A longtime career criminal in Oklahoma during the 1920s, Clark was associated with Wilbur Underhill, Harvey Bailey and Robert "Big Bob" Brady and remained a public enemy in the state of Kansas until his capture and imprisonment in 1934.
By 1927, he had begun smuggling bootleg liquor across the border from Juarez, Mexico and was jailed for 30 days after a botched robbery that same year.
His escape lasted only briefly however when he was arrested with Frank Sawyer and Ed Davis riding in a stolen car near Rich Hill, Missouri on June 17.
[2] [3] Clark spent the next several weeks on the run with Wilbur Underhill, Harvey Bailey and Robert "Big Bob" Brady, briefly hiding out in Cookson Hills, Oklahoma, before hitting their first bank together.
Plans to rob another bank in Brainerd, Minnesota fell through when Bailey was arrested by federal agents three days later while visiting George "Machine Gun" Kelly's ranch in Paradise, Texas.
Restrictions on their movements were gradually relaxed over the next three months and, on January 19, 1934, he and Brady took part in yet another prison break when they and five other inmates escaped from a kitchen work detail.
[1] By the summer of 1934, Clark had been declared a "public enemy" and Kansas governor personally offered a $200 reward for his capture as did the state banking association.
A special police unit was established by Kansas authorities who finally tracked him down in Tulsa and arrested him on August 1.
Repeated disciplinary infractions forced his return to Leavenworth a year later where he reportedly assumed control of illegal gambling and loan shark for the next decade.
He worked as a ranch hand for several years and, when old age prevented him continuing, Clark managed a commercial parking lot for a local bank until his death on June 9, 1974.