Black Sheep Son Could Cook Up a Good Story

Fast talkers, glib con artists and people who are not quite what they seem are no novelty at the Best Western Motel in Arcadia.

After all, it’s right across the street from Santa Anita Park.

But staff members there say they don’t recall ever meeting anyone in quite the same class as Bill Clark--who claimed to be a famous restaurant critic in town to play the ponies and to write a book on California restaurants.

He carried a packet of newspaper clippings and short stories as proof of his fame, and he talked easily with guests at the Arcadia motel, showing them two recent books he said he had written and published, books titled “Famous Rocky Mountain Restaurants” and “Famous Texas Restaurants.”

“He was a delightful person, an excellent speaker who knew his stuff,” said motel employee Karen Witt. “But he looked like he didn’t fit in. He looked like he was trying to be someone he wasn’t.”

And, sure enough, he was. “Bill Clark,” local police say, is an alias used by William Buwalda, 56, the son of a prominent Pasadena family who has spent much of his adult life in and out of jail for writing bad checks and conning businessmen throughout the West and as far away as Canada.

After his arrest Feb. 18 by Arcadia police, who were told that he had approached several area restaurants with a suspicious offer, Buwalda was transferred to Orange County on an outstanding warrant. He is now being held in Orange County Jail for a violation of probation stemming from a 1983 conviction for writing bad checks.

Police in El Paso, Tex., where he is wanted on charges of defrauding several businessmen out of thousands of dollars, say they will attempt to extradite him after he has served his time in Orange County. Warrants have also been issued by police in San Diego, Boise, Ida., South Dallas County and Colorado.

“He’s one of the best confidence men I’ve ever encountered,” said Detective Kevin Pierce in El Paso. “He’s premier. I’ve gained much respect for him.”

Other members of the Buwalda family were respected, too--but for far different reasons.

Buwalda’s deceased father, John, founded the geology department at Caltech, was a nationally known authority on earthquakes and a friend of Albert Einstein.

Buwalda’s mother, Imra, a noted criminologist who died a year ago, helped establish the California Youth Authority and was one of the first female police officers in New York and Washington. His brother, Robert, served as a U.S. diplomat in the Netherlands before his death in 1968.

“He’s been a source of constant stress and anxiety for our family,” said his sister, May Buwalda, the only other surviving member of the family, who recently retired after 22 years as an administrator with the state Department of Corrections.

“He broke my mother’s heart. She kept thinking he would do right sometime. But he never did,” she said. “Until her death, he kept calling her for bail or to get him out of some scrape. It just tore her up.”

Police say Buwalda’s method of operation over the last two months in the San Gabriel Valley was typical of the way he set up his confidence schemes.

Two weeks ago, Buwalda approached the manager of a Mexican restaurant in Sierra Madre, claiming he was Bill Clark, a famous food critic. Buwalda told the manager, Brad Wollman, that his restaurant had been “prequalified” for inclusion in his new book, “Famous California Restaurants.”

Wollman said Buwalda established his credibility by showing his two books and an extensive portfolio of clippings from various newspapers that had covered Buwalda’s press conferences thinking he was a famous food critic.

Buwalda then spent three hours asking Wollman 150 detailed questions before informing the restaurant manager that he had passed Buwalda’s strict standards for food freshness and the absence of chemicals.

“He was very believable. He had as much knowledge as anyone I’ve ever met when it came to foods,” Wollman said. “He could tell you about wines, French cooking and obscure Mexican cuisine. He knew what buttons to push.”

Wollman said he thought it an honor to be included in Buwalda’s upcoming book and gave him a check for $200 as advance payment for copies of it, but became suspicious when he got a phone call 20 minutes later from a bank teller who said Buwalda had tried to cash the check without identification.

Wollman telephoned police, who discovered that Buwalda had several outstanding warrants, and arrested him.

“He was the bad seed among a family of absolutely extraordinary people,” said a longtime family acquaintance who asked not to be identified. “He tried and tried but he just never quite brought it off.”