Would the real Phillip Clark please stand up?

The second half of the 20th century saw more robberies of New Orleans businesses than the decades before and since. Gambino’s wasn’t immune, unfortunately, but neither was any man named Phillip Clark.

As part of our searching through 75 years of newspaper articles, one of the less positive trends we noticed was that, particularly from the late-1960s through the mid-1980s, our growing line-up of Gambino’s bakeries were the target of a surprising number of robberies.

It turns out it wasn’t only us — far from it. Many businesses of the era dealt with similar issues.

Here are just a few of the situations we encountered during that time.

When a man with a “snub nose revolver” held up a Gambino’s in 1969, the $900 he made away with would be worth more than $7,500 in today’s money! That is a substantial amount of cash, but even the man who stole $25 from Gambino’s a few months later made the news. The media also reported on a 1976 robbery featuring an attacker said to be sporting a gold tooth. But, perhaps most noteworthy, one elusive suspect robbed our Veterans Boulevard location three times in 1984 as part of a crime spree that included 31 Metairie businesses. 
All in all, we found record of 11 robberies that took place in the last four decades of the 20th century.

But no story stood out more than the unlucky saga of poor Phillip Clark. He was the robber-who-wasn’t.

You think you’ve had bad luck?!

It was November 1978, and the unfortunate Phillip A. Clark was out of the house, running an errand the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe he was trying to get a head start on Christmas shopping. Maybe he was on a walk, still trying to digest yesterday’s feast.

Regardless of what he was up to on November 24, he certainly didn’t expect a visit from the New Orleans Police Department. 

That, however, is exactly what he got.

According to an April 4, 1978 article in the Times-Picayune titled, “Wrong Mr. Clark Tires of Arrests,” our unfortunate protagonist’s wife was home alone. Suddenly, two officers arrived at the door. They asked Mrs. Clark if her husband worked for Gambino’s Bakery — a question that obviously caught our attention all these years later!

Two important pieces of information they knew about the culprit was that 1) he had stolen $189 from our Gambino’s Bakery; and 2) he was also employed at the bakery! (Hey, there’s a black sheep in every family, right?)

Mrs. Clark told the police her husband had never worked at Gambino’s, but the police decided to wait for Phillip to return anyway.

When he did, he was promptly arrested.

Mistaken identity

There was one additional piece of information the police knew about their suspect. It’s that his name was Phillip Clark.

Unfortunately for Phillip A. Clark, who was now sitting in a jail cell for no good reason, it turns out there were multiple Phillip Clarks in 1970s New Orleans.

The Phillip Clark in prison was the wrong one. The Gambino’s-robbing Phillip Clark was still on the loose! 

It was a classic, Shakespearian example of mistaken identity and, once it was sorted out that evening, Clark was released from prison with the promise that he’d appear for any court dates scheduled to further resolve the situation. He kept his word and the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case shortly thereafter.

Clark’s freedom, however, was short-lived. On January 14 at 2:30 am — “Nothing good happens after 2am!” they say — Clark was once again taken to jail. This time it was for a traffic charge, and it’s unclear whether or not he was actually guilty of this offense. 

Here’s what wasn’t unclear: his wife came to bail him out. And, when she did, Clark’s bad luck struck again.

As he was going through the standard procedure of being processed out of jail, the New Orleans Police Department employee on duty saw in the system that Clark was wanted by a juvenile court for failure to pay child support.

This was an interesting situation. Not only because this was a lot going wrong for one man over a six-week span, but also because Clark’s wife was literally with him at the jail. She attempted to vouch for the fact that this was her husband and, because they were married, she should be taken at her word that he owed her no money — child support or otherwise.

The police once again had the wrong Clark. But, once again, it didn’t matter. His wife’s pleas were ignored. Clark was rearrested and rebooked, and he remained in prison for another two days.

Sorted

Finally, on the afternoon of January 16, Mrs. Clark was able to convince the judge at the juvenile court that he had the wrong man.

Clark was free! (Again.) But he understandably had had enough. The innocent man sued the City of New Orleans for lost wages, attorney’s fees, humiliation, as well as pain and suffering to the tune of $10,000. That’s more than $48,000 in today’s dollars!

He also requested an injunction prohibiting any police officers from arresting him solely on the basis of his name.

Fortunately, the guilty Phillip Clark was eventually arrested. And, while we’re pleased it cleared the name of all the other Phillip Clarks, we’re even more pleased it helped reduce the number of robberies at our sweet, peaceful bakery.