It started with a smile and the
flick of her fiery red hair. Haiman Clein, attorney at law,
husband, and father of four children, was smitten with Beth Ann Carpenter the
moment she walked into his office in Old Saybrook, Connecticut
in late summer of 1992.
Haiman Clein ran a small but successful firm specializing in real
estate law, and was looking for a new attorney to operate a branch office in New
London, Connecticut. Beth arrived for an interview after answering
the ad Clein had placed in the newspaper, and when
she entered the office waiting room, she turned her head in that special way
causing her red hair to brush across her forehead. And just like that, Haiman
Clein was infatuated.
That moment would also prove to be the beginning of Haiman
Clein’s darkest hour.
Beth Ann Carpenter was petite;
she stood only 5’ 3” and weighed 110 pounds.
Her striking blue eyes complemented her flowing red hair that hung below
her shoulders. Beth had been out of law
school for one year, and since graduation, she had sent out over a hundred
resumes looking for work as an attorney.
However, as most newly graduated law students quickly discover, finding
the right job, sometimes any job, can be a wearisome task. Frustrated, Beth continued to search for any
opportunity to enter the profession she felt she was destined to succeed in,
but as the weeks went by, she received no responses to her resumes. Then, Haiman Clein called her for an interview.
Beth was only too happy to take
the job with this small firm. To her, it
was the opportunity of a lifetime. To Clein, it was love at first sight.
Beth Carpenter was the epitome of
youth and energy. At 28, she was 22
years younger than her new boss, Haiman Clein. To Beth, Clein was a successful lawyer who had handled large real
estate transactions. She wanted to
emulate him; she wanted to prove that she could be successful in the demanding
world of the legal profession.
Clein’s
relationship with Beth Ann Carpenter would, as described by one reporter from
the local media, ultimately lead to a family feud that would rival the one
between the Hatfields and McCoys...arguably
the bitterest feud in American history.
The Hatfield/McCoy feud, which began in the 1800s for reasons unknown,
lasted four decades and ended with several people behind bars and some in the
cemetery.
But unlike the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, the
reason for this feud is known; it involved a young child. And unlike the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, this
feud began with a toss of Beth Ann Carpenter’s red hair, her sweet intoxicating
smile and the misplaced adoration of Haiman Clein. These set
into motion events that would ultimately lead to the emotional destruction of
four families, the estrangement of one father and son in yet another family,
the imprisonment of three people, the unexpected death of one person, and the
murder of one young man, Anson “Buzz” Clinton, who, in the prime of his life,
was finally facing up to the challenges of being a husband and a father...lofty
goals he would never live to fulfill.