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= Elizabeth Ashworth Clarence = Elizabeth Ashworth Clarence (December 8, 1966 - December 18, 1994) was a thief, smuggler, and hired assassin during her teenage years, and, later, was the wife and second in command of Fitzgerald (Gerald) Clarence IV. She is famed both for her exploits while traveling with Kiefer Marsden, and for her instrumental role in maintaining and expanding the Clarence Crime Ring.

While in power, Elizabeth Clarence was known for her temper, impulsiveness, ruthlessness, and unconventional negotiation styles.

Early Life
Elizabeth Clarence was born Elizabeth Ashworth, in the town of Castorland, New York, to Faith and Alexander Ashworth. Alexander Ashworth owned and ran a local bar, and Faith Ashworth was a stay at home mother. Elizabeth was the youngest of their three children by several years.

In March of 1972, Elizabeth was spending the night at a friend's house, when her parents and their two elder children, Gabriel Ashworth (14) and Mary-Kate Ashworth (12), were murdered. The killings are believed to have been part of a breaking and entering gone awry. There had been several other break-ins in nearby towns, and a significant amount of money, jewelry, and other valuable items were found to be missing from the home.

With no surviving relatives able to take her in, Elizabeth was placed in the care of the state. She was in fostercare from 1972 to 1976. During these four years she spent time in no less than 18 different foster homes. Records state that she ran away from at least eight of these foster homes, was removed from one, along with several other children, due to abuse, and was transferred from many others by request of a foster parent. Reports from various foster parents describe her as "unruly," "unmanageable," "moody," "surly and combative," and "prone to scratching, biting, and otherwise attacking, shouting at, or trying to provoke into fights other children and adults in the house." Two foster parents are also known to have sought treatment for Elizabeth, for nightmares and for unspecified "disturbing behavior."

Elizabeth permanently disappeared from the foster system after 1976. It is believed that she spent the next two years of her life traveling with various criminals, especially teenagers and young adults, who were more likely to be sympathetic to her plight. Several accounts by these criminals state that she would offer to make herself useful by acting as a distraction or bait during various heists, and, later, using her diminutive size and speed to aid her in situations which might be more difficult for an older and larger criminal, in exchange for food, shelter, and lessons in criminal work. By the age of twelve, she had not only established a network of contacts within the criminal world, but also gained notable skills in pickpocketing, lock picking, marksmanship, conning, and other various criminal arts.

Criminal Career
For unknown reasons, Elizabeth ceased working with other criminals at the age of twelve, and struck out on her own. Between the years of 1978 and 1980, she appears in the records of several different criminal individuals and organizations across the United States. Elizabeth was able to find work by accepting less in salary than older criminals, and by milking the same advantages inherent in being young and innocent looking which had helped her find allies in the past. She traveled mostly by hitchhiking or public transportation, though it is known that she knew how to drive by the age of thirteen, as one criminal mentioned in his journal his surprise at her including this among her lists of talents. In the records and accounts that can be found, it is clear that her employers were, for the most part, both impressed and somewhat bemused by her, as a self made criminal of her age and talents was rare, though many accounts of employers, both in interviews and found letters and journals, do complain that she was "combative," "impulsive," and "difficult to work with." However, she is also complimented in many of these accounts as "resourceful," "relentless," and "scrappy."

Likely for the above reasons, in addition to a clear preference to work by herself, Elizabeth Ashworth did not have any partners during this time, and various accounts show that it was well known she preferred to work solo, and would often turn down jobs if they required her to be partnered with a smuggler she didn't know.

However, sometime in 1980, she began working side by side with Kiefer Marsden, a vampire, ex-soldier, and well known criminal at the time. The exact circumstances under which the two became partners are unknown, as is the precise nature of their relationship, but the partnership continued for 14 years, spanning the rest of Elizabeth's life. There are no records of Elizabeth partnering with anyone else, except, of course, her husband, for the rest of her life.

During the next nine years, Elizabeth and Kiefer traveled together and worked freelance for multiple crime rings, organizations, and individuals. It is worth noting that, according to what records exist, Elizabeth did not become any less difficult to work with with age nor with her partnership with Marsden, and though the two were widely regarded as an extremely successful team, there are multiple accounts of individuals firing or declining to hire them due to their reputation for combativeness or personal difficulties with the pair of them. Nevertheless, it appears the pair had little trouble finding work, and their reputations grew rapidly. By the time they were hired by the Clarence ring in 1989, they were considered one of the best freelance criminal teams of their time.

Elizabeth was first hired by Gerald Clarence in 1989, and it is believed their romance begin almost immediately after that. She continued her freelance work with Marsden for part of this year, but, by the time her engagement to Gerald Clarence was announced in 1990, she was working exclusively for the Clarence Ring. It is known that Marsden continued to work many of these jobs with her, though it is unknown if he ever accepted a formal position in the Clarence Ring.

Though her position as Gerald's wife and second in command no doubt meant the work was no longer required of her, Elizabeth continued her smuggling work for the next four years of her life, with only brief breaks for her honeymoon and the birth of her son, Fitzgerald (Fitz) Clarence V. She was also known to be integral to the management of the Clarence Ring, and was widely acknowledged as having the responsibility of taking care of the ring's "more unpleasant business." Her ruthlessness and violent temper served her well as a crime lord's wife, and the Clarence ring expanded far more significantly during her brief reign than it did during the rest of Gerald's time ruling alone. She continued her work as a smuggler with the Clarence Ring until her death in 1994.

Death
On December 18, 1994, Elizabeth left her husband and son at home for a routine smuggling job with Kiefer Marsden. The goal of the job was, supposedly, to pick up a shipment of various weapons and illegal magical materials at a prearranged location. Elizabeth entered to scope out the area while Marsden stood guard and was ambushed. Elizabeth was shot five times and died at the scene.

The circumstances surrounding Elizabeth Clarence's death are fairly vague, as Marsden was the only witness and has yet to give any public account of the incident. What is known is surmised from Gerald Clarence's knowledge of the job she was sent out on, and he was always reluctant to discuss the incident. It is unknown which opposing crime organization was involved, or if the agents were perhaps freelance. It is also unknown if either Gerald Clarence or Kiefer Marsden made any effort to, or succeeded in, obtaining vengeance.

Because of the poorly understood circumstances surrounding Elizabeth's death, there are a multitude of conspiracy theories about the incident. These range from assigning the blame to local crime rings, such as the Murdoch or Siska rings, both of which also occupied Los Angeles at the time, to suggestions that Gerald Clarence or Kiefer Marsden themselves could have been responsible, to theories that Elizabeth's death was a suicide, or even faked. Evidence supporting any of these theories has yet to be found.

Relationship with Kiefer Marsden
Elizabeth first encountered Kiefer Marsden when she was fourteen, after she had been working freelance on her own for two years. The precise circumstances of their meeting are unknown, and so there are a variety of rumors surrounding this as well, but the most likely possibility appears to be that they met while working for opposing organizations on a job, and ultimately both betrayed their employers, splitting the loot between themselves instead.

The two worked several more jobs together in the following year, and though it is unclear when exactly this happened, were traveling together and working most of their jobs side by side by the end of the year. They continued to travel together until Elizabeth moved into the Clarence home in 1990, and continued to work jobs together after that. Because neither Marsden or Elizabeth's estate have yet published any account, and because they traveled alone and were known to be relatively private, there is little public knowledge of their time on the road together. Many criminal officials describe having trouble working for them, due to the combativeness of both individuals, but they remained one of the most sought after freelance criminal teams in the United States.

Their friendship was known to be unconventional. Along with the crimes they committed professionally (theft, breaking and entering, smuggling, murder, etc.) the pair were charged with public drunkenness and causing a disturbance. The cause of the disturbance, in several cases, was them fighting in public places, either following a prolonged argument or seemingly without cause. Both Kiefer and Elizabeth also repeatedly declined to press charges on the other for assault.

When Elizabeth received a permanent position in the Clarence Ring, Kiefer followed her, though it is unknown whether he ever was offered or accepted an official title himself. It is widely believed that Kiefer's involvement with the Clarence Ring was exclusively because of Elizabeth as he made his dislike of Gerald Clarence publicly clear on several occasions, including his speech at Elizabeth's wedding to him, in which he expressed strong suspicion of the union and threatened to punish Gerald gruesomely should it go poorly.

Nevertheless, he gave Elizabeth away, and was named in her will as the godfather to her son, Fitzgerald Clarence V. Elizabeth also frequently and publicly described him as being family to her. However, it should be noted that, though Gerald Clarence did die before his son became an adult, there is no evidence that Kiefer was ever called upon to care for the child. There was no mention of him whatsoever in Gerald Clarence's will, which left care of his son and his estate, until his son's eighteenth birthday, to his son's bodyguard, Maria Herrero. By this time, Kiefer had been gone from the Clarence ring for over a decade, as he left immediately after Elizabeth's death, and there is no evidence that he had any contact whatsoever with Gerald or Fitz Clarence during this time. It is not known whether Herrero ever notified him of Gerald Clarence's death, or if she would have even known to do so.

It should be noted that contact has since been reestablished between Kiefer Marsden and Fitz Clarence, as Kiefer returned to Los Angeles to serve as a hunter under the jurisdiction of Maya Verkaik in 2010, and the two share a mutual friend in Kiefer's roommate and fellow hunter Audric Ackerman. The contempt between the two of them is well known, and has resulted in several narrowly averted public fights. However, whether this contempt is anything to do with Elizabeth Clarence, or to do with other, personal reasons, is unknown.

In a similar way to Elizabeth's death, the lack of information about her relationship with Kiefer Marsden, combined with the strangeness surrounding what is known about it, has created a slew of rumors about the nature of their relationship. While the most widely accepted belief is that the two were simply close friends, a belief supported by Elizabeth's close relationship with Gerald and Marsden's recent rumored romantic involvement with two of his colleagues, Audric Ackerman and Jehan Desjardins, there are also rumors that Elizabeth and Kiefer were romantically involved, some of which go so far as to question the paternity of her son.

Marriage to Gerald Clarence
It is believed that Elizabeth and Gerald Clarence first met in 1989, when she and Kiefer Marsden were hired by him to perform a hit on a discovered double agent in the Clarence Ring. Gerald Clarence was obviously impressed with their abilities, as he hired them for nearly every major job the Clarence Ring was involved in in the following months. It is believed their courtship began soon after the completion of the first job.

Their romance moved quickly, Elizabeth was living in the Clarence home within seven months, and Gerald announced their engagement a week after their one year anniversary in 1990. They were married two months after that. Their ceremony was small and private, limited only to friends and family, with a reception open to their contacts and the public. Even before they were married, Elizabeth had assumed the position of second in command in the Clarence Ring. By all accounts, her advice was invaluable to Gerald. Gerald was widely believed to be too gentle and soft spoken, weak in negotiations and squeamish surrounding the bloodier side of criminal work. Elizabeth, by contrast, was well known for her stubbornness, ruthless, unpredictability, and violent temper. Once she became involved, the crime ring began to expand rapidly, though it should be noted that it also gathered many more enemies than it had when Gerald Clarence was ruling by himself. By Elizabeth's death, the Clarence Ring had nearly doubled in size and influence. It was under Elizabeth that the Clarence's rings reputation for particularly brutal and creative vengeances against traitors began, a legacy which would be continued and taken to a greater extreme by her son, Fitzgerald Clarence V. However, it is believed that the Clarence Ring's policy of absolute loyalty was the responsibility of Gerald Clarence, as his mother Anna Clarence showed no qualms about betraying allies when necessary.

Gerald announced that his wife was pregnant in early 1991, and she gave birth to their son and Gerald's heir, Fitzgerald Clarence V, on November 8, 1991. She took a break of only a month surrounding the birth of her son, before returning to smuggling, though it should be noted that Gerald assigned her to much lighter jobs than her normal fair in the months immediately preceding and following her son's birth. Elizabeth was also known to take an infant Fitz with her and Kiefer Marsden on lighter jobs.

As with her relationship with Kiefer Marsden, some rumors state that Elizabeth's relationship with Gerald Clarence was not exactly what it seemed. These rumors are more popular and widely believed, and are mostly based on the speed with which the two married, the fact that Gerald was in need of a fiercer face for the Clarence Ring, which Elizabeth provided, and that Elizabeth no doubt appreciated the gain in power and financial status. Some also cite the closeness of Elizabeth and Kiefer, and the fact that Elizabeth and Gerald were, according to many accounts, "not very publicly affectionate" as evidence that Elizabeth and Gerald's marriage was primarily a political move for both of them.

However, most accounts agree that Gerald Clarence never fully recovered from his wife's death. While, prior to her death, he had spent most of his time in the Clarence home, and was likely more responsible for the everyday care of their son, he began to travel a great deal after her death. In 1997, he hired Maria Herrero as his son's bodyguard and, after this, was rarely present in his own home, allowing Herrero, other employees, and later, Fitz himself, to deal with most day to day business matters, while he traveled, purportedly to negotiate with other crime rings. Though this negotating did succeed in continuing the expansion of the Clarence ring somewhat, it's sucess was not quite proportional to the amount of traveling he did. Brief accounts from friends and contacts, as well as interviews that Herrero did after his death, also suggest that he was quieter, sadder, and generally more withdrawn following his wife's death, until his own death in 2008.