U.S. fugitive was hitting on local women
'He probably thought ... we wouldn't notice, but we noticed'
OWEN SOUND, Ont. -- A man wanted by the FBI for impersonating a U.S. special forces captain at a fatal interstate bridge collapse in Oklahoma strutted around the small Georgian Bay community of Tobermory for three days before his arrest this weekend, says the woman who turned him in to provincial police.
Carla Watson, who telephoned police early Sunday to tell them about the fugitive's whereabouts, said yesterday that William Clark may have been on the run, but he was certainly not in hiding.
Watson, the local harbourmaster, said Clark claimed he was on leave from the U.S. Army special forces in Afghanistan, bragged endlessly about his army exploits and told a number of women in town of his desire to have sexual relations with them.
"He probably thought he would come to Canada, to some little hick town, and we wouldn't notice but we noticed," she said. "Everybody knows everybody up here. It's a nice, quiet, little place. This sort of thing doesn't happen very often at all."
Clark, 36, of Tallapoosa, Mo., was arrested early Sunday morning by heavily armed OPP officers as he tried to board the ferry to remote Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. He was driving a stolen pickup truck and had a loaded hunting rifle with him.
The FBI had been searching for Clark since he allegedly impersonated a special forces captain and took charge of the launch site for rescue operations just hours after a bridge collapsed on May 26. Fourteen people died when a barge struck the bridge and sent several cars plunging into the Arkansas River.
Clark, who has convictions for writing bad cheques and theft, is accused of taking control of rescue efforts and using his position to persuade a local truck dealer to give him a Ford truck and to bilk a week's worth of free food and lodging from local residents.
Emergency workers became suspicious of Clark and he disappeared a few days after the disaster.
Clark has a lengthy history of fraud and deception. Sheriff Jimmy Vise, the lone police officer for Risco and Tallapoosa Missouri, said he has known Clark for almost five years and he has been in trouble for most of that time.
"He's just stepped way overboard this time," Sheriff Vise said. "It's just the way he makes his living: I don't think he's worked in a day in his life."
He said Clark has a history in Missouri of passing himself off as a policeman and then buying stereos with fake "police" cheques. He has also used his assumed identity to repossess cars.
During his stay on Ontario's Bruce Peninsula, Watson said Clark spent much of his time hitting on local women.
"He just fed off all the attention he was getting and he was really pushing the army thing, especially to the women. I know there are some women who wouldn't talk to him by the end because he wouldn't leave them alone."
Watson said he approached her and asked her for a haircut. "When he came up to me he was wearing green army fatigues and ... he said he was an American soldier on leave from Afghanistan for 30 days," she said.
Watson said she gave Clark a haircut in her harbour office. "I didn't charge him because I thought I was doing something good him being a soldier. But I got a funny feeling when I was cutting his hair."
When she got home, Watson noticed a story in the local newspaper about a man wanted for posing as an army captain in Oklahoma. "I knew it was him. His name, Clark, was embroidered right on his uniform. He even had the red truck," she said.
Clark appeared in an Owen Sound court yesterday, but was remanded into custody until next Monday. He appeared relaxed in beige slacks and a white T-shirt at the hearing. Clark is charged with possession of stolen property and possession of an illegal firearm.
He is wanted on numerous charges including impersonating a military officer, collecting free food, lodging and a pickup truck. He has also been charged with fraud, theft, illegal weapon possession and immigration charges.
© Copyright 2002 National Post
