Mystery Man - Coming Soon!

Who will it be? Some clues: This award-winning journalist has spent two decades covering crime for one of the nation's most prestigious magazines. In his articles, he's delved into the psyches of such notorious women as Andrea Yates, Darlie Routier, and Clara Harris. And when we describe him as "award winning," we're not kidding. His prizes include a National Headliners Award and a "Writer of the Year" award for the City and Regional Magazine Awards. He is a four-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards, the magazine biz's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, and his work has been included in such publications as Best American Crime Writing and Best American Magazine Writing. A documentary filmmaker as well as a television producer, he has sold options for about a dozen of his stories to various film studios. Two were turned into network movies for NBC and CBS, and a third story has been optioned as a feature film by Jennifer Aniston’s production company. He has appeared on CNN, Court TV, Dateline, Fox News, and a host of newsmagazine shows. Still unsure? One final clue: He has the cover story for the March issue of the magazine he writes for—and did we mention he also serves as Executive Editor? We're delighted he'll be guest blogging here at Women in Crime Ink this Saturday, March 29th. His subject? A tantalizing case being produced for 48 Hours. Don't miss our debut Mystery Man. He's worth getting up early on Saturday morning to read!

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Clara Harris's Cinderella Complex

by Kathryn Casey

The truth? I feel sorry for Clara Harris.

In my opinion, she suffers from the classic Cinderella Complex, believing both her dead husband, David, and her defense attorney, Houston heavyweight George Parnham, were Princes Charming. When they turned out to be just regular folks who didn’t always live up to her expectations, she couldn’t handle it. In the first case she committed a sensational murder. The second time around, she got mad and sued, a drama that ended two weeks ago in a civil court.

Harris, of course, is the dentist/convicted murderer in Texas’s sensational Murder-by-Mercedes case. For those of you unfamiliar with the details, in July 2002, Clara caught David cheating. He promised the affair was over, but alas – I know we’re all shocked – he lied. Harris hired a PI who tracked David to a hotel where he had a liaison with his lover

. The Harrises argued, Clara left but then, in the hotel parking lot, gunned the engine and ran over the philanderer not once but three times.

Ironically, the entire episode was caught on tape by the private detective, and the video became a key piece of evidence at her trial, played and replayed for the jury. I have no qualms about the jurors' decision to find Harris guilty. She murdered her husband, plain and simple. Sure it was a crime of passion, but that doesn’t excuse it.

So, why do I feel sorry for her? First, I’m not sure she deserved twenty years. I wrote a book about a cop who stalked and murdered a woman who got less time than Harris, who obviously snapped. But the main reason is that our Clara is apparently one of those women who assumes rather than take care of herself, someone else will save her. First, she labored under the fairy tale illusion that she could kiss her frog husband and turn him into a prince.

It’s true that the Harrises lived a lush lifestyle including not just the Benz but a McMansion and thriving dental practice. Yet rather than haul David into a divorce court, where his cheating ways could pay off in a lucrative settlement, Clara tried to lure him back. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work. Sure he had a wife and two young sons, but that didn’t make David Harris a good guy. Any man who draws up a chart for his wife comparing her attributes to his mistress’s, including breast size, lacks more than charm.

Then Harris did it again. She miscalculated her relationship with her attorney, Parnham. It just makes me want to shake my head and ask, “Okay Clara, but what were you thinking?”

After her conviction, Harris filed a civil suit against Parnham, charging that he gave her a shoddy defense and gouged her financially. It’s that lawsuit that just finished playing out in a Houston courtroom.

At issue was a $300,000 promissory note Clara signed four days after the jurors sentenced her. That was in addition to the $235,000 she’d already paid him. Harris says she so trusted Parnham, who she claims said he loved her and thought of her as a daughter, that she never read the paperwork. Parnham’s wife, Mary, Clara insists, described the paperwork as a way for her to “preserve her estate.”

Okay. So here’s the picture. You’re a well-educated, bright woman in jail who is about to be sent away to prison for 20 years, and your lawyer’s wife asks you to sign a $300,000 note. And you do it, without reading it? Is this woman insane?

For his part, Parnham contended that Harris got everything she paid for and more. In fact, he filed a counter suit claiming he was entitled to repayment for a $90,000 loan he took out to pay experts and consultants involved in Clara’s trial.

The he-said-she-said made for great courthouse drama. And the stakes were high. More so than money, on Parnham’s part, it was his reputation. So, who did the jurors believe?

Well, Clara has yet to find her happy ever after. Jurors returned on February 29th with a verdict for the defense. They awarded Parnham $70,250 for his expenses from the murder trial and $389,443 to pay his own attorney. Sigh. Of course, that’s in addition to the $3.75 million Clara was ordered to pay her former in-laws last year in a separate civil suit. I can only imagine poor Clara’s sadness as she takes the Texas Department of Criminal Justice van back to prison.

So what’s the moral of this fable? Run over your cheating husband with the family Benz and you’re likely to not only spend a couple of decades in prison but when you get out? Well, learn a craft while you’re behind bars. In Clara’s case, I’m not sure she’ll have dental patients lining up, and chances are she’ll need a job.

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