Sword and Scale - Episode 175

Episode Date: December 6, 2020

Clark Fredericks was born with a hole in his heart. 46 years later, he was arrested for repeatedly stabbing and killing a retired police lieutenant in the small town of Stillwater, New Jersey. What led Clark to commit such a violent act, and why would he tell us that silence is our worst enemy? Believe it or not, we can all learn a thing or two from the life that confessed killer Clark Fredericks has endured.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. And he's slicked down in the blood on the floor, and I knelt down. I leveled to him, and I yelled, you motherfucker, and I looked him in the eye, and I slid his throat. You motherfucker, and I looked them in the eye and I slid his throat. Hey, this is season 7 episode 175 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the war But we're getting dangerously close to the end of the season here. We're going to be eight years in believe it or not. Actually, we already are eight years in. It's absolutely unbelievable.

That's the case. But it's true. We're starting our eighth season in January. In the meantime, we have one more regular episode coming out episode 176 And then we're taking a break. Of course, there will be a plus episode after that. So if you're a plus member, there will be a final episode on December 20th. And then we'll be back. We'll be back real early in the year starting January 3rd on plus and January 10th on the regular feed. So don't worry, we won't be gone that long. In the meantime, if you haven't heard about plus, please check it out. If you're a fan of the show, it starts at just five

bucks a month. We have native IOS and Android apps available for you. It's the best way to listen to sword and scale Scale and you get all the plus episodes. A lot of people don't even know this but we have over 80 plus episodes available for you. There are an hour and length usually full length episodes just like the regular show but you won't hear them anywhere else. Subscribe to Plus starting at just 5 weeks a month at SwordandScale.com slash plus and help a brother out. Alright, I think you're going to enjoy this one. You know those episodes that are twisty and turny and you don't know which way they're going and then they slap you in the face with an M night shaman on twist. This is going to be one of them.

So hold your butts real tight, open, palm them if you will, and let's go. On morning of June 14, 2012, 46-year-old New Jersey men Clark Fredericks woke up to a blinding light. In a brain piercing confused days, he thought to himself, my God Clark, he finally done it. Having been abusing drugs and alcohol around the clock for months, he was convinced that he had a stroke or a heart attack in the middle of the night, and now he had gone blind. To calm himself, Clark took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the blinding light was still there.

So he raised his arm to shield his face, and in the process, he cracked himself in the head with the hard-rigid cast that was wrapped around his hand. The blow to the head must have knocked something loose because his vision started to return, and along with it, an uneasy feeling washing over him. Clark looked down at the bedroom floor, expecting to see the familiar old carpet. But there was no carpet. This floor was now dirty, speckled, linoleum. He thought to himself, this isn't making any sense.

Clark surveyed the room. The painted sheet rock that normally surrounded him was gone. Now his walls were cold, concrete blocks, and his bedroom door was no longer varnished wood. Instead, it was made of steel, on it a narrow sliver of a window ran barely to feet long. Most confusing of all, in the corner of a ceiling a camera pointed directly at him. Its slow blinking red light suggested that someone was watching his every move. Then Clark looked down at himself. He was not in his own bed. He was lying on a metal cot, dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

Like a wave rolling to shore, Clark's memory started coming back. He remembered what had happened the day before, and he knew where he was. County Jail locked in a cell on suicide watch with the threat of life in prison looming over him. As he sat up, the cast on his arm reminded him of the surgery he'd had the night before to repair the severed ligaments and tendons in his left hand. And then he noticed that someone had scrawled words on a nearby wall. It read, quote, kill me. I just want to die. This was a sentiment that Clark shared with the unknown author. Clark looked down at his injured hand and noticed that the prison guards had forgotten to take away the medical sling that went with his cast. Then he looked at the air vent on the wall and realized that this was his chance,

a chance to end all the pain. If you could just find a way to fasten the sling to the air vent and connect it to his own neck, it would all be over. Clark staggered to his feet as he prepared to end his own life. He asked himself, how did I get here? What could I have done differently to save myself from ending up in this horrible place? The small sleepy town of Stillwater, New Jersey, is the opposite of what most people think

of when they think of New Jersey. Only an hour drive from Newark International Airport, in about 90 minutes from New York City, this rural farm town offers its nearly 4,100 residents, a quiet, backwards lifestyle. Hiking, boating, fishing, camping, and lake swimming are a few of the activities that still water residents enjoy. There are even a significant subgroup of this community that takes pride in their pickup trucks, listens to Kenny Rogers, goes deer hunting, watches professional wrestling, and spits tobacco. A small community of country folk nestled in the shadow of

the most famous city in the world. Still, what are New Jersey is a town in the northwest corner of the state in Sussex County. It's predominantly a rural area. You still have some commuters that head east towards the city every day to break the traffic. But by and large, it's like a very peaceful, small community where everybody knows everybody else. This is how a Ryan, a retired New Jersey state police crime scene investigator, and he's right. Still, Warner is peaceful. So peaceful, in fact, that it doesn't even have a police

department. All reported crime in the area is handled by the state police. When you have the occasion to be called up here to investigate a violent crime or a murder, it's rare. It's very rare. And it's also news, because it just doesn't happen very often. While violent crime and murder are extremely rare in the small town of Stillwater, it does, unfortunately, still happen. And on the morning of June 13, 2012, Lieutenant Ryan and his team of investigators would be called to the scene of a homicide in this otherwise peaceful little town. When I arrived at the residence, it wasn't like any other crime scene.

There's uniformed officers out front, there's detectives milling around starting to exchange notes. One of my detectives was there, a former Myerabel, and he met me in the driveway, and together we walked up. And the first thing I remember was looking at the front door, there was a screen door, and the screen door had been propped open. A lot of screen doors had that retractable kind of air sprocket, and you can slide the metal piece over to open the door.

And one of the first things I remembered was that door was open, but that sprocket, which was on the top of the door, was covered in blood. In addition to the blood-covered door sprocket, there were also large droplets of blood on the front porch and bloody footprints leading away from the home. As we rounded the corner to look into the door, it wasn't a very big home. The victim was laying on the floor between a chair, like a recliner chair type chair, and the television which was still on. It looked as if he was wearing a bathrobe, and there was a substantial amount of blood. At this point in his career, Lieutenant Ryan had been investigating crime scenes for more than

16 years, and it worked in at least 100 homicide cases. This wasn't the first time he'd walked into a house full of blood spatter. But there was something especially interesting about this particular crime scene. We do a lot of teaching of crime scene as well, crime scene work. One of the things we always tell people is when you walk into a crime scene, your obvious first reaction is human nature is to notice what is there. Okay, there's blood, there's an victim, there's this, there's that. The other thing that we have to tell people sometimes is try to make note of what is not there. And what was not there was any sign of disturbance aside from the dead body on the floor, of course. There was nothing in the house touched, it was immediately noticeable that there was nothing anywhere that was out of place. Whenever happened, somebody came through this front door, went right to this individual,

killed them and left. For Lieutenant Ryan, it was immediately apparent that whoever came into this house the night before had one purpose in mind to kill, and there was something else. to kill, and there was something else. The victim had been stabbed more than 20 times, mostly in the chest, and there was another wound that was very telling. In addition to multiple puncture wounds to the chest, there had been an incision across the neck, and I been an incision across the neck and I had seen this many times before. But this one, the one thing I noticed immediately about this was the depth.

The individual had been cut very deep, almost down to the bone, meaning the spine. The spine deep incision to the victim's neck and the otherwise undisturbed home were clues that indicated something important about this murder. In the years of doing crime scene work, when you see something like this where nothing else in the house is touched, that there's nothing searched, nothing appears to be stolen or missing. You can't help but start thinking without knowing who did this, that this is personal. And I remember saying to one of the other detectives there said whoever came through the door came for him. So who was him? Who was the dead victim on the floor? I looked mostly at the wounds at first and then as we looked to see the face of the victim,

I recognized the face. The face that Lieutenant Ryan recognized was that a 68-year-old retired police lieutenant, Dennis Pegg. Dennis Pegg was employed by the Sussex County Sheriff's Office, and he rose in his career to the rank of Lieutenant. He worked in the jail. I didn't know him personally, but I have seen him many, many times. But he seemed to have had a very good career in law enforcement within the corrections community before he retired, probably up to 25 years. In addition to being a respected former police lieutenant,

Dennis Pegg was also a beloved member of the Stillwater community. Dennis Pegg was a long time resident of the area, even involved in it, really quite a few things in his life and in his career, and by all accounts in the eyes of so many people in the community, he was just this star citizen. He volunteered with the children extensively, right in the northwestern corner of the state. We have a section of the Appalachian trail that runs through a very short section, but he was involved in that and something called a trail angel, where they would maintain the trail. He was involved in bird watching societies and the Autobahn societies and things like that in nature. He was also involved in the town's historical community or society. It seemed like everybody that

was a lifelong resident up here, New Dennis Pag, they called him Danny, Danny Pag. A lot of people's eyes are a pillar of a community and they always spoke very highly of him. Despite as many contributions and prominent role in the community, someone clearly had it in for a good old Denny Peg. And it was now the job of Lieutenant Ryan and the New Jersey State Police to find out who had brutally murdered him and why. Earlier that same morning, just a few hours before police would discover Dennis' body, 49-year-old Holly Celiano had a worrying phone conversation with her mother who lived

in still water. I speak to my mother every single morning and I called her that morning just checking in and she was not herself and I could tell something was terribly wrong and I said mom what is wrong and she's like Just get up here right away and I go is something wrong with you and she goes get up here right away I don't want to talk on the phone So I jumped in my car and I drove up to my mother's house For most of us this would be a very alarming phone call Imagine your mother indicated that something awful had happened,

and no matter how hard you pressed her, she refused to talk about it on the phone. Like many of us would, Holly hurried to her mother's home as her mind raced with every conceivable and terrifying possibility. So I arrived at my mother's house, and could tell she was very very distraught not herself at all and she said, come out on the deck, I want to talk to you. So she brought me out onto the deck and she said, your brother killed Dennis Peg last night. Learning that you're sibling had killed someone is bad enough, but for Holly it was even worse. Just like everyone else in still water, she knew Dennis Pegg.

So what I remember of Dennis Pegg as a child is he was a family friend. He was over at our house for meals. He befriended my parents. Even at one time, he had had a car accident and he wound up staying at our house until he got back on his feet. Pretend that your mother has just told you that your brother or sister has murdered a friend of the family, a friend that also happened

to be a retired police officer. What would you do? Would you turn them in right away? Or try to protect them and agree to keep their crime a secret? So after my mother had the conversation on the deck, she said, I want to show you your brother and he was sound asleep and I could tell his hand was cut very, very badly and I told my mother, I go, he needs to sink medical attention. And she said, absolutely not. We're not going to the hospital. And I said, Mom, I am not going to be part of any of this.

This is majorly severe and this is a crime scene. And I'm not going to be pretty to this. At this point, Holly would leave her mother's home and call someone she trusted. Diane Howe. Diane was Holly's holistic healer and spiritual counselor. And over the phone, Holly explained to Diane that her brother killed Dennis Pegg and that she was on her way to Diane's store. Diane had placed the call to the police and asked them to do a wellness check on Dennis. Unfortunately, Dennis was dead, and it was this call that would lead police to the body. Naturally, after their discovery, police had some questions for Diane. They called Diane back and wanted to know how she knew to do a wellness check. Diane.

Diane had little choice but to tell police what Holly had told her, and she would give them Holly's brother's name. Clark. Fredrick's. As time went by on this job, the name surfaced. The individual that was potentially involved in this was a gentleman by the name of Clark Fredrick's. Fredrick was a name that must have been new. Clark had family in the area and although

I did not know, Clark, I didn't know his brother. Like Dennis Pegg, the Fredericks family had a good reputation in the town of Stillwater. And for police, it came as a shock that anyone in that family could be involved in a murder. Nonetheless, after speaking with Diane and learning that Holly's brother was potentially the killer, the New Jersey State Police made the short drive from Dennis Pegg's home to the Frederick's residence. He threw it over there to see if he was home. We did not know whether or not he had weapons. So there was a perimeter set up and they ordered him out of the house, asked him to come out and show his hands.

There were weapons pointed at him as he exited the house. He saw the put his hands up and he complied. He complied with everything they said. They put him on the ground. They took him into custody without any incident and they brought him to the state police barracks in Sussex, New Jersey. Not long after Clark was in custody, he exercised his fifth amendment right to remain silent

and refused to speak with police. He did however make one admission. While being arrested, he told an officer that Dennis Pegg, quote, got what was coming to him. But otherwise, Clark didn't say a thing. We were a little bit anxious to find out to be Clark first, you know, what the hell is going on? What would trigger him to do this? This was the million dollar question. Why would Clark Fredericks murder a family friend Dennis Pegg?

Who even was Clark Fredericks? Clark was, he was very sick when he was young. He was born with a hole in his heart, and he had open heart surgery when he was six years old. And that was very traumatic for our family, because doing a major open heart surgery, especially on a young child, it was a big deal. It's become much more commonplace now, but back then, in the 60s, it was a very big deal. It's become much more commonplace now. But back then in the 60s it was a very big operation. So he came home, he seemed to be doing quite alright. And I just noticed as Clark got older, he just, I don't know, something changed within him and he just could not find his niche of life.

Being a sister, Holly understandably talks about her brother with kid gloves. But if we're going to be honest, Clark's problems went far beyond being able to find his niche in life. In high school, Clark didn't perform poorly, but he also didn't excel. While maintaining a sea average, he spent a lot of his free time smoking weed and drinking. Clark graduated from kidney regional high school in 1984, and during the summer before his freshman year at college, he was arrested for drinking and driving. Clark studied business at Northeastern University in Boston. There, he discovered a love for cocaine and spent his weekends and holidays as a blackout drunk. During his

alcohol and drug abuse, Clark did graduate in 1989, and after earning his business degree, he returned home to the little town of Stillwater. When he graduated college, he lived at home with my mother and father, and I was married with children, and he just couldn't seem to find a lasting relationship, and as time went on, he just kept getting angrier and angrier, and it just seemed like, you know, towards the end, he was totally spiraling out of control. Never knew why he was in such a spiral. After college, Clark did spiral badly. Through much of his remaining 20s, Clark went unemployed. And in his 30s, he began working at his brother's automotive center, repairing and installing 18-wheeler

truck and loader tires. Clark would remain at this job for 16 years, so much for that pricey business degree. While working for his brother, Clark bought himself a Harley Davidson motorcycle and hooked up with like-minded bikers. In Sussex County, New Jersey, biker gangs are more prominent than you might expect. And while this isn't always the case, the culture of these gangs can often involve

illegal drugs, strip clubs, and a whole lot of alcohol abuse. And it was this culture that Clark chose to associate with through his thirties. In his forties, things only got worse as Clark developed a pain pill addiction, began using heroin, and eventually walked away from his brother's automotive center. At age 46, and at the time of his arrest, he was living at his mother's house. Now, Clark sat in a holding cell, charged with the murder of a retired police lieutenant,

and he was refusing to speak with investigators, unable to get answers from him about what had happened and why he might have murdered Dennis Pegg, police turned to Clark's sister Holly and his mother, Joanne Fredericks. So then I was brought down to the state police and they interviewed me. They wanted to know what I knew about what happened and I basically just told them the story that my mother called me in the morning and then told me what happened. And my mother, when she was interviewed, she had mentioned that Clark was

with Bob Reynolds. And she thought that he was an accomplice with Clark. 47-year-old Bob Reynolds was a known friend of Clark's. And after learning from Clark's mother, that Reynolds was possibly an accomplice to the murder, police brought him in for questioning. After some initial pushback, police brought him in for questioning. After some initial pushback, Reynolds rolled over and helped to paint a clearer picture of what had happened at Dennis Peg's home. He would tell police that he met up with Clark the night before and Clark had told him that Dennis Peg was number one on Clark's hit list. Reynolds would go on to tell police that together,

they drove to Dennis' home. And when they arrived, Clark attacked Dennis, stabbing him with a hunting knife several times before eventually slitting his throat. At this point, police had collected a lot of evidence against Clark. They had his own admission that Dennis got what he had coming to him. They had his own admission that Dennis got what he had coming to him.

They had his mother statement, and now they had a witness to the murder in Bob Reynolds. But the question remained, why would Clark do this? To understand the motive in this crime, do this. To understand the motive in this crime, you need to know a little more about Clark and his relationship with Dennis Pegg. I grew up in Paul & Skill Lake, which is in Stillwater, and living at a lake community as a kid, it was fantastic because back then in the 70s, as soon as you could learn to ride your bicycle, you were told to go out and play and be back at dinner time. This is Clark Fredrick's describing what he remembers of his childhood. So myself and all the kids at the lake community would go down to the lake. There was basketball courts, tennis courts, there was jungle gyms.

There was the beach in the lake and you could fish and skip rocks. All those activities were wonderful and you were just told to be gone to have fun and if you came home dirty that meant you had a good time. Clark's early years were apparently happy ones as he enjoyed the freedom of playing in a small-lake community. And as you heard earlier, Dennis Pegg was good friends with Clark's parents. My earliest recollection is that Dennis Pegg was always around our family. I can't pinpoint the first time I met him,

but from age five, six, he was around our family. And he became entrenched with our family by my older brothers involvement in the Boy Scouts. I had an older brother and I had a next door neighbor who was my brother's best friend and the two of them joined the Boy Scouts and from their involvement in the Boy Scouts, their scout master Dennis Pegg befriended our family. Not only was Dennis close with the Fredericks, but he was also someone that Clark admired. Dennis was a sort of hero figure of mine. Next to my father, I respected him the most.

He was a lieutenant in the local Sheriff's Department. He wore a badge. He always carried a gun, he was a big, holding man, and he was just someone that I idolized and looked up to. Clark's childhood was one that anyone might envy. He had loving parents, he lived in a beautiful late community. He was free to go bike riding and play with his friends, and he had a strong role model in local police officer Dennis Pegg. Clark seemed poised for a healthy and nurturing early adolescence, but that would start to change in the summer of 1972.

I was born with a hole in my heart and my parents were so proud of me for surviving open-heart surgery that they would have me lift my shirt and show all their friends the scar I had and their friends would all have to give me a quarter. The summer of my seventh year of life, everyone had been outside in the backyard and I came upstairs to get a class of iced tea and to watch TV for a few minutes. There was a knock at the door and I heard Dennis's loud booming voice say hello and he went home and I bounded up out of my chair. All excited to see him and he asked me where is everybody and I said they're all out back and he said what are you doing?

I said I'm watching TV. He said great let's sit for a minute and he sat down on our couch and he said, hey, I got a quarter on me, little buddy. How about you show me your Scar, and without hesitation, I listed my shirt and he's looking at my scar, and he gives me a quarter, and he says, I've never seen a scar like yours. How about I give you a dollar, and you let me touch it. And I said, sure, Dennis, so as I'm holding my shirt up to my chin

Dennis takes his two meaty fingers and starts rubbing them up and down my open-heart surgery scar and he said is your stomach sore from the surgery at all? I said no Dennis not at all. And he said listen this is our little secret don't you tell anybody that I touched your scar? You can't keep a secret we won't be able to be friends and I said sure In this particular creepy and brief interaction, Dennis Pegg had planted what would become a secrecy pact between himself and a young impressionable Clark. A pact that would only grow stronger as Clark grew older. that he would ask me to keep. He would come by and he's trucked and I would go running over to him and he would say, hop in my truck a little buddy

and he had a six pack of blood in there. And he'd be like, here, have a beer. And again, he would be like, this has to be just a secret between you and me. And I'm thinking in my mind how unbelievably cool it was to drink a beer with a sheriff's officer at age nine. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin that and tell anybody about it.

Dennis had begun giving nine-year-old Clark alcohol, testing the limits of Clark's ability to keep secrets and it wouldn't stop there. Dennis, one day, said that a friend of his had just bought a farmhouse and they were clearing it out and getting ready for the friend to move in and there was a old desk in the farmhouse. Dennis was all excited and said I opened up the drawers of the desk and it was filled with neat pictures. I brought some of them

with me and I was all excited to see naked women and he took out a bunch of Polaroid pictures there had to be at least a dozen, and it was all close-ups of penises. And I said to him, then, where's the naked women? And he's like, oh, those must have been in the other drawer. And I said, ah, I said, I want to see the naked women out there. He's like, all right, I'll bring those next time. And again, this was the secret we had to keep.

And this went on and on and on. I'd see like every encounter was a secret. And unfortunately, I was great at keeping secrets back then. Dennis was Clark's scout leader. And if you've been keeping up with the latest headlines about Boy Scouts of America, you probably have some sense of where the story is going. Well, fair warning. It's about to get worse.

A lot worse. Dennis said to me that he was my mentor, and that if I had any questions with the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts or any of the requirements that I should come to him and even help me, and one of the requirements is that you have to learn how to tie knots. And I said to Dennis one day down at the dam that I needed help learning how to tie knots. And this was around age 11. And he said, all right, let's get your bicycle thrown in the back of my truck. And we'll go to my house and have a beer. And I'll teach you how to tie knots.

And I said, great done. Let's go. And we went over there. And this time instead of just giving me beer, If you've never tasted it, Blackberry Brandy is sweet, with an almost cough syrup like aftertaste. It's a fortified wine and can contain anywhere between 30 to 60% alcohol. It's also pretty easy to get drunk off of, especially if you're an 11 year old and some sick peto police officer is making you chug it.

He said to me, I want to play a game with you and he called it bumping logs and he got up and he excused himself to his bedroom for a few minutes. The only came back now. It looked like he excused himself to his bedroom for a few minutes. No one came back now. It looked like he had stuck something into his shorts. It was sticking out. And he said, stand up.

And he started pulling me into him, poking me with what was in his shorts. And he said to me, your log isn't ready yet. We're bumping logs, but your log isn't ready yet. Sit down on the chair and I'm going to get you ready. And I sat down on this kitchen chair, then I said, close your eyes, I'm going to get you ready. And I closed my eyes and in a flash, then I pulled my shorts down and began performing oral sex

on me. And I opened my eyes against his wishes. And he had his penis in his hand jerking off as he was performing oral sex army. There isn't a word in the English language or any language for that matter, disgusting enough to describe a man that would do this to an 11 year old boy. As best he could, Clark tried to put this traumatic event out of his mind. But unfortunately, Dennis wasn't finished with Clark. After I graduated elementary school, six grade, and he found me down at the lake one day,

and he said, let's go over to my house. And I said, sure, Ben, I hadn't been back to his house since he performed oral sex on him. Going back to the house, I was very anxious. I didn't know how to tell this guy, no. He still wanted to trust him, and we got there. And I remember his house was boiling. It seemed hotter inside than it was outside.

He had me drink to glass tumblers of blackberry brand. He gave me a couple Budwizers on top of them and I was instantly blitzed and his plot that he wanted my help with led us to his spare bedroom. And from it being so hot in his house, he said, let's just take our shorts off and our shirts off and he slipped my shorts off and my shirt off and he got behind me it had me in a bear hug so I couldn't move my arms I felt like I was in a straight jacket and he began raping me and I I screamed in pain, I screamed in fear.

And when he was raping me, it felt like there was no God. I felt completely alone with just this evil entity raping me. No one heard my screams, no one heard my cries. Nobody came to help this little 12 year old boy, and I cried and I screamed. Just another minute. Just another minute. If you don't already have enough contempt for this rapist piece of shit, you're about to. After what had been the longest minute of Clark's life, Dennis Pegg ensured that his incomprehensibly disgusting act was kept a secret.

This animal finally finished his deed. As he cleaned me up, he sat me down, opened another beer for me. was kept a secret. and had started howling and would not stop. And Dennis brought the dog into the kitchen where I sat and he began beating with his giant fists, this poor dog, and he beat the dog and beat the dog and I'm screaming at Dennis and crying to please stop because I felt responsible for that dog because it was only barking because of my cries and Dennis beat the dog unconscious in front of me, whether it lived or died after that moment,

I have no idea. And to me, that felt worse than the rape that just occurred because I felt responsible for that dog, and Dennis told me, if you open your mouth about what just occurred here, that's what'll happen to you. After watching Dennis beat a dog unconscious, or perhaps to death, with his bare hands,

12-year-old Clark did, as he was told. He kept silent. In the summer of 1978, 12-year-old Clark Fredericks was raped by his boy scout leader, Dennis Pegg. After raping Clark, Dennis beat a dog unconscious in front of this recently graduated sixth grader terrifying him into silence Dennis was a cop and Dennis betrayed me. There were no organizations back then that dealt with abuse children The only ones to go to were the cops and Dennis was a cop and that avenue was completely closed off I didn't know who to turn to, what to do.

My mind told me, we were going to keep this silent, we were not going to talk about it, and so I tried to go about my life as normal as I could. In addition to the fear that Dennis hadn't stilled in Clark, there was also the added psychological factor that Dennis was someone Clark looked up to. In cases like this where the abuser is a mentor or respected by the victim, the victim will often blame themselves for what happened, thinking they must have seduced their abuser somehow. As Clark held onto this trauma, feeling like he had nowhere to turn, it again looking for ways to dull his pain. When smoking weed wasn't enough, Clark turned to the next best thing. As I went into high school, it became easier to find alcohol and I made a switch from smoking marijuana to drinking.

As Clark went through high school he found that drinking his pain away wasn't working either. So he looked for something else, an escape. I got accepted into Northeastern University in Boston, NASA and I couldn't wait to get up there and get away from everything in store. I realized in college that I had to apply myself. I couldn't abandon my studies like I could in high school and I didn't want to not do well in college so I applied myself and I had college down to a science. I could go to school and do studies all night long for

nights of the week and that would allow me to be a blackout drunk the other three nights of the week. I tried cocaine for the first time in college and I absolutely loved it. As you know Clark graduated from college in 1989 but what you don't know yet is that he graduated with honors. Even though Clark was abusing alcohol and cocaine, he still managed to do well academically, and this opened a rare door of opportunity. Johnson & Johnson is a massive multinational corporation that develops medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods. It's headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey,

and is one of the largest corporations in the United States. The typical executive at Johnson and Johnson makes about $107,000 a year. In two weeks before I graduated, I got a call from Johnson and Johnson asking me if I'd like to come in for an interview. in $7,000 a year. For many child sex abuse victims, as they reach adulthood, making commitment to anything can be especially difficult. Be it a career, a romantic relationship, or

a simple friendship. These types of interpersonal commitments can cause a sense of fear in the victim, as they worry that their abuse will be exposed. I couldn't commit to a career, I couldn't commit to a relationship, because being in anything long-term made me feel trapped and trapped is exactly how I felt at Dennis Pekes' house, so I sabotaged career after career. After passing up opportunities through his 20s, Clark would enter his 30s, alone and unemployed, and then begin working at his brother's automotive center. He asked me if I wanted to come work for him and not having anything else to do at the time, I said sure. I had bought in a Harley, I had hooked up, put up a bunch of guys who were like myself, driving Harley's, some who like the Stork cocaine, all who like to drink,

and we would spend our time drinking, doing coke. I was living a life as fast in as hard as I possibly could, and I constantly was trying to outrun my pain. Clark went through his thirties at breakneck speed, all the while abusing drugs and alcohol to numb the pain caused by his rapist Dennis Pegg. And when he arrived at his 40s, he crashed. Going into my 40s, I've learned since that those who have suffered childhood abuse suffer from PTSD. And I didn't know I suffered from PTSD, but in my 40s, my PTSD kicked in and I fell into a huge depression.

Late onset depression can be found to be one of the most common long-term symptoms among child sex abuse victims. After years of negative self-thought, victims usually develop extreme feelings of worthlessness, resulting in a deep state of depression in their 40s or 50s. thinking that would cheer me up. When simply trying to get through my day was too exhausting. My mind told me a little bit of cocaine just to get us through our day wouldn't be so bad. So I began doing that. For Clark, alcohol and cocaine were no longer limited to his off time in recreation. They'd become part of his everyday routine. And one day while working at his brother's automotive center, he herniated a disc in his back.

I went to see a doctor and he described me 30-viking in pills. And I ate these 30 pills in a few days and I felt like Superman on him. I felt like 18 years old again. And I called him up after four days and I said, Doc, those pills worked wonders. I need more. He's like, that was way too quick. He goes, I'll prescribe you 10 more, but that's it.

Well, 10 more wasn't going to do much for me. And that was simply unacceptable. I didn't go doctor shopping for my pain pills. I went out on the street and thus began a six-year-long paintillate picture. Throughout Clark's life it seemed that one bad habit turned into 20 more and at the age of 45, 10 months before the murder of Dennis Pegg, Clark had an unexpected run-in with someone from his past. I stopped at a quick check, Daly, to get a cup of coffee and as I'm at the coffee island making my has passed. world. Hey Clark! This is not the first time I've seen Dennis since he raped me. I've

run into Dennis throughout the years, but it's 30 years plus since he raped me. It had probably been 10 years since I had glasses encountered him anywhere. But what was different this time? Because I'm trailing in right behind him coming through the door? Was a young boy about the age that he raped me at? And that young boy called Dennis the same nickname that he had insisted I call him when I was that boy's age. The nickname that Clark understandably wouldn't say is Denny. I heard that nickname and I instantly went into a panic attack and I felt myself start to stiffen up like I was paralyzed.

That's what happened to me when I was numbed out and Dennis molested me. Is that I froze, I became paralyzed with the fear. That's also what I hated about myself. It said I didn't do more when he touched me, and it killed me all these shares, and I didn't fight him. And here that same feeling is coming upon me, and Dennis is starting to make his way towards me to shake my hand, to pat me on the back, to hug me who knows. What is it about child rapists that pretend like they're best buds with their victims

when their victims become adults. my steering wheel, I start spitting in my truck in all the pain from my childhood is now ripped open, seeing that young boy next to him. Knowing that the same fate awaits that young boy that awaited me. Has it already happened I thought, is it going to happen today? Is it going to happen tomorrow? In my life, crumbled. After that encounter that day. After this run in with Dennis, Clark crossed the final threshold into the world of drugs, and he began doing something he had promised himself he would never do. He started using heroin. Soon after, he quit his job.

And on the morning of June 12, 2012, the day before being arrested for murder, unemployed alcoholic drug addict and child abuse victim Clark Fredericks awoke in his bed. it that up, I made a line for the kitchen where I made a locker or an orange juice. I got back into bed and put the TV on. And on the news, it was the start of the Jerry Sand Dusky, Mollestation Trial. In case you don't know, Jerry Sand Dusky is a former Penn State football coach. In 2011, he was arrested and charged with over 50 counts of sexual abuse of underage boys over a 15 year period. His trial was covered extensively on television. And in 2012, he was sentenced to between 30 and 60 years in prison.

And I saw him get out of his lawyer's car. And when he did, all I could see was Dennis Pegg, a yelled curses at the TV. And I wrapped my arms around myself, hugging myself, and just rocking back and forth in my bed. After seeing a particularly smug Jerry Sandusky on TV, Clark left his home and spent a day drinking, hopping from one local bar to another. earlier and I had an encountered him since and I went up to his table. We had words. He told me to fuck off and I left that restaurant fuming. I was supposed to meet a friend of mine at my house who was going to power wash and stain the siding of my house and he was coming over to drop off the equipment. That friend's name was Bob Reynolds.

Bob Reynolds arrived at Clark's home that evening. After unloading the power wash equipment, the two of them had a friendly conversation in Clark's kitchen over a few lines of coke and many glasses of wine. I told him about my encounter with a guy who had burned me in the business deal and Bob said to me, that guy has to be number one on your hit list. And before I could stop the words coming out of my mouth, for the first time in my life, I revealed to someone about the most station and raid by Suffolored as a child.

The words instantly came out of my mouth. Actually, he's number two. The scumbag who raped me as a child is number one. After hearing this, Bob had a few questions. Once he got past confirming that Clark was being serious, Bob asked Clark who had raped him and where they lived. Whether it was Bob's decision or mine, we both decided that we would go confront Dennis Peck. I told Bob what a gun fanatic he was, As it turns out, Clark's hunting knife had sentimental value. As a Christmas gift one year, Dennis Pegg bought me a stone and oil knife sharpening kit and sitting at our house over a glass of eggnog, Dennis taught me how to get the perfect blade on my hunting knife.

And that's the one thing I did throughout my entire life was keep that knife with a perfect blade on my hunting knife. And that's the one thing I did throughout my entire life was keep that knife with a perfect blade. Armed with a perfectly sharpened hunting knife, Clark got into Bob's van and together, they drove the Dennis Pegs home. I'm a badger gone and authority, a pillar of the community I was 12 years old when he met me Well I was just a boy then Just a boy Now I'm a man

I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm gonna take a lot into my own hands I'm a man, yes I'm a man, yeah they've come in for what you did. You were the law. I was just a kid. Yeah, I'm a man. After leaving Dennis's house that night, Clark returned home. Now a murderer, he was convinced that his life was over. So Clark woke up his mother to say goodbye and told her what he had done. Then he swallowed some pain pills and went to sleep. I just don't. I dug my fingers into my skull. I said Clark, you fucking idiot! You fucking idiot! Just flushed the rest of your life down to toilet. It is fucking over, bro! My mind, which had complete control of me, and my mind said if we can just get some drugs and alcohol in our system, we can come up with a game plan to get out of us. And like a lunatic I called out to my empty bedroom, I agree. Let's do it.

Like most mornings after getting out of bed, Clark went into his kitchen and drank a glass of wine. And I looked out the kitchen window and my road was littered with police cars. I said, you gotta be fucking kidding me. They're here already? And it was at that moment where it hit you that this is really happened. Your life is really over. You're not getting out from under this. It's fucking over."

The state police arrested Clark and brought him to their barracks in Sussex, New Jersey, where they placed him in a holding cell. One of the first people to walk into the holding cell was Lieutenant Howard Ryan. As I opened the door, he was sitting on a bench, and one of the first things I noticed was just kind of how lost he looked. In addition to noticing Clark's demeanor, Lieutenant Ryan also noticed that Clark's left hand was badly injured, so he called the medics to treat it. As a medical people were working on his hand, it was almost a relief on his face.

Like he had done something he needed to do or said something he needed to say. I just looked at him and there was something to hit me. I had a hunch. I said, look, bark, we have you. I got you six ways from Sunday. Your blood is all over that house. You don't know me. Sunday. Your blood is all over that house. You don't know me, so you really have no reason to trust me. But I'm gonna tell you something. And he said, you're about to get pulled out of this holding cell and taken into a room to be interrogated by my own detectives.

And I'm telling you right now, I want you to exert your fifth amendment rights and remain silent. It's not very often that a murder suspect would get that kind of valuable advice from the police lieutenant that just arrested him. Nonetheless, Clark did, as he was told. He exercised his right to remain silent and was eventually brought to a hospital to receive surgery on his hand. After my surgery, and I was taken to the Sussis County jail, they placed me in a suicide of surgery on his hand. While Clark contemplated various ways to kill himself, police continued

their investigation, but the basic facts of the murder weren't complicated. The victim, however, was another story. As in any homicide, when you are looking for suspects, you also have to look into the victims. Clark Fredericks was kind of an open book. The Dennis Pegg story was something different. And just the general processing of his home, we seized his computer. You have one guess.

What do you think police found on Dennis Pegg's computers? In addition to countless photos of naked children and a web history of repeated visits to child exploitation sites, police also found suggestive photos of Dennis's 15 year old great nephew, Dylan Pegg, and as news of Clark's arrest became public, the state police began receiving phone calls. Phone calls from other victims that had been abused by Dennis Pegg. There was a lot of people that came forward. You had multiple boy scouts that had been assaulted by him.

You had former inmates. Dennis had this bizarre kind of bizarre thing where if a young male roommate would get out of jail, he would offer them, oh you know what you can stay with me to get back on your feet, I think. These were normally young men addicted to drugs, and Dennis said he would give them a place to live, and his mentoring turned into molesting. And it was even worse than that. We found out that there were several cases through the years of suicide that occurred as a result of this case.

After discovering the photos of 15-year-old Dylan Pegg on Dennis' computer, police soon learned that at age 21, Dylan had killed himself. And there were several other likely victims of Dennis Pegg that committed suicide All signs suggested that Dennis had at minimum a three-decade reign of terror which begged the question How did he get away with what he was doing for so long? Do you think to yourself how in the hell did this happen and the of the matter is, Dennis was sequestered up on a hill,

kept to himself, except for his hunting grounds, wherever that may be. He spread himself out in all these different organizations, and what they actually were were his hunting grounds. Look at Dennis' obituary that somebody wrote for him, maybe a failuremer, I don't really know. But literally everything that I've been mentioning there is what a stellar pillar of community was, was this hunting ground. Dennis John Pegg, 68 of Stillwater, died Wednesday, June 13, 2012 at home. Mr. Pegg was a distinguished member of the New York Police Department Honor Legion. He also was a member and chaplain of the Newton American Legion,

post-86, a life member and former president and vice president of the Stillwater Historical Society, an honorary citizen of Boystown, a former member of the Sierra Club, and the Common Deers Club for disabled American veterans for 20 years. He was a former member of Sparta, Kiwani's, a past president of the Nolten Lions Club, a past president of the Katani Lions Club, a former treasurer of the North Warren Lions Club, a former member of Sparta Rotary, a former county committee man, a 15-year member of the Republican National Committee, a member of Moose International, a life member of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., a 45-year member of the National Geographic Society, and a former member

of the American Red Cross Association. A longtime supporter of the Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Pegg was involved with the Woodbridge troop. A former scout master for troop 83 in Stillwater, a past scout master, and assistant scout master of troop 86, as well as the committee chairman, and a former Sussex Morris Council advancement committee chairman. This is just a section of his obituary. Next to it, a happy photo of him waving. Dennis was a pedophile.

He was a predator. He was a hunter and a children. And he left a massive path of destruction behind him. And the interesting thing was, and when you say this, you've got to almost have to qualify qualify it but he was good at it. I know that sounds like a horrible thing to say, pretty good at this, but he was skilled at hiding what his issue was. People like that are probably one of the greatest dangers to our society. Obviously Dennis was dangerous, very dangerous, but his behavior is far from isolated.

In fact, Dennis was a textbook pedophile. They will, in dear themselves to you, they will in dear themselves to the child's family. They will look for weaknesses, specifically like single parents and things like that where a parent may need additional help. The other thing they do is they put them intentionally, they put themselves in places where they're going to be around children. You know, it begins with casual contact, it begins with some wrestling around, touching, and desensitizing the child. Once the assaults begin and Dennis did this, then it becomes the threat of violence.

And again, we're going back to children, so they're so impressionable, and they're so frightened, and oftentimes they don't say anything. It's the torment and the threat living under threat of violence or death afterwards if you open your mouth. You know, there's some of these people don't get over it and that's why we saw some suicides as a result of this. And, you know, as a law enforcement officer, just as an adult as a parent, meaning it pissed us you off because you think not just the police, adults in general, you know, our job of them involving children. And even though he used his badge to mask his true nature, presenting himself as the jolly helpful local policeman, there were people in still water that knew what was going on. And they said nothing.

The system failed Clark's renderings in every single way. Now, here's the other side of the criminal justice system is designed to be fair as best that it can. And if nobody's going to come forward, there isn't much we can do. We can't just randomly target people and investigate it for no reason. The system only works if you talk. People say, well, it doesn't always work. Well, I can tell you one thing.

It will never work if you don't speak up. It's a brave thing to do. It's an extraordinarily courageous thing to do for a victim to speak out about it. But if you don't,, the spark never gets lit. Speaking out against child abuse is the most powerful weapon we have against abusers. But for victims, speaking out is very hard. Confusion, denial, fear, shame, and self-blame can all play a factor in preventing a child from speaking out about their abuse. As for Clark, he convinced himself to keep his abuse a secret pretty much immediately after it happened. River trying to understand what just happened to me. In my mind, thought it was protecting me, and it told me we do not want to talk about what just happened.

Talking about it is equal to reliving it, so I sealed myself shut. It was the worst thing I could have done. At age 12, Clark locked his pain away. This would set him on a path that would lead him right back to Dennis Pegs home 33 years later. On the night of June 12, 2012, Clark and Bob Reynolds went to confront Dennis Pegg. I jawed up his driveway. His front door was open. He had a storm door which was shut And I could see right into his living room and there Dennis sat watching TV.

Instant rage started to build up within me. I walked up to his storm door. I ripped it open, breaking the hinges, and what Dennis did next set me off to the point that it determined his fate. It's 9.30 at night. A person is standing there in his doorway, who he raped as a 12-year-old boy. And Dennis casually looks over his shoulder and says, Hey, how are you? I said, Hey, how am I, motherfucker? Let me fucking show you how I am.

And I raced across his living room and I began stab stabbing Adam. He got up out of his chair. He's punching me. I'm stabbing him and also out this encounter. I was saying to him, how's it feel touching little boys now? How's it fucking feel than is the touch little boys now? And at one point he landed a solid shot across my jaw. I yelled you motherfucker. When I brought the knife down and I put the knife straight across my jaw. I yelled you motherfucker and I brought the knife down and I put the knife straight through my hands. That hand instantly became useless. I settled the ligaments in tendons to my fingers. The fight continued. He began bleeding profusely and he slipped down in the blood on the floor and I knelt down. I leveled to

him and I looked him in the eye, and I said, it's not so fun, raping little boys now, is it Dennis, and I slid his throat. Hearing Clark describe Dennis' murder might fill you with a sense of justice. Maybe you feel like karma finally caught up with this animal, but for Clark, that feeling never came. There was no joy in what I had just done to murder someone I had to be completely broken. I had to get down to like an animal.

It's not like I took a big exhale and that moment said, wow, that was fun. It was a horrific encounter. And I looked at him and I knew my life was over. Having murdered a retired police lieutenant, Clark now faced the justice system. And one of his first stops along the way was a suicide cell. Clark spent several weeks in that cell and would ultimately survive his thoughts of suicide,

only to find that another possible threat to his life awaited him. a closet where there's no cameras. And I didn't know if I would ever walk out of that room. Noting the obvious conflict of interest, Clark's defense attorney filed a motion with the Sussex County Superior Court to have Clark moved to a different jail. The motion was denied. As Clark waited for his court proceedings to move forward, unsure if or when the correction officers were planning to strike, something was happening outside the jail. Something very interesting happened right after this became public. There was an overwhelming number of people that had just started being vocal saying, I knew it. I knew Dennis Pegg was a child molester. It was everywhere you went and I saw something occur that I've never seen before. Within three or four days of Clark being incarcerated, everywhere you

drove on bumper stickers of cars, you would see bumper stickers that said free Clark. There was a rallying cry of community behind Clark Reddrex that I had never seen in any other crime, whatever. I mean, it could do this 30 years I've never seen that. With the community rallying behind Clark, the Sussex County prosecutor's office was put in a delicate situation. Their first degree murder case was strong, but representing a child

rapist and convincing a jury to see Dennis Pegg as a victim was a tall task. The prosecuting attorneys were put in a very difficult spot. Is they walk into a courtroom and go for the home run here and try to put him away for 30 years and they was a tall task. The prosecuting attorneys were put in a very difficult spot. If they walk into a courtroom and go for the home run here and try to put a boy for 30 years

and they go to trial at all, it wasn't matter. In this county, they realize they actually might get a not guilty verdict. They may get a jury that says, I don't care what evidence you have. That guy's the child rapist, Clark did us a favor. They had to look at this and ask why. You know, in one's respect respect you'd try and Clark Fredrick's, but in another respect, you're also trying Dennis Pegg.

As the court proceedings move forward, Clark pled not guilty. But when you plead not guilty, in a murder case, you must provide the court with a defense. In his case, Clark went with the diminished capacity defense. Diminished capacity contends that although the defendant admits to breaking the law, they should not be held fully liable for doing so, as their mental state was impaired while the crime was being committed. The main distinction between diminished capacity and an insanity defense is that diminished capacity is a partial negating defense while insanity is a complete defense.

In a murder case, instead of being found not guilty by reason of insanity, a diminished capacity defense usually seeks a reduced charge of manslaughter. The bolster is defense Clark met with a psychologist who developed a report on him. This report was eventually delivered to the prosecutor's office. And after the prosecutor received that report, there, the psychologist also read it. And he also came up with a different defense on my behalf. Instead of diminished capacity, he felt I sit in perfectly to passion provocation manslaughter. Passion provocation manslaughter is a second degree felony.

The typical scenario of this crime is a husband coming home to find his wife in bed with another man and then immediately kills her or her lover. Motivated by anger, the husband takes no time to think through his emotional response, but instead acts without rationalizing or reasoning. When this happens, he's considered to have a reasonable provocation for his emotional response. In Clark's case, the prosecution's own psychologist would cite Clark's run-ins with Dennis, seeing the Sandusky murder trial on TV, and his conversation with Bob Reynolds as Clark's reasonable provocation. The entire process of evaluating Clark's mental state and submitting reports for his defense

would take three years. And in 2015, the Sussex County Prosecutor's office offered Clark the opportunity to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter. If he refused, Clark would go to trial and face the possibility of 30 years in prison for first degree murder. As part of his plea agreement, Clark was required to read an Allocation statement in court, and confess on record to what he had endured as a child and what he had done about it. Many major news outlets were there to capture this Allocation. And this would be the first time that Clark told the world he was raped as a child.

When the time that I was eight years old, I was 12 years old, I was sexually assaulted and raped by Dennis Peck. June 12, 2012, my shell cracked. I started stabbing Dennis. I said over and over to him, how does it feel rap breaking little kids now? At the end, I slipped through.

We then left the pegs house together, went back to my house, and saw all I had on her. Typically, after a person confesses to murder, there are angry onlookers and crying families in the courtroom. But after Clark read his statement, something unusual happened. Secrets revealed in this Sussex County, New Jersey courtroom. But after Clark read his statement, something unusual happened.

Secrets revealed in this Sussex County New Jersey courtroom confessed killer Clark Fredrick's delivered a detailed gut-wrenching account of what he says happened to him as a child and what he did about it three decades later. As he left the courtroom, this The rupture of the claws. They weren't applauding me because I murdered a pedophile. They were applauding me for having the courage to finally break my silence. After pleading guilty, Clark would return to jail and await sentencing. It would be six months before his punishment was handed down. on. On June 2015, Clark Fredericks pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter after murdering the man that raped him as a child three decades earlier.

Six months later, Clark returned court to receive his sentence. I went before Judge Critchley. He read a lengthy statement and he said, I believe Mr. Fredericks only did what he did because of what was done to him as a child. He said I intended to liberate Mr. Frederick straight now. I'm going to give Mr. Frederick the minimum five years and I apologize for having to send him to prison for a single day. It's not every day that a judge apologizes to a confessed murderer.

Clark's sentence of five years stirred up some controversy in Stillwater. Residents of the town tended to fall into one of two camps. The first one believing that Clark shouldn't have gone to prison at all. People have commented that they've felt I should have received a single day behind bars. And believe it or not, I have spoken many times with the prosecutor in my case. And one of the things he asked me was, what do you think your life would have been like? Had you gotten away with the murder? I said, look dude, I was already carrying one secret that was destroying my life. Am I supposed to think that now I'm going to carry the secret of murder. I would have been dead. There's no way I could have gone through life with these two secrets.

The other camp felt that Clarkson's wasn't harsh enough. There was a lot of talk about his sentence of five years. And I don't have a problem with it. I'll tell you why. Any interest in justice? I think the prosecutors did the right thing. I think they did a very, very good job. And justice was, sir, Clark did five years. I know some people are going to say, yeah, but he murdered somewhere. I get it. I sure did put it in

anybody else. I'm the guy that put it in the body guy. But he went away. And you know, what I think I would tell people if they criticized it, I would say when you really should look at and learn about and consider is what Clark did during his time in prison and what he's doing now. After Clark's sentencing, he was moved to Northern state prison in New York, New Jersey to serve out his remaining time. While there, he would finally begin to heal from the sexual abuse he had endured as a child. It asked me to join therapy with her and I jumped at the chance. It required me going to prison before I finally did therapy for the first time in my life. Clark's case made international headlines and as a result people from all over the world were writing to him. me books, self-help books, meditation books, mindfulness books, yoga books, and I picked the smallest book,

and I figured it was small enough that I could get through it. That book was Man's Search for Meaning by Holocaust Survivor, Victor Frankel. And when I read it, there was a line in there that changed my life, that ignited something in my soul, and that line was, when you are faced with an intolerable situation that will not change, you must change yourself. And I said, wow, my situation is not going to change anytime soon. So I have to change myself. And I dedicated myself to reading from that point forward, to begin healing myself, to begin improving myself as a person.

I read books on meditation, books on self-improvement, books on mindfulness. I read over 500 books. I tried to take something out of each book. I read and apply it to myself. So my time in prison was filled with therapy, was filled with reading, and that's what I did during my incarceration. On December 30th, 2016, Clark was released from prison, giving him the opportunity to become a contributing member of society, and that's exactly what he did. When I was released from prison, I saw online news about three boy scouts that lived in the county next to me who had filed a lawsuit against the boy scouts.

And it listed the lawyer and the law firm they were using. And I eventually called the guy. He told me he knew all about my case. And he told me that I had no legal recourse against the boy Scouts because of the way the law was written in New Jersey. Prior to December 2019 in the state of New Jersey, victims of child sex abuse only had until age 20 to file a lawsuit against an organization whereby they had been sexually assaulted by one of its members or employees. This is known as a statute of limitations. In response, Clark became an advocate for amending this statute.

And I started meeting with senators and assemblymen and lobbyists and lawyers to urge them to adopt a new law that we can't have other clerks running around taking the law into their own hand, less than two years after becoming an advocate, the new bill passed unanimously into law. This new law which took effect on December 1, 2019 enables child sex abuse victims to file their lawsuit all the way up to age 55. Prior to Clark taking action, New Jersey had the shortest amount of time in the country in which child sex abuse victims could file. It now has the longest. Every state in America has its own statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims. But in February of 2020, the Boy Scouts of America significantly reduced the time that victims have

to file their claims against them in the entire country. Today, the Boy Scouts of America, one of the biggest youth organizations in the country, filed for bankruptcy protection. In an apologetic letter, the BSA says it encourages victims to come forward and file claims, but under the structure of this bankruptcy, there's a deadline and a limit to payments. Boy Scouts of America announced that they were filing for bankruptcy on February 17, 2020. Victims that suffered sex abuse as a result of being involved with their organization only had until November 16, 2020 to file a new claim. And since the BSA had filed for Chapter 11,

it has allowed them to remain in operation while raising money for a victim's compensation fund, effectively stopping lawsuits from pulling funds from their existing assets. If you're gonna be an organization, that is devoted to children. You have the responsibility to make sure that people you bring on to represent an organization that is devoted to children. You have the responsibility to make sure that people you bring on to represent your organization are there solely to do your will of improving the

lives of those children. The Boy Scouts failed miserably at doing that. They have kept their own secret perversion files on Scout Masters who have abused children in their ranks. The Boy Scout perversion files are a series of documents that list scout leaders who have allegedly abused the children in their care. A group of alleged victims claims the Boy Scouts of America kept secret records about leaders accused of misconduct, called the, quote, perversion files. The attorneys say the files go all the way back to the 1940s and have never been shared with law enforcement.

They include more than 7,800 suspects and over 12,000 victims. The BSA initially resisted the release of their perversion files, but in 2012 they were forced to do so by an Oregon Supreme Court filing. Sexual abuse against a child is a violent crime. There's no excuse for this. There's none. I don't want to hear anybody offer up any explanation. When children are being victimized, and society is not stepping up and shutting it down,

we failed. We failed as a society, we failed as a species. I mean, what are we doing? And the fact that we have organizations, whether it's religious groups or social groups like the Boycecps, and this has gone on and has been perpetuated, and these agencies haven't really come out, and one admitted it, taken the hit, and done complete wholesale fundamental change to stop it from happening and prevent it from ever happening again again is probably the most disturbing part. De Boy Scouts did nothing but window dress for decades.

They did everything they could to avoid facing the fact that they had enormous problems in their ranks of pedophile scout masters. And it's unfortunate that it takes the Catholic Church, it takes the boy scouts to face a monetary loss before they finally will enact change. According to the Boy Scouts of America's own website, which encourages abuse victims to come forward, they have, quote, developed some of the strongest expert-informed youth protection policies found in any youth serving organization." Though, it's not made clear what those policies are exactly. As for Clark Fredericks, after prison, life went on. And not long after his release, he took a job as a chef

at a boat house restaurant in his hometown of stillwater. There he had another unexpected run-in with someone from his past. I have to see this gentleman walk behind me from towards the dining room towards the kitchen. And I said to the bartender who I knew, I said, uh, who was that that just walked into the kitchen? She says, that was Clark Fredrex. I said, would you do me a favor? Could you go in the kitchen, tell him that I got from the state police's here and like to say hi? When he came out of the kitchen, he looked at me. As sitting at the bar was none other than Lieutenant Howard Ryan, who had come into my cell multiple times,

spoke to me like a human being, treated me with empathy and compassion, and quite possibly saved my life from decades behind bars by urging me to exercise my fifth amendment rights and keep my mouth shut without him doing that. I could go on into that interrogation room and completely destroyed my life. He came walking over, we shook hands and he gave me a big hug and we just started talking about what he was doing and everything he else and it was funny because he almost got a little bit like not a Maybe almost emotional, but he looked, he goes out waiting to see you. I told him how much I appreciated what he did for me that day. After this chance in counter, Clark developed a friendship with Howie Ryan, and he would

eventually ask the now retired lieutenant for a favor. And it's a something that a lot of people may know. The story don't know that much about him personally. Clark's a very driven and intelligent person, and he knew what he wanted to do with his life afterwards. One day, as I sat in my prison cell, I heard a voice loud and clear saying, you're going what he wanted to do with his life afterwards. Not long after his release from prison, Clark fulfilled the instruction of his jailhouse premonition. He is now a motivational speaker. And before taking the stage, the police officer that arrested him for

murder will sometimes give the introduction. and it's one of the reasons I'm very practical and friendly. Without further ado, we'll come first. Thank you. I hope you can realize just how amazing what you just heard is that the guy responsible for my arrest is here as a friend to introduce me. And his arrest actually saved my life. My mother's station was not my problem. My mother's station was not my problem. My mother's station was a teaching tool for me. My problem was my refusal to share that mother's station with anyone.

Clark has given his speech at fundraiser events and other venues across the East Coast, including high schools, colleges, and the prison where he served time. I would hope that by speaking out about this, that it brings awareness to this problem that by speaking out, I feel. prison where he served time. murdering their abuser killing Dennis Pegg did not end my torment. It actually added another layer to the healing I had to do. Clark's message is clear. In order to heal victims of sexual abuse must break their silence and speak out. But his message is not limited to abuse victims. I think everybody, not just victims of child sexual abuse, but everybody, could learn something is not limited to abuse victims. doing the right thing for the right reasons. And the most important message he would send to you if you are a victim and if you know somebody who's a victim, you've got to speak up. I've got people in too many countries to list

who have reached out to me with their own stories of abuse and how me breaking my silence has given that the courage to speak up about their own abuse. He is helping people. I've known it. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen people come up to him in tears and thank him for being brave enough to talk about his story. And it's giving them strength to talk about their story.

And one of the things Clark said to me about the life that he lived and about the things that he endured is that your silence is yours to enemy. At the end of most sword and scale episodes, I'd like to close out with a theme or offer a more or less enough sort that you can walk away with. But for this one, I'm just going to hand it off to the murderer in our story. Clark Fredrick's. Your life doesn't have to be destroyed if you were a molesting.

You can get therapy you can begin healing practice mindfulness practice meditation these are all things I do to keep myself healthy and that's what I urge other people to do so to all people at it listen to your podcast if you've been abused there's nothing to be afraid of the only way to heal is to break your silence and to become transparent. And if you look at yourself in the mirror and you don't like what you see, and you're consumed by darkness, trust me. And if you begin healing, the inside will allow the outside to shine once again. That's it for this episode of Sword and Scale, special thanks to Holly, Siliano, and Howie Ryan

for their interviews. You can learn about what Howie is up to at HighlandFerensics.com and you can listen to his podcast at undertheyellowtap.com. And thanks to Clark Fredrick's. You can find him on all social media platforms under Clark Fredrick's or visit his website at ClarkFredrick's.com. Until next time, stay safe and be a parent. at www.staysafe.org. Until next time, stay safe and be a parent.

Put in the time, teach your own damn kid how to tie a knot and stay safe. Hi, my name is Andy. You can call me a fast hole, I guess. I love your show. It's fantastic. And I always get asked how I listen to such dark crime stories. But I think it keeps me grounded. Hearing all these terrible things, I came from the abusive situation, and you know, now that I'm in a happier place, it just keeps me grounded. So thank you. Thank you for creating this show. Thank you for all the work that goes into it. I know how much work goes into it.

So thank you for keeping all of us grounded. J now! This is Kylie from Portland, Oregon, to help you annoy listeners and to also let you know that your podcast is my never one favorite true-grind podcast. Thanks for keeping it real. Hey now, how you doing? Hi Mike, this is Lilana. I'm here in South Florida, Yay Florida, and I want to tell you that I just joined Sword

Scale Plus. I thoroughly enjoy your show. It's amazing. I listen to it almost every day, and so I'm out of episodes, and I wanted to join the Plus, so I can eat it all the extra content. You are a lifesaver. I have two kids, and I take care of everything that goes on in the house, and I listen as I do all of my household

tasks. So thank you for keeping me thoroughly entertained while I do the day to day. Thank you. Great content. Love your work. Bye-bye. Yo, what's up? My... Disgusting new update on this recent episode. I'm stoked to hear it. I just wanted to call and say I appreciate everything you do. Maybe some people don't understand the gravity of your of your podcast because they haven't gone through certain life experiences that other people have gone through and maybe that's what some people don't understand the content of your podcast. I hear a lot of people hating out there, but you know, if you don't like it, don't

listen. Simple as that. Thanks watching, mate. Take care.