Clara Phillips (born Clara Anne Weaver, June 23, 1898 – 21 June 1969), nicknamed the Tiger Woman, was an American showgirl and chorus girl who, in 1922, murdered 19-year-old bank teller Alberta Meadows based on rumors that her husband, Armour L. Phillips, had been having an affair with her. Phillips' crime was described as "brutal" and "remorseless" by many local and national news organizations, which extensively covered her trial, subsequent escape from prison, and recapture.

Early life and career

Clara Anne Weaver was born on June 23, 1898, in Waco, Texas, as one of five children to John Weaver and Anna Jackson. Throughout her childhood, her family moved frequently around Texas, finally settling in Houston when she was a teenager. There she met Armour Phillips, a relative of the Mellon family. The couple married on November 13, 1913. Because of their desired careers – Armour sought work in the oil industry, while Weaver wanted to become an actress – the couple moved to the

Vermont Square Vermont Square is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, within the South Los Angeles region. The Vermont Square Branch library, a designated Historic–Cultural Monument, is located in the community. Geography The name "Vermont Square" wa ...

neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Phillips was relatively successful in her acting career, working as a chorus girl at the Pantages Theatre in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

and as a model for Mack Sennett in one of his

Sennett Bathing Beauties Sennett Bathing Beauties was a bevy of women performing in bathing costumes assembled by film producer Mack Sennett during the silent film era. Description The Sennett Bathing Beauties appeared in Mack Sennett comedy short subjects, in promotion ...

works. Although both had luxury, Phillips' schedule conflicted with Armour's lifestyle. She soon quit her job to spend her time with him, though he started to spend his time elsewhere. Because of this, neighbors started rumors that he was seeing a younger girl named Alberta Gibson Tremaine Meadows, a 19-year-old bank teller and widow. Phillips investigated the rumors by quietly stalking both Armour and Meadows. She followed Armour to First National Bank, at which Meadows worked, which led her to assume the rumors were true.

Crime

Murder

On July 10, 1922, Phillips went to a five-and-dime store and purchased a 15-cent

claw hammer A claw hammer is a hammer primarily used in carpentry for driving nails into or pulling them from wood. Historically, a claw hammer has been associated with woodworking, but is also used in general applications. It is not suitable for heavy h ...

. She asked a store employee if it could kill a woman, to which the clerk, assuming she was joking, replied that it could. The next day, Phillips, accompanied by friend and fellow showgirl Peggy Caffee, broke into Meadows' home to find that she wasn't there. They then went to her workplace at First National Bank, where Phillips, claiming to be drunk, asked Meadows to drive them to Montecito Heights. Once there, Phillips interrogated Meadows on the affair, which Meadows denied. Phillips then beat her with the hammer and rolled a 50-pound boulder onto her body before driving home. Caffee, terrified after witnessing the murder, initially kept quiet.

Search and arrest

When she arrived home, still drenched in Alberta’s blood, Phillips informed Armour about the murder and told him that she was going to cook him the "best dinner he’d ever had because she was so happy." Armour was repulsed, but still helped Phillips get rid of evidence and leave Los Angeles. The following morning, after sending Phillips away on a train to El Paso, Texas, he consulted his lawyer and informed

Los Angeles police {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) Law enforcement in Los Angeles County is conducted by a variety of law enforcement agencies. State agencies *California Highway Patrol *University of California Police Department * California ...

about the murder. Investigators who found Meadows' body likened her injuries to a tiger attack, leading the press to dub Phillips as the "Tiger Woman". On July 14, Phillips was apprehended in Tucson, Arizona.

Trial

Phillips stayed silent on the murder as the trial neared. On September 17, 1922, Phillips stood for trial. Armour hired attorney Bert Herrington to handle his wife's

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, while the prosecution was led by Charles Fricke. Caffee testified during the hearing about how Phillips murdered Meadows, while Phillips instead implicated Caffee in the murder. On November 16, 1922, Phillips was convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to ten years to life; she had been saved from the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

by her looks, according to some members of the jury.

Escape and recapture

On December 5, 1922, a jail matron discovered that Phillips' cell was empty, with bars sawed clean and an open window. Police questioned Armour, who denied any role in helping her escape, as well as her two sisters, Ola Weaver and Etta Mae Jackson, who said that their father had left the night before to go to a downtown hotel. The police theorized that Phillips fled to Mexico and sent information to authorities there. In April 1923, police in El Salvador spotted Phillips, and on April 23 she was arrested in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; also arrested were accomplices Etta Jackson, her sister, and Jesse Carson, a journalist who had covered her trial. While jailed in Honduras, she convinced a crowd of fifteen teenage boys to help her escape, but a jail warden overheard them and arrested the boys. Early in the morning of May 2, 1923, Phillips was transferred to Omoa Castle. On May 26 she was brought back to Los Angeles by

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

Eugene W. Biscailuz Eugene W. Biscailuz (March 12, 1883 – May 16, 1969) was an American police officer. He organized the California Highway Patrol, and later became the 27th Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California, serving in that capacity for 26 years, f ...

. It was discovered that Phillips had used Carson to obtain a saw, which she used to cut the bars, and was then lifted by Carson and two other men onto the roof of the Los Angeles jail. She and Carson spent five weeks in Los Angeles, then traveled through Texas and Louisiana before crossing the border into Mexico, where they met with Etta Jackson.

Life in jail

On June 2, 1923, guards brought Phillips back into

San Quentin State Prison San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...

. She attempted to commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

by slitting her wrists, but then resolved to be a model prisoner for an early release. In 1926, she was allowed to temporarily leave to see her dying mother. In 1929, Phillips asked Governor C. C. Young to release her so she could become a good wife, but Young denied her request. While in prison, Phillips studied to become a dental assistant and met a convicted burglar named Thomas Price. In September 1932, a correctional officer intercepted a love letter from Phillips to Price, which stripped her of her visitation, library, and mail rights as well as parole, as the board denied her in 1933 and 1934 due to the letters. Although Armour still stood by his wife for some time, the two stopped communicating and eventually divorced.

Release and aftermath

On June 17, 1935, Phillips was released from prison with plans to become a "useful citizen and a model housewife." She told reporters that she was going to San Diego to work as a dental assistant. Not much is known about her life afterwards, other than her changing her name and reportedly being spotted in Texas in 1961. She i
buried
under the name Ann C. Weaver in Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego, California.

In popular culture

*''L.A. Not So Confidential'', hosted by Dr. Shiloh Catanese & Dr. Scott Musgrove, talked about Phillips and the murder in 2021. *''Tenfold More Wicked'', a podcast hosted by Kate Winkler Dawson, talked about Phillips in the season 4

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

in 2022.

References

{{reflist 1898 births 1969 deaths 20th-century American criminals American showgirls American female murderers American people convicted of murder American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment People paroled from life sentence Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by California People convicted of murder by California