Adam Clark was born in Sonoma County, CA in Aug 1898 to James Henry Clark (1852-1912) and Augusta Michelson (1856-1912).
Adam Clark at age 15 said he wanted to work on a bailing team and his mom wouldn't let him. He put rat poison in her coffee grounds, but before he did that he test them on rats to see how long it would take before they would die.
He claims he didn't mean to kill his father and felt remorse for his death.
I didn't find any criminal records for him, he was sentenced to Ione Reform School, a threat his mother had imposed upon him several times.
His parents were separated at the time and when Augusta became ill James was concerned for his wife and they reconciled and then she died. Later while he was at the ranch he made coffee.
In his words:
"I did not get along well with my mother," he says. "Since I was twelve years of age she had kept at me and was too severe. A week before I put the poison In the coffee I made up my mind to do it. "Before I went to work my mother threatened to send me to a reform school. She did this a number of times and I did not want to go. "After I went to work she tried to have the boss make me return home, and I then decided to get rid of her by putting poison In the coffee can. I had got the rough-on-rats because rats had been bothering my rabbits and I had killed some of them with it. "I did not think the poison would act so soon. I put it in the coffee can a week ago last Sunday. The following Tuesday I heard that mother was sick that she had a bilious attack or something of that sort. Then I heard that she was very sick.". When told that his father was also dead the boy began sobbing, saying he cared more for him than he did his mother. "I didn't mean to harm dad," he said. "He was separated from mother, and I didn't think he would come to nurse her when she was made ill by the poison." The boy's mother died in the Santa Rosa hospital, and it was thought at first that acute pneumonia was the cause. Suspicion was directed to the by at her funeral, when he cautioned mourners against taking coffee from the can, saying it was poisoned.
The San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco, California
18 Aug 1912, Sun • Page 3
Here's some newspaper articles on his story.
He had the following siblings:
Hildred G Clark 1889-1909
Silas R Clark 18954-
Benjamin Fletcher Clark 1892-1953
Ethel Clark 1895-1921
Was his mother overbearing? Or was Adam an unruly child?
He had also poisoned the cube sugar In the pantry.
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