Hadden Clark
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Hadden Clark (b. April 1951) is an American serial killer and cannibal.
Clark's family was affluent but dysfunctional; his parents were both alcoholics who physically and emotionally abused their four children, and his two brothers were both arrested as adults for murder and domestic violence, respectively. Clark's mother would dress him in girl's clothes when she was drunk, and as a result he grew to identify himself as a woman and would often wear women's clothes. He exhibited sadistic tendencies from a young age, delighting in torturing animals and bullying other children. As an adult, he drifted through a series of menial jobs and a stint in the Navy, which ended when he was discharged after being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He eventually settled in Maryland, where he was often homeless.
While Clark later claimed to have begun killing as a teenager, his first documented victim was his six-year-old neighbour, Michelle Dorr, whom he killed and cannibalized in May 1986. Clark was not considered a suspect at the time, however, as police initially suspected the girl's father. In 1992, he murdered Laura Houghteling, a young woman whose mother had given him a part-time gardening job. The local police, who had begun to suspect him for Michelle Dorr's murder, investigated him and arrested him within days. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder the following year and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 1999, he was finally convicted of murdering Michelle Dorr after other prisoners testified that he had bragged about committing the crime. Another 30 years were added onto his sentence, plus 10 more for a past robbery charge, meaning that Clark is effectively serving life in prison.
