April 8, 2019 • 23 mins
On Christmas Eve 1959, Charles Roy Clark, was killed by a single gunshot wound to his right temple. Police were baffled. Charles was beloved in his community. He taught Sunday school, was a scout troop leader, a great employee, and a loving father and husband. He seemed to have a perfect life. But did he? Police uncovered a dirty little secret. His wife Lois had sexual affairs with other men and had become pregnant by another man. Police arrested a man named Gene Hargrove, who had an affair with Lois Clark. The police claimed he killed Charles so he could be with Lois. The prosecutor thought he had an easy conviction. He was wrong.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:28):
If you confess to a rape ora murder, you must have done it,
and that's how we treat it inour legal system. We think it's
scarcely conceivable that someone could possibly falselyconfess to a serious crime. But what
we now know is that it's notonly possible, I think it's the predictable
consequence of using the most widely employedinterrogation technique in the United States, the
(00:52):
read approach. And why is that, Well, the read approach basically is
broken into these two phases. Thefirst approach you brought in to an interrogation,
and the first goal of the policeofficer is just to tell whether you're
telling the truth or not. Andwhat do police officers focus on, Well,
the same thing that we all focuson, things like gaze a version.
(01:14):
Are you looking me in the eyeor are you looking down at your
shoes or up at the ceiling?Are your handshaking? Are your legs bouncing
up and down. Once the policeofficer picks one of these things out and
says yes, this person is lying, while they move to the second part
of the process, which is allabout getting a confession. Now, what's
the problem with the first part ofthe process, Well, the things that
(01:34):
police officers rely on are not diagnosed. Good ways to diagnose whether someone's being
deceitful or not good Evening. Thisis mark Welcome to another episode of The
(02:00):
markov Tonight is a conclusion of ThePerfect Family. If you didn't listen to
the first episode, you may wantto go back and listen. Otherwise,
let me give you a recap onthis story. On Christmas Eve nineteen fifty
nine, a family man named CharlesClark was murdered in his kitchen. Someone
had fired a bullet into his kitchenwindow and struck him in the right temple.
(02:23):
He would die on the way tothe hospital. Afterward, the police
learned that Clark's wife, Lois,had been having an affair with a man
named Floyd Eugene Hargrove. After thepolice cleared Lois Clark, they focused on
Jeane Hargrove. So on with thestory. Lois Clark admitted to seeing Hargrove
on Christmas Eve in the morning,but I'm not sure why. My research
(02:47):
didn't explain why they had met.Since they had supposedly ended their affair.
The defense team had asked if shehad carried on with any other men.
She admitted to having set for relationswith three other men. One was a
Willowby police lieutenant, but he deniedthe affair. When his name came out
(03:07):
in court, he was suspended andthen he would eventually resign. I don't
know if he was married or not. Perhaps that had something to do with
why he resigned, But then youthink this was the late fifties early sixties
and something that scandalists could be adamper on your name, so that's possibly
(03:28):
why he resigned. Another lover wasa car salesman who had followed her in
his car and called her after shehad ended their affair so that she could
be with Hardgrove. The third manwas a hairstylist. She had also dumped
him for Hargrove. One had towonder if any of these three men would
have a motive for wanting Charles Clark. Did The police believed that none of
the men were involved in killing Clark. The defense has slowis is she would
(03:52):
believe Hargrove if he denied killing Clarkunder oath. She said that she would
believe him. It was now thedefendant's turn to address the jury, and
they were more than prepared to counterthe prosecutor and to leave the jury with
some doubts about the case. Hargrove'sattorney, Lewis Turry Junior, was a
(04:25):
bulldog in the courtroom. He wasthe type of defense attorney anyone would want
if their life was on the line. He attacked all of the key points
brought up by the prosecutor. Terryfirst addressed the gun sale at the Carlson
Hardware store where the alleged murder weaponwas purchased. The clerk who sold the
rifles said he couldn't identify it forsure, and he wasn't even sure if
(04:48):
Hargrove was the man who had boughtit. The hardware store was extremely busy
two days before Christmas, and therewere at least four hundred customers in the
store, which explains why the clerkwasn't sure if Hargrove was even in the
store. The clerk had also forgottento record the serial number of the rifle.
The fireman who recovered the twenty twocaliber rifle from the Chagrin River was
(05:10):
then called to the stand. Hetold a system prosecutor Claire, that he
couldn't be sure if the rifle wasthe same one he had pulled for the
river. He said it looked likeit, but he couldn't say for sure.
The next person to testify was thepoliceman who had removed the bullet from
the utility bowl. He had testifiedthat he used the chisel to remove the
(05:30):
bullet. Under questioning from the defense, the officer admitted that he had put
a nick in the bullet while removingit. This meant that he could have
altered it enough to where it wasimpossible for him to say that it had
come from the rifle allegedly used tokill Clark. The next person to take
the stand was Joseph full the handwritingexpert. He would claim that the signature
(05:53):
of Robert G. McLaren matched GeneHargrove's signature, and if you remember,
McLaren was the name used on thegun purchase card from the hardware store.
Cherry told a jury that the policehad Hargrove print his name many times until
they were satisfied that it resembled thesignature on the hardware store card. Fol
(06:15):
told the defense that he had examinedmore than two thousand, five hundred cases
and he had never made an error. Defense attorney Simmons question Fole's analysis.
He pointed out an erasure near theletter G on the gun purchase card.
Full had referred to the racier asa pencil failure and not in a ratuer.
Simmons asked Full to take another lookat the signature. He told him
(06:39):
to take a really close look.Full did take another look, and he
admitted that he could indeed see thatit was an erasure. Therefore, Bull
couldn't positively say that the handwriting matched. Then it was Chief half He's turn
to get on the stand. Hewould testify that Hargrove had admitted to signing
(06:59):
the gun card where seat as RobertG. McLaren, and he also admitted
to the location where he fired atest shot. When asked to identify the
bullet removed from Clark, the sheriffidentified the bullet is the same one he
had seen in that it had beenkept safe at the village hall until he
gave it to the bullet exact experts. The defense had gotten Halfy to admit
(07:19):
that he had made a mistake whenhandling the bullet. Halfy said that he
had forgotten to record the bullet foridentification until after the coroner removed the bullet
from Clark's right temple. Instead ofrecording the bullet immediately, he waited five
days. This was considered a compromiseof the evidence. Prosecutor Claire then began
(07:40):
to ask Chief Halfy questions about Clarkin Hargrove's affair. Halfy said Hargrove told
him their relations were abnormal. DefenseAttorney Torrey immediately objected and requested a break.
He did not want Halfy answering anyadditional questions about the affair. During
the break, Hargrove told press membersthat Hathy was lying. Hargrove said he
(08:03):
never discussed his affair with Lois withHathy, He only discussed it was Sheriff
Evans and Claire. Hargrove said thathe had only confessed the first time because
if he didn't, his sexual affairwould come out in the trial and he
didn't want that to happen. Theprosecutor then wanted to have Hathy and Evans
testify that while under sodium amatal,Hargrove told them where they could find the
(08:24):
alleged murder weapon. Terry had saidthat he would object this testimony if it
came up in court, and hewould he held another conference with Judge Slocum
and said the confession was illegally obtained. The judge agreed, so the testimony
was thrown out. On day nineto the trial, the defense and prosecutor
met with Judge Slocum for three hoursafter the prosecution said that they wanted to
(08:48):
play Hargrove's confession from January the second. This was after Hargrove was coming off
the effects of the sodium amatal.The defense objected. They argued that the
confession was given under duress and thatHargrove really seemed out of it. They
contended that Hargrove would have confessed toanything in his state, but Judge Scholcom
allowed the confession to be heard.So here's how the tape point. Hargrove
(09:11):
said that he had purchased the rifleunder the name Robert G. McLaren,
and then he fired a test shotinto a utility pole. After much hostile
questioning, Hargrove said, I toldyou I did it. I'll confess to
killing him, but I don't knowwhere the gun is. Sheriff Evans told
him to quit fooling around and getit off his chest. Evans then said,
(09:35):
think of Lois, think of thekids? Do you want me to
tell the newspapers about your abnormal relationswith her? He then demanded to know
where the gun was. Defense AttorneySimmons got Sheriff Evans to admit that he
had threatened Hargrove by saying he wouldspread his sexual details with Lois to the
newspapers. Evans even offered to leaveout the affair if Hargrove would just reveal
(09:56):
the rifle's location. The prosecutor calledtwo bl experts to the stand. They
both testified that the bullet pride fromthe utility pole and the one from Clark's
right temple came from the same weapon. They had matched the lands and grooves
from the barrel of the twenty twofound in the Chagrin River to the two
fired bullets. Tory disagreed with theseexperts. He said the bullet removed from
(10:20):
the victim was too damaged to beable to make that assessment. That bullet
had one land groove, while thebullet in the utility pole had six.
Tory said that it was impossible tomake a conclusion that these came from the
same weapon, but the experts stuckto their testimony they were positive both bullets
came from the same rifle. Well, then Tory brought in his own expert.
(10:45):
He called in David Cow's, thefounder and retired chief of the Cleveland
Police Department's Scientific Unit. Judge Slocumhad given Cow's time to do his own
testing on the bullets. Cow's ruledthat neither bullet was fired from the twenty
two caliber right that had allegedly killedClark. Cows had gone to the Clark's
home to study the area, andthis is what he found. He found
(11:07):
evidence of a target range near thehouse by a vacant field. Cow's observed
a boulder about a foot wide anda foot high sticking out of the ground.
It had glass from broken bottles inthe grass surrounding the boulder. Cows
also noticed that there was some woodattached to a tree. There was a
bullet hole the size of a twentytwo in the wood. Cows also studied
(11:31):
the sycamore tree in the back ofthe house where Hargrove allegedly killed Clark.
Supposedly, Hargrove had rested the riflein the tree's crotch, and that was
about four and a half feet high. Cow's reasoned that Hargrove is about six
feet tall, so he would havehad a problem firing that rifle if he
was standing. The only way thathe could have fired that rifle was to
(11:54):
have stooped down to fire it,and that wouldn't have seemed logical. Cows
didn't think he could hit anything fromthat angle, and if he kneeled,
then the bullet would have likely missedthe window altogether and gone over the window.
Defense attorney summed up Hargrove's defense intwo words, the death was a
tragic accident. He said that itwas possible someone was over in the nearby
field target shooting and accidentally shot throughthe clark's window. A reporter had asked
(12:18):
Tory, why would anyone be targetpracticing in the pitch dark. Terry said
the light from the window could haveprovided enough light. The trial was coming
to an end when Hargrove took thestand, and most of the spectators were
women. They all wanted to geta good look at the tall, handsome
man dressed in a gray suit.The room went dead silent. No one
(12:39):
wanted to miss one word of hargrovestestimony. Hargrove appeared fearless and confident.
Now it's usually not the common thingfor a defendant to take the stand.
Hargrove said that he wanted to speak. He told a courtroom that he had
been bullied and brow beaten into confessing. We also know that he was threatened
(13:00):
when police were realized he didn't wanthis affair with Lois Clark made public,
they used the information as bait toget him to talk. According to Hargrove,
I was tired of hearing them screamat me, so I confessed.
He said he was innocent, andhe only confessed because he wanted the sheriff
and the chief to get off hisback. He also said that he had
(13:22):
confessed because Evans said if he didn't, then Lois and her children would be
finished in Lake County. Defense attorneySimmons asked Hargrove what that meant. Hargrove
said they were referring to a mutualexchange between two people who loved each other
sincerely. They had made it seemcheap and dirty, he said. Hargrove
(13:46):
was grilled by police from ten pmChristmas Eve until the afternoon of December the
twenty sixth. Hargrove said that hewas kept awake during the time and had
only slept a few minutes. Hewas exhausted and beaten down. He said,
the threats from the police finally brokehim. When I hear people say
that they don't understand how an innocentman can confess to a crime, this
(14:11):
is how it happens. This happensbecause everyone has a breaking point. If
you are kept up for days withoutany rest and under constant questioning, you
could just as easily say whatever yourinterrogators want to hear, just to get
out of the room. And thisis what Hardgrove claimed happened to him,
(14:48):
and this seems plausible. I canremember the case of the Central Park five.
Supposedly five teenagers had sexually assaulted ajogger in Central Park. The teams
all confessed, were convicted and sentto prison. Many years later, they
were exonerated by DNA the real rapistwas identified. People then asked, well,
(15:11):
why would they confess if they wereinnocent. The teenagers said that the
police had coursed them into admitting guilt. In short, they were so broken
that they would have confessed the killingFormer President John F. Kennedy. So
never assume that an omission of guiltis full proof, because sometimes it isn't,
(15:35):
and this has been proven to betrue in other cases. Hargrove explained
to the jury how he had metand fell in love with Lois Clark.
They had met at a dance companyin nineteen fifty six. He then ran
into her at a shopping center innineteen fifty nine. She then invited him
to her home. They ran intoeach other again a few weeks later at
(15:58):
a restaurant, again divided him over. The affair began when he visited her
on Saint Patrick's Day Charles wasn't home. They began seeing each other regularly.
In November, Lois soon learned thatshe was pregnant, and they both believed
that it was Hargrove's baby. Theyeven went to the doctor together. The
pregnancy would end in a miscarriage aweek later. The miscarriage must have changed
(16:21):
the relationship because afterward they both decidedthe part ways. Hargrove stuck to his
story about his whereabouts. On ChristmasEve, he had dinner with his boss
and then he went to visit aco worker at their job, but the
co worker had already left. Regardinghis boss, Ozinga. Hargrove said that
he never told Ozinga he wanted tokill Clark. He said that it was
(16:42):
a dream Ozinga had and not basedon reality. He also denied ever telling
Ozinga about buying a gun. Hargrovesaid that he regularly drove past the utility
poll with the bullet in it,and that it was common for locals to
use it for target practice. Hetold police about the poll because he knew
(17:02):
that they would find a bullet init. The defense team told the newspapers
that police zeroed in on Hargrove immediatelybecause of his affair with Clark's wife.
They never focused on any other suspects, and Clark's wife had slept with other
men, so it's a possibility thatsomebody else could have done it. Terry
also mentioned the police refused to evenconsider that the shooting could have been an
(17:25):
accident. At the end of thetrial, the prosecution said that Hargrove was
a heartless killer who had murdered aloving husband and father. Hargrove was described
as a man without any scruples.He was also called a life beater,
an adulterer, and a man whodidn't make his alimony payments on a timely
basis. Yes, Floyd Gene Hargrovewas the only person who wanted Charles Clark
(17:48):
dead. This was a murderer andnot an accident. Terry got his turn
to close, and he wanted tomake sure that he reminded the jury.
That's sure, his client was acheater and he was probably not the greatest
husband in the world, but thisdidn't make him a killer. Terry said.
The police solely focused on the sexualangle between Hargrove and Lois Clark.
(18:12):
But you have to ask yourself whatwould have happened if there would not have
been an affair. Would there havebeen a motive then, Terry said.
The prosecutor couldn't even completely prove anyonehad murdered Clark. He said it could
have been an accidental shooting him bya reckless target shooter. When I researched
this case, I originally thought Hargrovewas guilty. I mean, he did
(18:32):
confess, but then he was grilledunmercifully for hours. The police also threatened
him and this was caught on tape. Could Hargrove really think that if he
killed Charles Clark, then he wouldbe able to run away with Lewis Clark
and live happily ever after. Thisis what the prosecution believed, or could
(18:52):
this have just been a tragic accident, as the defense had surmised. The
jury de braided for under five hoursthey returned a not guilty verdict. The
courtroom went crazy as people cheered,so why had they acquitted Hargrove. The
jury foreman said that they thought Hargrovecould have killed Clark, but if he
(19:15):
did, the prosecutor hadn't proven itbeyond a shadow of a doubt. The
jury had also preferred the ballistics expertbrought in by the defense team, David
Cowell's, appeared to have a betterexplanation about the ballistics, where the state
experts couldn't explain how one bullet hadonly one groove and the other had six,
but both had come from the samerifle. When Lois Clark heard about
(19:37):
the verdict, she wasn't surprised.She said everyone had convicted Hargrove prematurely,
and she felt she knew him wellenough to know that there was no way
he could have possibly killed her husband. She just didn't think he had it
any Supposedly, Hargrove was hopeful thathe could pick up with Lois Clark and
start a new relationship, but thisnever happen. She didn't meet with him
(20:00):
to consider the possibility. Instead,she collected one hundred and five thousand,
two hundred and ninety eight dollars ininsurance money, packed up her kids into
her new station Wagon, and headedwest to California. Sometime in December nineteen
sixty, she married an attorney namedDavid E. Smith. I'm guessing she
lived happily ever after. So whathappened to Hargrove. He tried to sue
(20:23):
the police for nearly a million dollarsfor false arrest, but the judge tossed
the suit. There'd be no paydayfor Gene Hargrove, but in the end,
he didn't end up getting remarried.He met a woman named Betty,
and they relocated to Cincinnati and tooka sales job. He died on April
ninth, nineteen seventy eight, ofa heart attack in Cincinnati, Ohio.
(20:45):
His wife, Betty would follow himin death on November thirtieth, two thousand
and seven. Both are buried atOhio's rest Haven Memorial Park. After the
acquittal, the case was closed.Sheriff Evans and prosecutor Astrander both believed that
Hargrove was their killer and he hadbeen freed. They had no interest in
pursuing anyone else. Today, themurder of Charles Roy Clark remains unsolved.
(21:10):
Most likely this case will remain unsolved. I mean the crime did happen sixty
years ago. This means that mostof the key players are either deceased are
really old. Many people have beenmurdered over lust. If you do a
simple search on the Internet, youcan find many cases where people have been
murdered over sexual relations. So thenext time you see that happy couple,
(21:33):
just remember that this isn't always true. It's possible that behind the smiles,
one or both of those people mightbe carrying on an affair with someone else.
So there you have the case ofthe perfect marriage that ended in death
with a lone bullet. Have anamazing day and remember that if you wake
up on the right side of thegrass, you're having a great day.
(22:51):
She please us, which inter
If you confess to a rape ora murder, you must have done it,
and that's how we treat it inour legal system. We think it's
scarcely conceivable that someone could possibly falselyconfess to a serious crime. But what
we now know is that it's notonly possible, I think it's the predictable
consequence of using the most widely employedinterrogation technique in the United States, the
(00:52):
read approach. And why is that, Well, the read approach basically is
broken into these two phases. Thefirst approach you brought in to an interrogation,
and the first goal of the policeofficer is just to tell whether you're
telling the truth or not. Andwhat do police officers focus on, Well,
the same thing that we all focuson, things like gaze a version.
(01:14):
Are you looking me in the eyeor are you looking down at your
shoes or up at the ceiling?Are your handshaking? Are your legs bouncing
up and down. Once the policeofficer picks one of these things out and
says yes, this person is lying, while they move to the second part
of the process, which is allabout getting a confession. Now, what's
the problem with the first part ofthe process, Well, the things that
(01:34):
police officers rely on are not diagnosed. Good ways to diagnose whether someone's being
deceitful or not good Evening. Thisis mark Welcome to another episode of The
(02:00):
markov Tonight is a conclusion of ThePerfect Family. If you didn't listen to
the first episode, you may wantto go back and listen. Otherwise,
let me give you a recap onthis story. On Christmas Eve nineteen fifty
nine, a family man named CharlesClark was murdered in his kitchen. Someone
had fired a bullet into his kitchenwindow and struck him in the right temple.
(02:23):
He would die on the way tothe hospital. Afterward, the police
learned that Clark's wife, Lois,had been having an affair with a man
named Floyd Eugene Hargrove. After thepolice cleared Lois Clark, they focused on
Jeane Hargrove. So on with thestory. Lois Clark admitted to seeing Hargrove
on Christmas Eve in the morning,but I'm not sure why. My research
(02:47):
didn't explain why they had met.Since they had supposedly ended their affair.
The defense team had asked if shehad carried on with any other men.
She admitted to having set for relationswith three other men. One was a
Willowby police lieutenant, but he deniedthe affair. When his name came out
(03:07):
in court, he was suspended andthen he would eventually resign. I don't
know if he was married or not. Perhaps that had something to do with
why he resigned, But then youthink this was the late fifties early sixties
and something that scandalists could be adamper on your name, so that's possibly
(03:28):
why he resigned. Another lover wasa car salesman who had followed her in
his car and called her after shehad ended their affair so that she could
be with Hardgrove. The third manwas a hairstylist. She had also dumped
him for Hargrove. One had towonder if any of these three men would
have a motive for wanting Charles Clark. Did The police believed that none of
the men were involved in killing Clark. The defense has slowis is she would
(03:52):
believe Hargrove if he denied killing Clarkunder oath. She said that she would
believe him. It was now thedefendant's turn to address the jury, and
they were more than prepared to counterthe prosecutor and to leave the jury with
some doubts about the case. Hargrove'sattorney, Lewis Turry Junior, was a
(04:25):
bulldog in the courtroom. He wasthe type of defense attorney anyone would want
if their life was on the line. He attacked all of the key points
brought up by the prosecutor. Terryfirst addressed the gun sale at the Carlson
Hardware store where the alleged murder weaponwas purchased. The clerk who sold the
rifles said he couldn't identify it forsure, and he wasn't even sure if
(04:48):
Hargrove was the man who had boughtit. The hardware store was extremely busy
two days before Christmas, and therewere at least four hundred customers in the
store, which explains why the clerkwasn't sure if Hargrove was even in the
store. The clerk had also forgottento record the serial number of the rifle.
The fireman who recovered the twenty twocaliber rifle from the Chagrin River was
(05:10):
then called to the stand. Hetold a system prosecutor Claire, that he
couldn't be sure if the rifle wasthe same one he had pulled for the
river. He said it looked likeit, but he couldn't say for sure.
The next person to testify was thepoliceman who had removed the bullet from
the utility bowl. He had testifiedthat he used the chisel to remove the
(05:30):
bullet. Under questioning from the defense, the officer admitted that he had put
a nick in the bullet while removingit. This meant that he could have
altered it enough to where it wasimpossible for him to say that it had
come from the rifle allegedly used tokill Clark. The next person to take
the stand was Joseph full the handwritingexpert. He would claim that the signature
(05:53):
of Robert G. McLaren matched GeneHargrove's signature, and if you remember,
McLaren was the name used on thegun purchase card from the hardware store.
Cherry told a jury that the policehad Hargrove print his name many times until
they were satisfied that it resembled thesignature on the hardware store card. Fol
(06:15):
told the defense that he had examinedmore than two thousand, five hundred cases
and he had never made an error. Defense attorney Simmons question Fole's analysis.
He pointed out an erasure near theletter G on the gun purchase card.
Full had referred to the racier asa pencil failure and not in a ratuer.
Simmons asked Full to take another lookat the signature. He told him
(06:39):
to take a really close look.Full did take another look, and he
admitted that he could indeed see thatit was an erasure. Therefore, Bull
couldn't positively say that the handwriting matched. Then it was Chief half He's turn
to get on the stand. Hewould testify that Hargrove had admitted to signing
(06:59):
the gun card where seat as RobertG. McLaren, and he also admitted
to the location where he fired atest shot. When asked to identify the
bullet removed from Clark, the sheriffidentified the bullet is the same one he
had seen in that it had beenkept safe at the village hall until he
gave it to the bullet exact experts. The defense had gotten Halfy to admit
(07:19):
that he had made a mistake whenhandling the bullet. Halfy said that he
had forgotten to record the bullet foridentification until after the coroner removed the bullet
from Clark's right temple. Instead ofrecording the bullet immediately, he waited five
days. This was considered a compromiseof the evidence. Prosecutor Claire then began
(07:40):
to ask Chief Halfy questions about Clarkin Hargrove's affair. Halfy said Hargrove told
him their relations were abnormal. DefenseAttorney Torrey immediately objected and requested a break.
He did not want Halfy answering anyadditional questions about the affair. During
the break, Hargrove told press membersthat Hathy was lying. Hargrove said he
(08:03):
never discussed his affair with Lois withHathy, He only discussed it was Sheriff
Evans and Claire. Hargrove said thathe had only confessed the first time because
if he didn't, his sexual affairwould come out in the trial and he
didn't want that to happen. Theprosecutor then wanted to have Hathy and Evans
testify that while under sodium amatal,Hargrove told them where they could find the
(08:24):
alleged murder weapon. Terry had saidthat he would object this testimony if it
came up in court, and hewould he held another conference with Judge Slocum
and said the confession was illegally obtained. The judge agreed, so the testimony
was thrown out. On day nineto the trial, the defense and prosecutor
met with Judge Slocum for three hoursafter the prosecution said that they wanted to
(08:48):
play Hargrove's confession from January the second. This was after Hargrove was coming off
the effects of the sodium amatal.The defense objected. They argued that the
confession was given under duress and thatHargrove really seemed out of it. They
contended that Hargrove would have confessed toanything in his state, but Judge Scholcom
allowed the confession to be heard.So here's how the tape point. Hargrove
(09:11):
said that he had purchased the rifleunder the name Robert G. McLaren,
and then he fired a test shotinto a utility pole. After much hostile
questioning, Hargrove said, I toldyou I did it. I'll confess to
killing him, but I don't knowwhere the gun is. Sheriff Evans told
him to quit fooling around and getit off his chest. Evans then said,
(09:35):
think of Lois, think of thekids? Do you want me to
tell the newspapers about your abnormal relationswith her? He then demanded to know
where the gun was. Defense AttorneySimmons got Sheriff Evans to admit that he
had threatened Hargrove by saying he wouldspread his sexual details with Lois to the
newspapers. Evans even offered to leaveout the affair if Hargrove would just reveal
(09:56):
the rifle's location. The prosecutor calledtwo bl experts to the stand. They
both testified that the bullet pride fromthe utility pole and the one from Clark's
right temple came from the same weapon. They had matched the lands and grooves
from the barrel of the twenty twofound in the Chagrin River to the two
fired bullets. Tory disagreed with theseexperts. He said the bullet removed from
(10:20):
the victim was too damaged to beable to make that assessment. That bullet
had one land groove, while thebullet in the utility pole had six.
Tory said that it was impossible tomake a conclusion that these came from the
same weapon, but the experts stuckto their testimony they were positive both bullets
came from the same rifle. Well, then Tory brought in his own expert.
(10:45):
He called in David Cow's, thefounder and retired chief of the Cleveland
Police Department's Scientific Unit. Judge Slocumhad given Cow's time to do his own
testing on the bullets. Cow's ruledthat neither bullet was fired from the twenty
two caliber right that had allegedly killedClark. Cows had gone to the Clark's
home to study the area, andthis is what he found. He found
(11:07):
evidence of a target range near thehouse by a vacant field. Cow's observed
a boulder about a foot wide anda foot high sticking out of the ground.
It had glass from broken bottles inthe grass surrounding the boulder. Cows
also noticed that there was some woodattached to a tree. There was a
bullet hole the size of a twentytwo in the wood. Cows also studied
(11:31):
the sycamore tree in the back ofthe house where Hargrove allegedly killed Clark.
Supposedly, Hargrove had rested the riflein the tree's crotch, and that was
about four and a half feet high. Cow's reasoned that Hargrove is about six
feet tall, so he would havehad a problem firing that rifle if he
was standing. The only way thathe could have fired that rifle was to
(11:54):
have stooped down to fire it,and that wouldn't have seemed logical. Cows
didn't think he could hit anything fromthat angle, and if he kneeled,
then the bullet would have likely missedthe window altogether and gone over the window.
Defense attorney summed up Hargrove's defense intwo words, the death was a
tragic accident. He said that itwas possible someone was over in the nearby
field target shooting and accidentally shot throughthe clark's window. A reporter had asked
(12:18):
Tory, why would anyone be targetpracticing in the pitch dark. Terry said
the light from the window could haveprovided enough light. The trial was coming
to an end when Hargrove took thestand, and most of the spectators were
women. They all wanted to geta good look at the tall, handsome
man dressed in a gray suit.The room went dead silent. No one
(12:39):
wanted to miss one word of hargrovestestimony. Hargrove appeared fearless and confident.
Now it's usually not the common thingfor a defendant to take the stand.
Hargrove said that he wanted to speak. He told a courtroom that he had
been bullied and brow beaten into confessing. We also know that he was threatened
(13:00):
when police were realized he didn't wanthis affair with Lois Clark made public,
they used the information as bait toget him to talk. According to Hargrove,
I was tired of hearing them screamat me, so I confessed.
He said he was innocent, andhe only confessed because he wanted the sheriff
and the chief to get off hisback. He also said that he had
(13:22):
confessed because Evans said if he didn't, then Lois and her children would be
finished in Lake County. Defense attorneySimmons asked Hargrove what that meant. Hargrove
said they were referring to a mutualexchange between two people who loved each other
sincerely. They had made it seemcheap and dirty, he said. Hargrove
(13:46):
was grilled by police from ten pmChristmas Eve until the afternoon of December the
twenty sixth. Hargrove said that hewas kept awake during the time and had
only slept a few minutes. Hewas exhausted and beaten down. He said,
the threats from the police finally brokehim. When I hear people say
that they don't understand how an innocentman can confess to a crime, this
(14:11):
is how it happens. This happensbecause everyone has a breaking point. If
you are kept up for days withoutany rest and under constant questioning, you
could just as easily say whatever yourinterrogators want to hear, just to get
out of the room. And thisis what Hardgrove claimed happened to him,
(14:48):
and this seems plausible. I canremember the case of the Central Park five.
Supposedly five teenagers had sexually assaulted ajogger in Central Park. The teams
all confessed, were convicted and sentto prison. Many years later, they
were exonerated by DNA the real rapistwas identified. People then asked, well,
(15:11):
why would they confess if they wereinnocent. The teenagers said that the
police had coursed them into admitting guilt. In short, they were so broken
that they would have confessed the killingFormer President John F. Kennedy. So
never assume that an omission of guiltis full proof, because sometimes it isn't,
(15:35):
and this has been proven to betrue in other cases. Hargrove explained
to the jury how he had metand fell in love with Lois Clark.
They had met at a dance companyin nineteen fifty six. He then ran
into her at a shopping center innineteen fifty nine. She then invited him
to her home. They ran intoeach other again a few weeks later at
(15:58):
a restaurant, again divided him over. The affair began when he visited her
on Saint Patrick's Day Charles wasn't home. They began seeing each other regularly.
In November, Lois soon learned thatshe was pregnant, and they both believed
that it was Hargrove's baby. Theyeven went to the doctor together. The
pregnancy would end in a miscarriage aweek later. The miscarriage must have changed
(16:21):
the relationship because afterward they both decidedthe part ways. Hargrove stuck to his
story about his whereabouts. On ChristmasEve, he had dinner with his boss
and then he went to visit aco worker at their job, but the
co worker had already left. Regardinghis boss, Ozinga. Hargrove said that
he never told Ozinga he wanted tokill Clark. He said that it was
(16:42):
a dream Ozinga had and not basedon reality. He also denied ever telling
Ozinga about buying a gun. Hargrovesaid that he regularly drove past the utility
poll with the bullet in it,and that it was common for locals to
use it for target practice. Hetold police about the poll because he knew
(17:02):
that they would find a bullet init. The defense team told the newspapers
that police zeroed in on Hargrove immediatelybecause of his affair with Clark's wife.
They never focused on any other suspects, and Clark's wife had slept with other
men, so it's a possibility thatsomebody else could have done it. Terry
also mentioned the police refused to evenconsider that the shooting could have been an
(17:25):
accident. At the end of thetrial, the prosecution said that Hargrove was
a heartless killer who had murdered aloving husband and father. Hargrove was described
as a man without any scruples.He was also called a life beater,
an adulterer, and a man whodidn't make his alimony payments on a timely
basis. Yes, Floyd Gene Hargrovewas the only person who wanted Charles Clark
(17:48):
dead. This was a murderer andnot an accident. Terry got his turn
to close, and he wanted tomake sure that he reminded the jury.
That's sure, his client was acheater and he was probably not the greatest
husband in the world, but thisdidn't make him a killer. Terry said.
The police solely focused on the sexualangle between Hargrove and Lois Clark.
(18:12):
But you have to ask yourself whatwould have happened if there would not have
been an affair. Would there havebeen a motive then, Terry said.
The prosecutor couldn't even completely prove anyonehad murdered Clark. He said it could
have been an accidental shooting him bya reckless target shooter. When I researched
this case, I originally thought Hargrovewas guilty. I mean, he did
(18:32):
confess, but then he was grilledunmercifully for hours. The police also threatened
him and this was caught on tape. Could Hargrove really think that if he
killed Charles Clark, then he wouldbe able to run away with Lewis Clark
and live happily ever after. Thisis what the prosecution believed, or could
(18:52):
this have just been a tragic accident, as the defense had surmised. The
jury de braided for under five hoursthey returned a not guilty verdict. The
courtroom went crazy as people cheered,so why had they acquitted Hargrove. The
jury foreman said that they thought Hargrovecould have killed Clark, but if he
(19:15):
did, the prosecutor hadn't proven itbeyond a shadow of a doubt. The
jury had also preferred the ballistics expertbrought in by the defense team, David
Cowell's, appeared to have a betterexplanation about the ballistics, where the state
experts couldn't explain how one bullet hadonly one groove and the other had six,
but both had come from the samerifle. When Lois Clark heard about
(19:37):
the verdict, she wasn't surprised.She said everyone had convicted Hargrove prematurely,
and she felt she knew him wellenough to know that there was no way
he could have possibly killed her husband. She just didn't think he had it
any Supposedly, Hargrove was hopeful thathe could pick up with Lois Clark and
start a new relationship, but thisnever happen. She didn't meet with him
(20:00):
to consider the possibility. Instead,she collected one hundred and five thousand,
two hundred and ninety eight dollars ininsurance money, packed up her kids into
her new station Wagon, and headedwest to California. Sometime in December nineteen
sixty, she married an attorney namedDavid E. Smith. I'm guessing she
lived happily ever after. So whathappened to Hargrove. He tried to sue
(20:23):
the police for nearly a million dollarsfor false arrest, but the judge tossed
the suit. There'd be no paydayfor Gene Hargrove, but in the end,
he didn't end up getting remarried.He met a woman named Betty,
and they relocated to Cincinnati and tooka sales job. He died on April
ninth, nineteen seventy eight, ofa heart attack in Cincinnati, Ohio.
(20:45):
His wife, Betty would follow himin death on November thirtieth, two thousand
and seven. Both are buried atOhio's rest Haven Memorial Park. After the
acquittal, the case was closed.Sheriff Evans and prosecutor Astrander both believed that
Hargrove was their killer and he hadbeen freed. They had no interest in
pursuing anyone else. Today, themurder of Charles Roy Clark remains unsolved.
(21:10):
Most likely this case will remain unsolved. I mean the crime did happen sixty
years ago. This means that mostof the key players are either deceased are
really old. Many people have beenmurdered over lust. If you do a
simple search on the Internet, youcan find many cases where people have been
murdered over sexual relations. So thenext time you see that happy couple,
(21:33):
just remember that this isn't always true. It's possible that behind the smiles,
one or both of those people mightbe carrying on an affair with someone else.
So there you have the case ofthe perfect marriage that ended in death
with a lone bullet. Have anamazing day and remember that if you wake
up on the right side of thegrass, you're having a great day.
(22:51):
She please us, which inter
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