Gabriel Horowitz
Gabriel Horowitz aka Gaby Horowitz is the ex-husband of Marcia Clark the prosecutor, author, and television correspondent who gained fame as the head prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson murder case.
Marcia Rachel Kleks; August 31, 1953 in Berkeley, California. She graduated from Susan E. Wagner High School, a public high school in the Manor Heights section of Staten Island. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1976 with a degree in political science, then earned a Juris Doctor degree at Southwestern University School of Law. She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1979.
Clark was a prosecutor for the State of California, County of Los Angeles, best remembered for her involvement in the O. J. Simpson murder case along with Christopher Darden. Prior to the O. J. Simpson murder trial, her highest-profile prosecution was in 1991, when she prosecuted Robert John Bardo for the murder of television star Rebecca Schaeffer. During the OJ Simpson trial, the news media became fixated on her permed hair, which she changed midtrial to even more attention.
In the years following the Simpson trial, Clark has made numerous appearances on television including being a “special correspondent” for Entertainment Tonight, where she provided coverage of high-profile trials and reported from the red carpet at awards shows such as the Emmy Awards. She was a guest attorney on the short-lived television series Power of Attorney and was also featured on Headline News (HLN) to weigh in on the Casey Anthony trial. In July 2013, Clark provided commentary for CNN on the George Zimmerman murder trial in Florida.
In addition, Clark contributes a column for The Daily Beast, and has written four novels, Guilt By Association (2011), Guilt By Degrees (2012), Killer Ambition (2013), and The Competition (2014) published by Mulholland Books (US and UK).
In August 2013, Clark appeared as Attorney Sidney Barnes on Pretty Little Liars in the episode “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”. Clark was also parodied on the Emmy-nominated online sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, in which she was portrayed by Tina Fey, who was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Clark.
Marcia Clark has been married twice; she was first married to Gabriel Horowitz and then to Gordon Clark.
Gabriel “Gaby” Horowitz met when she was just 18 and a student at the University of California when she met Gabriel who was a Israeli professional backgammon player, a charming handsome man but a complete womanizer, even so she started dating him and a month after they met, she moved in with him. Marcia recalled how they met on her biography.
My girlfriends and I tended to congregate at a joint across the street from Cantor’s. It was there I met my first husband. I wasn’t looking for a husband, or even a boyfriend. I had no desire to be added to anyone’s list of conquests. My friends and I had finished eating when I was aware that one of the sharks was cruising our way.
I was about to warn my friends to ignore him when he pulled up a chair and sat down next to me. I half-turned to say hello—and sitting next to me was the most incredibly handsome man I had ever seen.
Gaby—that’s what his friends called him—was doubtless a womanizing cad. But he was quite charming. And he was incredibly funny. Gaby’s wit was never self-deprecating; the joke was always at someone else’s expense.
In order to stay in the U.S Gaby Horowitz needed a green card, Marcia agreed to marry him on one condition. Just the government would know about it, they waited until she graduated to get married.The newlyweds settled in California where Marcia enrolled at law school at Southwestern University School of Law while Gabriel played backgammon all night and sleeps all day.
Marcia had never heard about backgammon until she met Gabriel Horowitz, she would go to several clubs every night all night, but his favorites were the ones packed with rich and famous people who care less about losing their money, these rich people and the pigeons (amateur players) were the ones Horowitz tried to hustle up. The Cavendish and the Pips, Marcia preferred the latter for its cushiony, well-upholstered chairs and quieter crowd, just perfect for Marcia to get her homework done and study for a test while Gabriel played.
For a year or so clubbing all night seemed to work, but Marcia grew tired, she loved law and if she wanted to get her degree she had to stop partying so she could go to class early in the mornings. Gabriel complies to that for a while, at the same time the backgammon circle was subsiding Horowitz was depressed and irritated.
Sometimes the conflicts were subtle—he’d get sarcastic over something as small as my not making dinner the way he liked it. But that was usually a pretext for deeper irritation, like the fact that I’d come home from dance class later than I was supposed to. He didn’t like being alone. He couldn’t stand not knowing where I was. He’d say he was afraid that whenever I wasn’t with him, I was seeing other men.
I grabbed onto law school like a drowning woman clings to flotsam. It was to become my salvation. Law school took more effort than undergraduate work. I had to study. I had to memorize. I actually had to attend classes. Studying law served as an absorbing and invigorating counterpoint to my life with Gaby. The deeper I got into law, the more I withdrew from him.
He saw Marcia was slipping from his fingers, so he talked her into getting married properly this time, she had her doubts but noticed Gabriel seemed happier just to talk about it so she agreed and married Gabriel Horowitz for the second time on November 6, 1976, they were to St. Tropez for their honeymoon where she posed topless with Horowitz for several photos, the photos leaked by the National Enquirer in 1995 got the pictures from Gaby Horowitz’s mother
The happiness was short-lived. Gaby was once again depressed. A friend of his, Bruce Roman told him about how Scientology worked for him, so Gabriel went along, he didn’t like it, but figured out he had nothing to lose, except his wife.
Marcia left him not long after the Scientology supervisors received complaints from the women in his class due to his flirting. Gabriel was told that he either changed his behavior or walk away.
Scientology brought something good to Marcia Clark, there she met her second husband Gordon Tolle Clark (b. June, 1958) a computer programer who also worked at the Scientology administrative offices, he has a kind handsome face, very pleasant but they couldn’t date because the church didn’t allow relationships between members of the public and staff unless they were married.
What a great idea, except that Marcia was still married to Gabriel Horowitz, the divorce procedure could take months if not years, unless she could get a quickie divorce in Tijuana, an advice a friend told her about and their divorce was finalized, two weeks later Marcia and Gordon Clark got married at a friend’s place on October 7, 1980, she was 27, Gordon was 22.
Marcia and Gordon Clark had two children together Kyle and Travis, sadly for Marcia the marriage didn’t work, they separated in late 1993 and filed for divorced that same year, the divorce was finalized in 1995, but not before Gordon and Marcia engaged in a nasty custody battle of their two sons ages five and three at the time when Gordon wanted custody of the children because Marcia was working 25/7 in the O.J Simpson trial.
“I have personal knowledge that on most nights she does not arrive home until 10 p.m. and even when she is home, she is working. I do not want our children to continue to suffer because she is never home, and never has any time to spend with them.”
Today, Marcia Clark’s sons 26-year-old Kyle, works as an economist with Econ One, and 23-year-old Travis, a graduate from San Francisco State University works as a car concierge at Shift.
Marcia Clark then dated blues musician Mitch Kashmar.
But what happened to Marcia Clark’s ex husband Gabriel Horowitz?
Gabriel George Horowitz aka Gaby Horowitz was born in Israel to Polish Jewish father who taught him everything he knew about backgammon. Gaby Horowitz moved to Philadelphia with an uncle when he was 13, three years later he moved to California where he came for the mere desire to be rich.
All I wanted then was money,” Gaby recalls, “and the things money could buy—big, beautiful cars, expensive clothes, and attractive women. My taste,” he adds, “was not terribly refined. Not one to sit and watch, he even paid commissions to contacts who got him into high-stake games. “I paid generously, and I still pay generously today,” Gaby asserts.
“Most of the time I played backgammon in the homes of wealthy Beverly Hills families, and I entertained them,” he continues. “I was their loved and hated boy, and in a way they enjoyed losing to me. I was cute, I was Jewish, I could speak four languages, and I seemed educated.”
Educated without a real high school diploma, if he wanted to be rich, there was no time to go to school, but to blend in the right circles he needed one, so he bought it and enrolled in college.
“I could therefore claim I was a college boy, not a backgammon hustler,” he explains, “so people thought I was using backgammon to put myself through school—they figured losing to me was for a good cause.”
“It was my juvenile rudeness, my bluntness, my teenage lack of sophistication. If I had been more sophisticated, they would not have wanted me around.”
He was also a handsome newly rich juvenile who was making a fortune by the time he was 20.
I was a mercenary of the dollar,” he says today. “I only associated with people I could make a buck off. Nothing else mattered. I was always very direct—I believed, because of my skill at the game, I should take money from people. I spent hours studying positions—somebody had to pay for that.”
Gaby Horowitz had enough cash to afford living in Beverly Hills, have expensive cars, expensive art collection, watches and guns. Everybody knew Gaby Horowitz, he was the sexiest backgammon player who also taught the game to certain celebrities like Lucille Ball, who was just fascinated by the tan backgammon player.
“Gaby is one of the finest gentlemen in the backgammon world,” Lucy insists. “There is no one else like him. He is not only a marvelous player, but he’s got taste.”
Gabriel Horowitz didn’t dwell on his divorce instead, he embrace the single life.
“I will only date women who are beautiful, extremely intelligent, athletic, and wealthy.”
Horowitz and friend Bruce Roman who is also a dentist and the man who officiated Marcia’s wedding to Gordon Clark wrote the book Dynamic Cube Strategy.
Both Bruce and Gaby were gun collectors, one day while checking a Colt 45 at Roman’s house when he [Roman] accidentally fired the gun, hitting Gaby in the forehead where it fragmented and several fragments remain lodged in his brain.
Bruce Roman was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He was represented ironically by Robert Shapiro who got him out of jail after the shooting was ruled an accident. Gabriel Horowitz was in a coma for a time after the shooting, he survived, but requires being care since he is bound to a wheelchair, for some time Horowitz lived in Palm Springs with his mother Clara who took care of him, they later moved back to Israel.
Gaby Horowitz’s photos and video below.
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