage
00:02:26
grade four and a qu bottle caps out of five and let's give some praise and thank you to our friends that helped us
00:02:33
out with this week's beer run first up a big cheers and a Ron Swanson please and
00:02:39
thank you goes out to mark from London London United Kingdom and big shout out to Fiona and kill D Ireland here's the
00:02:47
cheers to Dawn and San Diego California Stay classy and a big shout out to Margaret and Lancing Michigan next up we
00:02:55
have a cheers to Jolene in Omaha Nebraska and last but certainly not least we have Trager in northern Alaska
00:03:04
everyone we just mentioned went to truecrime garage.com and they helped us out with this week's beer fun yeah
00:03:11
BW beer Ron Jolene Jolene Jolene Jolene Jolene donated to the Beer fun and she's cooler than you are and that
00:03:23
is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's let's talk some true
00:03:32
[Music] crime immediately after the arrest of 17-year-old Joseph Clark in the the
00:03:59
rescue of 13-year-old Thaddius Phillips we have Joe in jail waiting to be charged we have Thad in the hospital
00:04:08
undergoing multiple surgeries and as far as what was being released to the public
00:04:13
early on there were just mostly small details coming from thad's father Dawn as he answered reporters questions while
00:04:21
pretty much living at the hospital for days while doctors and nurses worked to repair his boy Don told reporters that
00:04:29
neither he NORAD knew the boy Joe Clark prior to this incident so we can rule out any kind of personal motive for the
00:04:35
abduction and the harm caused to Thad Don told reporters that thad's captor brutalized and tortured the boy in the
00:04:44
form of beatings that involved Joe choking punching as well as twisting The Boy's ankles and legs and jumping up and
00:04:52
down on thad's legs according to Dawn Joe told Thad that he had kidnapped the boy because he liked busting people's
00:05:01
bones and that he had done this type of thing before to other victims now all kinds of interesting details will come
00:05:09
out at the trial but the trial won't take place until the second half of 1996 right now on our timeline we are in
00:05:19
the early part of August 1995 so almost exactly 26 years ago to this day but before we get to the trial
00:05:30
let's talk more about this arrest because Joe after he is arrested he actually confesses to the police well
00:05:40
sort of so he admits that he brought Thad to his house but says it was for the purposes of just hanging out he
00:05:50
tells detectives that he does not remember assaulting that Joe says he and this is his words quote blinked out for
00:06:00
a while and when he came to Thad was lying on the floor belly aing about his legs Joe says he thought Thad would
00:06:09
eventually die from the injuries so the way I take it is this his general statement is he does not know how the
00:06:19
13-year-old Thad received these injuries Thad tells Joe that he did that to Thad
00:06:27
and Joe says he tried to help the kid but again did think that Thad would eventually die from these injuries so he
00:06:36
says he tried to help Thad but at the same time it doesn't look like he was willing to let him go yeah but if you're
00:06:44
inviting somebody over to hang out quote unquote like Joe's saying you don't abduct them from their house and then on
00:06:54
top of that This Blink out mhm you blinked out for 43 hours as you tortured this kid Joe Clark sounds like an animal
00:07:06
well a monster really I mean to call him an animal is disrespectful to our our friends the animals animals but no of
00:07:15
course what you're going to have here Captain is you're going to get two very different stories and of course Joe is
00:07:20
going to have to admit to something because they find the victim in his home yeah it's a little hard to say hey I
00:07:29
didn't at least do something or have some part in this and so we've seen this it's very typical behavior of any of the
00:07:39
other Psychopaths or Psychopathic Killers that we have talked about in the past where often they will admit to some
00:07:47
stuff especially if they're backed into a corner and that's exactly what we have
00:07:51
here Joe Clark is basically caught red-handed with his victim inside his residence and you're going to get a very
00:08:00
different story from Thad who says look I didn't go over to this dude's house I don't know who this guy is have shoes
00:08:08
right he says I woke up and this guy was carrying me into his home and when we got there Joe kind of relaxes Thad by
00:08:18
telling him hey I brought you over here because I'm having a little party and you know here's some people that are
00:08:24
going to be coming over in a little bit and that actually says that that referenced at least one or two names of
00:08:32
people that he knew so in that moment he was still kind of like you know just woke up really kind of confused as to
00:08:39
what was going on but when this guy says a name or two of people that he knows he
00:08:45
thought well okay well maybe that is what's happening let's keep in mind he's only 13 you can trick 13y olds adults
00:08:53
can be tricked very easily sometimes as well so I was tricked into doing a podcast
00:08:59
once about 530 times yeah so it's not until later you know after some I want to stay on something because you're were
00:09:09
saying Thad says well I came too as Joe's bringing me into his house do you think that he was just asleep or
00:09:19
do you think that maybe he used some kind of you know gas on the rag trick no this guy went into the Phillips Home and
00:09:28
Car carried the boy out and carried him to his residence wow in fact when he first started to wake up Thad said that
00:09:36
he thought that he assumed it was his father carrying him because his you know his father had carried him dozens of
00:09:43
times to bed in the middle of the night when Thad fell asleep on the couch or on
00:09:47
the floor watching TV and so at first he's like kind of waking up and not really knowing what's
00:09:54
going on and just kind of assuming it's his father carrying him off to bed and then at some point he realizes hey I'm
00:10:00
outside of my house and I don't know who this guy is that's carrying me so is he
00:10:04
just carrying him from house to house or is he transporting him with a vehicle no
00:10:10
he carried him from from Thad Phillip's house to his house and again we know that there was some torture that was
00:10:19
going on we will know that and learn that later because they're not very specific about the injuries early on and
00:10:27
it's not fully understood that all of these injuries took place over the course of hours you know the way that
00:10:34
Dawn says it to the reporters almost makes it sound like it's some kind of Blitz attack that that took place all at
00:10:42
one time MH but we have Joe who is basically caught red-handed he's saying look I yeah I took this boy with the
00:10:52
purposes of hanging out and I don't know what happened I I his words again I blinked out and then when I came out of
00:11:00
this blinked out phase I look down and this kid's on the floor and he's crying and screaming about his legs so of
00:11:09
course two very differing stories now when we talk about thad's injuries there was mentioned that he was probably going
00:11:17
to die from those injuries we have that statement from Joe Clark who says to police yeah when I saw the state that he
00:11:26
was in I believed he would eventually die from whatever happened to him from those
00:11:31
injuries well let's back that information up because we have doctors that later told th and thad's family
00:11:39
that in fact he was only hours away from dying from internal bleeding wow in fact
00:11:44
the medical professionals said that the only time that they see people as severely injured as Thad was when he was
00:11:51
brought into the ER is when they get people rushed in from really bad car accidents M because
00:12:00
as you pointed out in yesterday's episode Captain the femur bone is very difficult to
00:12:06
break it takes a lot of pounds of pressure to break the ankles you know these are difficult
00:12:14
injuries and severe injuries and you were basically saying that both ankles were broken and and both femur were
00:12:22
broken one femur broke and remember we have uh the doctor saying that they put pins in one leg and a rod in the other
00:12:30
so my guess here again not a doctor still working on that degree but um played one on TV once the pins were
00:12:39
probably for one of the ankles and the rod my guess would be for the femur now we talked about Joe admitting to some of
00:12:48
what he had done to police detectives but another thing of interest is something that Thad tells detectives he
00:12:55
says at one point when he was able to talk because you had asked earlier about this girl whoever this girl was and
00:13:08
later we find out that the girl that Thad saw was Joe's girlfriend or somebody he was dating at the time did
00:13:17
you find this when researching this case did you find that like I I constantly had to keep reminding myself that Joe
00:13:26
Clark Joseph Clark is seven at the time I I had to keep reminding myself that it
00:13:34
it's not an adult abducting a teenager or Abu abducting a kid this is a teenager abducting a teenager and then
00:13:44
just to think about he has to throw this kid over his shoulders walk said he carried um Thad said that the The Joe
00:13:52
carried him like a baby doesn't even throw him over the shoulders that would be easier to I hope
00:13:59
nobody's throwing a baby over their shoulders but carried him like a baby I'm guessing in in two arms in front of
00:14:05
him no that's what I'm saying like it would be easier to you know throw him over your shoulders and carry him carry
00:14:11
him like a baby that takes some strength and is is Joe on some kind of drugs like
00:14:17
maybe if he was on like cocaine or speed or some steroid or something but to grab
00:14:26
the foot and twist until it pops that that takes some strength adrenaline's a hell of a drug my friend
00:14:36
that's true too okay so but back to the idea that reminding myself constantly that Joe Clark is 17 where's his parents
00:14:47
well that's part of the reason why this went down when it did his parents were out of
00:14:54
town and so um the you mentioned that you thought or wondered if maybe this girlfriend or
00:15:03
whomever this girl was if she would have maybe she didn't see Thad but maybe she
00:15:08
would have heard him we have Thad telling us that for portions of this time especially when the assaults are
00:15:17
taking place that's that's what's interesting to me too is that Thad says that this was not just one attack one
00:15:25
big brutal attack this was he would he would beat this kid and jump on his legs and twist his ankles and then hours
00:15:34
would go by with with no no attack no brutality well he had to rest and then he would go back at it eventually but
00:15:42
what Thad would tell us is that for most of the time when he's being attacked Joe
00:15:47
is shoving a towel into the boy's mouth to muffle his screams and his yells and as we said the parents were
00:15:56
out of town and it sounds to me from the very brief descriptions that I've been able to review from thad's words of what
00:16:05
happened and took place during the 43 hours that he was held captive by Joe Clark that that girl the girlfriend or
00:16:15
whomever she was never entered the home as far as that was aware so do we know who this girl was well police know who
00:16:24
she is right um we don't need to know who she is because she wasn't involed D in any of the the crimes that were
00:16:31
committed we don't know if it was a relative or not I believe I have reason to believe that it was a girlfriend or
00:16:36
somebody that that he was dating that Joe Clark was dating yeah so Thad tells detectives that at one of the points
00:16:43
which he you know the towels not jammed down his his mouth that he's able to talk he actually asks
00:16:51
Joe why he was doing this to him and that's when Joe said that he liked busting up bones and add that he had a
00:16:59
fascination with breaking bones and the sound of breaking bones and he told Thad
00:17:04
that he had done this twice before and Joe asked Thad if he knew a boy named Chris
00:17:10
Steiner and Thad said he did not so this is really interesting because not only is Thad able to tell police detectives
00:17:19
that this guy saying he's done this before this guy specifically asked me about a specific person Chris
00:17:29
mhm now Thad doesn't know Joe Clark his abductor and he doesn't know this name Chris Steiner but he remembered the name
00:17:36
Chris Steiner and and so through out that ordeal at some point basically according to thad's story is that Joe
00:17:44
did this same type of thing to a boy named Chris Steiner and some other kid so police armed with this information
00:17:52
and again remember the sheriff's department was already suspicious of Chris's death Chris Steiner's death so
00:17:59
they decide to exume Chris's body and they find that his legs had very similar injuries and breaks to them and like one
00:18:10
prosecutor later would say you don't break your legs like that drowning in the river right so now Joe is going to
00:18:20
be charged with attempted murder physical abuse of a child Mayhem causing mental har to a
00:18:28
child and child enticement these are the sock County charges for the Thad Phillips attack
00:18:36
interesting that they don't charge him with kidnapping in that list of charges yeah
00:18:42
if you go and you find you know the short version of this story the summarized version of the story they'll
00:18:49
say that he was convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping the actual charge was child enticement which does make
00:18:58
sense because according to the victim at some point he wakes up and he's told hey
00:19:03
there's going we're going to hang out there's going to be a party and and the victim agrees to go along with it or at
00:19:11
least is being polite and willing to you know chill for a moment right but soon after these charges are leveled
00:19:20
against 17-year-old Joseph Clark the neighboring County of colia will be looking to charge old Joe with f first
00:19:28
degree murder for the Chris Steiner case it was agreed that sock County that the sock County case for victim Thaddius
00:19:39
Phillips would go to trial first and we already said that it would be a little over a year before that
00:19:46
trial would start now the reason for the delay is due to several things going on
00:19:51
in this case first we have a victim Thad that requires extended Hospital ization
00:19:59
mhm several surgeries and don't forget that has Rehabilitation that comes with all of
00:20:06
that right also we have the defense because after changing the plea a couple of times Joe's defense settles
00:20:15
on a plea of Not Guilty by reason of mental defect mental defect what's his defect well see this
00:20:24
is kind of a smart move in my opinion piece of [ __ ] for right yeah the mental defect is his brain is a piece of [ __ ]
00:20:33
that's when the prosecutor should remind the jury that that prisons are full of pieces of [ __ ] that's where they go but
00:20:40
uh I think this is an interesting angle for the defense and probably a smart move because look to us regular guys in
00:20:48
the garage if I told you there's some dude out there that enjoys breaking people's bones with his hands and by
00:20:55
jumping on them mhm aren't we all going to to kind of assume he's mentally deficient in some way right that boy is
00:21:03
nuts well let me go through some of the reasons why they claim that he would be Not Guilty by reason of mental defect
00:21:13
first we do have his statement to the detectives when he's arrested right away saying yeah I I don't deny that uh that
00:21:24
this kid was at my house but I blinked out for for a moment and I don't know why and I don't know
00:21:31
what happened during that time but when I come to he's he's clearly in severe pain and injured so he's not necessarily
00:21:40
denying that he harmed the kid he's just saying that he doesn't understand what happened so that does fall into the
00:21:48
realm of of that defense one and then two you have Joseph Clark's parents that come to his defense and
00:21:59
what their defense of their son is that look we do believe that he had some mental issues that he possibly could
00:22:08
have been insane at the time as far as the way the legal system would view it insane at the time of this attack or the
00:22:15
abduction so you decide to go on vacation well our boy he's insane so we're going to go we're going to go on
00:22:25
vacation right again but it doesn't for that defense to hold up in court often it doesn't need to be the guy is
00:22:35
obviously insane for months years or decades sometimes it can be as simple as during the course of that actual attack
00:22:43
right now again we never but I'm with I'm with you if you think that there's already some problems or some issues
00:22:50
with your your 17-year-old son maybe don't leave him alone at the house while you go off on some vacation or business
00:23:00
trip or whatever it was I still wish they would have drug tested Joe Clark once they arrested him
00:23:06
to see if there was anything in his system oh I bet you there probably was something in his system because alcohol
00:23:14
marijuana well yeah cuz he's coming back at just before midnight and he was he was off partying he was out on on a date
00:23:23
with this girl or going about out on the evening with this girl and they were stopping off at different
00:23:30
parties he looks like a dope is what he looks so they couldn't find him because they you know they're out looking for
00:23:36
him but they all I think they actively stopped off at at least one or two teenage parties looking for Joe and
00:23:43
didn't find him and left very smartly left a couple of unmarked cars near the home in case he would return and that's
00:23:50
how they end up picking him up well it would also be great if law enforcement would have get a bunch of officers with
00:23:56
their billy clubs and they go into a cell and they just blink out for a while don't know what happened unless
00:24:03
this guy really does have some mental issues and now you're just brutalizing a handicapped individual no you're You're
00:24:11
brutalizing a murderer well whether you have a deficiency or not you are still a
00:24:17
murderer correct correct but we you do understand our society has has ways of of handling these types of situ yeah but
00:24:28
that wouldn't be that much fun if I say I I hope they handle this correctly it's
00:24:33
a little more fun if you think outside the box you know back to the killer clowns that show up and uh interrogate
00:24:40
people and kick them in the nuts that's still a good idea so some of the reasons
00:24:45
why Joe Clark's parents say that uh he should be looked at in this regard uh Not Guilty by reasons of mental defect
00:24:54
is Joseph Clark was not there biological son they adopted him at a very young age
00:25:02
and according to his adopted parents when they adopted Joe his his biological mother was a drug addict that was
00:25:14
shooting up during the pregnancy and they had uh evidence of such the other thing that they called
00:25:23
into question too and said that when they started to see a noticeable difference in their son was after Joe
00:25:30
was involved in a 1993 motorcycle accident he received a pretty severe head injury from that and what his
00:25:39
defense will state at the first trial at the trial in sock county is that after this motorcycle accident and this head
00:25:50
injury that Joe was experiencing hallucinations and he was blacking out and had a lot of uh different kinds of
00:26:01
difficulty after that motorcycle incident now what the prosecution would point out is that Joe Clark had a
00:26:11
history of violence before this 1993 motorcycle accident and they Trac this back to a
00:26:19
1992 death threat that Joseph Clark made to one of his teachers one of his high school teachers
00:26:27
and this wasn't just something where you can go oh well I was just goofing around
00:26:33
you know kids say dumb stuff right we say dumb stuff here in the garage noted and it's not one of these you know I can
00:26:41
look at a lot of things that that kids get sometimes even charged with and go you know did could we could we do
00:26:48
something different here this person's this person's a kid and they really weren't doing this to be malicious they
00:26:57
were doing it cuz they're a dumb kid but in this situation Captain it's not something as simple as all he was just
00:27:02
goofing around this death threat came directly at the teacher by way of Joseph Clark calling them at their
00:27:12
home and threatening their life so a pretty serious death threat in my opinion and there was also several
00:27:21
witnesses that testified and school records that would back this up that Joseph Clark was a bully that he bullied
00:27:29
a lot of kids at school and was known for bullying and getting into a lot of fights so they can say that this 1993
00:27:39
motorcycle accident changed Joseph Clark however he had a history of violence before the motorcycle accident even took
00:27:47
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[Music] that all right welcome back thanks thanks for being being our friends thanks thank you thanks for
00:30:00
letting us when nobody else would you were there all we wanted to do was be your friend and whisper in your ear okay
00:30:09
cheers to everybody everybody in the back so okay a good good defense here though make it makes sense violence
00:30:18
before and then the parents are look the violence before the adopted parents are trying
00:30:26
to their reason they had reasons to reason with that they were hoping he turned around look there might have been some
00:30:37
like you said some violence before or some serious threats before but we've seen this in the past where people have
00:30:45
serious head injuries and they become a whole different person yes and it seems like maybe he wasn't going going to act
00:30:57
on any of these things before but maybe this head injury had something to do with it um was kind of the chicken or
00:31:07
the egg right well and we said captain that Joseph Clark's adopted parents went to his defense and added to reasons why
00:31:15
that might be a good defense to bring forward in in the Thad case but let's keep it mind we're going to have two
00:31:22
separate trials here right and so his parents were completely outraged and very vocal publicly about this outrage when
00:31:32
he was charged with first-degree murder in Columbia County which would be the Chris Steiner case so Clark's adoptive
00:31:40
parents are Ron and Bertha Clark they maintain the innocence of their adopted son as television cameras closed in on
00:31:48
them this was after a court appearance and they stated in regards to the new charges of first-degree murder in columb
00:31:57
I County they said that's the charges they wanted to bring in the first place I I want everybody to kind of think keep
00:32:05
that in mind because we're going to kind of circle back to that later as we get some more information quote that's the
00:32:12
charges they wanted to bring in the first place said Ron Clark Thad Phillips was just a way to get there what meaning
00:32:23
they wanted to charge Joe with something against Chris Steiner before Thad Phillips case even
00:32:33
happened and that's the the words of the father that's the charges they wanted to
00:32:38
bring in the first place said Ron Clark Thad Phillips the new victim was just a way to get there so basically he's kind
00:32:46
of calling out the sheriff's department saying you know they wanted to do this to my son all to all along now they got
00:32:53
this Thad Phillips kid in this story and my son's not denying that he didn't harm
00:33:00
Thad Phillips but what the father's basically saying is he had nothing to do with the
00:33:06
Chris Steiner case that Joe had nothing to do with the Chris Steiner case and Thad Phillips this victim in this trial
00:33:12
is the way that the sheriff's department the prosecutors get to charge him with first-degree murder this is this is the
00:33:19
most so listen dumbass thing I've heard the Clarks did not dispute their son's involvement in Philip's injuries but
00:33:26
they denied that it was torture quote what we're talking about is two kids who got in a fight said Ron Clark what are
00:33:37
you talking about I look I I'm all for coming to the defense of your child but at some
00:33:45
point you got to wake up and smell the roses man this this dumb son of a [ __ ] should
00:33:52
be thrown in jail for the rest of his life if he thinks that way he's believing what his son is telling him
00:33:58
I'm sure his son is selling him a big plate of horeshit and it sounds like he's gobbling it up yeah one bite at a
00:34:06
time hold on a second though too and he's asking for seconds what we're talking about is two
00:34:13
kids who got in a fight your son is 17 years old this boy is found with 13 13 yeah his legs are broken in four
00:34:22
different places and this 13-year-old is listed to be between 4 10 and 5' tall about 100 lb and he's found in your
00:34:32
basically your adult son's uh you know at your house he was held hostage for 43 hours that's a really
00:34:43
long fight not only held hostage but Joseph Clark's own words to the detectives were yeah I believed that he
00:34:54
would die from those injuries yeah and at no point does he try to like call for help even if he even if he says I don't
00:35:01
know how this happened to this kid right he doesn't try to call for help he doesn't offer him any help instead what
00:35:07
he does is he locks him in a closet upstairs knowing that the boy's legs are broken thinking you know what he'll
00:35:14
probably die in this closet from his injuries eventually or he can't escape because one I've locked him in the
00:35:21
closet and two even if he gets out of here he can't use his legs to take him anywhere Ron and B
00:35:27
wake up wake up right and and here's my my big issue there one the detectives could let you know we
00:35:41
couldn't connect we could not connect Chris to your son Joe but when when the boys were just
00:35:52
having a fight AKA when you're adop son was torturing the [ __ ] out of this 13-year-old boy he
00:36:03
mentioned this other victim and then when we go back and look at the injuries oh guess what they just happened to be
00:36:11
the same so did those boys just happen to get in a fight too but guess what Ron dick face if that is your last
00:36:22
name if your son Joe got in a fight with Chris and broke his legs and then threw him in
00:36:29
the water and he died from drowning that's called Murder no other way around it well and if we hear that's
00:36:40
what they wanted the charges to be in the first place there there's other things going
00:36:45
on there and we said that about Chris Steiner's case that there seems to have been more that they weren't telling the
00:36:53
media and in fact I saw statements where I think they were purposely misleading on what information they were putting
00:37:00
out because I think they suspected Foul Play in Chris Steiner's death after they
00:37:06
couldn't find a find a party spot along the river plus they already knew they say they exuded his body and discovered
00:37:12
that his legs were broken they knew that before they buried him the first time yeah and so what we're going to learn
00:37:19
here Captain is a bunch of interesting stuff that comes out at the first trial what we learned at the first trial the
00:37:25
attack on Thad is that on July 29th Joseph Clark's parents are out of town and this is when he broke into the home
00:37:34
of Thad Phillips and abducted him while he was asleep Apparently one thing that comes out at trial is that Joe saw th
00:37:42
playing outside in the yard earlier over the course of that day and it is believed that that is when he may have
00:37:50
decided to Target Thad and again we pointed out that Thad woke up and he's then attacked afterwards
00:38:00
and um he Thad says that he made a good attempt to escape multiple times but was
00:38:08
caught by Joseph Clark and this would only anger Clark and he would you know attack him and beat him more as
00:38:17
punishment for trying to get away and it was only at the point where Joe Clark wanted to go out with his
00:38:25
friends and decided hey I'm going to lock him in this closet and Thad finds a guitar inside
00:38:32
the closet and after he's pretty sure that Joseph Clark is gone he uses the guitar to beat down the door because the
00:38:39
door's locked from the outside I thought you were going to say you know Thad finds a guitar in the closet and once he
00:38:46
learns how to play wonder wall then he decides to break out of the closet he breaks out of the closet and he has to
00:38:54
throw himself down a flight of stairs cuz he can't walk and when he's he's down at the
00:39:01
bottom of the stairs he actually blacks out from the pain and he's not certain how long he's
00:39:08
out for but when he comes to he's able to make it to a phone and he says thank God it was one of those phones with the
00:39:15
long cord you know it's hanging up on the wall he can't stand right he said thank God it was one of those phones
00:39:22
with the long cord he pulls the cord to get the phone the hand set down and again another Stroke of Luck the buttons
00:39:30
are on the handset and not on the right not on the base that's attached to the wall so it was only then that he's able
00:39:38
to make this 911 call and what he tells uh the jur at this trial is that you know not only did Clark stuff the towel
00:39:47
in his mouth uh when he would beat him but he was jumping up and down on the kid's legs jumping up and down as hard
00:39:56
as he could at some point um getting a running start and jumping up in the air and coming down with his knees onto the
00:40:03
boys legs I mean this is kidnapping this is torture well it's going to get worse
00:40:08
than that this is uh attempted murder and it it's so again there's all these things you know
00:40:17
maybe the universe was working in his favor that day where oh you're locked in this closet
00:40:25
but just so happens to be something on the way out you or something there to help you get out and now you're going to
00:40:34
have something in this universe is going to give you the power to get yourself downstairs and yes you black out but
00:40:42
something woke you up before Joe comes back and you see what I'm saying there's so many things that it's like the
00:40:53
universe didn't want Thad to die now during this 43h hour period of being abducted some other very very strange
00:41:03
things went on according to trial testimony one being braces at one point Joe put braces on thad's legs and
00:41:14
forced him to walk with the broken legs and at another point he would put brand new socks you know like the the
00:41:24
tall long tube socks the uh he had brand new white ones like dozens of pairs of these brand new white socks that he was
00:41:33
putting on the boys feet over the boys's feet and legs right another weird thing
00:41:38
too and this is probably something that maybe thad's parents in the sheriff's department knew about very quickly was
00:41:47
that not only did Joe take Thad from thad's home but he he also stole a few pairs of thad's
00:41:55
socks from the house as well that's so he could sniff them well we pointed out in
00:42:02
yesterday's show at the top of of the show that we were going to be discussing a sexual stist and they get their
00:42:09
pleasure from administering torture and seeing the pain that they're causing an individual and we talked about how in
00:42:18
some cases that the offender will even revive even perform CPR on some victim to revive them so that they can punish
00:42:29
them and torture them more because a unconscious or dead victim does not give them the gratification that they are
00:42:37
seeking right and I've heard some sick stuff before but flicky flicky because you like breaking bones it's very very
00:42:47
strange yeah at one point during this situation Thad says that Joe masturbated in front of him so that should if
00:42:57
anybody's out there questioning this sexual satus that I think would offer you all the proof that you
00:43:04
need yeah the other weird thing too is that when they searched the home in Joseph's room they found a notebook that
00:43:15
is described at this trial as a hit list and it had 29 names 29 people were listed in this hit list and they
00:43:26
fell into two different categories one was get to now and the other category was can
00:43:36
wait now Thad Phillips name was not in either category uh because Joseph Clark didn't know who he was it sounds like he
00:43:44
had an opportunity saw a boy out playing by himself and thought yeah I I might be
00:43:50
able to sneak into that house and take that kid tonight while my parents are gone because again
00:43:56
as we pointed out during the trailer the torture is the reason for any of the other crimes at all and this
00:44:05
a torture takes has to take place in in a in a location where you have privacy to do these types of things and where
00:44:13
you can control the situation but I think his Joe Clark's thought was when he saw his feet well was boner City well
00:44:23
on that hit list uh next to some of the names said the leg thing like this was a thing that he
00:44:31
enjoys and a thing that he intended to do to some of these people that fell into one of two categories get to now
00:44:39
which I'm assuming means abduct them and hurt them and kill them as soon as possible and can wait are people that
00:44:47
hey maybe I need to do a little more reconnaissance on because we know that if he was involved in Chris Steiner's
00:44:55
abduction and murder that he probably had some general information about oh well the brother is sleeping at somebody
00:45:04
else's house knows how to get to Chris Steiner's room I wonder if Chris Steiner had missing socks as well from that
00:45:11
house because what we do see is that Chris Steiner's name did fall into one of those two categories on that quote
00:45:19
unquote hit list that was found in the notebook in Joseph Clark's room yeah the other thing that we learned
00:45:26
this is at the second trial okay this is the second trial where it's the first-degree murder
00:45:32
charges for the death of Chris Steiner we learn that Steiner's parents told what was left out from the media version
00:45:43
of the day before events of when Chris went missing right was that he hung out with a local boy the day before and who
00:45:52
was it oh it was Joseph Clark the two knew each other they were friends so very likely if those muddy
00:46:01
Footprints did exist it was Joseph Clark going into their home in the middle of the night and he may not have had to
00:46:07
carry the 14-year-old out of there that night he may have been able to wake him up and say hey why don't you come
00:46:13
outside with me for a little bit why don't we go hang out for a little bit but a fetish like this I mean there has
00:46:20
to be some serious trauma and I I'd really like to see those psychology reports on on Joseph
00:46:29
Clark could be I I don't know um we often look at these situations and ask ourselves why were there any red flags
00:46:37
how can we identify this before it happens to somebody else and it's really the answer is all over the shop you do
00:46:44
see severe abuse in some of these people that grow up to do these type of things
00:46:50
and other times you see people with perfect childhoods right um you know it's very difficult to explain why one
00:46:59
person is sexually attracted to or or sexually excited by something and another person is not and another person
00:47:09
might be sexually excited by something completely different it's very it's very difficult to understand
00:47:16
why that is again we're all very Unique Individuals with with different tastes different likes and and what have you
00:47:24
now as far as the trial goes the the first trial was done with and went down in September of
00:47:32
1996 this trial is the most important because this trial is basically going to set up what they need
00:47:42
for the second trial where they charge him with first-degree murder so at this trial they have the famous Park Deets
00:47:49
plus another psychologist who testify and both of them testify that Joseph Clark was San
00:47:56
during the time of the attack on that Phillips and park DEET is the one that actively names him as a sexual sadus
00:48:04
during the trial right I think the Judge might have thrown that portion out regardless Park DEET said that while on
00:48:13
the stand so Joseph Clark was found to be sane at trial by unanimous decision in a deliberation that took only 1 hour
00:48:21
and he would be sentenced weeks later so he ends up being convicted on all of the
00:48:26
charges that we mentioned in thad's case and sentenced to 110 years in prison of
00:48:32
course now we're going to go to Columbia County where Joseph Clark is facing first-degree murder charges for the
00:48:40
abduction and murder of 14-year-old Chris Steiner at this trial it's mostly circumstantial evidence that is being
00:48:47
presented there was some interesting things that came out uh again most interesting to me the most interesting
00:48:53
statement was that from the parents saying Steiner hung out with Clark the day before he was found guilty and
00:49:01
sentenced to life for the murder of Chris Steiner he was also successfully sued by Thad Phillips parents forcing
00:49:11
him to pay 21 million in Damages obviously he's a a prisoner of the state he will never earn $21 million to be
00:49:19
able to pay that back but um $21 million in Damages gives you some idea of the medical cost involved in the surgeries
00:49:30
and Rehabilitation and hospitalization of Thad Phillips there was a 1998 appeal filed
00:49:38
by Joseph Clark um against his convictions which was rejected by The District Court some other weird things
00:49:47
in this case here captain that Phillips was actually shot at some point by this was after
00:49:56
after Joseph Clark was sentenced I'm sorry after he was found to be guilty uh in October of 1996 on October 8th Thad
00:50:06
Phillips was shot by Michael Hues I think is how you say his name hibs I'll try that hibs that's I looked
00:50:18
it up and that's how they told me to say that last name it's a difficult last name obviously for me maybe not for
00:50:24
others but uh this Michael kid shot Thad Phillips on the eth and I don't know the
00:50:33
outcome of that situation I know that they wanted to charge this Michael kid with attempted murder but the defense
00:50:42
was that Thad Phillips and some other kid went into Michael's home to beat him up and that this was more of a
00:50:53
self-defense type of sit situation where uh the kid was holding the gun and shot
00:50:59
either shot at a door or the gun went off the result was four wounds uh to the back shoulder front shoulder neck and
00:51:07
cheek of Thad Phillips but in all fairness we need to point out that a judge granted a restraining order to
00:51:15
keep Thad Phillips and that friend away from this Michael kid and his little brother so there may be some uh wait to
00:51:24
that the self-defense claims in that case if people have heard of this case before they've probably heard it from
00:51:33
the I Survived show that's uh is that on Discovery ID I believe I believe it's the ID channel I believe it's on a and e
00:51:43
and it's there that if you view that episode you can see and hear Thad talking about the abduction and the
00:51:52
torture that followed and one of the most horrifying lines that Thad says on there is that Joseph Clark grabbed his
00:52:04
right ankle with both of his hands and twisted his foot he felt it break like a quick snapping sound and when he looked
00:52:13
down he could see that the skin around his ankles looked like a twisted up rubber
00:52:24
band thank you guys so much for joining us here in the garage if you need more True
00:52:34
Crime garage and you do need more I know you need more go check out off the record on Stitcher premium you're going
00:52:43
to love it colonel do we have any recommended reading for this week this week we are recommending one I'm sure
00:52:50
many of our listeners have heard of and probably have already read but it's a really good one and long overdue so we
00:52:57
are recommending The Devil in the White City by Eric Lawson this is a New York Times bestseller about the city of
00:53:05
Chicago the 1893 World's Fair and Dr Henry H Holmes better known as serial killer HH Holmes check out this great
00:53:14
title and many more recommendations on our recommended page at True Crime garage.com and until next week be good
00:53:21
be kind and don't listen [Music] you can start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to get
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