I've written crime stories since the early 1980s... about wrongful allegations of child sexual abuse;  repressed memory cases; children killing other children; women serial killers, notably Aileen Wuornos, and then the case of Doug Clark, a convicted  serial killer who died of natural causes on death row in California in October 2023....See clip to the right.

 

A 60-minute Discovery Channel documentary appeared in 2017, produced by Vanity Fair Confidential /TrueEntertainment. This was based on the story I wrote for Vanity Fair in 1990, about Clark and his one-time lover, Carol Bundy. I long argued that Clark needed a  new  trial. This doc is not an accurate rendering of the case, not least because it leaves out the failing of police to solve the case weeks before Carol Bundy turned herself in. She admitted to several murders but claimed she was under the  spell of Clark.  Which was utter nonsense. In the end, she killed for pleasure, and admitted that to me.

  

Whatever other crimes he committed, including the complete corruption of an 11-year-old girl, Clark was probably not the serial killer Bundy claimed. If he was, why didn't he kill the young girl? the best evidence against him was all from Carol. Moreover, most serial killers admit to their crimes, directly or indirectly. Even Ted Bundy (no relation). Clark never did.