The Clarks of Amesbury, Part Two

Imagine the shock of an unsuspecting birdwatcher, discovering a decomposed body in a marsh - a body later identified as Melvin Clark, Jr.’s through Navy and dental records. Brace yourselves as we delve into the puzzling gangland-style murder theory the police entertained and the aftermath of Melvin's disappearance, throwing light on the riveting details of the intense 14-hour police questioning of Lorraine Clark. It's the second part of a three-part series about a 1950s murder mystery.

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Episode Transcript

Julia Goodwin (00:00):
Well, hello there .
This is Julia, and murder isbad.
We last left off in the sleepytown of Amesbury, massachusetts.

(00:25):
Bless you.
Only it wasn't so sleepy.
According to rumors, in 1954,it was sleepless, with all the
young couples swapping partnersleft and amiright.
right, but that's not what youcare about.
You want to know what our girl,lorraine Clark, has been up to.

(00:46):
Well, after sharing a life withMel Clark for nearly ten years,
she's back where she started,living with her parents.
But while her estranged husbandhas gone missing, she hardly
misses the life she had whenthey lived at their dream
cottage on the shores of LakeAttitash.

(01:06):
She's working and being amother to her three young
children, marlene, sally andMichael, ages seven, six and
four respectively.
She's trying to keep asemblance of normalcy as this
next chapter begins for her.
Another woman living her bestlife was a birdwatcher moving

(01:28):
through some marshy grasses onJune 2, 1954.
Around this time people arelistening to Doris Day and
reading Lord of the Rings orLord of the Flies.
And to tie this into anothercase I've covered, this is the
year the Marlboro man wascreated.
Jim Smith, father of one of thechloroform murders victims,

(01:53):
diana Smith, illustrated theMarlboro man.
Marlboro was originallymarketed toward women with the
slogan Mild as May.
But with climate change comesmore testosterone.
I guess Google it.
This is also the summer thatMarilyn Reese Sheppard was
murdered.
Her husband's same Sheppardwould go on to be convicted of

(02:16):
that murder, only to beexonerated in 1966.
But a whole bunch of peoplestill think he did it.
You know about it, I know youdo.
But enough of that gruesomeremembrance.
Let's get back to birdwatchingwith our unidentified woman.
After some flooding, there wasnow a low tide in the Merrimack

(02:37):
River.
It was around 4.30pm and thebirdwatcher was on the south
side of the river, about midwaybetween Rocks Village Bridge and
Wickford Point.
She got out her high poweredbinoculars and started peering
through them.
Unfortunately, she did not seea black capped chickadee or a

(03:04):
tufted mouse.
When my bird nerds up, nope.
Instead she saw a halfsubmerged, bloated and badly
decayed body In a near faint.
This woman drove to theNewburyport Police Station and
told city marshal James ESullivan not James P Sullivan

(03:27):
monster's inc, james E Sullivan.
The problem was that boatscouldn't even reach where this
body was located.
You couldn't even get there byfoot.
They ended up extending fireladders across the marsh in
order to gain access.
It was missing a hand and afoot.
It only had a few shreds ofclothes left on it and the

(03:49):
fingers on the remaining handwere in tatters.
Medical examiner Daniel L Learycalled the state police when he
noticed rubber coated wirewrapped around one of the body's
legs.
Initially, police could notfind anyone matching the
description and their missingpersons files, but decided to

(04:12):
expand it to Haverhill, lawrenceand Lowell.
They were able to tell that thebody had been in the water for
months.
They also said that it waspossible that the current
carried it down from somecommunity upriver.
Lieutenant detective JamesLeary no relation to the ME from

(04:33):
the office of Essex CountyDistrict Attorney Hugh Cregg,
arrived the next day to takecharge of the investigation.
Dr George Katsas of the HarvardMedical School, assisted by a
state police pathologist, foundtwo bullet wounds in the head of
the body, leaving little doubtthat foul play was involved.

(04:55):
He was even able to find one ofthe bullets, but it was smashed
beyond identification.
The day after the body was found, melvin Clark Sr thought this
body might be his sons butcouldn't identify him because of
the amount of decomposition.
Two months earlier, melvin Srreported malmissing after he had

(05:22):
gotten physical with his wife,lorraine, and stopped showing up
to work and family functions.
Amesbury police questioned manypeople and came to the
conclusion that he had left forthe South to see some former
Navy pals.
Another day passed and moreinformation from the autopsy was
released.
Not only was this person shottwice in the head, but also

(05:45):
stabbed in the chest and beaten.
Preliminary tests showed thatthis man was around 5'9" and
could have weighed around 160pounds.
He had brown hair as well.
He had been wearing a marooncorduroy shirt, jacket with
pearl buttons and three snaps onthe cuff.

(06:05):
They believed the body wasdashed up on the rocks during
the spring floods.
If it hadn't flooded, itprobably would have just gone
off to the Atlantic.
They also start to refer tothis as a ganglion-style murder,
and by the end of that day theythink they've been able to put
together a thumbprint from theremaining hand.

(06:26):
To add fuel to the ganglintheory, they lump this murder
into several unsolvedgangland-style murders that have
happened since January, thoughthey eliminated the possibility
that it was a specificex-convict who had been missing.
Police also began to theorizethat the legs were bound to a

(06:47):
weight that had been dislodgedin the water.
The man's dental records aredistributed to dentists in the
area.
On June 5th, state policebelieve the body belonged to
30-year-old Melvin Clark Jr.
He owned a shirt matching thedescription of the one found on

(07:07):
the man.
He was also 5'10 and 160 pounds, with brown hair.
The amount of time Mel has beenmissing is the same amount of
time the body had been suspectedof being in the water.
Mel was last seen April 11th byhis wife, lorraine.
A week after his disappearance,the family car was found at an

(07:32):
MTA parking lot in Everett and,for whatever reason, they
decided to bury the body in apauper's grave at Walnut Hill
Cemetery with a single floralpiece provided by the city.
By the end of the day, theywere able to match the body's
fingerprint to Mel's Navy record.
His dentist was also able toconfirm his identity based on

(07:53):
two fillings from unbroken teeth.
After it's confirmed to be MelClark Jr, lorraine was notified.
She was so upset that she hadto go under a physician's care,
but even under stress, though,she submitted to questioning
until late.
On June 6th A male companion ofthe Clarks was also questioned

(08:16):
for about 12 hours.
It was reported that policeimpounded two vehicles in
relation to Mel's murder, thoughit wasn't initially released
who the owners were.
During questioning, lorrainetold police that Mel had asked
her to drive him to Newburyporton Sunday, april 11th, before
her shift at the Merrimac Diner.

(08:36):
When she got off work around 8pm he was waiting for her by the
car.
She drove him to their cottage,drove to her parents to get the
kids and then returned home.
They started fighting.
He left bruises and scratcheson her and then stormed out
around 10 pm.
She figured he was leaving forhis shift, which started around

(08:59):
11, but he never showed up atwork.
Lorraine said Mel didn't have anenemy in the world.
No one, absolutely no one,would want to kill him.
He could get hot-headed but henever hit me.
But that once and all the timeI kept hoping he'd hear about

(09:19):
the divorce and come back tostop it.
Lorraine still had a littlebaby voice going on.
That's just so you know thatI'm doing a thing.
On June 8th it was announcedthat a bloodstain had been found
in one of the impoundedvehicles that happened to be
unregistered at the time.
This is also when the HarvardBureau of Legal Medicine, or

(09:45):
HBoLM, sets up shop in the ClarkCottage on Lake Attitash.
They have lab equipment,chemists and ultraviolet lamps.
And while the house seemsimmaculately clean, the team was
able to find their murder sceneSplatter of blood spot where

(10:06):
blood pooled and a trailingsmear leading out the back door.
They also found a 22-caliberpistol and this cellar behind a
heating unit, on the top of abeam very close to the ceiling,
so it kind of seemed like it washidden.
Honestly, electrical wirematching the kind found on Mel's

(10:30):
body was also found in thecellar.
As chief of police EdmundMcLaughlin walks the crime scene
, he noticed a couple spaceswhere there used to be furniture
.
When he asked Lorraine, shetold them she had those pieces
of furniture and had taken themfrom the house.
When she moved out she turnedthem over.

(10:51):
It was a Davenport which is acouch or a fancy sofa, I learned
.
Sometimes it converts it to abed and a chair.
Chief McLaughlin also asked herabout the blood stains.
They found that had beenscrubbed with strong detergent.
She said she hadn't a clueabout any of that, hadn't the

(11:11):
foggiest.
She picked the furniture up acouple weeks after Mel
disappeared and her house wasalways tidy, so she didn't
notice a particularly cleanfloor.
Also, do you know that theyused to spell clue C-L-E-W?
Apparently it derives from theword clue-N, which means ball of

(11:32):
thread or yarn, but all the E-Wendings became U-E in modern
English.
This has been LinguisticsCorner.
When police revealed that therewere dry blood droplets on the
furniture, lorraine had turnedover.
She was aghast with horror,saying I've been sleeping on it.

(11:53):
At that moment Chief McLaughlinand DA Hugh Craig thought that
Lorraine would hardly takebloodied furniture into her
parents' home.
If she were guilty, she couldhave just destroyed it.
The police have yet to find amotive, but a Rocks Village
resident comes forward and sayshe remembers hearing a big

(12:17):
splash in the river on the nightof April 11th, followed by
seeing a car drive away from thebridge.
Police find what they think isblood on the bridge, but it
turns out to be red paintclassic red.
Hearing literally painted red.
And yay, another bird reference.
Seriously, bird nerds sound off.

(12:38):
Chief McLaughlin orders thatthe section of river under Rocks
Village Bridge be searched.
It's around this time thatpolice begin to think that Mel
was murdered Saturday night,even though Lorraine insists
that he was around on Sunday.
The owner of Mayor MacDiner,carmine Pesce, told police that

(13:00):
Lorraine was working at thediner Saturday and Sunday and
seemed her usual self.
Carmine also remembered seeingbruises on Lorraine.
That Tuesday Mel's buddy,kenneth Cook, comes forward to
tell police he had seen MelSaturday afternoon but didn't
see him when they had plans atnoon the next day.
Angus Young also saw MelSaturday afternoon when he

(13:26):
delivered some oil to thecottage boat things.
Police found out that Clark'sHudson convertible had been left
in the MTA parking lot atEverett Station between one and
nine am on Monday, april 12th.
The worker who saw a man walkaway from the car also talked to
him.

(13:46):
The man talked as if he was inthe Navy and said someone would
be by to pick up the car in acouple days.
Lorraine was asked to turn overher clothes from the night of
the fight.
It included a torn bra, leopardskin coolots with a partially
torn zipper, a quilted housecoat and, for some reason, three

(14:10):
pairs of shoes.
Those items were sent to Bostonwhere all the fingerprint and
ballistic analysis had beengoing on.
A funeral was held for Mel onJune 12th.
It was led by Reverend Carol CCoffin, which is a terrible name
for anyone at a funeral but agreat name for a Dungeons

(14:31):
Dragons NPC.
Reverend Coffin, love it.
Auxiliary police were alsothere to hold back the 200-plus
onlookers.
Mel's body was disinterred fromthe grave at Walnut Grove to be
buried at Mount ProspectCemetery, just to be reexhumed
by Order of DA Craig for furthertesting.

(14:54):
A man was also escorted fromthat same funeral by a state
trooper from Traumola FuneralHome to the Amesbury police
station for questioning.
When the man came out he toldreporters that he didn't know
who killed Mel, that he had noenemies that he knew of and that

(15:15):
he was willing to do a liedetector test.
Da Craig hints to reportersthat they suspect at least three
people were involved in Mel'smurder.
Then, on June 25th, lorraineClark was brought in for
questioning.
She was questioned for 14 hoursthrough the night.

(15:39):
Officers presented a.32 caliberrusty pistol that had been
found in Merrimack River andtold her that it was the murder
weapon.
This was not true but, as weall have learned, cops can lie
whenever they want and this wasonly one tactic used.
Just before 3 am Lorrainesigned a three-page,

(16:04):
single-spaced, type-writtenconfession and at 6.45, she was
arrested.
She was immediately escorted tothe cottage to reenact the
murder, then to her parents tosay goodbye to her children,
then to the courthouse.
The cruiser Lorraine was inactually got into a minor

(16:26):
accident on the way and then thelawyer she requested declined
to represent her.
So she was represented by thesame attorney who helped her
file divorce proceedings againsther absent husband back in May
C Francis Leary no relation tothe ME or the Lieutenant
Detective, just a popular namefor that area.
Where's Dennis Leary from?

(16:48):
Anyways, under Massachusettslaw, someone charged for murder
cannot plead guilty.
So Lorraine pleaded innocentand was held at Salem Jail where
she would be until her grandjury hearing in September and
until her trial.
It was the first time in 21years that a woman had been

(17:11):
charged with murder.
The last was Jesse Costello forthe 1933 killing of her fire
captain husband William Costello.
DA Cregg had also prosecutedthat trial and I was going to
give you a little blurb about it, but I definitely need to cover
that case sometime because itbe cray.

(17:31):
A few days later DA Cregg saidthat it was Lorraine's
uncontrollable infatuation forother men which precipitated the
vicious verbal row.
In Lorraine's confession shesaid she acted alone.
She said when she got home thatnight and the couple continued

(17:54):
their argument from the morning,mel was tormentingly reasonable
, pleading about the kids andtheir parents and their marriage
for hours.
At some point she pulled thepistol out and Mel just laughed
at her.
She then fired a shot that hithim in the forehead but didn't
enter his skull.

(18:14):
Mel ran around for 15 minutesbefore trying to leave the house
.
That's when Lorraine said sheshot him in the temple.
Lorraine said she laid on thecouch in a fit for hours, not
knowing what to do with Mel'sbody.
She eventually dragged the bodyto the trunk of their Hudson

(18:35):
convertible, gathered two 15pound mushroom weights from
Mel's boat stuff and electricalwire from his workshop.
By this time it was 4 am.
She took the back roads toRocks Village Bridge and wired
the weights, one on his ankleand one on his wrist.
The bridge had a latticeguardrail that was over four

(18:57):
feet tall, but Lorraine said shejust tossed Mel's 160 pound
body with weights attached to itover the railing all by herself
.
She then drove back and slept.
When DA Cregg was asked howLorraine did all that, he said
it's surprising what people cando under terrific emotional

(19:20):
stress.
Okay, hugh.
While Lorraine was first held atSalem Jail she refused
breakfast and only picked at thefood of her other meals.
She mostly paced, but wouldalso read from a magazine rack
and help with the dishes andlisten to the radio at dinner
time While awaiting her grandjury hearing, something she

(19:45):
couldn't have expected happened.
Her lover, who she had anaffair with for a year before
Mel's murder, arthur Jackson,started talking, but we'll have
to wait to hear what he has tosay until next time.
That's right, it's a three-partparty.

(20:06):
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(20:28):
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Thanks to the thoroughreporting of the Boston Globe
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Take care of each other andremember murder is bad.