Clarence Adams (criminal)

Clarence A. Adams (November 18, 1857 – February 26, 1904) was an American politician and serial burglar. He is believed to be responsible for a series of burglaries that took place in Chester, Vermont between 1886 and 1902 and pled guilty to eight of them. During the crime spree, Adams served on Chester's board of selectmen and represented the town in the Vermont House of Representatives. As a selectman, he took a leading role into the investigation of the burglaries he was later believed to have committed.

Early life
Adams was born in Cavendish, Vermont on November 18, 1857, to Washington Adams and Dene H. (Walker) Hagar. His only sibling, Marcellus, died during infancy. In 1860, the family moved to a 270-acre farm in Chester, Vermont. Adams remained on the farm into his adulthood and took it over after the death of his parents.

Public service
In 1889 and 1892, Adams was a member of the Chester board of selectmen. In 1894, he represented the town in the Vermont House of Representatives. He also was deacon at the local church, a founding trustee of the Whiting Library, a village lister, and an incorporator of the Chester Savings Bank.

Burglaries
In September 1886, a safe was cracked at the Adams and Davis Co. in Chester. This began a series of burglaries in the town that saw seemingly random items, including a box of bow ties, a bag of doughnuts, roofing shingles, bicycle, and sacks of grain, stolen from various merchants. James E. Pollard's general store was burglarized six times and a gristmill belonging to Adams' close friend Charles Waterman was stolen from at least 16 times. The burglaries later progressed to residences. George Allen and his wife were awakened by a masked man armed with a revolver who stole $1,500 from the couple. The criminal had killed the Allen's dog to avoid it barking and threatened to have an accomplice shoot them dead if they left the house before daylight.

When Adams became first selectman in 1892, he took an active interest in the case. By this time burglaries were occurring about once a week. At Adams suggestion, the board of selectmen hired a detective to investigate the crimes and offered a $500 reward for the criminal's apprehension. Adams personally questioned victims, examined crime scenes, and offered $100 of his own money (on top of the $500 offered by the board of selectmen) as a reward for the bandit's capture. He also consulted merchants about their security plans, which included helping Pollard install a high-tech burglar alarm at his general store, convinced Waterman to hire a night watchman, and persuading druggist F. W. Pierce to sell revolvers at his store. These efforts were unsuccessful, as the burglar entered the store through the only unarmed window, burglarized Waterman's mill on the watchman's night off, and stole the guns before Pierce could sell them.

Arrest
Around 9:30 pm on July 29, 1902, Adams was shot in the leg by a shotgun. He arrived home about a half-hour later and asked his housekeeper to send for a doctor. Adams claimed that he had been shot and robbed by two masked highwayman about two miles from his home. Physicians removed 81 pieces of shot from Adams' legs.

Gardner Waterman, the son of Charles Waterman, had heard the gunshot and believed it came from a spring-gun he and his father had set up at their mill. He went to town and got his father and a constable. The trio then went to the mill where the window had been broken, the gun had been set off, and bloody shards of glass had been left behind. The constable was then summoned to Adams' home for the reported robbery. After confirming that the shot in Adams' leg matched the one from Waterman's mill, police searched his home and found numerous stolen items hidden throughout the residence. He was arrested, but was too ill to be transported, so an officer was stationed at his bedside. Town treasurer A. D. T. Herrick, who believed that Adams was suffering from temporary insanity during the burglary furnished, his bond. However, once more evidence came out, Herrick withdrew the bond.

On August 3, 1902, Adams confessed to several burglaries over the past six years. He stated that he had committed the robberies because "there was too much fun in it. I never robbed because I needed money, but simply because robbing and afterward listening to the comments of the people amused me".

On August 12, he was placed in jail at Woodstock, Vermont, but due to his injuries he had to be transported on a mattress placed in a wagon. On August 13, Adams appeared before Judge Seneca Haselton for his arraignment. Adams pled guilty to all eight counts and his attorneys, Frank Plumley and W. B. C. Stickney, asked for clemency due to Adams' high standing in the community and because the 100-year sentence he was facing was too harsh. Haselton sentenced him to 9 to 10 years in state prison.

Death
In 1904, there was a pneumonia outbreak at the Vermont State Prison in Windsor, Vermont. Adams fell ill on February 22 and died four days later. Later that year, newspapers began reporting a rumor that Adams had faked his death by placing himself in a hypnotic state and was now residing in Canada. This claim was rejected by the prison physician, Dr. John D. Brewster, who pronounced Adams dead, as well as the sexton of the cemetery Adams was buried in, who noticed a scar from a gunshot wound on one of the body's legs.