Facing Maryland murderer who believed cellmate was Jesus was ‘like sitting with Satan’: former investigator
Hadden Clark is currently serving two 30-year sentences in Maryland for the 1992 murder of Laura Houghteling and for killing 6-year-old Michele Dorr in 1986.
Lou Luciano has sat face-to-face with "pure evil" – and he hopes to never do it again.
"My work has taken me to every hole you can imagine in North Africa, East Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, you name it," the retired FBI special agent told Fox News Digital. "I was around some of the most evil people on the planet. But this guy takes the cake. He is an aberration of humanity. He does not belong here."
"It’s like sitting with Satan," Luciano added.
Maryland murderer Hadden Clark is the subject of a new Michael Bay docuseries on Investigation Discovery (ID), "Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior." It explores how the 72-year-old made shocking confessions to his cellmate, Jack Truitt, whom he believed was Jesus, which sent investigators on a search to solve cold cases linked to him.
It features new interviews with Truitt, Clark’s brother Geoff Clark, loved ones of the victims, as well as others closely connected to the case.
Luciano, who took on the case in the 1990s, spoke out in the docuseries. He vividly remembers encountering "The Cross-Dressing Cannibal Killer," as Clark was later coined.
"I instantly noticed those ice-blue eyes," said Luciano. "He’s soulless. You can feel evil brewing out of this guy. You feel right away that he’s a manipulator. The chief said, ‘If he ever gets out, we’ve got to put him on the ground.’ That’s exactly how I felt.
"When I saw this guy, my immediate reaction was to take out my gun, put it against his temple and pull the trigger. When you are in the presence of this guy, it’s just a negative aura of evil. It just emanates from him."
The docuseries revealed how Clark, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, began exhibiting strange behavior as a child. His brother recalled how Clark once rammed him with a bike and watched him bleed profusely from his head.
Their mother insisted that a bad forceps delivery, which caused a head injury, was to blame for Clark’s actions growing up. Doctors believed he had brain damage.
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Growing up, Clark dissected animals and was bullied by other children. His parents, both reported as alcoholics, physically fought in front of him and his siblings. He was also caught wearing women’s clothing.
As an adult, Clark attended the Culinary Institute of America, but could not keep a job. Horrified co-workers once caught him chugging beef blood.
It was only the beginning.
"Hadden Clark has an incredibly explosive… vengeful temper when he doesn’t get his way," Luciano explained. "He lashes out whenever there’s a weaker person in his grasp."
On May 31, 1986, Michele Dorr had been staying with her father, Carl Dorr, whose home was near Geoff’s, where Clark had been staying at the time. She was last seen wearing a pink and white polka-dot bathing suit, heading to a pool in the backyard.
On that day, the 6-year-old disappeared. Carl, who had been going through a nasty divorce with his ex-wife, was initially viewed as the prime suspect.
Clark later admitted that he killed the child and drank her blood. In 1999, he was found guilty of killing Dorr.
The docuseries revealed how Clark told Truitt he knew where Dorr's body was. In 2000, he led police to the woods where her remains were found.
Over the years, Clark made hundreds of artworks that seemed to depict his crimes.
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"His drawings are mostly women and landscapes, maps," said Luciano. "They almost look like postcards, like ‘Wish you were here so I could kill you.’ I’m featured in some of it… But it’s always wide-eyed girls with blue eyes."
In 1992, Laura Houghteling vanished from her home. At the time, Clark was working as a gardener for the 23-year-old’s mother.
A bloody fingerprint on the Harvard graduate’s pillowcase zeroed in on Clark. He led police to her shallow grave in 1993 after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, the Washington Post reported.
The docuseries said that Houghteling’s mother, Penny, showed kindness to Clark. However, when Penny's daughter returned home from school, his demeanor changed.
"Penny starts giving attention and affection to her daughter… she’s now the main focus," said Luciano. "Clark didn’t take that rejection well at all. His immediate reaction was to lash out… and kill Laura."
Clark insisted that his alter ego, Kristen Bluefin, was responsible for the slayings.
"When we interviewed him, he sometimes thought he was Kristen," said Luciano. "He would wear a wig. He also had other personalities… all of his alter egos were women. And at his campsite, he had women’s clothes there. He would wear women’s clothes. But he loved the attention. He loved people looking at him."
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Murder seemed to run in Clark’s family. His brother, Bradfield Clark, has been behind bars since 1985. He killed his co-worker, Patricia Mak, after inviting her to dinner. He later cooked and ate some of her body parts.
Luciano credited Truitt for helping investigators bring closure to the grieving loved ones.
"When Hadden started confessing to Jack because he thought he was Jesus, Jack was like, ‘Man, this guy’s talking about killing, gutting and cannibalizing little kids and cutting the throats of women,'" said Luciano.
"Jack did this at great risk… being locked up in a correctional institution. Calling the police can make a very bad entry to your health record while you’re behind bars. But Jack picked up the phone and made that call."
"Never once did I hear Jack utter, ‘If I help you guys, you’re going to help me get out of here, right? I’ve been down here now for some 30-odd years,’" Luciano continued. "He never once asked for anything. He never asked for consideration. He never asked for special favors. And Jack’s a tough guy. He was a big-time shotcaller in the system. He wasn’t a guy to be messed with. Today he’s one-eighth of the guy he was. But I have great respect for him."
Luciano said you can never rule out the possibility that there are more victims out there.
"Hadden Clark is a spoiled brat," he said. "When he doesn’t get his way, he doesn’t want attention. Then he gets angry… Hadden’s not a guy who does anything for free or out of the goodness of his heart. If he’s craving attention, he’ll do something to get it… Never say never, but I don’t see Hadden Clark as a deathbed confession kind of guy."
Luciano hopes the docuseries will show the tireless work of law enforcement eager to solve cold cases, but it also serves as a warning to women, he said.
"Never let your guard down," said Luciano. "You never know where the next Hadden Clark is lurking right around the corner. Whether he was dropped on his head at birth, he’s just mentally sick, or claims that his father did all of these things to him, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter to the potential victims out there."
