Transcript
Snap
From Sword and Scale · Episode page · Watch on YouTube
· 29 min · 3,597 words · 31 timestamped sections
This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Snap", an episode of Sword and Scale published February 18, 2026 (29 min, about 3,597 words). It mentions 15 people, works and ideas, including Tony Clark, Edward Phillips, Barabou, Joseph Steiner, Sword and Scale Nightmares.
What this episode is about
A teenage boy, Thad Phillips, navigates a fresh start in a small Wisconsin town while adjusting to new friends and a growing confidence, just as a quiet intruder breaches his home. The narrative unfolds through the tension of a safe-seeming family life disrupted by an unexpected, chilling threat.
Key takeaways
- Small-town safety myths crumble when quiet strangers mutate into predatory hosts; doors unlocked invite the worst kind of curiosity.
- The lure of normalcy disguises danger: a boy next door can orchestrate a ritualistic horror under familiar chandeliers.
- Memory fractures into myth: the assailant’s casual civility weaponizes trust, turning comfort into a trap.
- Trauma compounds in disarmingly ordinary settings—home, families, late-night TV—where routine masks the unseen threat.
- Impact isn’t just physical; it rewrites perception of age, innocence, and safety, reshaping a community’s sense of security.
Who speaks in this episode?
- Thaad Phillips (Guest) · 7 min speaking
- Joe Clark (Guest) · 4 min speaking
- Detectives · 1 min speaking
What is discussed, and when
- – 5:00: Barabou, Edward Phillips, Sword and Scale Nightmares, Wisconsin
- – 10:00: Tony Clark, Edward Phillips
- – 20:00: Edward Phillips, Barabou
- – 25:00: Tony Clark, Joseph Steiner, Barabou, attempted first-degree intentional homicide
- – 28:57: Tony Clark, Barabou, Joseph Steiner, Serial Killer
Notable quotes from "Snap"
It's the summer of 1995 and 13-year-old Thaad Phillips is finally starting to feel like Barabou, Wisconsin might be home. His family has just moved here. It's a new town, a new school, and new classmates sizing him up at the.
about Edward Phillips · atWelcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares.
about Sword and Scale Nightmares · atPopulated places, and they were just happy to settle somewhere small and safe. Barabou is so safe they think they can leave their front doors unlocked.
about Barabou · atRemember one name, Chris. Investigators pull old files. They land on a case from the year before. Christian Chris Steiner, a 14-year-old boy who went missing from his Barabou home on July 4th 1994.
about Joseph Steiner · atFor his crimes against THAAD, Joe is charged as an adult with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, child enticement, causing great bodily harm to a child, mayhem, and mental harm to a.
about attempted first-degree intentional homicide · atAnd he told him about Joe's calm claim that he'd killed before. The jury finds Joe Clark guilty. He gets a 100year prison sentence for what he did to Thaad. For Chris Steiner, he faces first-degree murder. He pleads not.
about Tony Clark · atProbably never will. Decades later, a Barabou woman named Olga Johnson has started a GoFundMe called Support Thad Phillips, real hero of Barabou. The description talks about…
about Brian Johnson · atBreaker, the only reason he's behind bars today is because one of his victims refused to die. In saving himself, that Phillips stopped a serial killer.
about Serial Killer · at
Who and what is mentioned in this episode?
People
- Tony Clark — Person · Primary perpetrator · 9 mentions · first at
Joe Clark abducts and tortures Thaad Phillips and is implicated in the death of Christian Chris Steiner; his charges, conviction, and alleged pattern of violence are core to the episode. - Edward Phillips — Person · Primary victim / central figure · 4 mentions · first at
Thaad Phillips is the 13-year-old abducted and tortured by Joe Clark; his survival, 911 call, and testimony drive the case outcomes and narrative arc. - Joseph Steiner — Person · Murder victim (referenced case) · 5 mentions · first at
Christian 'Chris' Steiner is the 14-year-old whose death is re-examined after Thaad's statement; the exhumation and new autopsy link his injuries to Joe Clark's method. - Brian Johnson — Person · Community fundraiser organizer · 1 mention · first at
Olga Johnson is cited as starting a GoFundMe to support Thaad Phillips decades later, highlighting ongoing medical/financial impact and community response.
Companies & orgs
- GoFundMe — Company · Fundraising platform · 1 mention · first at
GoFundMe is the platform used for the 'Support Thad Phillips' fundraiser, illustrating continued financial needs and public support.So far, the fundraiser has gathered 25,000 in donations. But that amount only scratches the surface, and it doesn't change what happened back in 1995.
Concepts & topics
- Serial Killer — Concept · Interpretive framing / criminology concept · 2 mentions · first at
The episode frames Joe Clark as a potential 'serial killer in the making' based on planning, escalation, and alleged prior victims. - attempted first-degree intentional homicide — Concept · Criminal charge · 1 mention · first at
This is one of the principal charges filed against Joe Clark for the attack on Thaad Phillips, reflecting intent to kill alongside extreme violence. - causing great bodily harm to a child — Concept · Criminal charge · 1 mention · first at
This charge reflects the extensive fractures, dislocations, and long-term injuries inflicted on Thaad Phillips during captivity.Charged as an adult with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, child enticement, causing great bodily harm to a child, mayhem, and mental harm to a child. After a long…
- child enticement — Concept · Criminal charge · 1 mention · first at
Child enticement is cited among the charges, aligning with Joe Clark luring Thaad Phillips from his home under false pretenses.For his crimes against THAAD, Joe is charged as an adult with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, child enticement, causing great bodily harm to a child, mayhem, and…
- mayhem — Concept · Criminal charge · 1 mention · first at
Mayhem is listed among the charges, consistent with deliberate disabling injuries (repeated bone-breaking) inflicted on Thaad Phillips.First-degree intentional homicide, child enticement, causing great bodily harm to a child, mayhem, and mental harm to a child. After a long, long road to recovery, that…
- mental harm to a child — Concept · Criminal charge · 1 mention · first at
This charge captures the psychological trauma component of the prolonged captivity, threats, and sexualized torture described in the episode.First-degree intentional homicide, child enticement, causing great bodily harm to a child, mayhem, and mental harm to a child. After a long, long road to recovery, that…
- fetal alcohol syndrome — Concept · Defense-related medical concept · 1 mention · first at
Fetal alcohol syndrome is referenced as part of Joe Clark's not-guilty-by-reason-of-mental-disease-or-defect strategy, suggesting possible brain damage.First-degree murder. He pleads not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. His lawyers point to fetal alcohol syndrome, possibly brain damage. Anything that might make a…
Places & events
- Barabou — Place · Primary setting · 7 mentions · first at
Barabou is the town where the Phillips family lives, where the abduction occurs, and where the Steiner case and subsequent investigations unfold. - Wisconsin — Place · Regional context · 2 mentions · first at
Wisconsin situates the crimes geographically (Barabou, Wisconsin River) and anchors the jurisdictional setting for the investigation and prosecution.Empty, his window screen cut, muddy footprints in the house. 5 days later, his body was found in the Wisconsin River, hanging over a submerged tree branch. His cause of death…
Media & podcasts
- Sword and Scale Nightmares — Podcast · Podcast / episode container · 2 mentions · first at
This is the show presenting the narrative; the host introduces the program and closes with a call to join 'Plus' at the show website.
Full transcript with timestamps
It's the summer of 1995 and 13-year-old Thaad Phillips is finally starting to feel like Barabou, Wisconsin might be home. His family has just moved here. It's a new town, a new school, and new classmates sizing him up at the baseball field. That's the kind of kid people remember. It's all for his age. Smart, loud, and a confident, cocky way. He's good at baseball, and he likes to talk a little trash. He's relatable, and most people like him. After a long day of hanging out with friends outside, he often pulls himself through the front door and falls asleep wherever he lands.
tonight. That's on the living room couch. The TV is still flickering. His little sister is curled up nearby. His parents are down the hall, comfortable in their new routine. They think their kids are safe under the same roof. Dad is out cold. He doesn't hear the quiet scrape of a shoe across the floor. He doesn't hear the stranger walking into his house.
Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares. True crime for bedtime, where nightmare [clears throat] begins now.
Barabou sounds like some sunburnt town in coastal Australia, but it's actually plunked right along the dairy belt in Midwestern America. Oddly enough, the city used to be home base for the Ringling Brothers. They launched their first official circus performance in 1884 and lived in Barabou each winter until 1918. As a result, the town is dubbed Circus City. But the Phillips family didn't move to Barabou because of some fascination with the circus. They lived in busier, more heavily populated places, and they were just happy to settle somewhere small and safe. Barabou is so safe they think they can leave their front doors unlocked.
And on this particular July evening, that's exactly what they do. After getting back from a family dinner at a local restaurant, Thad and his little sister head to the living room to watch TV. Thad stretches out on the couch and dozes off almost immediately. As the night continues, everyone trickles off to their bedrooms, leaving Thaad sprawled out in front of the television. Sometime after midnight, something changes. The couch dips. An arm slides under his shoulders, another under his knees, and his body lifts. Half asleep, he doesn't even open his eyes. His brain picks the simplest explanation. "Dad's carrying me to bed," he thinks. Then the air gets cooler. He hears crickets.
He feels the night on his skin. He hears gravel crunching under feet. He snaps awake enough to realize he isn't in the hall headed towards his bedroom. He's being carried outside. Something is very wrong. Dad's brain is desperately trying to make his body move. He looks up. The face above him isn't his father. It's a kid only a few years older than that himself. He's thin and acne scarred, a stranger. The teenager sets Thaad down on his feet and starts talking to him. He's talking fast like this is no big deal. His name is Joe. His car broke down. He says he needs a hand. He didn't want to wake Bad's parents. Bad is barefoot, disoriented. And this older kid mentions a few names that he recognizes.
They're boys from school, kids from around town. He's new, but he's made a few friends already. This feels plausible to Thad. Maybe this kid is a friend of a friend. So when Joe walks, Thaad goes with him. They creep through a quiet neighborhood with dim porch lights and dark windows. This is a small town, and no one but these two are awake. After a few blocks, the houses thin out. Joe leads them to a place that looks suspicious all the way from the sidewalk. It's a sagging house with paint flaking off the siding and a front yard overgrown with weeds. He says he lives here. Inside, the smell hits that like a brick wall. It's rotting food, sweat, and something sour underneath it all. The floor is littered with trash, clothes, fast food containers, and cans kicked into corners. Joe shrugs off the mess and explains he's getting ready for a party. He says other boys that knows will be coming. Then Joe invites Thad
upstairs to check out some of his model cars. Still confused, Thaad agrees. Joe is acting so oddly casual. To Thad, this feels like a fever dream. Joe's bedroom is worse than the first floor. The bed is filthy. There's junk everywhere. The air feels heavy and stale. This is where Joe finally shares his full name. Joe Clark. He's 17 years old. He likes baseball cards, model airplanes, and cars. He's talking to Thaad like he's one of his friends. He brings up school, local gossip. He's good at appearing somewhat normal to a half asleep Thaad. That's when Joe changes the subject. He starts talking about hurting people. He tells Thaad that he's killed before boys, more than one. He says it almost like a dare, watching to see how Thaad reacts. It feels like the room is suddenly dropped in temperature. Before Thaad can decide whether he believes any of it, Joe moves. The friendliness strains out of his face. He grabs Thaad
and throws him back onto the dirty mattress and clamps both hands around his right ankle. At first, it feels like roughousing taken too far. Then Joe starts to twist. The angle goes from uncomfortable to unnatural. Thad yells at him to stop, but Joe doesn't. There's a moment where everything in the joint is pulled to its absolute limit. There's intense heat and pressure and a sense that something is about to go very, very wrong. Then it does. A sharp pop cuts through the room. Pain detonates in his leg, shooting up through his body so violently his vision starts to flicker.
It's a total body takeover. His scream barely sounds human. Somewhere in the noise, Joe is listening. He likes the sound. Dad's last clear memory before he passes out is Joe leaning over him, talking about the way bones feel when they finally snap.
On a July night in 1995, 13-year-old Thaad Phillips falls asleep on his family's couch, and wakes up in the arms of a stranger. 17-year-old Joe Clark carries him out of his own house, walks him to a filthy, wreaking home down the road, and lures him upstairs. In a dank bedroom, the mask finally slips. Joe tells Thad he's killed before and that he likes the sound of bones breaking. Then he twists Thaad's ankle until it snaps. When he wakes up after blacking out, the pain is still there. His ankle feels loose and wrong, like it's held together with wet rope instead of bone. Even the smallest attempt at movement sends a shock up his leg. Joe is in the room and he's back to acting casual. He speaks in that easy, friendly tone again, trying to make small talk.
He walks around the mess on the floor like the boy lying there with a broken ankle is a minor inconvenience. Dad begs to call his parents. They'll be worried about him by now. He won't tell them what happened. He says he just wants to let them know he's okay. Joe thinks about it and surprisingly he agrees. He sets up a phone barely within reach. Hope is sharp. It cuts through dad's pain. He drags himself across the floor. Every inch of deliberate tearing movement. He grabs the receiver and starts to dial. That's when he sees the cord. It's cut clean through, hanging loosely from the wall. The phone in his hand is nothing but plastic. When he looks up, Joe is watching his face. He doesn't look confused and he doesn't look sorry. He looks satisfied.
That's the moment Thaad understands. Nothing in this house is an accident. The rest of the night is a blur of pain and calculation. Joe's mood swings from friendly to sadistic. He crouches beside Thaad and talks like a friend, then pivots into threats and twisted jokes about breaking bones. He wraps socks and bandages around Thaad's ruined ankle, not to heal it, but to immobilize it at a warped angle, keeping the damage right where he wants it. What's happened so far is confusing, that thinks, but what happens next is unfathomable.
Joe unzips his pants and begins to masturbate over Thaad's primitively bandaged limbs. Joe seems to be getting sadistic sexual pleasure from the torture he's inflicting. This is beyond weird. Thad is terrified. Lying on the floor staring at the ceiling, he starts to build the only plan he can. Morning comes and Joe leaves the room for a moment. Thad seizes the opportunity. He pulls himself upright, balances on his good leg, and limps as quickly as he can, planning to escape from the bedroom, then the house. Every step down the hallway and onto the stairs feels like his lower leg is grinding itself into splinters.
He blinks away tears and pushes through the pain. He doesn't make it far. Joe catches him on the first floor, puts him in a chokeold, and drags him back up to the filthy bedroom. The friendliness is gone once again. This time, he goes for Thaad's hip. He grabs Thaad's leg and wrenches it up towards his head. He forces all of his weight down on the boy, leaning on his overextended leg until both his femur and hipbone snap. The pain is much worse than the first break. It's blinding, searing. The sound is heavier than the ankle. At this point, dad's legs are a collection of fractures and dislocations.
ankles, hips, knees, long bones. He can't stand. He can barely move. Thad passes out again. At this point, the pattern is set. Between each brutal attack, Joe pretends to feel bad. He makes false attempts to take care of Thad, bandaging up his broken bones with thick socks and rags. At one point, he even forces Thad into leg braces, allowing him to hobble around a bit. This only gives Thad a false sense of hope that he'll be able to escape. So, using what little help the leg braces provide, he keeps trying. With each failed attempt, Joe punishes him by breaking more bones.
It's a confusing cycle. Sometimes when his car won't start or when Joe faces another mundane inconvenience, he takes his rage out on Thaad. He twists and stomps on his legs, fracturing nearly every intact bone he has left. He jumps on Thaad's chest, and at one point even puts a pillow over Thaad's face as he masturbates. Thad goes so long without oxygen, he thinks he's going to die. Other times, the torture sessions are because Thaad has tried to escape. But no matter the cause, after each beating, Joe's mood shifts back to friendly again. One time, he even carried Thad to the couch to watch TV together like they were just two friends hanging out. Joe talks about his family, his car, and how he lives in this house with his brother and his brother's girlfriend, both of whom make their way in and out of the house while Thad is being held captive upstairs.
The next day, Joe mentions his own girlfriend. How this kid managed to land a girlfriend is beyond Thad, but that doesn't matter. Joe is leaving to go get her. He leaves Thad alone in the room. Bad decides this is his next shot. He's not ready to give up just yet. He drags himself out of the bedroom and down the stairs using only his upper body. Every bump sends fractured bone ends grinding together. He makes it to the kitchen. Crawling on the floor, he hears the front door open. Joe is already back with his girlfriend that can see them walking over to sit on the couch. The phone is close by and the route is open, but any clumsy movement towards it risks making a sound on the dirty lenolum.
Bad's broken body isn't reliably quiet. If Joe looks up and sees him on the floor, it's over again. He lies flat in the kitchen, heart pounding, and waits. Eventually, the girlfriend leaves, and Joe makes his way to the kitchen, finding Thaad in his open hiding spot. He's shocked at first, but that shock quickly turns to rage. Joe drags him back upstairs, and for the first time, in no uncertain terms, Joe threatens to kill Thaad if he tries to escape again. That's hope is dwindling. He knows he's going to die here.
Joe needs to leave the house again, but he's not going to leave Thaad free range in the bedroom anymore. From now on, he'll lock Thad in the closet. There is only darkness, dust, and the smell of old wood and sweat. Thad listens.
footsteps down the hall, the creek of stairs, the front door. Now it's quiet. He feels around in the dark and his hand closes on something solid, a beat up electric guitar. As soon as he's sure Joe is out of earshot, he braces as best he can with what's left of his legs, grips the guitar by the neck, and starts swinging it into the door. Every impact throws pain up his arms and back into his broken bones, but the wood splinters and the closet door busts open. He drags himself towards the stairs. Going down them like a normal person will be impossible. His legs won't hold any weight. So Thaad does the only thing that gives him a chance. He throws himself. His body bounces down each step. His shoulder, hip, head, broken legs slam into the wood.
At the bottom of the staircase, he lies in a crumpled heap. Somehow, he's still conscious. He slides into the kitchen, pulling himself with his hands, dragging two limp legs behind him. And he sees a phone on the counter. He can't stand, so he reaches up, grabs the cord, and yanks the phone down to the floor. His fingers barely work. He forces them to. He does not know how much time he has. He stabs the buttons clumsily, punching nine. One one
For nearly 2 days, that Phillips has been held captive and tortured in ways none of us can even imagine enduring. Now Fat has smashed his way out of a locked closet with a guitar, thrown himself down a flight of stairs and dragged his broken body across the kitchen floor just to reach a phone. Out of breath, he tells the dispatcher that his name is Thaddius Phillips. He's badly hurt, both of his legs are broken, and he's trapped in the house of a boy named Joe. It's a small town, and the house isn't far from that. Barabou police race to the address. When they push the door open, they see him on the kitchen floor, legs twisted into impossible angles. One of them blurts out, "Oh, he's still alive." He is, but he's also 2 hours away from bleeding to death internally. They call an ambulance. And somewhere else in town, Joe Clark's time as a free man quietly runs out.
At the hospital, the horror of what Joe Clark had done to Thad is on display for a room full of doctors. They find fractures and dislocations stacked on top of each other. His ankles were apparently twisted until the bones above them snapped. His hips were torn from their sockets, a femur broken, knees damaged, soft tissue shredded. He goes into surgery, then another, and another. Somehow, miraculously, he survives. While he's healing, detectives talk to him. He tells them Joe didn't just torture him. He bragged about times he'd done it before. He said he'd killed two boys before kidnapping Thaad. He could remember one name, Chris. Investigators pull old files. They land on a case from the year before. Christian Chris Steiner, a 14-year-old boy who went missing from his Barabou home on July 4th 1994.
His parents woke up to find his bed empty, his window screen cut, muddy footprints in the house. 5 days later, his body was found in the Wisconsin River, hanging over a submerged tree branch. His cause of death was marked as drowning. The manner of death was officially undetermined, but was treated like a tragic accident. After Thad's statement, that accident doesn't look so accidental. They exumed Chris Steiner's body. A new autopsy revealed that both legs and ankles had been broken in ways eerily similar to Thaad's injuries. This kid had dislocations and fractures that would have made him unable to swim before he drowned. Back at Joe Clark's house, police search for more evidence. They don't find another body, but they do find a notebook. In it are the names of around 29 local boys, some of whom Thad recognizes. The names are sorted into columns. One says can wait. Another column says get to now.
And the last one says the leg thing. This was a to-do list. And a forensic psychiatrist later testified that Joe had a sexual fetish for breaking bones and also for men's white socks. The quote leg thing was shorthand for that particular sexualized violence. The repeated breaking and wrapping of the legs. For his crimes against THAAD, Joe is charged as an adult with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, child enticement, causing great bodily harm to a child, mayhem, and mental harm to a child. After a long, long road to recovery, that eventually learns to walk again. There will always be a limp, lingering nerve pain. The kind of deep, weather sensitive ache that never really goes away. He still takes the stand. He tells the jury about being carried out of his house, about the filthy bedroom, about the cut phone cord, about having his ankle twisted until it broke, about the hip and the femur, and the way Joe's
voice lit up when he talked about loving the sound of bones splintering. And he told him about Joe's calm claim that he'd killed before. The jury finds Joe Clark guilty. He gets a 100year prison sentence for what he did to Thaad. For Chris Steiner, he faces first-degree murder. He pleads not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. His lawyers point to fetal alcohol syndrome, possibly brain damage. Anything that might make a jury sympathetic or understanding really. The state sees something else. A clear method, a timeline, plans for the future, an overall pattern of escalating violence. They're confident Joe is a serial killer in the making. But before the trial can begin, something happens that almost silences the only living witness to Joe Clark's sadistic methods.
Joe's 15-year-old neighbor and friend, Michael Huge, shows up at Thad's house with a hunting rifle. Michael is angry about his friend Joe being in jail. And he doesn't want Thad to testify against him. This kid wasn't thinking clearly. It wasn't like uh this second trial would make a difference in Joe's freedom. Regardless, he sees dad in the yard. He lifts his rifle and shoots him in the back and then shoots him again. But this is nothing compared to what Thad's already been through. He's already survived a torture session by a kid who's now known by the media as the bone breaker. These two bullets weren't going to take him out. After another grueling recovery, Thaad survives yet again and is able to take the stand in a second trial. With Thad's testimony, Joe Clark gets life plus 50 years. Between those two cases, he will never walk free.
On paper, it's decisive, but nothing will give Thaad his body back. and nothing will bring Chris Steiner back. In the hope of getting some financial help from the person who caused the growing stack of medical bills on the kitchen table, dad's family sues Joe Clark and wins a civil judgment. He's promised 21 million for all his pain, suffering, and expenses. But Joe Clark never had money, never will, and the judgment just sits there as an unpaid number in a file. Thad says he's never seen a scent of it and probably never will. Decades later, a Barabou woman named Olga Johnson has started a GoFundMe called Support Thad Phillips, real hero of Barabou. The description talks about his surgeries, his limp, the fact that his case solved the murder and likely stopped many more.
So far, the fundraiser has gathered 25,000 in donations. But that amount only scratches the surface, and it doesn't change what happened back in 1995 in the filthy bedroom on a quiet street when a 13-year-old boy trusted an older kid who simply knew his classmates names. Dad's nightmare was 43 hours long. Chris Steiner's ended in a river. The only reason we know Joe Clark as the Barabou bone breaker, the only reason he's behind bars today is because one of his victims refused to die. In saving himself, that Phillips stopped a serial killer.
If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining Plus at swordandscale.com/plus. But if you can't, consider leaving us a positive review on your preferred listening platform. Sweet dreams and good night.
Questions about this episode
Who speaks in "Snap"?
Thaad Phillips (Guest), Joe Clark (Guest), Detectives.
What is "Snap" about?
A teenage boy, Thad Phillips, navigates a fresh start in a small Wisconsin town while adjusting to new friends and a growing confidence, just as a quiet intruder breaches his home. The narrative unfolds through the tension of a safe-seeming family life disrupted by an unexpected, chilling threat.
What is mentioned in this Sword and Scale episode?
15 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Tony Clark, Edward Phillips, Barabou, Joseph Steiner, Sword and Scale Nightmares, Serial Killer. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.
How long is "Snap"?
The episode runs 29 min; the transcript is about 3,597 words in 31 timestamped sections.
More from Sword and Scale
About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated October 29, 2026.