Vince Foster

Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. (January 15, 1945 - July 20, 1993) was an attorney who worked for U.S. President Bill Clinton. His death in 1993, shortly after Clinton took office, was officially ruled a suicide by several investigations, including one by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr.

Foster, a childhood friend of Bill Clinton, had worked at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas with Hillary Clinton and had difficulty making the transition to life and politics in Washington. He was only a deputy counsel, but he was personally the target of several hostile Wall Street Journal editorials. Wrestling with depression, he was prescribed something over the phone by a psychiatrist, though he could have only taken a few at most before he died. Foster committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a .38 caliber pistol. A suicide note of sorts was found torn into 27 pieces in his briefcase, a list of complaints specifically mentioning the Wall Street Journal and complaining "I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport."

His body was discovered in Fort Marcy Park, a federal park in Virginia.

Despite the fact that Foster was officially described as having shot himself in the mouth and as lacking any other wounds, many Americans find the official report questionable. Accuracy in Media has made available a transcript of an interview with Miguel Rodriguez, who resigned from the investigation, in which he states, "I knew what the result was going to be, because I was told what the result was going to be from the get-go." [1] (http://www.aim.org/special_report/1474_0_8_0_C/). Based on this and other variables some go so far as to propose that Foster was murdered to prevent him revealing information derogatory to Clinton.

Conspiracy Theory

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Although it has been maintained that he was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at that site, no bullet fragments were ever found and very little blood was present at the body's final location. This has fostered suspicions that the body had been moved from another location to the park site. Further fueling allegations of possible impropriety was the unusual discharge of blood from the wound on Foster's head. While he was located on an incline, the trickle of blood ran contrary to gravity. No explanation was offered to explain this odd phenomenon. The U.S. Park Police were assigned to investigate the murder but no more information was ever disclosed.

With respect to this case, conspiracy theorists are divided into two groups. Some suspect that Foster committed suicide in a location that was embarrassing to figures connected to the Clinton administration and that government agents dumped his body in the park to avoid any embarrassment. Others suspect that Foster died from a shot from a small-caliber pistol to the neck and his body was dumped in the park. A book by Christopher Andersen entitled Bill and Hillary: The Marriage [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/411510.stm) claims there was an affair between Foster and Hillary Clinton and some claim that this supposed affair has some relation to Foster's death.

In the latest development, a tape of an interview with U.S. Attorney Miquel Rodriguez, the lead investigator of Foster's death, has surfaced. In the tape, which was probably made around 1995-96, Rodriguez states that he viewed an official photo showing an apparent puncture wound in Foster's neck. Rodriguez subsequently resigned from the investigation, apparently in protest at the FBI's handling of the probe.

See Whitewater scandal, Health Management Associates Scandal

External links

• Rotten.com biography (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/vince-foster/)
• Accuracy in Media report (http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1998/05b.html)
• Frontline: Once Upon a Time in Arkansas: Vince Foster's journal (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/arkansas/etc/foster.html)
• http://www.allanfavish.com/ (Homepage of attorney who is trying to get the government to release pertinent photos in the case)
• http://www.aim.org/special_report/1474_0_8_0_C/ (Tape/transcript of interview with U.S. Attorney Miquel Rodriguez)
• Vincent W. Forster, Jr./Missing Gun File FBI FOIA (http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/vincentwfoster.htm)