A Death That Won't Die
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard A Death That Won't Die The investigations into Vince Foster's demise have revealed a hodgepodge of contradictions, inaccuracies, and unresolved mysteries. One leading...
...Dickey insists that she did not learn about Foster's death until 10 p.m...
...After receiving the call, Perry telephoned several other people in Little Rock to relay the news...
...38 The American Spectator November 1995...
...There are signs that he was a communications mix-up...
...But the first person to discover the corpse, known as the "Confidential Witness," says that he did not see a gun...
...A clerical error...
...in December 1992 and weighed 197 lbs...
...The lead prosecutor investigating the Foster death, Miguel Rodriguez, resigned in March after running into interference from the head of Starr's Washington operation, Deputy Independent Counsel Mark Tuohey...
...When the Bowmans arrived that evening Vince was already dead...
...They all knew right away," he said...
...His wife, Lisa, came a little later with their two sons Vincent and Brugh...
...The gun was never positively identified by the family...
...Fiske relied on the testimony of two Park Police officers who said they saw a large amount of blood when the body was rolled over...
...His replacement, acting director Floyd Clarke, chose not to assert FBI authority...
...Now Dr...
...Pat Gavin, inadvertently contradicted her story...
...His body was found lying on vegetation that was covered with flecks of mica, and particles were found all over his clothes...
...Yet the Fiske Report does not mention any of this...
...In any case, the shift commander, Lt...
...In some cases, his judgment is nothing short of amazing...
...Donald Haut told me that everybody knew Foster was a White House official by the time he arrived at the park...
...And yet it was ignored...
...Fiske never did this...
...In fact, one of them told the FBI that she saw a bare-chested man in the driver's seat of Foster's car...
...Haut observed a large exit wound in the back of the skull...
...He did not describe the wound but said he "believed it was consistent with a low velocity weapon...
...She was kind of hysterical, crying, real upset," said Perry...
...But medical records show that Foster gained a few pounds during his time at the White House...
...But this proves nothing...
...An Arkansas State Trooper, Roger Perry, has signed an affidavit stating that he learned of the death suspiciously early, definitely before 7 p.m...
...This is not to dispute claims that Foster was going through a rough patch...
...His statement reads, "No blood was recalled on the vegetation around the body...
...But Vince's nephew, Lee Bowman, who used to go hunting with his grandfather and knew the guns well, did not recognize it...
...As for Lisa Foster, it is puzzling that she is now telling the New Yorker that the gun belonged to Vince...
...How do the Park Police explain the delay...
...I do not have any answers...
...Braun then made the call herself at roughly 7:30 p.m...
...In mid-July he went on a weekend trip to the Eastern Shore in Maryland with his wife, allowing himself the rare luxury of a full two-day break...
...This still leaves almost an hour unaccounted for...
...In the end it may be established beyond all doubt that Foster died by his own hand in Fort Marcy Park...
...In his FBI statement he said Ashford toldhim later that "Foster's head was intact and he had not observed any exit wound...
...The Scalice Report said that blood tracks on Foster's face at the time the body was discovered meant that his head must have been moving around after death, assuming four different positions...
...According to his FBI statement, Dr...
...Yet no skull fragments or brain matter were ever found...
...CI As for the family, Fiske never took statements from Foster's children, not even from Laura, who accompanied her father into work on the day of his death...
...That evening President Clinton called to invite him over to the White House to watch a film—In the Line of Fire, as it happened...
...The investigation of Independent Counsel Robert Fiske pointed to this weight loss in concluding that Foster was depressed...
...George Gonzalez said in his deposition that "there was very little blood for an accident such as this," adding, "I didn't see an exit wound...
...Typically, a .38 caliber revolver makes a deafening noise...
...It is said that the vintage Colt was an heirloom from Vince's father...
...at the autopsy...
...The Sunday Telegraph explored this theme last April...
...He weighed 194 lbs...
...Sessions has since said that the Foster investigation was "compromised from the beginning...
...This report, funded by the Western Journalism Center in California, was prepared by Vincent Scalice and Fred Santucci, both veteran homicide experts from the New York City Police Department...
...t is not the purpose of this article to explain what happened to Vincent Foster on July 20, 1993...
...But he told the London Sunday Telegraph that this was not the case...
...I am absolutely and totally unequivocally, the palms were up...
...The FBI lab had concluded that a set of crime scene photos were unusable...
...He had his arm around her and they looked so happy...
...It was too old to trace...
...Central Time, a full hour and a half before the official notification...
...My suspicions weren't aroused...
...As sure as I am standing here...
...Their report concludes that "a high probability exists that Foster's body was transported to Fort Marcy Park...
...Rescue worker James Iacone also knew that Foster was a White House official when he returned to his station before 6:45 p.m., according to an FBI report...
...He says that he was on duty that afternoon at the governor's mansion in Little Rock when Chelsea Clinton's former nanny, Helen Dickey, called from the White House to convey the bad news...
...Rodriguez was able to obtain original copies which showed that Foster had a wound or bruise in the neck that had been dismissed as a blood "contact stain" in earlier reports, and was not mentioned in the autopsy report...
...He told the Sunday-Telegraph that he was informed by another officer on the scene, John Rolla...
...Rodriguez was prevented from pursuing critical leads, The investigation of Independent Counsel Robert Fiske pointed to this weight loss in concluding that Foster was depressed...
...As a practical matter, of course, the FBI could have taken over the case had it wished...
...The Fiske Report claims this was at 7:40, but he told the FBI that it was 6:45 p.m...
...Will Kenneth Starr do a better job than Robert Fiske...
...Ashford did not recall seeing any blood while placing Foster in the bag...
...B ut it may be Sen...
...His colleague Roger Harrison told the FBI that he also "did not recall seeing any blood on Foster and did not recall seeing any blood on individuals handling the body...
...The Fiske Report notes that there was mica on Foster's shoes...
...They crowded together in a little Georgetown house, trying to get by on the greatly reduced salary that Vince was earning as Deputy White House Counsel...
...Foster nor other relatives, or friends were able to provide any insight as to why Vincent Foster would take his life," wrote Park Police detective John Rolla, after visiting the Foster residence that night...
...It was Ruddy who broke the original set of stories in the New York Post in January and February 1994 that revealed a possible cover-up in the Foster case, and it is he who has kept the story alive in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review...
...As for the family, Fiske never took statements from Foster's children, not even from Laura who accompanied her father into work on the day of his death...
...At the White House they were equally perplexed...
...T he consternation was general...
...In a simulated experiment their model re-enacted the scene and was found with abundant soil on his shoes...
...No matching ammunition was found in Foster's homes...
...They have both issued affidavits swearing that they learned about Foster's death before 6 p.m...
...Although some have testified to seeing blood on Foster's body, a curious number of people at the scene have not...
...The first to come was his daughter Laura, brimming with filial devotion...
...The carpet fibers on Foster's clothes have never been explained...
...The dispute over the exit wound could be resolved by examining X-rays, but there do not seem to be any, even though Dr...
...The next day, July 20, Vince's sister Sharon Bowman was coming up from Arkansas with her daughter Mary...
...Deputy Independent Counsel Hickman Ewing, who is based in Starr's Little Rock office, has effectively taken over the handling of the Foster case...
...But FBI Director William Sessions, who had been under political pressures of his own, was sacked on July 19, the day before Foster's death...
...Two homicide detectives, who performed their own two-month investigation into the Foster case earlier this year, issued a report concluding that the crime scene had "likely been staged," with the gun placed in Foster's hand to make it look like a suicide...
...although the volume of blood was small, Haut did recall that the blood was matted and clotted under the head...
...Much that has emerged publicly about the case is the result of work by investigative reporter Christopher Ruddy...
...F otter was found dead with a .38 caliber Colt revolver in his right hand, according to the U.S...
...Park Police discovered the body of Vincent Foster in his car...
...This officer, who is never fully identified, allegedly forgot to do so...
...His report said, for example, that a couple found at Fort Marcy Park when the police arrived had not "observed anything unusual...
...Despite mounting political pressures, things seemed to be looking up for Vince Foster personally in the days and weeks before his death on July 20, 1993...
...The Park Police were swift in concluding that the death was a suicide...
...But what if there are phone logs that suggest otherwise...
...What evidence is there to prove that Foster shot himself with the gun that was found in his hand...
...The Fiske Report states that Foster's colleagues could see signs of deterioration in his state of mind...
...This was crucial testimony from the only witnesses found at the crime scene—a very important snippet of evidence...
...The gun was a 1913 Colt made up from parts of two separate weapons...
...But Vince excused himself from coming over to see the film...
...When did the White House really learn about Foster's death...
...But until there is a proper investigation, we will never know the truth...
...There has been a good deal of confusion about this...
...Furthermore, the doctor who certified death at the Fairfax Hospital did not see an exit wound...
...in December 1992 and weighed 197 lbs...
...He has issued subpoenas for Trooper Perry and Helen Dickey...
...She had prepared a dinner of scallops...
...Sen...
...She was presented with a photograph of the weapon that was found with Mr...
...His family had arrived from Little Rock, putting an end to the deracinated bachelor life he had been leading in Washington since the beginning of the year...
...At last things are being done that should have been done two years ago...
...Beyer signed the autopsy report with a check indicating that X-rays were taken...
...at night, when she was watching TV on the third floor of the White House residence...
...A Fairfax County rescue worker who left the park at 6:37 p.m...
...It was several days later that the so-called "suicide note"—torn into at least twenty-seven pieces, without leaving fingerprints—appeared in Foster's briefcase several days after it had already been searched...
...But the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has reported on some ominous signs...
...But he knew this to be absurd so he sent the film to a private laboratory, which had no trouble enhancing the photos...
...Was testimony by the only witnesses near the crime scene misrepresented by the Fiske Report...
...Was Foster in fact depressed...
...In a disturbing twist, Rodriguez found that he could not trust the FBI investigators to do their job...
...He told the FBI that he "didn't remember the black handle and the dark color of the metal...
...He was clearly making an effort to control his workaholic habits...
...He seemed very happy that finally he was going to have his family back...
...He weighed 194 lbs...
...He also said that he was under strict gag order from his superiors and asked not to be identified...
...But she also told the New Yorker recently that she did not realize he was depressed...
...Ruddy cites homicide experts who say that Foster must have fired the gun with both hands clutched over the cylinder, given the unusual pattern of gunpowder on Foster's 36 The American Spectator November 1995 hands...
...What is to account for the discrepancies in testimony between the Park Police and the medical personnel at the park...
...The other remembered seeing a man with long blond hair and a beard outside the car with the hood up...
...This author reported that the Park Police may have found Foster's White House ID on the front seat of his Honda Accord before 6:45 p.m., yet the official notification of the Secret Service took place almost two hours later at 8:30 p.m...
...They were struck by the fact that Foster must have walked 700 feet into the park, yet the FBI lab tests found no soil on Foster's shoes...
...Unidentified sources were cited in the major newspapers noting that Foster had been losing weight...
...D'Amato who succeeds in cracking open the whole case...
...This is not what Haut told the FBI...
...The American Spectator November 1995 37 according to the Tribune-Review, and Tuohey made it clear to him that he favored a quick ruling of suicide...
...All deaths of this kind are to be treated as homicides until there is enough evidence to rule out murder...
...They talked briefly about "operational problems at the White House" and they agreed to meet two days later, according to testimony given by the president...
...It is too early to tell...
...During the Fiske investigation the FBI found traces of Trazodone in Foster's blood at a concentration of 0.06 ug/ml...
...This would have been a near impossibility...
...On the positive side, he has at least employed a grand jury (though a very limited one...
...But medical records show that Foster gained a few pounds during his time at the White House...
...I only have questions...
...But the Report does not mention that the family doctor, Larry Watkins, had prescribed the drug to help Foster combat insomnia, not depression...
...This violated standard police practice...
...I never saw [an exit wound] directly...
...He wanted to be with his family...
...After supper he chatted to his youngest child Brugh about an idea they had for buying a boat...
...These are just a sampling...
...They say itwas Trooper Larry Patterson...
...But I have been unable to find anything in her FBI or Park Police statements that would support such an assertion...
...I have a distinct memory of him celebrating Laura's birthday and bringing her to one of our Friday night movies," said Hillary Clinton...
...His body had been found near a Civil War howitzer in Fort Marcy Park, not far from the headquarters of the CIA...
...Vince was planning to take his niece to lunch at the White House as a special treat...
...Arthur filed an incident report which classified the death as a homicide...
...Nor could the bullet...
...It also kept the FBI at bay...
...The hand-written notes of the Park Police detective say "not the gun she thought it must be...
...Park Police...
...Interestingly, the Secret Service Memorandum says that the "U.S...
...The Fiske Report cites this as key evidence indicating depression...
...Corey Ashford was one of the rescue workers who helped put the body in a bag for transport to the morgue...
...Yet nobody heard a shot...
...I looked at bothpalms...
...Another was Lynn Davis, former commander of the Arkansas State Police...
...I didn't spend too much time looking back there...
...Fiske was highly selective in the way he used testimony...
...FBI agent Larry Monroe testified in Senate hearings that "they most likely came from his residence or office," but tests were not conducted because "we had overwhelming evidence to reflect that it was a suicide...
...Asked if he were certain, he said under oath to an ad-hoc congressional delegation headed by Rep...
...Beyer says that X-rays were never taken because the machine was out of order...
...T he autopsy report of Virginia's Assistant Chief Medical Examiner James C. Beyer says that the bullet made an exit wound of 1 inch by 1 1/4 inch in the back of Foster's head...
...Donald Haut arrived on the scene, "Foster's body was rolled over and those present observed a large pool of blood located on the ground where Foster's head had been...
...The Tribune-Review also reported that a set of Polaroid photos had been deliberately blurred by the FBI...
...He also took issue with a photo leaked to ABC News that showed Foster's right thumb trapped in the trigger guard, saying "that is not a picture of what I saw...
...One of them intends to do a much more thorough job...
...One leading reporter on the case explains why we may never know what happened...
...Central Time...
...President Clinton described Foster as the "Rock of Gibraltar" The American Spectator November 1995 35 immediately after the death and said that his suicide was inexplicable...
...But the suicide ruling crimped further investigation...
...It was cited by the Justice Department as grounds for backing off its original pledge to conduct a vigorous investigation in July 1993...
...On the contrary, Gorham's FBI statement says that "she did not see anything in Foster's behavior that would indicate a distressed state of mind...
...An unsuspecting reader would deduce from this elliptical wording that Orenstein had in fact seen the exit wound...
...She had been expecting it to be a "silver, six-gun, large barrel" revolver that Vince had brought up from Arkansas...
...Foster's body, but was unable to identify it...
...at the autopsy...
...His FBI statement says that he "lifted Foster from behind the shoulders, cradling Foster's head...
...Yet Fiske's investigators never bothered to canvass these houses to see if anybody had heard a shot...
...Mark Tuohey resigned at the beginning of September...
...On Monday, July 19, the day after they returned to Washington, he tried to get home early in time for the family meal, although his idea of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is Washington correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph...
...Watkins told the FBI that he "did not think that Foster was significantly depressed...
...He chose to discount the contrary testimony of paramedics who handled the body, and he finessed the observations of the key doctors...
...D'Amato is leading yet another investigation into the case, and he suspects that the inner circle of the Clintons may have been notified of Foster's death far earlier than they claim...
...The Fairfax County paramedics who arrived early on the scene were struck by the lack of blood and several have stated that they did not see an exit wound...
...Dan Burton (R-Ind...
...Mrs...
...early turned out to be a quarter to eight...
...There are a number of residential houses close to the spot where Foster's body was found...
...Haut remembered a case in which a much more devastating wound had been caused by a smaller caliber weapon...
...Lisa Foster told investigators that her husband was under "a great deal of stress...
...D'Amato says he intends to get to the bottom of this bizarre story...
...It seems to me that we made that determination prior to going up and looking at the body," said detective Cheryl Braun, the senior investigator at the scene...
...He said that the FBI badgered him into saying that it was possible the gun was hidden from view by dense foliage...
...The Park Police Report is quite categorical that she could not identify it...
...They reveal, according to Ruddy, that the gun in Foster's hand was being moved around after the Park Police had arrived, with blades of grass protruding between different fingers in different photos...
...Investigator Cheryl Braun, who found Foster's White House ID, told the FBI that she gave instructions to another officer to pass on the word to the shift commander...
...She told me that Vince got off work, went out to his car in the parking lot, and shot himself in the head...
...Those who have followed the case closely can doubtless think of dozens of discrepancies that need to be cleared up...
...Lisa had hoped he would make it back an hour earlier, she told the FBI...
...told me, "We all knew that it was a White House official when we left...
...But it was not...
...There was nothing in his hands...
...Julian Orenstein of the Fairfax Hospital lifted the body by the shoulders "to locate and observe the exit wound in the decedent's head...
...Beyer is also quoted in the Park Police Report saying that the X-rays showed there were no metal fragments in Foster's skull...
...In mid-September the FBI conducted a blitz at Fort Marcy, searching high up in the trees for the elusive bullet...
...Being under strain and being clinically depressed are not the same thing...
...If this mysterious telephone call did in fact take place, the White House has a colossal problem on its hands...
...Instead it says that when Fairfax County Medical Examiner Dr...
...It says that "Deborah Gorham, his Executive Assistant, confirmed that Foster's productivity dropped significantly in the last few weeks of his life...
...Richard Arthur said he did not see an exit wound in the back of the head...
...Foster's fingerprints could not be found...
Vol. 28 • November 1995 • No. 11
