Statewide County AZ Archives Obituaries.....Orford, Alan 1902
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D. Joshua Taylor http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00006.html#0001358 and Elizabeth Burns  July 17, 2005, 12:57 pm

Arizona Republican-November 2, 1902
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.

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