John F. Clarke has had his luck with the ladies, but this Valentine’s Day that good fortune is petering out.
For years, the 55-year-old Des Moines man has found marks easily on dating sites despite a rap sheet ― including nearly two dozen felonies ― dating back to the late 1980s.
Even when caught, Clarke never did much time.
His modus operandi is well documented in reams of court cases: Gain the trust of single women; pose as an employee of a cellphone company; gain access to their phones, service plans and credit; and purchase electronics, including cellphones and Apple watches, that can be sold or pawned.
Before the women know what hit them, Clarke is gone.
But in December 2023, Clarke’s past started catching up to him.
He’d been featured by then in a few televised news reports in Iowa and Nebraska , outed by some of his reported victims in Facebook chats, and amassed a stack of complaints to Iowa’s attorney general and with local law enforcement agencies in at least six Iowa counties and five states.