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00:00in 2022 snapped featured the story of purdy clark whose love life left a string of suspicious
00:08deaths in its wake there's three dead people and they're all connected to one person
00:14she definitely used her sexuality i would say to woo men she was just on a high of seeing what she
00:19could do what she could get away with she just thought she was not going to be caught now serving
00:26a 40-year sentence for the murder of her ex-husband bud phillips purdy gives an exclusive interview
00:33for the first time i just feel like you know after 17 years and then maybe it's time to speak out about
00:43something i've come to terms with my soul and god about what i did
00:51but as her parole date approaches purdy fears the investigation into her actions is far from over
01:02including two suspicious deaths for which she could still be prosecuted there's no statute of
01:10limitations and that's all i have to say can you elaborate more and if you could use bud's name
01:18specifically what what exactly scared you i'm done
01:32my name is purdy clark
01:49i'm still hesitant about the whole interview um i've never spoken out there was already a uh episode on
02:00snapped about me which i think was kind of ironic for the fact that i never spoke out or never said
02:07anything i just i don't understand how without i'm not saying my consent but without my part of it
02:18it didn't depict me as a very very nice person i just feel like you know after
02:24you know after 17 years and then maybe it's time to speak out about something
02:32purdy agreed to participate in the interview to get her side of the story out there are three men
02:38that are dead that had close relationships with purdy however it's unclear if purdy was a part of all
02:46three deaths so what should we think this as an opportunity for her to unburden herself and to discuss
02:55what actually happened
03:03the crime purdy is serving time for begins on february 16 2009 when a call comes into the san angelo texas
03:129-1-1 dispatch center the initial call came in a bystander or someone passing by had observed a male
03:21subject lying on the ground two ladies had driven by they saw that he was in distress he was screaming
03:28asking for help from the 9-1-1 call you can tell that he's in a great amount of pain not really articulate
03:34but you can hear him breathing in pain and then he stopped breathing and they started performing cpr
03:44paramedics quickly arrive and take over the life-saving efforts it was believed at that time
03:50that he had had a heart attack the male subject was transported to shannon hospital where he expired
03:56moments later a man named michael phillips arrives
04:06saying neighbors told him his father had been brought to the hospital
04:11michael says his father is james bud phillips
04:16he's devastated to learn bud is now deceased
04:27born in 1948 james bud phillips was a native texan
04:34bud grew up in san angelo texas and when he was young he got involved with a pretty rough crowd
04:39for selling drugs eventually bud married and they had a son but when bud was 43 years old
04:49the fast part of his life caught up with him he got arrested and was convicted for selling drugs
04:56he was sentenced to 20 years in prison but thanks to his appeal he only served 14.
05:05in 2005 bud was released at the age of 56. while his first marriage hadn't worked out
05:12he was determined to stay on the straight and narrow for his son
05:16because he was in prison bud missed a big chunk of his son's life and that really weighed heavy on him
05:24so he was determined to make up for that
05:30bud was satisfied with his quiet life but 2008 brought some unexpected and welcomed excitement
05:38a new love interest named purdy clark i grew up in a small town carl's bed i wouldn't say a country
05:46life but i would say a small town life you know the whole swimming in a creek fishing
05:52i had four sisters including me we have a pretty big family but we stuck to our own
06:04i helped teach them how to do whatever it took to be in school whether it was getting them dressed
06:11helping them get their hair together just gossiping you know teen nights stuff like that we were all
06:20really close all girls so a lot of people find this hard to believe but i was really shy growing up
06:28and i don't know what happened at 18 i just blew up i just blew up it's like i got tired of being
06:36quiet and i started to speak on everything it didn't matter what it was do you think that attracted
06:41people to you it does in prison before purdy went to prison she and bud fell in love in 2008
06:53despite the almost 30-year age difference they were swept away by their romance
07:00at the time purdy was working at a gentleman's club to make ends meet
07:05bud frequented the gentleman's club which is where he met purdy it was a fast three months
07:13and they're just that much in love to get married
07:19they were living together and then they married they had a seemingly good relationship
07:24but less than a year later bud phillips is suddenly gone
07:28doctors believe he died of a heart attack it's a medical emergency so there was nothing at that time
07:39that would have led us to believe that anything unusual happened they were not going to do an autopsy at
07:45the time however bud's son insists there must be another explanation
07:52michael relayed how he felt uneasy about the fact that uh his father had passed from a cardiac event
08:02he believed that bud phillips was in a very fit physical condition
08:12but son michael almost immediately is asking for an autopsy for them to to do some blood work to look
08:19into the cause of death more closely there is an agreement that they will pull blood work
08:24the blood work is going to tell you if there's any drug or anything that's not normal so we were
08:33able to get an autopsy ordered while that blood work is being evaluated the next day michael calls
08:40police completely upset because purdy is trying to take ownership of bud's home
08:46bud had purchased this home well before he ever was in a relationship with purdy but because of
08:53purdy's relationship with bud she felt that she was able to lay claim to this home but she wasn't even
09:00on the deed purdy had not been staying there because michael said that bud had filed for divorce
09:08it had caused michael to be alarmed that possibly purdy might have had something to do with his father's death
09:16coming up a detective makes a disturbing connection between bud's death and the mysterious deaths of
09:25purdy's previous lovers next thing we know is one of the main suspects is dead and purdy clark starts to
09:35feel the pressure let's just roll back here really quickly and talk a little bit about the relationships
09:40that you have we're not talking about any of them i'm not i'm not ready to talk about it
09:55on february 17 2009 michael phillips summons police to the home of his suddenly deceased father
10:03bud phillips he tells officers that his father's ex purdy clark is trying to claim bud's home purdy
10:12believed she had right to enter that residence and take possession of property in the residence
10:17she believed because they were in a relationship that she had as much right to possess it as he did
10:24and michael was not okay with her in going into the residence still without outstanding questions into
10:30bud's death michael says that his father filed for divorce from purdy in november and she recently
10:37moved out she wasn't specifically living there and since she hadn't been there then she didn't have a
10:43legal right to be in the house or take anything from the house authorities instruct purdy to leave the
10:52property as it turns out the san angelo police department has had earlier run-ins with purdy clark
11:02as an investigator i was aware of purdy clark previously there had been investigation she was
11:10found to have committed burglaries and identity theft to gain money there was also contact between
11:17our department and the collin county sheriff's department where it was learned that purdy had
11:23been married to an individual named kimberly clark and that kim had been the victim of a homicide
11:32and that the homicide was unsolved
11:38purdy had met kim clark in 1998 when she was 21 years old the couple married and went on to have three
11:46children i never did anything growing up more than fishing you know fishing and hunting um it wasn't
11:53until uh early on in my marriage that uh i learned to do other things because my husband came to sign me
12:01up for continuing colleges cake decorating mommy and me swimming classes taekwondo english horseback riding
12:08you know and uh it's just kind of cool learning some different stuff she liked the same things that
12:17he likes they were always going on vacation spending time outside doing anything to help the boys with
12:22school or with uh just experiencing life despite their seemingly happy marriage on september 15 2006 kim
12:36suddenly disappeared when police had questioned purdy she claimed the last time she saw kim was the
12:45night before he went missing purdy said the evening ended with an argument and that she left to go meet
12:53friends at a bar when she got home kim wasn't there and she told investigators she didn't know what
13:01happened to him or where he'd gone just five days later kim was found dead he was found on the side of
13:14the road shot twice in the head the first things that went through my mind are that it was a wrong
13:20place wrong time thing what else could we possibly be i remember getting a heads up from the sheriff's
13:28department that they found a body there was decomposition so he'd been there for the majority of
13:32the time he was missing as police were investigating they learned that purdy clark and kim had a very
13:43unique relationship an open relationship where purdy had an open relationship with a man by the name of
13:49robert duane murphy so much so that she brought duane murphy into the house to live duane was actually in
13:59the home living with them after kim's homicide police questioned purdy and duane and they both denied any
14:12involvement police began looking at those who knew kim well so you start looking at wife and in this case
14:20duane her boyfriend so the fact that purdy would have a partner to sort of continue a relationship with
14:28that was a potential motive there
14:33the haze of suspicion around purdy thickened when duane murphy turned up dead just one month after kim died
14:42on october 16 2006 he was found in a hotel room apparently dead from an overdose
14:52he had od'd on a hot shot of heroin and cocaine but yet there was no needle found there was no spoon
14:58found so somebody was there with him because somebody removed whatever happened afterwards
15:04the news shocked those who were close to duane for him to be accused or associated
15:16with any kind of drugs was unheard of
15:23adding to the mystery an apparent suicide note had shown up at the san angelo police department just a few
15:30days later this letter had apparently been sent by duane murphy in that letter
15:39he acknowledges the death of kim clark it's basically a confession letter
15:48when someone chooses to kill themselves mailing a letter as opposed to leaving it on the scene is quite
15:54unique so law enforcement thought this was very suspicious the duane murphy investigation switched
16:02from focus of a possible accidental overdose or suicide to an actual homicide investigation
16:09kim's murder and duane's death were still under investigation the following year when purdy met bud
16:16stillers any one of these cases on their own would raise red flags or cause people to question but
16:23the 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
16:36because obviously there's kim clark and then you had duane and of course
16:41um we had but so i'm going to talk about each individual one if that's okay we're not talking
16:47about any of them i'm not i'm not ready to talk about them can you talk to me about why you don't
16:54want to talk about them there's no statute of limitations
17:02and that's all i have to say purdy refuses to talk about them which is very interesting
17:10it appears that purdy doesn't want to implicate herself in their deaths
17:40hi purdy how are you good purdy clark agreed to be interviewed from behind bars in a texas prison
17:51explaining that she wanted to be part of telling her story for the very first time
17:58let's talk a little bit about the relationships that you have
18:02i'm not i'm not ready to talk about them even about how you guys got together and and your
18:07relationship about like what attracted you to them or okay um so we have to fill in why we're here
18:18and all that what are you currently in prison for and how long have you been here i'm in prison for
18:25murder i've been in prison over 17 years every day or every week you're still surprised about the
18:33situations that are going on in prison and knowing that it's not a tv show
18:41you're living in a box and your whole life is in there
18:48now if i come to terms about being in prison
18:54after this time after all this time after all this time i haven't had a choice but
19:04i know that uh that i did something wrong
19:09i know that um i have to answer and atone for my actions
19:17am i proud of them i'm not
19:18can i admit my guilt yes i have she took a plea deal for the death of bud but purdy has never admitted
19:28to any involvement in the deaths of her husband kim clark or her lover dwayne murphy
19:38and when bud phillips dies in 2009
19:41a lab test reveals bud's true cause of death that one moment that i knew that it was pretty clark that
19:52was involved in bud phillips's murder was when we got the toxicology results back from the mayo clinic
19:58showing there was strychnine in his bloodstream
20:00at the time on west texas ranches strychnine had been commonplace strychnine is a poison around here
20:15farmers and ranchers would use a high concentrated strychnine for uh predators on their land they're
20:23killing their sheep and goats and they would douse food and stuff to kill the predators
20:30it's something that if you ingested it several hours later it would have its effect it affects
20:37your muscular system it is a bitter poison so if it's ingested it's you're going to need something
20:44to mask that bitterness i knew it had to be in some type of food that was either very sweet or salty
20:52and so that's why we focused our investigation on types of foods and or
20:57liquids that bud may have ingested prior to his death
21:05two days after bud's death investigators go back to his house to look for a possible source of the
21:11poison there they talk to bud's son michael michael tells detectives that he and his wife had done
21:19some tidying up at his father's house we asked him about anything food containers that were found half
21:27open half eaten and he led us to the knowledge that he had located a partially melted container of ice
21:36cream on one of the bedroom floors he said i believe we've bagged it in it's in the trash at that point
21:44we were kind of racing to the street because we had no idea when the trash company was coming to remove
21:49the trash luckily for us they had not and we located a melted container of ice cream chocolate ice cream
21:57which we seized photographed documented and we had that sent to a forensics lab the tarrant county medical
22:06examiner's office they removed the contents and the contents were found to contain strychnine
22:14that was huge for us
22:18investigators are convinced that someone added the poison to bud's ice cream
22:24if that someone was purdy clark they need to prove she was present in bud's home
22:30before his death we were able to locate a neighbor who lived across the street they saw a relative of
22:38purdy's pull up and honk the horn and pick purdy up at the house the day of the 911 call uh between
22:468 and 8 30 and then it was right after that that bud phillips was found we could play through at the
22:55scene of the crime within 20 to 30 minutes of the death that was too much of a coincidence for us
23:07investigators theorize that under the guise of bringing bud a treat purdy delivered his death
23:14sentence they knew from bud's son that purdy and bud had broken up but they'd still
23:21see each other on and off so it wasn't completely abnormal for purdy to show up from time to time
23:35at this point in the investigation detectives have much more clear evidence and a direct path towards
23:41a possible charge the fact that she had a motive an interest in trying to gain
23:48access to that house and the property and items if she was trying to claim the house as hers
23:58we would still have to prove that she had some kind of connection to the container that the
24:04strychnine was in the ice cream container but we felt pretty confident is there anything you wish you
24:11could have done differently yeah committed murder
24:2817 years into her prison sentence purdy clark has acknowledged guilt in the 2009 murder of her
24:35ex-husband bud phillips anybody that says that they wish they can just change it in the blink of an
24:44eye it's not that simple you can think of it 20 000 different scenarios to a situation
24:55but at the end of it just thinking of it and wishing you would have done something different
25:01all you're doing is tormenting yourself
25:06you know because once you ask for forgiveness or once you say okay
25:12excuse my language um all you can do is clean up your mess
25:20texas authorities believe purdy poisoned bud with strychnine but have trouble tracking
25:26her down for questioning her family didn't help out a lot neither did any of her friends they didn't
25:32know where she was at investigators discover that a couple of months before bud's death purdy began
25:39seeing another man detective diane i and then discovered that she had been in a relationship with
25:48a gentleman named sean taylor and that he was living on a ranch in eldorado so myself and detective dye went to eldorado
26:01there investigators meet the ranch's owner linda scroggins
26:06they asked me if i knew purdy and i said yeah you know i said she's living over there with my son
26:16but linda says neither sean nor purdy are home linda helps investigators contact sean
26:23i was headed home one day from work and that's when one of the detectives up here in san angelo called
26:35me and one of the detectives was asking me this and that about her and if uh i had any strychnine
26:41poison on the ranch and i said yes sir by the time i got to the house there's two texas rangers there
26:46already and they wanted that poison so i took them down to my shop showed it to them it was on a
26:52shelf in the barn above the workbench it was just a brown glass bottle it said strychnine on it there
27:01was about half of the contents left in that bottle it looked like it had been moved it did not appear
27:10that it was just covered in dust investigators collect the bottle and continue their interview
27:19with sean and she's been in that barn several times
27:36uh strychnine you can't go purchase it you can't find it at a hardware store in this form and it
27:43hasn't been available publicly like that for many years so the chance of finding an actual source of
27:49that strychnine that she had access to i think all the pieces were there
27:58did she ever tell you anything about bud
28:00no not really not really investigators also ask about kim clark did she ever tell you anything
28:11about her previous husband no she didn't talk about him much every time she started she started crying
28:16i'm pretty upset sean tells investigators that he hasn't seen purdy since the night before
28:23she said she was going to town to buy stuff to cook dinner for me and my mom she'd be right back she
28:31never came back
28:37investigators don't believe that sean was involved in any of purdy's crimes in fact they think it's
28:45more likely that purdy's promise of a home-cooked meal could have been his last i thank god they showed up
28:52because i really think that she was after us to kill us maybe to keep me quiet because she got the
28:58strychnine off of me there's no telling what was going through her head
29:05as investigators are talking with sean his phone starts ringing
29:11purdy is on the line she asked me what was going on and i said well the cops are here looking for you
29:18and she got all mad at me the cops asked me if that was her and i said yeah that was her i was
29:23talking to and they said where is she and i said i don't know but i'm guessing she's in dallas
29:27she was going back and forth to dallas buying drugs to sell them
29:31she'd go to a chop shop up there in dallas and pick all that stuff up
29:34and then bring it down here to san angelo
29:41as it turns out the shop is already under surveillance by the fbi
29:46we had learned that there was a federal investigation into that chop shop and selling drugs
29:53san angelo police draw up an arrest warrant for bud phillips murder and alert the fbi agents
30:03on march 23rd one month and five days after bud's death the agents spot purdy clark
30:10the fbi had seen her in and around that shop so they were going to have the dps trooper try to stop
30:20her she fled in a vehicle from the trooper they had a short pursuit she crashed the vehicle
30:30she ran on foot but they were able to capture her
30:34and did you ever think that you would end up in prison i think i'm still in denial about being in
30:43prison
30:58on march 23rd 2009 federal authorities have apprehended birdie clark in dallas texas
31:05inside the vehicle that she was driving there was a shotgun and several different forms of
31:13identification for other people and i believe some cell phones on the way back from mckinney
31:22purdy clark would sing in the back seat she would talk and then she would sleep it was not
31:29a normal reaction that i would expect for somebody who has been on the run knows that we're looking
31:35for and has just been arrested for murder and is coming back to face a murder charge
31:46back in san angelo purdy quickly lawyers up we attempted to interfere about the case and she
31:53did not want to speak with us purdy is tight-lipped to law enforcement but she makes the
31:59most of her daily phone call from jail and continues to reach out to sean you're not a fool sean i
32:07swear to god you're not a fool and i swear to god i really love you i didn't want to believe it i don't
32:17know i didn't love her that's for sure but i felt sorry for her i guess because she was still telling me
32:24that she didn't do it she didn't do it she didn't do it
32:34i think purdy believed in jail that she could still get to sean that he was a loose end and
32:42she could still manipulate him from jail whether it be some finances for an attorney whether it be
32:50money for the bond i don't know what avenue she thought she might be able to pursue but it doesn't
32:57surprise me at all that that she would up until the last ditch effort tried to to contact sean or
33:04anyone else that she had some influence over in another call purdy asks sean to help police look for
33:12computer evidence that she claims shows bud wanted to kill himself hey tell that investigator see if
33:19anybody got a hold of the computer that was at bud's house okay because that was that was a crucial
33:24thing because that computer is the computer he used to always email me right like remember that time
33:31when he said i just got to do it i can't do it can't live anymore and all that crap yeah okay he sent me
33:37hundreds of those he had to do it to the computer we got the external hard drive itself but there
33:45wasn't anything on there she kept saying there was information about this case on that hard drive and
33:51there wasn't on yet another call purdy makes the outlandish claim that bud's son might have been
33:58behind the murder and planted the ice cream evidence in my mind because of this though not
34:04his own son did it i mean god damn his own son did oh have you looked in here oh have you looked at
34:09this i mean with his son picked up some kind of container or whatever he says look it might be in
34:15here that whole house is worse than a goddamn junkyard what are the odds that he picks up the one thing
34:21that he says that had the similar stuff in it prosecutors don't buy into any of purdy's claims
34:28and believe that her motive was greed
34:34purdy clark's motive has always been purdy clark anything to benefit her whether it's selling drugs
34:43whether it's stealing something it's always for her if it benefits her i believe purdy clark was
34:51very narcissistic she was a manipulator and everything that she did was about her
34:58as her trial nears purdy's attorney explains to her that even though she is only on trial for bud's
35:09murder the other deaths could play into the outcome i explained it to her clearly that jurors are only
35:16humans and they hear that at least two other people associated with you are also deceased
35:21um they're going to just throw away the key at that point in june 2011 a month before purdy's trial is
35:30set to begin the 34 year old agrees to take a deal in exchange for a 40-year sentence she knew that she
35:38couldn't beat the case and so as a result of that she ended up seeking a plea agreement
35:44i never tried to take anything to court i took the first thing they offered
35:53purdy has not yet faced charges for the deaths of kim clark or dwayne murphy kim clark was trying to
36:01make her a better person and i don't believe that's what she wanted to be
36:11dwayne murphy was just a tool that she used to accomplish an end up there and then she doesn't
36:19need him anymore bud phillips i believe was the same thing he was a tool something that she could use
36:27because there are things that he had that she wanted and i think sean taylor would have been
36:34another tool because i believe that she was going to try to use him to get that ranch in eldorado
36:47we really want to know your story from your viewpoint we want to know who you are from your
36:52viewpoint what your life was like so you are the voice for yourself instead of other people talking
36:57for 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
37:14it was scary i was very scary
37:26yeah
37:30can you elaborate more what what exactly scared you i'm done okay um
37:38what you want people to know about your side of the story
37:47when it comes to bud that's still scary i'm not ready
37:59for the past 17 years purdy clark has been serving time behind bars for the murder of bud phillips
38:16she is eligible for release in 20 29. do you want to talk to us a little bit about anything with regards to
38:24what you want people to know about your side of the story
38:27when it comes to bud that's still scary i'm not ready
38:37purdy talks about wanting a voice in sharing her side of the story but less than 20 minutes into the
38:44interview purdy refused to continue and shut down she was able to share that bud was
38:53crazy and scary purdy's description of bud could have been her attempt at trying to explain away her
39:00action because if he were crazy and scary that might justify her role and his demise
39:09blame shifting is a common tactic of people that are manipulating a situation and they have
39:15difficulty accepting accountability or taking responsibility
39:19it appears that there's something going on when it comes to purdy being vulnerable she doesn't
39:26want people to perceive her in a certain way or she puts herself at risk purdy shutting down
39:32is indicative of her not being ready to have more of a conversation about what has happened
39:39but it was clear that purdy did not want to discuss the cases in more detail
39:44we may never know what actually happened purdy may take this in fact to her grave
39:53before she abruptly ended the interview purdy had a few more things to say about life behind bars
40:00and who she is we're talking about your life in prison is there anything surprisingly positive for you
40:07that you feel has helped you in prison yeah i want to say that i'm a better person than i am
40:16now than if i would have never come to prison but i hate the fact that i had to come to prison to
40:22become the woman that i am today i've worked i want to say over 85 90 of my time while being in prison
40:33and have learned so many things i actually went ahead and finished getting my ged
40:42there's so many things i've learned in prison that i don't think that i would have gotten
40:47in the world i've got a ojtm plumbing i would have never learned plumbing hvac lock tech i learned my
40:56way in prison because knowing how to do something your bosses respect you it's um really free world to me
41:05i do know that for 20 years uh this community has been safer by her not being in it but at some point
41:19she's going to get out she knows how to plumb she knows how to work on hvac those two occupations
41:27would be great to get you into somebody's house in working on their air conditioner or their plumbing
41:34to scope out and see if there's anything that you want to steal so all of that stuff would make
41:41her a better criminal and i think that's why she's proud of that
41:45i'm here and i'm doing my time and i've come to terms with my soul and god about what i did
42:02and now i just got to um answer for it to my family and my friends every day
42:19you
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