Joe and Lenny Clarke Tell Stories of Meeting Future Murderers

I got an old lady story. We lived at the barracks. There were 14 comedians living in that place in Harvard Square. I don't know if you ever came by because I was pretty high back then. The barracks was an apartment that Mike and I had and we opened it. What year was this? Oh, God, it was the 80s. In the beginning, when Stan was- So it was probably before my day. I came in in 88. And by Mike, you're saying Mike Clark. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So we had this house and it was like three or four bedrooms in Kenny Rogerson's room, which was like a closet with a sheet of- we refer to it as the sperm room. And Kenny- and the rent was $165 a month. The man's name was Wing Wong and we were working at the Ding Hall for Shun Lee. So $165 between sometimes 10 guys. We didn't have it. We were blowing it. All right. So now every comedian who came in from out of town, they didn't have to go to a hotel. You just go by the barracks. There was a key under the mat. At the end, there was like 11 keys under the mat. But there was this old lady next door in the third floor apartment. We would rage all night. I would break windows. I just love the sound of breaking glass. We had a window guy on call. People say, it's freezing, Lenny. Go call the window guy. I just love to throw things from glass. I remember Sweeney ducked and I put a bottle through the window and he's laying on the floor. I go, sweet, what's wrong with you? I'm just having fun. He goes, don't talk down to me. I go, will you lie on the floor? I said, shut up. So now this woman, she told the woman, she goes, I said, hey, I hate you, Lenny Clark. I hate you. I said, listen, I'm going to the store. You want me to get you anything? And she yelled at the top, Lenny Clark, I only live to see you dead. Right. All the names. Every day I'm in there laughing. Oh, Joe, it gets worse. So now I'd send the flowers every now and then and she'd throw them off the belt. I don't want you fucking flying. I want you dead. So she ends up getting murdered. Oh, no. Cut up and decapitated. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So so the cops come to the house one day and I'm laying in my bed puking in a bucket and Rogison comes in and he waits. He said, did you murder the lady next to the last time I go? No. He goes, OK, you can come in. The cops come in. Lenny, we know we don't think we're going to ask you questions. Where were you last night? I go, I don't remember. I go, but but I know I got here later. Worked out I was at the ding and then we hung out. We hung out after hours and I don't know where it was. But then I get home. But, you know, that woman, I don't think they ever saw the case. But it definitely was me because I was too lazy to walk three flights of stairs. We used to we used to police cops park in her her pocket space. She didn't have a car, but we'd have the paddy wagon parked down below me. And oh, it was crazy. So you have the cops come over and party with you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Most of them got thrown off. And they never saw. They never saw that case as far as I know. There was a guy that I used to train with who got arrested. I don't know if you remember this case, but they they were they took this guy and they were breaking his bones with a hammer and then injecting with cocaine to keep him awake because he was he was blacking out from the pain. And they cut his hands off. They cut his head off. They cut everything off. And this dude that I knew got arrested for it. And when I asked him about it, he knew something like it was one of those things where, like, you know, you ask someone like, I go, they arrested you. I go, why would they arrest you? And it was like this. I don't know. I don't know nothing. I was like, oh, you know something. I was like, holy shit. I was like, oh, my God, I might know a fucking serious murder. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He went to jail for something else. I forget what he went to jail. I knew him when I was 16 and he went to jail and then he came out. And when he came out, like all his tattoos, he had scars all over all of his tattoos, like apparently tried to burn his tattoos off in the joint and he was like just a different person. Like his time in jail, I guess he was in jail for like maybe five years from when I knew him. Wow. He came out five years later and started training again before he got arrested and just super spooky to be around somebody that you think might have done that. No, I know of a few murderers that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I didn't know at the time when I met them, but over the years I've gone, oh, my. Well, the guy who got to pass Johnny Marano, he was on 60 Minutes. He stopped and shopped in Somerville. People go, you know what that does? I go, Johnny Marano? I go, hey, Lenny. I went, oh, hey, Johnny. Twenty five murders. And, you know, how's he out deals? You know, I mean, he did time. He did a lot of time. He was on 60. Not twenty. Come on, you. He seems like he should be in jail forever. How many did he send me to Bullkill? And he was out dealing. He was out dealing, met in Arizona. I think he's still out. Yeah, he is. He's out again. I mean, I got no beef for him. I don't either. So one of my buddies in high school, his name was Bubba Good. He was the funniest, funniest person I ever met in my life. Word out of the. One day he stole 12 corvettes, 12 red corvettes and lined them up outside. And in one of the corvettes, it was a briefcase full of cash. And he went in and he bought the entire lunchroom. Lunch. Lunch is on me. At high school, right? Lunch is on me. He stole corvettes in high school. He stole corvettes. Oh, yeah. And he lined them up outside. Jesus Christ. Oh, he was amazing. So he goes to J. He goes to Walpole. You remember Walpole's name? Sure. So we're doing a show at Walpole. You know, a couple of guys asked me, you come in. Yeah. So they said, Mr. Clark, before you come in, we just want to let you know if there's any drugs or drug remnants on you, you're not going to be released. And I went, oh, let me change my clothes. So I changed my clothes and went in and I did the show. And it was really, so they would swap you? Yeah. They just, it was. So if they've swabbed you and they found Coke on your shirt, you stay in? Yeah. Jesus. And they explained that. And this is like 35 years ago, right? So and this was when Walpole was still maximum secure. You know, I mean, the worst of the worst. So we go in and I'm with DJ and a couple of people. DJ Hazard? How's he doing? I think there was a cancer thing and then he beat that. But good guy. Oh my God. Reminded me about DJ. I want to finish this. So I'm on stage and I'm thinking, hey, man, Papa's in here. I think, and he jumps up on stage and I go, Papa, he goes, how you doing? He goes, I'm in here on an assumed name. I'm in here in the Danny. This is 35 years ago. He's in Walpole under an assumed name. I mean, could that be? Anyway, he gets out and then he murders some guy and he goes back and he's in for double life now to murders. And I said to him, Papa, why did you kill the guy? He was talking shit. You know, he's just a little bit of a guy, but funny. I mean, he's the type of guy if someone wanted to kick his ass, you could make them laugh so hard you couldn't punch him. He was that funny. And now he's in. He's been in for, I want to visit him, but you know, they said it's not a good idea, but I'm going to go for some. I'm not a little old now. But he's been in. He's been over 30 years now. It's so funny how if you're in the nightclub business, like we are, you're going to run into people along the way that have done some horrible shit. Oh, I know a guy saw the guy's head off with a saw. I think a sword, you know, like a samurai sword and then throw it on the guy's lawn. I mean, yeah, yeah, it was there was drugs involved. I mean, I remember. I remember it was crack crack crack before crack was the free base. Free base was this crack. That was that was for people with money. That was the Richard Pryor days. Okay. Richard Pryor was in a free base. The first time I'm free base and at like an MBTA station in South Boston and I think Kenison was yeah, Kenison was there. And there's this guy who's who's wait for life now to remain nameless. I took it and I'm passing out. I mean, I'm so high and passing out all I could hear. What are we going to do with the body? It was the last thing I heard. Whose body? Me. I passed out. Oh, if you die. Yeah. Oh, Jesus Christ. I thought you were overdosing. I thought it was I can't. When you're smoking that stuff and you're taking that stuff, I used to start my own heart. Boom. I can't. Oh God. Because when I finally went to the doctors and had the H-fibrillation and all the hot damage they did, I said, well, what are you thinking? Well, maybe the weight, you know, because I was almost 400 pounds. And they go, I go, what about Coke? He said, well, you had to do an awful lot of Coke. I said, well, there's a small mountain in Peru that's missing. You think it's really that much? I go, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.