Arthur Clifton….
I had worked for many years but never had I worked on a case that was as diabolical or as disturbing as the case of Arthur Clifton. The man who terrified an entire population. A man who made people fear the dark.
I am a retired psychologist. I’ve worked for over 40 years analyzing different cases. I mainly worked in criminal psychology. I mostly looked at murders and kidnappings and cases like that most of those were just bad people. Over the years I have had my fair share of patients who were far beyond just bad people. The man called Arthur Clifton is not just bad, he is a sinister human being, if that’s what you want to call him.
I first started working with him in the fall of 1984. I remember the first time I saw him. He was brought into a room with 1 door and no windows. There was a single camera at the top corner. A desk was moved in where myself and 2 other officers sat. It was a Wednesday night I heard on the news that the man known as “The Scarecrow Of Baltimore” was caught. I sat patiently at the desk as I heard the door open and echo through the corridor. The wheels echoed as they got louder as they approached. I was eager to see what was going to happen. Then it appeared in the doorway. He appeared.
He was strapped to a hand-truck and was wearing a straight jacket. I could still see the black make-up around his eyes. It was a deep contrast with his blood red eyes. He stared straight at me, almost reaching into my soul. He was wearing the most crooked grin I’ve ever seen in my entire life. He was taken off the hand truck and strapped to the leather chair in my office. The officers told me advice like don’t get too close to him and if he wants something call for the officers and they’ll deal with it. He wouldn’t speak until the officers left the room. Since that night I knew my life would never be the same.
I worked with him from the fall of 1984 to the winter of 198. The winter he was sent to a penitentiary out of state far from Baltimore. In those 4 years I’ve compiled a story that answers the question “Who is Arthur Clifton?”.
Arthur was born August 3rd, 1952. He was born in Indiana to his parents Thomas and Carrie. He grew up with his parents as well as his older brother John. Throughout his childhood he was constantly bullied at school from kindergarten all the way up until highschool. He was often bullied because he was born with marfan syndrome which made him very tall and lanky. The kids at school would call him names like ghost and skeleton man. The only person he was friends with was his brother John.
Years of abuse had taken a toll on him. Arthur was not born evil, he was turned into evil. One day on the school yard in the 2nd grade, the school bully Roger decided he was going to push Arthur off the playground. He told everyone in the school what was going to happen. So at recess all the kids ran out and gathered around the playground pretending that nothing was going on. Eventually Arthur came out and ran straight to the top. Despite his physique he was very fast. This was probably because of the fact that he loved sports, his favorite being baseball. When he arrived at the top of the playground Roger was there waiting. Roger tried to talk to Arthur. Arthur knew Roger was going to say something mean so he ignored him. Roger then decided to come up with an offer.
“Hey,” Roger Said, “If you can climb up the tall ladder faster than me, I’ll give you 50 cents.”
“No way.” Arthur replied.
“I guess you are just a weak, worthless ghost.”
Suddenly a smile appeared on Arthur’s face.
“Fine then,” he said.
“But,” Roger stopped, “If I win then you have to kiss Monica.”
Suddenly his face turned red. Monica was a girl in his grade, probably the only person who wasn’t meant to him. This led to speculation about her having a crush on Arthur but it was only rumors.
“Sure,” He responded.
Arthur hopped down from the playground and Roger followed.
“I’ll go first.” Roger said.
He ran up the ladder purposely going slow to get Arthurs hopes up. He stood at the top of the playground standing tall and triumphant.
“Beat that, loser.” Roger mocked him.
Arthur looked at the ladder then quickly ran up it, easily beating Rogers time, but as soon as he was about to get to the top, Roger kicked him in the face. Arthur fell all the way down as he hit his head on the ground. All the kids laughed and threw stuff at him. There was blood coming from his head and he was crying desperately. The teachers eventually came over and took him to the office.
After a few minutes the principal came in. He looked down at Arthur sitting with the bandage and an ice pack on his head.
“Everything alright kid.”
Arthur stayed silent.
“Look, you seem to be feeling alright, we’re gonna send you home just in case.”
Silence stayed in the office. Suddenly it was broken.
“What about Roger,” Arthur said softly.
“I talked to him, I understood it was an accident and he said he was sorry.”
“What?” Arthur was confused.
“It wasn’t an accident, he did it on purpose.”
“Arthur.” The principal tried to get him to calm down but it didn’t work.
He threw the ice pack on the ground and it shattered throughout the hallways. He kicked his chair over.
“Arthur!” He yelled to try and get him to stop one last time, but to no avail.
Arthur ran out of the school and all the way home.
When he got home he sat in his room for hours crying until his brother got home.
His brother checked on him and they talked for almost an hour. At the end of the conversation John told Arthur that he’ll buy him a new baseball and on the weekend they go to the park and play catch. Arthur was looking very forward to this.
He stayed home for the rest of the week because he was still injured and frankly he didn’t want to see the ones who bullied him. The weekend finally came and first thing Saturday morning, John and Arthur headed for the park. They played catch for a good couple of hours. They only stopped to quickly run home for lunch and then back to the park to play. About half an hour after lunch Roger and his friends showed.
“Hey, skeleton. I’m surprised that you can throw a ball without breaking your bones.” Roger and his friends laughed.
John quickly replied, “Fuck off creeps!”.
Roger being only in 2nd grade was ultimately scared of those in the 5th grade. Roger and his friends ran off.
“Are those the guys from school?” John asked.
“Yeah,” Arthur sighed.
“Don’t worry about them, Nobody likes them.”
“Yeah.” Arthur agreed.
They continued playing catch until the sun was about to go down. John through a far ball. it soared across the field and went behind the trees.
“Did it go over the fence?” John yelled.
“I’ll check.” Arthur ran over to the fence.
He saw that it miraculously did not go over the fence. He quickly ran to pick it up when he saw Roger emerge from the trail.
“Hey, is this your ball?” Roger yelled.
He then threw it over the fence. Seeing that Roger was alone and that just the other day he pushed him off the playground, Arthur suddenly got an erg inside him. He was filled with rage. He started running at Roger.
Roger was caught off guard and ran into the trail. Arthur was fast and no match for Roger so he quickly caught up and pushed Roger to the ground. He held his hands down and started punching Roger in the face. He then grabbed a rock and started smashing in Rogers face.
This lasted for 5 minutes. At the end Arthur rolled over and just layed on the ground looking at the sky as Rogers’ unresponsive body lay in the hedges. Arthur got up and threw the rock in the ravine and jumped in himself to wash the blood off his clothes and use the mud to cover any stains. As he got out of the ravine he kicked Rogers body into a bush and walked off.
He told his brother the ball went over the fence and that he fell in the ravine trying to look for it. They went home laughing.
To Arthur everything was fine until a few days later. He heard his parents talking and he looked at the news and saw a picture of Rogers face and in big white letters “MISSING”.
That night when Arthur went to the dinner table he heard his parents whispering.
“What’s wrong,” He said.
“Um, nothing,” his mom replied, “Just grown up stuff.”
Arthur went to his room and waited for night. He jumped out his window and in the darkness of the night, he ran to the trails where he last saw Roger. He jumped in the ditch and looked around for his body. He saw the body laying their covered in mud. Roger was dead. Suddenly Arthur started crying. He didn’t mean to kill him, he was just really angry. But as he looked back, his sobs slowly turned into smiles, and in the middle of the woods on the very night, Arthur started laughing. His laugh echoed through the woods. He finally got that thrill and satisfaction. One he wouldn’t get for another 8 years.