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foreign [Music] [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always is a man with plans for the future I guess they're futuristic plans here is the captain
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yeah call me Captain McFly it's good to be seen it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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[Music] foreign ly sipping on Gray Monday that's right you can kick those Monday blues with
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gray Monday this is an imperial stout featuring Oregon grown hazelnuts toasty and nutty flavors play off bold yet
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smooth complexity in this bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of
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five and let's give some praise and thank you to our friends that helped us out with this week's beer run first up a
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big cheers and a Ron Swanson please and thank you goes out to mark from London London United Kingdom and big shout out
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to Fiona and Kildare Ireland here's a cheers to Dawn in San Diego California Stay classy and a big shout to Margaret
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in Lansing Michigan next up we have a cheers to Jolene in Omaha Nebraska and last but certainly not least we have
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Traeger and Northern Alaska everyone we just mentioned went to True Crime garage.com and they helped us out with
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this week's beer fun yeah bwru and beer run Jolene Jolene Jolene Jolene Jolene donated to the Beer fun and she's
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cooler than you are and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer
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let's talk some true crime [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] immediately after the arrest of 17 year
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old Joseph Clark in the rescue of 13 year old Thaddeus Phillips we have Joe in jail waiting to be charged we have
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thaad in the hospital undergoing multiple surgeries and as far as what was being released to the public early
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on there were just mostly small details coming from thad's father Dawn as he answered reporters questions while
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pretty much living at the hospital for days while doctors and nurses worked to repair his boy Don told reporters that
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neither he nor Thad knew the boy Joe Clark prior to this incident so we can rule out any kind of personal motive for
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the abduction and the harm caused to Thad Don told reporters that thad's captor brutalized and tortured the boy
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in the form of beatings that involved Joe choking punching as well as twisting The Boy's ankles and legs and jumping up
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and down on thad's legs according to Dawn Joe told Thad that he had kidnapped the boy because he liked busting
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people's bones and that he had done this type of thing before to other victims now all kinds of interesting details
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will come out at the trial but the trial won't take place until the second half of 1996. right now on our timeline we
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are in the early part of August 1995. so almost exactly 26 years ago to this day
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but before we get to the trial let's talk more about this arrest because Joe after he is arrested he
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actually confesses to the police well sort of so he admits that he brought thaad to
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his house but says it was for the purposes of just hanging out he tells detectives that he does not
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remember assaulting thaad Joe says he and this is his words quote blinked out for a while
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and when he came to Thad was lying on the floor bellyaching about his legs Joe says he thought Thad would eventually
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die from the injuries so the way I take it is this his general statement is he does not know how
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the 13 year old Thad received these injuries Thad tells Joe that he did that to Thad
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and Joe says he tried to help the kid but again did think that thaad would eventually die from these injuries so he
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says he tried to help thaad but at the same time it doesn't look like he was willing to let him go yeah but if you're
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inviting somebody over to hang out quote unquote like Joe's saying you don't abduct them from their house and then on
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top of that this blank out you blinked out for 43 hours as you tortured this kid
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Joe Clark sounds like an animal well a monster really I mean to call him an animal is disrespectful to our our
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friends the animals animals but no of course what you're going to have here Captain is you're going to get two very
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different stories and of course Joe is going to have to admit to something because they find the victim in his home
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yeah it's a little hard to say hey I didn't at least do something or have some part in this and so we've seen this
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it's very typical behavior of any of the other Psychopaths or Psychopathic Killers that we have talked about in the
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past where often they will admit to some stuff especially if they're backed into
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a corner and that's exactly what we have here Joe Clark is basically caught red-handed with his victim inside his
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residence and you're going to get a very different story from Thad who says look I didn't
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go over to this dude's house I don't know who this guy is I have shoes right he says I woke up and this guy was
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carrying me into his home and when we got there Joe kind of relaxes Thad by telling him
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hey I brought you over here because I'm having a little party and you know here's some people that are going to be
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coming over in a little bit and that actually says that that Joe referenced at least one or two names of people that
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he knew so in that moment he was still kind of like you know just woke up really kind
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of confused as to what was going on but when this guy says a name or two of people that he knows he thought well
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okay well maybe that is what's happening let's keep in mind he's only 13. you can
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trick 13 year olds adults can be tricked very easily sometimes as well so it's restricted to doing a podcast once
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about 530 times yeah so it's not until later you know after some I want to stay on something because you're saying Thad
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says well I came to as Joe's bringing me into his house do you think that he was just asleep or do
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you think that maybe he used some kind of you know gas on the rag trick no this guy went
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into the Phillips home and carried the boy out and carried him to his residence wow in fact when he first started to
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wake up Thad said that he thought that he assumed it was his father carrying him because his you know his father
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carried him dozens of times to bed in the middle of the night when Thad fell asleep on the couch or on the floor
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watching TV and so at first he's like kind of waking up and not really knowing what's going
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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
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outside of my house and I don't know who this guy is it's carrying me so is he just carrying him from house to house or
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is he transporting him with a vehicle no he carried him from from Thad Phillips house to his house and again we know
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that there was some torture that was going on we will know that and learn that later because they're not very
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specific about the injuries early on and it's not fully understood that all of these injuries took place over the
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course of hours you know the way that Don says it to the reporters almost makes it sound like it's some kind of
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Blitz attack that that took place all at one time but we have Joe who has basically caught
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red-handed he's saying look I yeah I took this boy with the purposes of hanging out and I don't know what
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happened I I his words again I blinked out and then when I came out of this blinked out phase
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I looked down and this kid's on the floor and he's crying and screaming about his legs
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so of course two very differing stories now when we talk about thad's injuries there was mentioned that he was probably
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going to die from those injuries we have that statement from Joe Clark who says to police yeah when I saw the state that
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he was in I believed he would eventually die from whatever happened to him from those
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injuries well let's back that information up because we have doctors that later told thaad and thad's family
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that in fact he was only hours away from dying from internal bleeding wow in fact
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the medical professionals said that the only time that they see people as severely injured as thaad was when he
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was brought into the ER is when they get people rushed in from really bad car accidents
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because as you pointed out in yesterday's episode captain the femur bone is very difficult to
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break it takes a lot of pounds of pressure to break the ankles you know these are difficult injuries
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and severe injuries and you were basically saying that both ankles were broken and
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both femurs are broken one femur broken remember we have the doctor saying that they put pins in one leg and a rod in
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the other so my guess here again not a doctor still working on that degree but um
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played one on TV once the pins were probably for one of the ankles and the rod my guess would be for the femur now
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we talked about Joe admitting to some of what he had done to police detectives but another thing of interest is
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something that Thad tells detectives he says at one point when he was able to talk
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because you had asked earlier about this girl whoever this girl was and later we
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find out that the girl that Thad saw was Joe's girlfriend or somebody he was dating at the time did you find this
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when researching this case did you find that like I I constantly had to keep reminding myself
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that Joe Clark Joseph Clark is 17 at the time I I had to keep reminding myself that it
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it's not an adult abducting a teenager or abducting a kid this is a teenager abducting a teenager
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and then just to think about he has to throw this kid over his shoulders said he carried um Thad said
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that the that Joe carried him like a baby doesn't even throw him over the shoulder
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so that would be easier to carry I hope nobody's throwing a baby over their shoulders but carried him like a baby
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I'm guessing in in two arms in front of him no that's what I'm saying like it'd be easier to you know throw him over
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your shoulders and carry him carry him like a baby that takes some strength and is is Joe on some kind of drugs like
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maybe if he was on like cocaine or speed or some steroid or something but to grab the foot and twist until it pops
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that that takes some strength adrenaline's a hell of a drug my friend that's true too okay so but back to the
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idea that reminded myself constantly that Joe Clark is 17. where's his parents well that's part of the reason why this
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went down when it did his parents were out of town hmm and so um the you mentioned that you thought or
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wondered if maybe this girlfriend or whomever this girl was if she would have maybe she didn't see Thad but maybe she
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would have heard him we have Thad telling us that for portions of this time especially
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when the assaults are taking place that's that's what's interesting to me too is that Thad says that this was not
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just one attack one big brutal attack this was he would he would beat this kid and jump on his legs and twist his
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ankles and then hours would go by with with no no attack no brutality well he has to rest and then he would go back at
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it eventually but what Thad would tell us is that for most of the time when he's being attacked Joe is shoving a
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towel into the boy's mouth to muffle his screams and his yells and as we said the
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parents were out of town and it sounds to me from the very brief descriptions that I've been able to review from
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thad's words of what happened and took place during the 43 hours that he was held captive by Joe Clark that
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the girl the girlfriend or whomever she was never entered the home as far as that was aware so do we know
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who this girl was well police know who she is right um we don't need to know who she is
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because she wasn't involved in any of the the crimes that were committed we don't know if it was a relative or not I
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believe I have a reason to believe that it was a girlfriend or somebody that okay that he was dating that Joe Clark
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was dating wow so Thad tells detectives that at one of the points which he you know the towels not jammed down his his
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mouth that he's able to talk he actually asked Joe why he was doing this to him and that's
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when Joe said that he liked busting up bones and added that he had a fascination with breaking bones and the
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sound of breaking bones and he told Thad that he had done this twice before and Joe asked that if he knew a boy
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named Chris Steiner and Thad said he did not so this is really interesting because not only is
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Thad able to tell police detectives that this guy's saying he's done this before
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this guy specifically asked me about a specific person Chris Steiner now Thad doesn't know Joe Clark his
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abductor and he doesn't know this name Chris Steiner but he remembered the name Chris Steiner and and so through out
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that ordeal at some point basically according to Thad story is that Joe did this same type of thing to a boy named
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Chris Steiner and some other kid so police armed with this information and again remember the Sheriff's
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Department was already suspicious of Chris's death Chris Steiner's death so they decide to exhume Chris's body
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and they find that his legs had very similar injuries and breaks to them and like one prosecutor later would say
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you don't break your legs like that drowning in the river right so now Joe is going to be charged with
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attempted murder physical abuse of a child Mayhem causing mental harm to a child in child enticement
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these are the sock County charges for the Thad Phillips attack interesting that they don't charge him with
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kidnapping in that list of charges yeah if you go and you find you know the short version
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of this story the summarized version of the story they'll say that he was convicted of attempted murder in
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kidnapping the actual charge was child enticement which does make sense because according to the victim at some
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point he wakes up and he's told hey there's going we're going to hang out there's going to be a party and
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and the victim agrees to go along with it or at least is being polite and willing to
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you know chill for a moment right but soon after these charges are leveled against 17 year old Joseph Clark the
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neighboring County of Columbia will be looking to charge old Joe with first degree murder
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for the Chris Steiner case it was agreed that Sauk County that the Sauk County case for victim Thaddeus
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Phillips would go to trial first and we already said that it would be a little over a year before that trial
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would start now the reason for the delay is due to several things going on in this case first we have a victim
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thaad that requires extended hospitalization several surgeries and don't forget that has Rehabilitation
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that comes with all of that right also we have the defense because after changing the plea a couple
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of times Joe's defense settles on a plea of Not Guilty by reason of mental defect
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mental defect what's his defect well see this is kind of a smart move in my opinion piece of
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[ __ ] right yeah the mental defect is his brain is a piece of [ __ ] that's when the
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prosecutor should remind the jury that that prisons are full of pieces of [ __ ]
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that's where they go but uh I think this is an interesting angle for the defense
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and probably a smart move because look to us regular guys in the garage if I told you there's some dude out there
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that enjoys breaking people's bones with his hands and by jumping on them aren't we all going to kind of assume
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he's mentally deficient in some way right the boy is nuts well let me go through
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some of the reasons why they claim that he would be Not Guilty by reason of mental defect first we do have his
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statement to the detectives when he's arrested right away saying yeah I I don't deny that uh
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that 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 what
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happened during that time but when I come to he's he's clearly in severe pain and injured
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so he's not necessarily denying that he harmed the kid he's just saying that he doesn't
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understand what happened so that does fall into the realm of of that defense one
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and then two you have Joseph Clark's parents that come to his defense and what their defense of their
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son is that look we do believe that he had some mental issues that he possibly could have been insane at the time as
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far as the way the legal system would view it insane at the time of this attack or the abduction so you decide to
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go on vacation well our boy he's insane so we're gonna go we're gonna go on vacation right
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again but it doesn't for that defense to hold up in court often it doesn't need to be the guy is obviously insane for
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months years or decades sometimes it can be as simple as during the course of that actual attack right
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now again but I'm with I'm with you if you think that there's already some problems or some issues with your your
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17 year old son maybe don't leave him alone at the house while you go off on some vacation or
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business trip or whatever it was I still wish they would have drug tested Joe Clark once they arrested him to see
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if there was anything in his system oh I bet you there probably was something in
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his system because alcohol marijuana well yeah because he's coming back at just before midnight and he was
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he was off partying he was out on on a date with this girl or going about out on the evening with this girl and
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they were stopping off at different parties well it looks like a dope so they couldn't find him because they
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you know they're out looking for him but they all I think they actively stopped off at least one or two teenage parties
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looking for Joe and didn't find him and left very smartly left a couple of unmarked cars near the home in case he
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would return and that's how they end up picking him up well it'd also be great if law enforcement would get a bunch of
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officers with their billy clubs and they go into cell and they just blink out for
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a while don't know what happened unless this guy really does have some mental issues and
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now you're just brutalizing a handicapped individual no you're You're brutalizing a murderer
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well whether you have a deficiency or not you are still a murderer correct correct but we you do understand our
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society has has ways of of handling these types of situations yeah but that wouldn't be that much fun if I'd say I I
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hope they handle this correctly it's a little more fun if you think outside the box you know back to the killer clowns
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that show up and interrogate people and kick them in the nuts that's still a good idea so some of the reasons why Joe
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Clark's parents say that uh he should be looked at in this regard Not Guilty by reasons of mental defect
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is Joseph Clark was not their biological son they adopted him at a very young age
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and according to his adopted parents when they adopted Joe his his biological mother was a drug addict that was
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shooting up during the pregnancy and they had uh evidence of such the other thing that they called into
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question two and said that when they started to see a noticeable difference in their son was after Joe was involved
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in a 1993 motorcycle accident he received a pretty severe head injury from that and what his defense will
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state at the first trial at the trial in Sauk County is that after this motorcycle accident
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and this head injury that Joe was experiencing hallucinizations and he was blacking out
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and had a lot of uh different kinds of difficulty after that motorcycle incident
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now what the prosecution would point out is that Joe Clark had a history of violence
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before this 1993 motorcycle accident and they trace this back to a 1992 death threat that Joseph Clark made to one of
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his teachers one of his high school teachers and this wasn't just something where you can go oh well I was
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just goofing around you know kids say dumb stuff right we say dumb stuff here in the garage noted and it's not one of
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these you know I can look at a lot of things that that kids get sometimes even charged with and go you
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know did could we could we do something different here this person's this person's a kid and they really weren't
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doing this to be malicious they were doing it because they're a dumb kid but in this situation Captain it's not
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something as simple as oh he was just goofing around this death threat came directly at the teacher by way of Joseph
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Clark calling them at their home and threatening their life so a pretty serious death threat in my opinion
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and there was also several witnesses that testified and school records that would back this up that Joseph Clark was
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a bully that he bullied a lot of kids at school and was known for bullying and getting into a lot of fights so they can
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say that this 1993 motorcycle accident changed Joseph Clark however he had a history of violence before
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the motorcycle accident even took place [Music] [Music] all right welcome back thanks thanks for being our friends
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thank you thanks for letting us nobody else would you were there all we wanted to do was be your friend and whisper in
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your ear okay cheers to everybody everybody in the back so okay a good good defense here though
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make it makes sense violence before and then the parents are look the violence before
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the adopted parents are trying to there are reasoning they had reasons to reason with that they were hoping he
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turned around look there might have been some like you said some violence before or some
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serious threats before but we've seen this in the past where people have serious head injuries and
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they become a whole different person yes and it seems like maybe he wasn't going to act on any of
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these things before but maybe this heading injury had something to do with it um it was kind of the chicken or the egg
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right well and we said Captain the Joseph Clark's adopted parents went to his defense and added to reasons why that
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might be a good defense to bring forward in in the thaad case but let's keep in mind
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we're going to have two separate trials here right and so his parents were completely outraged and very vocal
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publicly about this outrage when he was charged with first degree murder in Columbia County which would be the Chris
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Steiner case so Clark's adoptive parents are Ron and Bertha Clark they maintain the innocence
00:29:02
of their adopted son as television cameras closed in on them this was after a court appearance and they stated in
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regards to the new charges of first-degree murder in Columbia County they said that's the charges they wanted
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to bring in the first place I want everybody to kind of think keep that in mind because we're going to kind of
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circle back to that later as we get some more information quote that's the charges they wanted to bring in the
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first place said Ron Clark Thad Phillips was just a way to get there what meaning they wanted to charge
00:29:43
Joe with something against Chris Steiner for Thad Phillips case even happened hmm
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and that's the the words of the father that's the charges they wanted to bring in the first place said Ron Clark Thad
00:29:58
Phillips the new victim was just a way to get there so basically he's kind of calling out the sheriff's department
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saying you know they wanted to do this to my son all to all along now they got this Thad Phillips kid in this story
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and my son's not denying that he didn't harm Thad Phillips but what the father's basically saying
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is he had nothing to do with the Chris Steiner case that Joe had nothing to do with the Chris Steiner case and Thad
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Phillips this victim in this trial is the way that the sheriff's department the prosecutors get to charge him with
00:30:34
first-degree murder this is this is the most so listen dumbass thing I've heard the clerks did not dispute their son's
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involvement in Phillips injuries but they denied that it was torture quote what we're talking about
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is two kids who got in a fight said Ron Clark what are you talking about I look I I'm all for coming to the
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defense of your child but at some point you gotta wake up and smell the roses man
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it's this dumb son of a [ __ ] should be thrown in jail for the rest of his life
00:31:11
if he thinks that way he's believing what his son is telling him I'm sure his son is selling him a big plate of
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horseshit and it sounds like he's gobbling it up yeah one bite at a time in a second though too and he's asking
00:31:26
for seconds wow what we're talking about is two kids who got in a fight your son is 17 years
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old this boy is found with 13. 13 yeah his legs are broken in four different places and this 13 year old is listed to
00:31:43
be between four foot ten and five foot tall about a hundred pounds and he's found in your basically your
00:31:50
adult son's uh you know at your house he was held hostage for 43 hours that's a really long fight
00:32:01
not only held hostage but Joseph Clark's own words to the detectives were yeah I
00:32:10
believed that he would die from those injuries yeah and at no point does he try to like call for help even if he
00:32:17
even if he says I don't know how this happened to this kid right he doesn't try to call for help he doesn't offer
00:32:22
him any help instead what he does is he locks him in a closet upstairs knowing that the boy's legs are broken thinking
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you know what he'll probably die in this closet from his injuries eventually or he can't escape because one I've locked
00:32:38
him in the closet and two even if he gets out of here he can't use his legs to take him anywhere Ron and Bertha wake
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up wake up right and and here's my my big issue there one the detectives could let you know
00:32:58
we couldn't connect we could not connect Chris to your son Joe but when when the boys were just having
00:33:09
a fight AKA when your adopted son was torturing the [ __ ] out of this 13 year old boy he
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mentioned this other victim and then when we go back and look at the injuries oh guess what it just happened
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to be the same so did those boys just happen to get in a fight too but guess what
00:33:34
Ron dick face if that is your last name if your son Joe got in a fight with Chris and broke his legs and then threw
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him in the water and he died from drowning that's called Murder no other way around it
00:33:54
well and if we hear that's what they wanted the charges to be in the first place there's other things going on
00:34:03
there and we said that about Chris Steiner's case that there seems to have been more that they weren't telling the
00:34:10
media and in fact I saw statements where I think they were purposely misleading on what information they were putting
00:34:17
out because I think they suspected Foul Play and Chris Steiner's death after they couldn't find a find a party
00:34:25
spot along the river plus they already knew they say they exhumed his body and discovered that his legs were broken
00:34:31
they knew that before they buried him the first time yeah and so what we're going to learn here Captain is a bunch
00:34:38
of interesting stuff that comes out at the first trial what we learned at the first trial the attack on thaad is it on
00:34:45
July 29th Joseph Clark's parents are out of town and this is when he broke into the home of Thad Phillips and abducted
00:34:53
him while he was asleep apparently one thing that comes out at trial is that Joe saw Thad playing outside in the
00:35:01
yard earlier over the course of that day and it is believed that that is when he
00:35:07
may have decided to Target thaad and again we pointed out that Thad woke up and he's then attacked afterwards and
00:35:18
um he Thad says that he made a good attempt to escape multiple times but was caught
00:35:26
by Joseph Clark and this would only anger Clark and he would you know attack him and beat him more as punishment for
00:35:35
trying to get away and it was only at the point where Joe Clark wanted to go out with his friends
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and decided hey I'm going to lock him in this closet and Thad finds a guitar inside the
00:35:49
closet and after he's pretty sure that Joseph Clark is gone he uses the guitar to beat down the door because the door's
00:35:57
locked from the outside I thought you're gonna say you know Thad finds a guitar in the closet and once he learns how to
00:36:04
play Wonderwall then he decides to break out of the closet he breaks out of the closet and he has to throw himself down
00:36:13
a flight of stairs because he can't walk and when he's he's down at the bottom of
00:36:19
the stairs he actually blacks out from the pain and he's not certain how long he's out for
00:36:26
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 long
00:36:33
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 with the
00:36:39
long cord he pulls the cord to get the phone the handset down and again another Stroke of Luck
00:36:47
the buttons are on the handset and not on the right not on the base that's attached to the wall so it was only then
00:36:54
that he's able to make this 9-1-1 call and what he tells uh the jury at this trial is that you know not only did
00:37:03
Clark stuff the towel in his mouth uh when he would beat him but he was jumping up and down on the kids legs
00:37:11
jumping up and down as hard as he could at some points getting a running start and jumping up in the air and coming
00:37:18
down with his knees onto the boy's legs I mean this is kidnapping this is torture well it's going to get worse
00:37:25
this is uh attempted murder and it it's so again there's all these things you know maybe the universe was
00:37:36
working in his favor that day where oh you're locked in this closet but just so happens to be something on the
00:37:45
way out or something there to help you get out and now you're going to have something in this universe is going to
00:37:54
give you the power to get yourself downstairs and yes you black out but something woke you up before Joe comes
00:38:04
back and you see what I'm saying there's so many things that it's like the universe didn't want
00:38:11
Thad to die now during this 43 hour period of being abducted some other very very strange things went on according to
00:38:21
trial testimony one being braces at one point Joe put braces on thad's legs and forced
00:38:32
him to walk with the broken legs and at another point he would put brand new socks
00:38:40
you know like the the tall long tube socks the uh he had brand new white ones like dozens of pairs of these brand new
00:38:48
white socks that he was putting on the boy's feet over the boy's feet and legs right another weird thing too and this
00:38:56
is probably something that maybe thad's parents and the sheriff's department knew about
00:39:03
very quickly was that not only did Joe take Thad from thad's home but he he also stole a few pairs of
00:39:11
thaad socks from the house as well that's so he could sniff them well we pointed out in
00:39:19
yesterday's show at the top of of the show that we were going to be discussing a sexual sadist
00:39:25
and they get their pleasure from administering torture and seeing the pain that they're causing an individual
00:39:33
and we talked about how in some cases that the offender will even revive even perform CPR some on some victims to
00:39:44
revive them so that they can punish them and torture them more because a unconscious or dead victim
00:39:51
does not give them the gratification that they are seeking right and I've heard some sick stuff before but
00:39:59
flicky flicky because you like breaking bones that's very very strange yeah at one point during this situation
00:40:09
Thad says that Joe masturbated in front of him so that should if anybody's out there questioning this sexual sadist
00:40:17
that I think would offer you all the proof that you need yeah the other weird thing too is that
00:40:25
when they searched the home in Joseph's room they found a notebook that is described at this trial as a hit list
00:40:36
and it had 29 names 29 people were listed in this hit list and they fell into two different categories
00:40:47
one was get to now and the other category was can wait now Thad Phillips name was not in either
00:40:57
category uh because Joseph Clark didn't know who he was it sounds like he had an
00:41:02
opportunity saw a boy out playing by himself and thought you know I might be able to sneak into that house and take
00:41:09
that kid tonight while my parents are gone because again as we pointed out during the trailer
00:41:16
the torture is the reason for any of the other crimes at all and this a torture takes has to take place in in a in a
00:41:26
location where you have privacy to do these types of things and where you can control the situation but I think his
00:41:33
Joe Clark's thought was when he saw his feet well was boner City well well on that hit
00:41:41
list uh next to some of the names said the leg thing like this was a thing that he enjoys and
00:41:50
a thing that he intended to do to some of these people that fell into one of two categories get to now which I'm
00:41:57
assuming means abduct them and hurt them and kill them as soon as possible and can wait are people that hey maybe I
00:42:05
need to do a little more reconnaissance on because we know that if he was involved in Chris Steiner's abduction
00:42:13
and murder that he probably had some general information about old well the brother is sleeping at somebody else's
00:42:21
house knows how to get to Chris Steiner's room I wonder if Chris Steiner had missing socks as well from that
00:42:29
house because what we do see is that Chris Steiner's name did fall into one of those two categories on that
00:42:36
quote-unquote hit list that was found in the notebook in Joseph Clark's room yeah
00:42:41
the other thing that we learn this is at the second trial a okay this is the second trial where it's the first degree
00:42:49
murder charges for the death of Chris Steiner we learn that Steiner's parents told what was left out from the media
00:43:00
version of the day before events of when Chris went missing right was that he hung out with a local boy the day before
00:43:08
and who was it oh it was Joseph Clark the two knew each other they were friends so very likely if those muddy Footprints
00:43:19
did exist it was Joseph Clark going into their home in the middle of night and he
00:43:23
may not have had to carry the 14 year old out of there that night he may have been able to wake him up and say hey why
00:43:30
don't you come outside with me for a little bit why don't we go hang out for a little
00:43:34
bit but a fetish like this I mean there has to be some serious trauma and I I'd really like to see those
00:43:43
psychology reports on on Joseph Clark could be I I don't know um we often look at these situations and
00:43:52
ask ourselves why were there any red flags how can we identify this before it happens to somebody else and it's really
00:43:59
the answer is all over the shop you do see severe abuse in some of these people that grow up to do these type of things
00:44:07
and other times you see people with perfect childhoods right um you know it's very difficult to explain why
00:44:15
one person is sexually attracted to or or sexually excited by something and another person is not and another person
00:44:26
might be sexually excited by something completely different it's very it's very difficult to understand why
00:44:34
that is again we're all very Unique Individuals with with different tastes different likes and and what have you
00:44:41
now as far as the trial goes the the first trial was done with and went down in September of 1996.
00:44:50
this trial is the most important because this trial is basically going to set up
00:44:58
what they need for the second trial where they charge them with first degree murder
00:45:03
so at this trial they have the famous Park Deets plus another psychologist who testify and both of them testify
00:45:11
that Joseph Clark was sane during the time of the attack on Thad Phillips and park Dietz is the one that actively
00:45:19
names him as a sexual sadist during the trial right I think the Judge might have
00:45:25
thrown that portion out regardless pardeep said that while on the stand so Joseph Clark was found to be sane at
00:45:34
trial by unanimous decision in a deliberation that took only one hour and he would be sentenced weeks later so he
00:45:41
ends up being convicted on all of the charges that we mentioned in thad's case and sentenced to 110 years in prison
00:45:49
of course now we're going to go to Columbia County where Joseph Clark is facing first
00:45:55
degree murder charges for the abduction and murder 14 year old Chris Steiner at this trial it's mostly circumstantial
00:46:03
evidence that is being presented there was some interesting things that came out uh again most interesting to me the
00:46:10
most interesting statement was that from the parents saying Steiner hung out with Clark the day
00:46:16
before he was found guilty and sentenced to life for the murder of Chris Steiner
00:46:22
he was also successfully sued by Thad Phillips parents forcing him to pay 21 million in Damages obviously he's a a
00:46:32
prisoner of the state he will never earn 21 million dollars to be able to pay that back but
00:46:39
um 21 million dollars in Damages gives you some idea of the medical cost involved
00:46:46
in the surgeries and Rehabilitation and hospitalization of Thad Phillips there was a 1998 appeal filed by Joseph
00:46:56
Clark um against his convictions which was rejected by The District Court some other weird things in this case
00:47:05
here Captain Thad Phillips was actually shocked at some point by this was after Joseph Clark was sentenced I'm sorry
00:47:16
after he was found to be guilty in October of 1996 on October 8th Thad Phillips was shot by Michael Hughes I
00:47:26
think is how you say his name hibs I'll try that that's I looked it up and that's how
00:47:36
they told me to say that last name it's a difficult last name obviously for me maybe not for others but uh this Michael
00:47:43
kid shot Thad Phillips on the eighth and I don't know the outcome of that situation I know that they
00:47:54
wanted to charge this Michael Kidd with attempted murder but the defense was that Thad Phillips and some other kid
00:48:03
went into Michael's home to beat him up and that this was more of a self-defense type of situation where
00:48:14
uh the kid was holding the gun and shot either shot at a door or the gun went off the result was four wounds uh to the
00:48:23
back shoulder front shoulder neck and cheek of Thad Phillips but in all fairness we need to point out
00:48:29
that a judge granted a restraining order to keep Thad Phillips and that friend away from this Michael Kidd and his
00:48:38
little brother so there may be some weight to that the self-defense claims in that case
00:48:46
if people have heard of this case before they've probably heard it from the I Survived
00:48:52
show that's uh is that on Discovery ID I believe I believe it's on the channel I
00:48:58
believe it's on a e and it's there that if you view that episode you can see and
00:49:05
hear Thad talking about the abduction and the torture that followed and one of the most
00:49:14
horrifying lines that Thad says on there is that Joseph Clark grabbed his right ankle with both of his hands and twisted
00:49:24
his foot he felt it break like a quick snapping sound and when he looked down he could
00:49:32
see that the skin around his ankles looked like a twisted up rubber band [Music]
00:49:46
thank you guys so much for joining us here in the garage if you need more True Crime garage and you do need more I know
00:49:54
you need more go check out off the record on Stitcher premium you're going to love it
00:50:01
Colonel do we have any recommended reading for this week this week we are recommending one I'm
00:50:07
sure many of our listeners have heard of and probably have already read but it's
00:50:12
a really good one and long overdue so we are recommending The Devil in the White
00:50:16
City by Eric Lawson this is a New York Times bestseller about the city of Chicago the 1893 World's Fair and Dr
00:50:26
Henry H Holmes better known as serial killer H.H Holmes check out this great title and many more recommendations on
00:50:34
our recommended page at truecrime garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't listen
00:50:44
foreign [Music]