When I research these cases, I really try to look for the early life of the killer(s) because the psychology of that person or persons, the little details of their early life that leads them to the point of their crimes, fascinates me.

And in such cases where I cannot find anything more than their crimes is slightly disappointing to me as I love to look deeper than what they did to make them infamous. WHY did they do it? I could not find anything on Joe Clark's AKA The Bone Breaker('s) early life. While he was himself a child when he committed these crimes, I could find no information about his parents, the environment in which he was raised, etc...so I can only be drawn to my own conclusions...however speculation isn't something that I write about, even if I'm rather opinionated in my writing.

So, let's get down to the nitty gritty of Joe Clark and Thad Phillips.

The summer of 1995 was going normally enough for Thad who, on the 29th of July, fell asleep on the couch in his home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. His sister was also in the house.

He woke up slightly when he felt someone pick him up, but in his sleep-addled state, thought that it was his father carrying him to bed, as he was known to do when the boy fell asleep on the couch.

When he came fully awake, realized that it was not his father carrying him, but an older boy that he didn't know. He also realized that he was outside. The older boy seemed friendly and nonthreatening and asked Thad to help him with his car. The boy was still groggy and rather confused and complied by climbing into the car and went home to the older boy's house, a half mile away from where he lived.

The older boy said that his name was Joe, that he was 17, and that he was going to have a party, going so far as to name other people that would be there. While they waited for the party-goers to arrive, Joe asked if Thad wanted to look at his model car collection upstairs.

How little did Thad know what awaited him when he went upstairs. It was when they reached Joe's bedroom that the nightmare really began.

When they entered Joe's room, the friendly image he had thus far presented shifted from Jekyll to Hyde in an instant. Joe threw Thad onto his dirty bed before he pounced, holding him down. Grabbing hold of Thad's foot, he twisted until he heard the bones snap at his ankle.

According to Thad, Joe would take out any frustrations he had on him. For instance, Joe's car wouldn't start, so he twisted Thad's legs until the bones splintered, broke both of his knees and jumped on his chest. If Thad tried to fight back, or when he made an attempt to escape, his torment only increased.

After the initial breaking of Thad's ankle, Joe took him downstairs to the couch. Thad, trying desperately to find a way out of this situation, told Joe that he wouldn't tell anyone what happened, saying that he'd tell everyone that he tripped over a table. He kept on saying that no one would believe him anyway.

At some point, Thad asked why he was doing this to him. Joe told him that he enjoyed the sound of bones breaking. Thad, at that point, asked him why he doesn't just break his own bones.

Joe replied, "I tried. I can't get the right angles." He went on to explain that this wasn't the first time he'd done this, telling Thad how much he loved doing it.

There were two attempts to escape before the horror finally came to an end. The first attempt was directly after Joe had broken his ankle, describing how he didn't feel the pain of the break right away, feeling more the shock of the break, and made a leap toward the stairs. However, Joe was able to catch him pretty quickly.

As punishment for this attempt, Joe took Thad's leg and pushed back until his thigh bone broke. During the second attempt at escape, Thad managed to make it down the stairs, crawling to the kitchen. He was unable to make it further before Joe returned, though, he was able to hide in the kitchen when Joe and his girlfriend came back to the house, and while they watched TV, but Joe found him directly after she left.

Anytime he left the house after that, Joe made sure to lock Thad up in a closet.

Between the bouts of breaking bones, Joe acted as if the two of them were life-long friends. Joe would even carry Thad to the couch so they could watch movies, talking to him as if nothing was wrong in the least. Joe spoke of his family, his car, how it was his brother's filthy house he lived in and his girlfriend. (I couldn't find more details than this about his family life). It was also during these times of friendly conversation that Joe told him he'd already done this and killed two other boys.

After the sessions of torture, Joe would "care for him", taking socks and wrapping his legs with them for padding. He'd also force Thad to wear leg braces and make him walk around before another round of snapping more bones. Thad also recalled how, after tending to the broken bones, Joe would stomp on them.

On the 31st of July, while Joe was gone from the house and Thad was locked in a closet, Thad was able to search around for something in which to break down the door. He found an electric guitar and was able to break out.

Not knowing how else to get downstairs, as both his legs were at this point broken, Thad "threw" himself down the stairs, making his way back toward the kitchen, passing out several times for undetermined amounts of time. He was finally able to make it to the phone and call 911.

Now, remember, for all the younger readers, this was 1995. There weren't cell phones in everyone's pockets...there was typically one house phone and it generally hung in the kitchen on the wall.

Anyway, he was able to call 911. In no time the police arrived at the house. They found Joe at a party with his girlfriend, placed him under arrest and then proceeded to search his house. Looking for anything that might point to similar past crimes and/or any planned for the future and they weren't disappointed.

They found evidence that Joe had plans, found in a school notebook, to both abduct and torture many local boys. The names were separated into columns with details depicting what he wanted to do to each boy, and if he would be able to take them sooner or later. The columns also had "the leg thing", which told police that he had planned on breaking more of the boys' bones in the future.

Thad would later testify that Joe Clark had admitted that he'd killed a boy named "Chris" the year before. Police would be able to link the abduction and murder of a 14 year-old boy named Christian Steiner on July 4th 1994. (I could not find a picture of him.)

His parents found Chris' window screen cut and there were muddy foot prints everywhere. They thought at first the boy had snuck out of the house, but quickly realized the boy had been kidnapped.

Chris' body was found five days later on the bank of the Wisconsin River. His cause of death was ruled to be drowning, however the manner was undetermined. Meaning they didn't know if it was accidental or murder or what.

After Thad had testified, the authorities exhumed Chris' body and a second autopsy determined that both of his legs had been broken. Another boy that Joe had, at one point, served in juvenile detention, also testified that he had once bragged about how he murdered a boy and hanged the body over a tree. The police, however, were never able to connect Joe with a second murder.

In October of 1997, Joe Clark was found guilty to: causing great bodily harm to a child, child enticement, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, mayhem and mental harm to a child all in relation to the abduction and torture of Thad Phillips.

Joe tried to claim that he wasn't guilty by reason of insanity (which never works...which is why MOST lawyers will go for diminished capacity in its stead) and, as per usual, the jury didn't buy it. Considered sane, the jury convicted and sentenced Joe Clark to 100 years in prison. He later was sentenced to an additional 50 years for the abduction and murder of Christian Steiner.

As it stand now, Joe maintains his story of not remembering anything surrounding the events of Thad Phillips, while also claiming innocence of Chris' death as well. Joe also attempted to appeal some of his convictions on the basis of a lack of evidence, but the district court dismissed his case.

Thad Phillips was able to regain the ability to walk after many surgeries and long-term medical care, though he still walks with a limp.

In a civil case, Thad sued Joe Clark and won a 21 million dollar settlement. Of which he's never gotten anything from. That's not surprising as since Joe is locked away, hasn't ever had the money to give to him. And before you say that he needs to get a job in prison, they pay them about $2 an hour.

However, Thad was able to get some compensation last year when in April (2023), Olga Johnson, who is a Baraboo local, and her husband, set up a GoFundMe with a goal of $100,000 to help him out. At the time she said, "He saved the community and I wanted to say thank you to Thad. He brought peace to Chris [Steiner]'s family."