Mrs. Tom Childs
April 9, 1902
Arizona Republican Newspaper
The wife of Tom Childs, a well known cattle man and miner
living in the vicinity of Gila Bend was burned to death
Monday afternoon, the ranch house totally destroyed and
their infant child saved only by the timely presence of
an Indian who acted with all the heroism and judgement
under such exciting circumstances.
Mrs. Childs was preparing for the family dinner and in
lighting the fire it is supposed she used a cup of
kerosene which ignited sooner than was expected,
setting fire to her clothing and burning her fatally
before the Indian who chanced to be passing had noted
her predicament. She ran out of the house at once and
shortly lapsed into unconsciousness. The Indian rushed
into the burning house and rescued the babe and laid it
on the ground next to its dying mother.
By this time the fire was too far advanced for the
Indian to make any successful effort extinguishing it,
so he hastily mounted a horse and rode to Gila Bend
where Mr. Childs chanced to be. He secured a
physician and went home as quickly as possible
only to find his wife, still in death and attended
only by the motherless babe. It was a most pitiful
scene and one of which there can be no adequate
description. The distracted husband and father
superintended the removal of the remains to Gila
Bend where the funeral will be held today.
Tom Childs is well known in Phoenix having spent his
boyhood here and for years he has lived in the vicinity
of Gila Bend. His many friends in both places will
sympathize with him deeply in his sudden and terrible
affliction.
Mrs. E. Helen Clark
Alan Orford
Egbert T. Clarke
November 2, 1902
Arizona Republican Newspaper
Mrs. E. Helen, wife of Albert A. Clark, sometime Monday
night, shot and killed her ten year old son, Alan Orford
and then shot herself presumably dying instantly. The
family lived at No. 428 South Center Street and the
tragedy was first discovered between 3 and 4 o'clock
yesterday afternoon by Mr. Clark who had just returned
from Mesa where he went the evening before on business.
He went directly home from the M & P depot and found the
house locked up. Going directly to a rear door he found
an envelope fastened on the inside of the screen on which
was written "Returning soon." Knowing that she had been
suffering a little of a liver trouble and had a severe
cold he thought she might be at the office of Dr. Swetnam
who had been prescribing for her, though from the manner
in which the house was locked up he says he had a
suspicion from the time he first arrived that all was
not well. In fact he feared someone had entered the
house and murdered her. He went at once to the office
of Dr. Swetnam and learned she had not been there so
returning home he aroused the neighbors and one of them
entered the house where a terrible scene was presented.
On the bed in a little room off the sitting room lay Mrs.
Clark, clothed in a dressing gown, and in her right hand
was held a 32 revolver. There were no wounds appearing
on her body but an examination by Dr. Plath, who was
summoned, showed that she had shot herself in the mouth,
the bullet lodging just beneath the scalp. By her side,
on his right side, and facing her, lay her son Alan,
clothed in his night robe, and were it not for a large
quantity of blood which had escaped through the nose and
clotted on his face and the bedclothes below, he would
have looked as though peacefully sleeping. An
examination showed that he had been shot under the
chin, the bullet traveling upward, though like the
mother it did not leave the head.
Coroner Burnett was summoned and impaneling a jury the
remains were viewed and the effects of the dead woman
and the family were taken note of. Among them was $332.11
in cash, $50 of which was enclosed in a letter addressed to
a gentleman in Los Angeles in return of a loan. There were
in her purse a number of cards, addresses and other little
things of trifling value.
On her table she left a number of letters, one to her
husband, one to her mother in England and others to other
parties directing the disposition, she desired made of
certain effects. The letters were badly blotted and
indicated the writer was laboring under great mental
strain. The letter to her husband was as follows:
"Dear Albert: After you went out it seemed something
snapped in my head. I fell mad. I have felt worse
than even you think. Forgive me and forget me. Will
you kindly pay for my trunks to go to Mrs. Woolsey,
Eye, Suffolk England? Oh, forgive me, I am mad. Oh
God forgive me and help you. I am better dead than a
lunatic. Forgive and forget your poor mad wife." Helen
The letter to her mother was as follows:
"Mrs. H. Woolsey, Eye, Suffolk, England. Dear Mother:
This may be my last letter. My brain has given way.
Alan and I will both go. Do not grieve, we shall be
at rest anyway. I have suffered tortures of hell this
last three months and have not strength to walk but
with assistance. Divide what I left fairly for God's
sake. My husband loves me and is the kindest possible.
Write 172 Queen Street and tell him Alan and I are dead,
brains blown out. He did not want to have Alan but it's
not that. My brain snapped today. I have lost one stone
and a half. I am alone tonight. If I have strength I must
end all. Love from Alan and ___(blot). Write to 589 for
letters."
There is no signature to this letter though it is the same
handwriting and on the back of it is written:
"Send enclosed bonds which are useless to C.W. McGrew.
Do not say I sent them. Just say: Dear Sir, I enclose
bonds as my daughter requested Catalina Hotel, Los Angeles,
Cal. Forgive me, somewhere we shall meet again. I could
not leave Alan. Do not fall with bonds. Say nothing to S
of his not wanting Alan. That was not all. Register
bonds. S. was a villain."
The woman was married three times, the first husband being
the father of the boy. His name is not known by Mr. Clark
but undoubtedly it is him she refers to as S. The bonds
she speaks of are 3250 shares in the Morning Light Mining
Co., Cripple Creek district. They were made out to W.S.
McGrew and assigned by him in blank. She probably made a
mistake in the initials when referring to him in her letter.
A third letter addressed to Mr. M.O. Mould, 218 W. First
Street, Los Angeles reads as follows:
"My husband will return fifty dollars. I am so sick and
my brain has given way. I should have been happy if my
head had not given way, I take Alan's and my life. God
forgive me. Thanks for the loan."
Mr. Clark was greatly overcome with grief and frequently
gave way to tears while telling his story to the coroner.
He says that his wife was born in England and first
married a man whose name he does not know and who was
the father of the boy. Her maiden name was E. Helen
Woolsey. She then married a man named Orford who later
adopted the boy making his name Alan Orford. She came
with him to California where she secured a divorce on
the grounds of cruelty. Orford is now living somewhere
in southern California. Mr. Clark first met the woman
in a restaurant in Los Angles on the 7th of August and
they were married there on the 12th of November arriving
in this city last Saturday and at once moving into the
house where the tragedy occurred. Before their marriage
Mrs. Clark lived on Hill Street in Los Angeles.
Asked regarding her health, Mr. Clark said his wife was a
healthy woman so far as he knew except that she had some
liver trouble for a short time and recently caught a very
severe cold. She had been taking medicine for a few days
but when he last saw her alive she was in her usual spirits
and he had no intimation of her doing such a thing. She
never spoke of suicide except he had heard her in Los
Angeles when seeing some unfortunate say that if she were
in that condition she would blow her brains out. Mr. Clark
is a fine appearing gentleman, was formerly superintendent
of construction enterprises in Chicago and favorably
impresses all with whom he comes in contact.
Mr. Clark says that his wife was a person friend of
Superintendent Ogden of the Canadian Pacific Railroad
and that she had received many favors from him. At the
time of her death she had transportation to England as a
visit to her mother was one of her plans for the near
future.
The remains of the dead were taken to the parlors of S.L.
Easterling and the coroner's jury returning to Justice
Burnett's office at once returned a verdict that the killing
was at the hands of Mrs. Clark.
The funeral
November 20, 1902
The funeral of Mrs. E. Helen Clark and her son Alan, the
victims of the double tragedy on South Center Street on
Monday night, will take place at the parlors of Mohn and
Dorris at 10:30 this morning. The husband is a member of
the Knights of Pythias and the members of that order are
requested to assemble at 10 o'clock and assist in the
ceremonies.
Justice Burnett, the acting coroner, was busy yesterday in
carrying out the wishes of the dead woman, such as the
sending of her trunk and other personal effects to her
mother in England and mailing the various letters she had
written before she took her son's life and her own. One
of them contained $50 which she had borrowed from O.M.
Mould of Los Angeles. It was thought by the authorities
that in some instances it would be better to depart from
the instructions she left, but her husband desired that
they be followed to the letter; that everything be done
just as she would have done it herself. He wished to
preserve none of her belongings himself but wanted them
all sent to her mother.
There has been some discussion of the motive of the woman
for the terrible deed. That she was insane no one could
doubt, but the question was what had driven her to insanity.
She showed no sign of it when her husband went away the day
before. She had been suffering from a cold, but was
cheerful. The best explanation that could be offered of
her act, a physician said yesterday was offered by herself
in one of the notes she had left. She felt something snap
in her brain. What made it snap was a mystery.
There was a strange coherence in her letters. They were
hardly wild, and they contained in detail, directions of
all that she wanted done. Then there was a singular
coolness and thoughtfulness in what was probably her
last act. When she had finished all her instructions to
the world, she clothed herself in a gray gown and went to
bed. The little boy was already asleep for the last time.
She put the muzzle of the pistol under his chin and the
bullet went upward through his brain. His eyelids showed
that he had never awakened. An opening in the front of
his night shirt showed that the mother had put her hand
on his heart to assure herself that it was still and that
he would not be "left alone in the world." That was the
next to the last act. Then she placed the muzzle of the
gun in her mouth and followed him.
Her husband said that there was no gun in the house when he
went away. The weapon is a small, self acting revolver of a
cheap pattern and looks as if it might be new, though
slightly shop worn. She probably went out after it in
the evening and that was probably when she put the envelope
on the door informing possible comers that she would return
soon.
A singular thing about the tragedies of one day is that all
the victims were named Clark and all of them occurred on
Center Street. The numbers of the cases in the coroner's
court are 1376, 1377 and 1378.
The body of Egbert T. Clark, who committed suicide on North
Center Street was sent to his home at St. Paul. A telegram
was received yesterday morning from his father, the general
manager of the traffic department of the Great Northern
directing the forwarding of the remains.
