April 25, 2025
The most unsettling true-crime cases …
Joseph Clark, The Baraboo Bone Breaker
Trigger warning: child assault and torture.
Many people today never think that a sadistic killer could be living among them in their home state or even right next door. They typically believe that to only happen in the true crime TV shows and movies that are played and replayed across their TV screens at night. However, that nightmare can and did happen for one boy living in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Coming out of Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1995, our case for this week’s issue of Creep of the Week surrounds the methodical kidnapping and two-day torture of 13-year-old, Thadius (Thad) Phillips by his 17-year-old neighbor, Joseph (Joe) C. Clark.
In the early morning hours of July 29, 1995, Thad found himself being carried out of his house by an unknown individual. In his groggy state, Thad thought nothing of it, thinking it was just a family friend. After being carried for half a mile, Thad ws brought into a dirty, cluttered home, and quickly realized that it wasn’t a family friend who’d taken him, but his neighbor, Joe Clark. Inside the house, Joe lured Thad upstairs to his bedroom with the promise of looking at a model car collection. However, as soon as the pair got up to the room, Joe flew into an unprovoked rage. He threw Thad onto the bed on his back and grabbed his ankle, twisting it around until the bone snapped. Following this attack, Thad broke free, ran out of the room, and down the stairs while Joe chased after him. He made it halfway across the kitchen before Joe caught up to him and threw him onto the sofa, where he proceeded to break Thad’s femur. After this, Joe’s entire demeanor switched. He began to act normal and friendly again. Eventually, he would even go as far as to create “make-shift casts” for Thad by putting layers of crew socks on over his broken bones. This theme continued over and over for the next two days; Thad attempting to escape after throwing himself down the stairs, Joe catching up to him, snapping a bone, placing socks over it, and then acting like everything was normal again.
It wasn’t until the second night that Thad decided to make another attempt at escaping the house. Joe was gone, and Thad was locked in Joe’s bedroom closet, as he did not want to take the chance of Thad escaping again. While inside the closet, Thad was able to find a wooden guitar that he then used to smash through the door. After escaping the closet and bedroom, Thad threw his broken body down the stairs for the final time and crawled to the kitchen where he was able to reach a phone and call 9-1-1. This resulted in Thad being rescued from the house and the apprehension of Joe later that night while at a party. His arrest resulted in a life sentence plus one hundred years in prison, and Thad was able to make a full recovery.
Thad’s incredible story of survival can be heard in its entirety by searching for Season 5, Episode 18 of the hit television series I Survived, available free on Tubi, Sling TV, and Pluto TV.