Walter S. Clark
Walter Sneed Clark (October 29, 1917 – January 9, 1954) was a cab driver and murderer.
On January 9, 1954, Clark fatally shot 25-year-old Lorraine E. Schultz and her mother, 46-year-old Edna B. Brown, at the Schultz family home on Old Telegraph Road in Alexandria with a borrowed 16-gauge shotgun.[1][2][3]
Four other people were injured in Clark's spree: Lorraine's 31-year-old husband Herman J. Schultz and her 23-year-old brother William N. Brown, Jr. and 28-year-old Fairfax County Police Detective Dennis R. O'Neil were all shot, and her 2-year-old daughter Teresa suffered a cut on her head.[1]
The murder of Schultz and her mother was the culmination of Clark's stalking of Lorraine that featured incidents of increasing violence over the previous few years.
Clark had met Schultz three years prior, when she was working as a waitress and he as a cab driver for the Diamond Cab Company next door. He had become friendly with the family, and sometimes visited the home for coffee and to watch television.[1][2]
At some point, his attentions towards the married Schultz became inappropriate, and the friendship ended. Over the next few years Clark stalked Mrs. Schultz and her family.[1]
A long litany of incidents followed. A few months before the final attack Clark shot at the Schultzes with a shotgun near their home, forcing them to crawl back through the fields to their house. The Shultzes got a warrant for felonious assault, but decided they didn't want to press charges, and Clark plead guilty to a misdemeanor before Trial Justice Court Judge Robert C. Fitzgerald, who fined Clark $100 and gave him a 12-month suspended jail sentence, warning him to stay away from the Schultzes.[1]
On Friday, January 8, Clark threw rocks at the Schultz house, breaking a window. Herman Schultz and William Brown went to the Groveton police station seeking a warrant, but were told the would have to get one from Justice of the Peace Harry Shepherd. Shepherd refused to issue a warrant, later stating that there had been "so much getting of warrants" by the Schultzes, and instead advising them to contact Judge Fitzgerald, who could revoke Clark's suspended sentence. [1]
Disgusted, Schultz and Brown told the police and the justice, "When somebody gets killed, then maybe you'll make up your minds to do something about this."[1]
They wouldn't have to wait long; Clark borrowed a 16-gauge shotgun from 47-year-old fellow cab driver James E. Utz that evening, telling Utz he wanted it "to go hunting".[1]
Clark began his attack the following day, when he found Herman Schultz and William Brown standing by their vehicle, which had broken down near the intersection of Old Telegraph and Hayfield Road on the way to Arrington's Grocery. He attacked the two men, wounding Schultz in the hand and shoulder and Brown in the foot, then drove on to the Schultz home, where he murdered Lorraine Schultz and Edna Brown, shooting Lorraine in the face and Brown in the neck.[1][2]
Fleeing the carnage he'd wrought at the Schultz home, Clark abandoned his cab about a mile away and hid in a small shed behind a sawmill owned by the widow of Herbert A. Melton, where he was discovered by Detective O'Neil. At a range of about six feet, O'Neil fired three shots at Clark, who fired at the same time, striking the detective in the arm.[1]
O'Neil managed to escape the shed and called for assistance from the large posse of Fairfax and Alexandria police officers, Virginia State Troopers and local rednecks, who converged on the property. When Clark refused to come out, nearly 150 shots were fired into the shed, striking him 15 times and killing him.[1][2]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "Cab Driver Runs Amok in Fairfax; Baby Injured." The Washington Post (1923-1954): 2. Jan 10 1954. ProQuest. Web. 9 Jan. 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Fairfax Posse Kills Slayer of Two Women" Evening Star, 10 Jan. 1954, Two Star, p. 1. NewsBank. Accessed 9 Jan. 2018.
- ↑ "Fairfax Killer Of Two Sought Forgiveness" Evening Star, 11 Jan. 1954, Two Star, p. 28. NewsBank, . Accessed 9 Jan. 2018.
