Crazed Murderer Captured in Turn-of-the-Century CV, Part 2

Last week we covered the story of Harry Clark, a handsome and charming young man. But he was also a man who was wildly impulsive, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and stole to support those habits. He had murdered a Chinese laundryman for a few dollars just so he could continue to frequent his favorite prostitute. Captured by the law, Harry made a spectacular escape in a stolen wagon, transferring to a stolen bicycle. He escaped into the Crescenta Valley, after spending the night hiding in the sagebrush of the Verdugo Canyon.

In the morning, Harry continued on his bike up Verdugo Road transitioning to La Crescenta Avenue, below today’s Sparr Heights. At the curve where La Crescenta Avenue turns up the hill (where La Crescenta Nursery and Oakmont Woods are today) he encountered the Englehard home.

George Englehard had left for the morning, but Mrs. Englehard was there, along with her daughter and son-in-law. They spoke only Spanish and Harry only English, but Harry was handsome and charming. He asked for something to eat, so they invited him in for breakfast. After breakfast Harry fell asleep until lunch when the generous Englehards fed him again. The daughter, who had married into the Verdugo family, even repaired some rips in Harry’s pants for him. After lunch Harry sat on their front porch.

At this point we should note that young Harry not only could be very charming but even charismatic, so the Englehards felt comfortable with him. Mrs. Englehard described him later as “gentlemanly.” But Harry’s brain was a mess. He was fatally impulsive and years of constant drunkenness and drug abuse had made him deeply paranoid and wildly irrational. As he sat on the porch he was watching for a newspaper delivery. He knew that the story of his escape the day before would be front-page news. He testified later that as he sat on the porch a man with a gun rode up and questioned him. No one else saw this man, so we might presume that Harry was now hallucinating. Perhaps he took more opium, easily had at the turn-of-the-century in pills, powders and tinctures.

The bottom line is that Harry began to feel that he was being watched by the family and that they knew he was a fugitive. He needed to get away but not let them know he was leaving. And here’s where the story gets really weird.

Harry excused himself to the Englehards’ outhouse located behind their house. He must have imagined the family could see the door of the outhouse from where they were in the house, so he didn’t want go back out that way. The outhouse was sturdily constructed so if he broke out the back wall they would hear him. In Harry’s drug-addled mind there was only one option – hide. He lifted the seat-board inside the outhouse and lowered himself into the human waste-filled pit below, pulling the seat-board back over him.

To the Englehard family Harry seemed to have disappeared. They must have looked in the outhouse but not seeing him there, assumed he had left on foot as his bicycle was still leaning against the front porch. They may have even later relieved themselves in the outhouse on top of the hiding Harry.

Harry sat in the foul liquid below the outhouse for three or four hours. Perhaps he passed out from the drugs in his system or was overcome by the smell. It’s hard otherwise to conceive of why he would sit in the pool of feces and urine for so long.

As evening approached, Harry looked for a way out. Paranoia was probably still roaring in his head. He didn’t want to climb up and out the door. He had a knife he had stolen, so he stood up and began to cut away the bottom of the back wall and dig an opening big enough to slither through. Dripping effluent, Harry staggered off into the sagebrush.

Next week, the now reeking Harry gets captured by old CV’s legendary lawman Phil Begue then faces the trial of the decade.

  mike lawler