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00:00in 2022 snapped featured the story of purdy clark whose love life left a string of suspicious
00:13deaths in its wake there's three dead people and they're all connected to one person
00:18she definitely used her sexuality i would say to woo men she was just on a high of seeing what she
00:25could do what she could get away with she just thought she was not going to be caught now serving
00:31a 40-year sentence for the murder of her ex-husband bud phillips purdy gives an exclusive interview for
00:38the first time i just feel like you know after 17 years and then maybe it's time to speak out about
00:48something i've come to terms with my soul and god about what i did but as her parole date approaches
01:01purdy fears the investigation into her actions is far from over including two suspicious deaths
01:09for which she could still be prosecuted there's no statute of limitations and that's all i have to say
01:18can you elaborate more and if you could use bud's name specifically what what exactly scared you
01:26i'm i'm dead
01:28my name is purdy clark
01:52i'm still hesitant about the whole interview um i've never spoken out there was already a uh
02:03episode on snapped about me which i think was kind of ironic for the fact that i never spoke out or
02:11never said anything i just i don't understand how without i'm not saying my consent but without my part
02:21of it it didn't depict me as a very very nice person i just feel like you know after
02:2917 years and then maybe it's time to speak out about something purdy agreed to participate in the
02:39interview to get her side of the story out there are three men that are dead that had close
02:45relationships with purdy however it's unclear if purdy was a part of all three deaths
02:52so what should we think this as an opportunity for her to unburden herself and to discuss
03:00what actually happened
03:01the crime purdy is serving time for begins on february 16th 2009 when a call comes into the san angelo texas
03:169-1-1 dispatch center the initial call came in a bystander or someone passing by
03:24had uh observed a male subject lying on the ground two ladies had driven by they saw that he was in
03:31distress he was screaming asking for help from the 9-1-1 call you can tell that he's in a great amount
03:37of pain not really articulate but you can hear him breathing in pain and then he stopped breathing and
03:45they started performing cpr paramedics quickly arrive and take over the life-saving efforts
03:53it was believed at that time that he had had a heart attack the male subject was transported shannon
04:00hospital where he expired moments later a man named michael phillips arrives saying neighbors told him
04:12his father had been brought to the hospital michael says his father is james bud phillips
04:21he's devastated to learn bud is now deceased
04:30born in 1948 james bud phillips was a native texan bud grew up in san angelo texas and when he was young
04:42he got involved with a pretty rough crowd for selling drugs eventually bud married and they had a son
04:51but when bud was 43 years old the vast part of his life caught up with him
04:57he got arrested and was convicted for selling drugs he was sentenced to 20 years in prison but thanks to
05:05his appeal he only served 14.
05:10in 2005 bud was released at the age of 56. while his first marriage hadn't worked out he was determined to
05:18to stay on the straight and narrow for his son because he was in prison bud missed a big chunk of his son's
05:26life and that really weighed heavy on him so he was determined to make up for that
05:31bud was satisfied with his quiet life but 2008 brought some unexpected and welcomed excitement
05:43a new love interest named purdy clark i grew up in a small town carlsbad i wouldn't say a country life but
05:51i would say a small town life you know the whole swimming in a creek fishing
06:01i had four sisters including me we have a pretty big family but we stuck to our own
06:08i helped teach them how to do whatever it took to be in school whether it was getting them dressed helping
06:17them get their hair together uh just gossiping you know teen nights stuff like that we were all really
06:25close all girls so a lot of people find this hard to believe but i was really shy growing up
06:33and i don't know what happened at 18 i just blew up i just blew up it's like i got tired of being
06:41quiet and i started to speak on everything it didn't matter what it was do you think that attracted
06:46people to you it does in prison before purdy went to prison she and bud fell in love in 2008
06:57and despite the almost 30-year age difference they were swept away by their romance
07:05at the time purdy was working at a gentleman's club to make ends meet
07:10bud freak went into the gentleman's club which is where he met purdy
07:16it was a fast three months and they're just that much in love to get married
07:21they were living together and then they married they had a seemingly good relationship
07:29but less than a year later bud phillips is suddenly gone
07:36doctors believe he died of a heart attack
07:40it's a medical emergency so there was nothing at that time that would have led us to believe that
07:46anything unusual happened they were not going to do an autopsy at the time
07:53however bud's son insists there must be another explanation
07:59michael relayed that he felt uneasy about the fact that his father had passed from a cardiac event
08:07he believed that bud phillips was in a very fit physical condition
08:17but son michael almost immediately is asking for an autopsy for them to to do some blood work to look
08:23into the cause of death more closely there is an agreement that they will pull blood work
08:28the blood work is going to tell you if there's any drug or anything that's not normal so we were able
08:38to get an autopsy ordered while that blood work is being evaluated the next day michael calls police
08:45completely upset because purdy is trying to take ownership of bud's home bud had purchased this home
08:54well before he ever was in a relationship with purdy but because of purdy's relationship with bud she
09:00felt that she was able to lay claim to this home but she wasn't even on the deed purdy had not been
09:08staying there because michael said that bud had filed for divorce it had caused michael to be alarmed
09:15that possibly purdy might have had something to do with his father's death
09:19coming up a detective makes a disturbing connection between bud's death and the mysterious deaths of
09:30purdy's previous lovers next thing we know is one of the main suspects is dead
09:38and purdy clark starts to feel the pressure let's just roll back here really quickly and talk a little
09:44bit about the relationships that you have we're not talking about any of them i'm not i'm not ready to
09:48talk about it on february 17 2009 michael phillips summons police to the home of his suddenly deceased
10:07father bud phillips he tells officers that his father's ex purdy clark is trying to claim bud's home
10:15purdy believed she had right to enter that residence and take possession of property in the
10:21residence she believed because they were in a relationship that she had as much right to
10:26possess it as he did and michael was not okay with her in going into the residence still without
10:33outstanding questions into bud's death michael says that his father filed for divorce from purdy in
10:40november and she recently moved out she wasn't specifically living there and since she hadn't been
10:47there then she didn't have a legal right to be in the house or take anything from the house
10:54authorities instruct purdy to leave the property
11:00as it turns out the san angelo police department has had earlier run-ins with purdy clark
11:06as an investigator i was aware of purdy clark previously there had been an investigation she
11:14was found to have committed burglaries and identity theft to gain money there was also contact between
11:22our department and the collin county sheriff's department where it was learned that purdy had been
11:28married uh to an individual named kimberly clark and that kim had been the victim of a homicide and that the homicide was unsolved
11:43purdy had met kim clark in 1998 when she was 21 years old the couple married and went on to have three children
11:52i never did anything growing up more than fishing you know fishing and hunting
11:56um it wasn't until uh early on in my marriage that uh i learned to do other things because my husband
12:05kim signed me up for continuing colleges cake decorating mommy and me swimming classes taekwondo english horseback
12:13riding you know and uh it just was kind of cool learning some different stuff she liked the same things that
12:21he likes they were always going on vacation spending time outside doing anything to help the boys with
12:27school or with just experiencing life despite their seemingly happy marriage on september 15 2006 kim
12:41suddenly disappeared
12:42when police had questioned purdy she claimed the last time she saw kim was the night before he went
12:51missing purdy said the evening ended with an argument and that she left to go meet friends at a bar
12:59when she got home kim wasn't there and she told investigators she didn't know what happened to him or where he'd gone
13:13just five days later kim was found dead he was found on the side of the road shot twice in the head
13:21the first things that went through my mind are that it was a wrong place wrong time thing
13:27what else could we possibly be
13:31i remember getting a heads up from the sheriff's department that they found a body
13:35there was decomposition so he'd been there for the majority of the time he was missing
13:42as police were investigating they learned that purdy clark and kim had a very unique relationship an
13:49open relationship where purdy had an open relationship with a man by the name of robert duane murphy
13:57so much so that she brought duane murphy into the house to live
14:03of duane was actually in the home living with them
14:10after kim's homicide police questioned purdy and duane and they both denied any involvement
14:18police began looking at those who knew kim well
14:22so you start looking at wife and in this case duane her boyfriend so the fact that purdy would have
14:29a partner to sort of continue a relationship with that was a potential motive there
14:38the haze of suspicion around purdy thickened when duane murphy turned up dead just one month after kim
14:45died on october 16 2006 he was found in a hotel room apparently dead from an overdose
14:55he had od'd on a hot shot of heroin and cocaine but yet there was no needle found there was no spoon
15:03found so somebody was there with him because somebody removed whatever happened afterwards
15:13the news shocked those who were close to duane
15:17for him to be accused or associated with any kind of drugs was unheard of
15:28adding to the mystery an apparent suicide note had shown up at the san angelo police department just
15:35a few days later this letter had apparently been sent by duane murphy in that letter
15:44he acknowledges the death of kim clark it's basically a confession letter
15:53when someone chooses to kill themselves mailing a letter as opposed to leaving it on the scene is
15:58quite unique so law enforcement thought this was very suspicious
16:05the duane murphy investigation switched from focus of a possible accidental overdose
16:10or suicide to an actual homicide investigation kim's murder and duane's death were still under
16:17investigation the following year when purdy met bud phillis any one of these cases on their own
16:25would raise red flags or cause people to question but the one common factor is purdy clark
16:31let's just roll back here really quickly and talk a little bit about the relationships that you have
16:40um because obviously there's kim clark and then you had duane and of course um we had but so i'm going
16:49to talk about each individual one if that's okay we're not talking about any of them
16:53i'm not i'm not i'm not ready to talk about them can you talk to me about why you don't want to talk
17:00about them there's no statute of limitations
17:04and that's all i have to say purdy refuses to talk about them which is very interesting
17:15it appears that purdy doesn't want to implicate herself in their deaths
17:34it appears that purdy's death and that's all i have to say purdy's death and that's all i have to
17:45tell you that purdy's death and that's all i have to say purdy's death and that's all i have to say
17:47purdy clark agreed to be interviewed from behind bars in a texas prison
17:56explaining that she wanted to be part of telling her story for the very first time
18:01let's talk a little bit about the relationships that you have i'm not i'm not ready to talk about
18:09them even about how you guys got together and and your relationship about like what attracted you to
18:14them or um so we have to fill in why we're here and all that what are you currently in prison for and
18:28how long have you been here i'm in prison for murder i've been in prison over 17 years
18:35every day or every week you're still surprised about the situations that are going on in prison
18:42and knowing that it's not a tv show you're living in a box and your whole life is in there
18:49now if i come to terms about being in prison
19:02after this time after all this time i haven't had a choice but
19:09i know that uh that i did something wrong
19:12i know that um i have to answer and atone for my actions
19:22am i proud of them i'm not
19:25can i admit my guilt yes i have
19:29she took a plea deal for the death of bud but purdy has never admitted to any involvement in the deaths
19:36of her husband kim clark or her lover dwayne murphy
19:43and when bud phillips dies in 2009
19:48a lab test reveals bud's true cause of death that one moment that i knew that it was purdy
19:56clark that was involved in bud phillips's murder was when we got the toxicology results back from
20:02the mayo clinic showing there was strychnine in his bloodstream
20:11at the time on west texas ranches strychnine had been commonplace
20:17strychnine is a poison around here farmers and ranchers would use uh high concentrated strychnine
20:24for uh predators on their land they're killing their sheep and goats
20:29and they would douse food and stuff to kill the predators
20:37it's something that if you ingested it several hours later it would have its effect it affects
20:42your muscular system it is a bitter poison so if it's ingested it's you're going to need something
20:49to mask that bitterness i knew it had to be in some type of food that was either very sweet or salty
20:57and so that's why we focused our investigation on types of foods and or liquids that bud may have
21:03ingested prior to his death
21:10two days after bud's death investigators go back to his house to look for a possible source of the poison
21:17there they talk to bud's son michael michael tells detectives that he and his wife had done some
21:25tidying up at his father's house we asked him about anything food containers that were found half open
21:33half eaten and he led us to the knowledge that he had located a partially melted container of ice cream
21:41on one of the bedroom floors he said i believe we've bagged it in it's in the trash at that point
21:49we're kind of racing to the street because we had no idea when the trash company was coming to remove the
21:54trash luckily for us they had not and we located a melted container of ice cream chocolate ice cream
22:02which we seized photographed documented and we had that sent to a forensics lab
22:08the tarrant county medical examiner's office they removed the contents and the contents were found to
22:15contain strychnine
22:19that was huge for us
22:23investigators are convinced that someone added the poison to bud's ice cream
22:29if that someone was purdy clark they need to prove she was present in bud's home before his death
22:36we were able to locate a neighbor who lived across the street they saw a relative of purdy's pull up and
22:45honk the horn and pick purdy up at the house the day of the 911 call between 8 and 8 30 and then it was
22:54right after that that bud phillips was found we could place her at the scene of the crime within
23:0220 to 30 minutes of the death that was too much of a coincidence for us
23:12investigators theorize that under the guise of bringing bud a treat purdy delivered his death
23:19sentence they knew from bud's son that purdy and bud had broken up but they'd still
23:26see each other on and off so it wasn't completely abnormal for purdy to show up from time to time
23:40at this point in the investigation detectives have much more clear evidence and a direct path towards
23:46a possible charge the fact that she had a motive an interest in trying to gain
23:52access to that house and the property and items if she was trying to claim the house as hers
24:03we would still have to prove that she had some kind of connection to the container that the
24:09strychnine was in the ice cream container but we felt pretty confident is there anything you wish
24:16she could have done differently yeah committed murder
24:3317 years into her prison sentence purdy clark has acknowledged guilt in the 2009 murder of her ex-husband
24:41bud phillips
24:45anybody that says that they wish they can just change it in the blink of an eye it's not that simple
24:53you can think of it 20 000 different scenarios to a situation
25:00but at the end of it just thinking of it and wishing you would have done something different
25:05all you're doing is tormenting yourself
25:11you know because once you ask for forgiveness or once you say okay excuse my language um
25:19all you can do is clean up your mess
25:25texas authorities believe purdy poisoned bud with strychnine but have trouble tracking her down for
25:32questioning her family didn't help out a lot neither did any of her friends they didn't know where she
25:37was at investigators discover that a couple of months before bud's death purdy began seeing another man
25:47detective die and i and then discovered that she had been in a relationship with a gentleman named sean
25:54taylor taylor and that he was living on a ranch in eldorado so myself and detective die went to eldorado
26:06there investigators meet the ranch's owner linda scroggins they asked me if i knew purdy and i said
26:14yeah you know i said she's living over there with my son but linda says neither sean nor purdy are home
26:25linda helps investigators contact sean
26:28i was headed home one day from work and that's when one of the detectives up here in san angelo called
26:40me and one of the detectives was asking me this and that about her and if uh i had any strychnine
26:46poison on the ranch and i said yes sir by the time i got to the house there's two texas rangers there
26:51already and they wanted that poison so i took them down to my shop showed it to them it was on a shelf
26:58in the barn above the workbench it was just a brown glass bottle said strychnine on it there was about
27:07half of the contents left in that bottle it looked like it had been moved it did not appear that it was
27:15just covered in dust investigators collect the bottle and continue their interview with sean
27:25strychnine you can't go purchase it you can't find it at a hardware store in this form and it hasn't
27:48been available publicly like that for many years so the chance of finding an actual source of that
27:54strychnine that she had access to i think all the pieces were there
28:03did she ever tell you anything about bud
28:07no not really not really investigators also ask about kim clark
28:15she ever tell you anything about her previous husband no she didn't talk about him much every
28:19time she started she started crying i'm pretty upset
28:21she said she had said she was going to town to buy stuff to cook dinner for me and my mom she'd be
28:35right back she never came back
28:37investigators don't believe that sean was involved in any of purdy's crimes in fact they think it's
28:50more likely that purdy's promise of a home cooked meal could have been his last i thank god they showed
28:57up because i really think that she was after us to kill us maybe to keep me quiet because she got the
29:03strict nine off of me there's no telling what was going through her head
29:09as investigators are talking with sean his phone starts ringing
29:16purdy is on the line
29:19she asked me what was going on and i said well the cops are here looking for you and she got all mad at me
29:25the cops asked me if that was her and i said yeah that was her i was talking to and
29:28she said where is she and i said i don't know but i'm guessing she's in dallas she was going back
29:33and forth to dallas buying drugs to sell them she'd go to a chop shop up there in dallas and pick all
29:38that stuff up and then bring it down here to san angelo
29:46as it turns out the shop is already under surveillance by the fbi we had learned that
29:52there was a federal investigation into that chop shop and selling drugs
29:58san angelo police draw up an arrest warrant for bud phillips murder and alert the fbi agents
30:08on march 23rd one month and five days after bud's death the agents spot purdy clark
30:15the fbi had seen her in and around that shop so they were going to have the dps trooper try to stop
30:25her she fled in a vehicle from the trooper they had a short pursuit she crashed the vehicle
30:35she ran on foot but they were able to capture her
30:39and did you ever think that you would end up in prison i think i'm still in denial about being in
30:48prison
30:55on march 23rd 2009 federal authorities have apprehended purdy clark in dallas texas
31:11inside the vehicle that she was driving there was a shotgun
31:15and several different forms of identification for other people and i believe some cell phones
31:23on the way back from mckinney purdy clark would sing in the back seat she would talk and then she
31:31would sleep it was not a normal reaction that i would expect for somebody who has been on the run
31:39knows that we're looking for and has just been arrested for murder and is coming back to face a murder charge
31:45back in san angelo purdy quickly lawyers up we attempted to interfere about the case and she
31:58did not want to speak with us purdy is tight-lipped to law enforcement but she makes the most of her
32:04daily phone call from jail and continues to reach out to sean you're not a fool sean i swear to god
32:13you're not a fool and i swear to god i really love you been feeling like one last few days
32:20i didn't want to believe it i don't know i didn't love her that's for sure but i felt sorry for her i
32:27guess because she was still telling me that she didn't do it she didn't do it she didn't do it
32:39i think purdy believed in jail that she could still get to sean that he was a loose end and she
32:47could still manipulate him from jail whether it be some finances for an attorney whether it be money for
32:55the bond i don't know what avenue she thought she might be able to pursue but it doesn't surprise me
33:03at all that that she would up until the last ditch effort tried to to contact sean or anyone else that
33:10she had some influence over in another call purdy asks sean to help police look for computer evidence
33:18that she claims shows bud wanted to kill himself hey tell that investigator see if anybody got a hold
33:25of the computer that was at bud's house okay because that was that was a crucial thing because
33:30that computer is the computer he used to always email me right like remember that time when he said i
33:36just got to do it i can't do it can't live anymore and all that crap yeah okay he sent me hundreds of
33:43those he did it through the computer we got the external hard drive itself but there wasn't anything on
33:51there she kept saying there was information about this case on that hard drive and it wasn't on yet
33:57another call purdy makes the outlandish claim that bud's son might have been behind the murder
34:04and planted the ice cream evidence in my mind he could do this though it's not his only son did it i
34:10mean goddamn his only son did oh have you looked in here oh have you looked at this i mean with his son
34:15that picked up some kind of container or whatever he says look it might be in here that whole house
34:21was worse than a goddamn junkyard what are the odds that he picks up the one thing that he says it had
34:27a similar stuff in it prosecutors don't buy into any of purdy's claims and believe that her motive was greed
34:39purdy clark's motive has always been purdy clark anything to benefit her whether it's selling drugs
34:47whether it's stealing something it's always for her if it benefits her i believe purdy clark was
34:56very narcissistic she was a manipulator and everything that she did was about her
35:07as her trial nears purdy's attorney explains to her that even though she is only on trial for bud's
35:14murder the other deaths could play into the outcome i explained it to her clearly that jurors are only
35:21humans and they hear that at least two other people associated with you are also deceased
35:27they're going to just throw away the key at that point in june 2011 a month before purdy's trial is set
35:35to begin the 34 year old agrees to take a deal in exchange for a 40-year sentence she knew that she
35:43couldn't beat the case and so as a result of that she ended up seeking a plea agreement
35:49i never tried to take anything to court i took the first thing they offered
35:58purdy has not yet faced charges for the deaths of kim clark or dwayne murphy
36:04kim clark was trying to make her a better person and i don't believe that's what she wanted to be
36:16dwayne murphy was just a tool that she used to accomplish an end up there and then she didn't
36:23need him anymore bud phillips i believe was the same thing he was a tool something that she could use
36:32because there are things that he had that she wanted and i think sean taylor would have been another tool
36:41because i believe that she was going to try to use him to get that ranch in eldorado
36:46we really want to know your story from your viewpoint we want to know who you are from your
36:57viewpoint what your life was like so you are the voice for yourself instead of other people
37:02talking for you okay can you talk about some of your happiest memories throughout your time
37:07specifically with bud he was crazy bud was crazy yes can you talk to us about that
37:23he was scary it was very scary
37:31yeah
37:31can you elaborate more what what exactly scared you i'm done okay um
37:46what you want people to know about your side of the story
37:52when it comes to bud that's still scary i'm not ready
38:01i'm not ready for the past 17 years purdy clark has been serving time behind bars for the murder of bud
38:20phillips she is eligible for release in 2029. do you want to talk to us a little bit about anything with
38:28regards to what you want people to know about your side of the story when it comes to bud that's still
38:35scary i'm not ready
38:42purdy talks about wanting a voice in sharing her side of the story but less than 20 minutes into the
38:49interview purdy refused to continue and shut down she was able to share that bud was
38:58crazy and scary purdy's description of bud could have been her attempt at trying to explain away her
39:05action because if he were crazy and scary that might justify her role and his demise
39:14blame shifting is a common tactic of people that are manipulating a situation and they have
39:20difficulty accepting accountability or taking responsibility it appears that there's something
39:27going on when it comes to purdy being vulnerable she doesn't want people to perceive her in a certain
39:33way or she puts herself at risk purdy shutting down is indicative of her not being ready to have more of a
39:41conversation about what has happened but it was clear that purdy did not want to discuss the cases in more detail
39:49we may never know what actually happened purdy may take this in fact to her grave
39:58before she abruptly ended the interview purdy had a few more things to say about life behind bars
40:05and who she is we're talking about your life in prison is there anything surprisingly positive for you that
40:12you feel has helped you in prison yeah i want to say that i'm a better person than i am
40:21now than if i would have never come to prison but i hate the fact that i had to come to prison to become
40:28the woman that i am today i've worked i want to say over 85 90 of my time while being in prison
40:38and i've learned so many things i actually went ahead and finished getting my ged
40:43there's so many things i've learned in prison that i don't think that i would have gotten
40:52in the world i've got a ojtm plumbing i would have never learned plumbing hvac lock tech i learned my way
41:01in prison because knowing how to do something your bosses respect you it's um a really free world to me
41:13i do know that for 20 years uh this community has been safer by her not being in it but at some
41:23point she's going to get out she knows how to plumb she knows how to work on hvac those two occupations
41:32would be great to get you into somebody's house in working on their air conditioner or their plumbing
41:39to scope out and see if there's anything that you want to steal so all of that stuff would make her
41:46a better criminal and i think that's why she's proud of that
41:56i'm here and i'm doing my time and i've come to terms with my soul and with god about
42:05what i did and now i just got to answer for it to my family and my friends every day
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