WORMSCAN: FOSTER1 [PART 3]

Concerning the demise of Vincent Foster, Jr. Some dare call it suicide.

NOTES: I made a few corrections to spellings and grammar. Please remember this document was kept as intact as possible. I have removed unrelated ASCII art from past articles in this series. There was a lot of HTML in this document which I kept intact.

If you missed previous parts to this part of the WORMSCAN series, you can find it here.

WORMSCAN: FOSTER1 [PART 1]

WORMSCAN: FOSTER1 [PART 2]

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Subject: Repost: FORENSIC EXPERTS DOUBT FOSTER SUICIDE FINDING
From: jqp@globaldialog.com
Date: Sun, 11 May 1997 00:16:23 -0500
Message-ID: <33755627.25F1@globaldialog.com>
Organization: Global Dialog Internet
Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, alt.politics.clinton

Thanks to Brenda Jinkins for retrieving this from the archives:

FORENSIC EXPERTS DOUBT FOSTER SUICIDE FINDING

By Christopher Ruddy
in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
January 18, 1995

Leading forensic and firearms experts have cast serious doubts on the official suicide ruling in the case of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. in July 1993 — strongly suggesting that Foster might not have fired the gun that is said to have killed him.

Based on the FBI's analysis of the death weapon's residue-emitting characteristics and on such residue found on Foster's hands, the experts concluded that if Foster fired the fatal shot, he would have had to have held the gun in a highly unusual position, with both hands on the forward part of the gun — neither hand being on the grip when it was fired.

Earlier this month, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr convened a grand jury to review the Foster case. The Associated Press reported that Starr has been reviewing the "thoroughness and competence" of the investigation into Foster's death in a top-to-bottom review of the case. Such a review, according to law enforcement experts, should touch upon discrepancies involving the apparent suicide weapon.

WRONG HAND

Foster's body was found in Fort Marcy Park, Arlington, Va., with an antique 1913 Colt Army service revolver in his right hand. He had supposedly placed the gun's 4-inch barrel deep into his mouth and fired it using his right thumb and hand. This was suspicious in itself, according to some experts, since Foster was left-handed.

Massad Ayoob, who heads the Lethal Force Institute, noted that holding a gun with neither hand on the hand-grip constitutes "an extremely unnatural and awkward grasp totally inconsistent with what both experience and logic show us to expect of a suicidal person."

Ayoob, who has served as a forensics expert for the states of California and Michigan, said that gunpowder residue found on Foster's hands indicate he wasn't a "deliberate suicide."

"It looks like someone faked it," he said, suggesting that a gun may have been placed in Foster's hands and then fired, in order to leave "gunpowder residue on his hands." This, he said, might lead relatively inexperienced investigators to conclude Foster had fired the gun himself.

Ayoob conducted a detailed analysis of the shooting using a replica of the death weapon wielded by someone with hands comparable in size to those of the 6-foot-4-inch tall Foster.

Ayoob concluded that not only would the gun have been difficult to fire according to the scenario suggested, but that Foster's hands would have interfered with the guns operation. With his hands pressed across the cylinder he would have inhibited its necessary rotation, and the fourth and fifth finger of his right hand would have likely prevented the hammer from striking the bullet.

Dr. Richard Mason, who specializes in firearms forensics, and is the pathologist for Santa Cruz, Calif., is similarly bothered by the unusual residue deposits on the deceased's fingers. It "doesn't make any sense," he said. "I wonder if they came to erroneous conclusions."

UNUSUAL MARKS

Challenges to the findings on the part of experts have been prompted largely by their readings of the report of Special Counsel Robert Fiske and FBI findings in the case.

When the apparent death weapon was fired in the FBI laboratory, soot and smoke-blast were emitted from the gap between the front of the cylinder (referred to as the front cylinder gap) and the gun's frame, as well as the muzzle.
 ____________________________________________________________
 | |

 | Based on residue deposits, Foster's hands were likely |
 | configured in a manner similar to this. Neither hand is |
 | on the hand grip making the gun unstable. The palms of |
 | the hands, pressed against the cylinder of the gun, would |
 | interfere with the cylinder's rotation. Foster's large |
 | hands would likely have put his two smallest fingers in |
 | jeopardy of the gun's hammer when it was fired. The thumb |
 | would have to depress the trigger in an unnatural movement.|
 |____________________________________________________________|

This indicates that Foster pulled the trigger with his right thumb, his four right fingers, which are usually placed on the back of the hand grip to stabilize the revolver, were instead inexplicably wrapped around the cylinder and the top of the gun frame.

A visible line of gunpowder residue was also found on Foster's left index finger, indicating that the left hand was also near, or on the gun's cylinder. Strangely, the FBI laboratory analysis omitted any mention of the heavy soot found on Foster's left index finger.

FOUL PLAY

Dr. Vincent Di Maio, medical examiner for San Antonio, Tex., is regarded as one of the nation's leading firearms forensics experts. He pointed out how difficult it would be to fire a weapon with both hands forward of the grip and trigger. "It would be such an awkward way, you'd have to contort yourself to do this. It is not consistent with suicide."

Another expert who questioned the suicide scenario was Dr. Martin Fachler, who headed the U.S. Army's Wound Ballistics Laboratory in San Francisco for 10 years before retiring. "It's almost impossible to pull the trigger without some counter pressure," he said, referring to the need to brace the weapon against the force of the trigger pull.

 _________________________________________________________
 | |
 | A typical suicide will fire a gun in this manner. The |
 | fingers grasp the gun's handgrip to stabilize the gun, |
 | and allow for a natural pull on the trigger. |
 |_________________________________________________________|

Fachler said he could "not see how any person left to their own devices" would use the weapon in this manner. "If you ask is this an indication of foul play, I have to say yeah, maybe it is."

Still another expert with similar misgivings was Robert Taubert, 33-year veteran of the FBI who conducted extensive research on weapons as a firearms expert with the FBI Swat Team. "I never heard of anyone gripping the gun like that," he said.

Taubert reviewed both the FBI analysis and the review of that analysis conducted by Ayoob. In re-enacting the shooting as it supposedly occurred, he noted that he "had a lot of problems actuating the trigger" because of "the awkwardness of the grip."

Taubert concluded that the both-hands-up-front scenario was "completely unnatural." Only someone who'd never seen a gun fired, even in a movie, might try to do it that way, he said.

Vincent Scalise was yet another expert who found the gun residues, and the grip they implied, "not consistent with suicide."

Scalise spent 35 years with the New York City Police Department, where he worked major homicide cases as a crime-scene expert. He was a consultant to the House Committee on Assassinations, which debunked a number of theories relating to the death of John F. Kennedy.

All four forensic pathologists who served on Fiske's team were contacted about the gunpowder residue discrepancies. Calls were referred to the Independent Counsel's office or went unreturned.

POLICE FAULTED

Scalise faulted the U.S. Park Police, who handled the Foster investigation, for not following standard police procedure. which is to treat such a death as a homicide until established otherwise.

The Park Police, an agency that investigates only around 35 deaths a year, has asserted that it followed such procedure.

But Scalise said the testing of the gun and powder residue on the hands would be "critical" aspects of a homicide investigation. He added that, had he worked on a case involving the type of residues in the Foster death, he would have assumed that there was a "strong possibility that it was an actual homicide."

The Park Police did not send the gun for testing until two days after they officially declared Foster's death a suicide, on Aug. 10, 1993.

Homicide experts say that killers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in staging suicides, including the deliberate firing of a gun to leave powder marks on the victim's hand to fool investigators.

"In some parts of the country, it's become a license to kill," said Vernon Geberth.

Geberth, author of the authoritative police text Practical Homicide Investigation, said experienced investigators look for "inconsistencies" with what one would expect from a typical suicide.

In the Foster case, not only does the powder residue not fit, but there are a number of other inconsistencies involving the gun alone: no fingerprints were found on it; the fired bullet was never found; the gun could not be positively identified by Foster's family; no matching ammunition was found for the gun in either of the victim's two homes; and no visible blood or blow-back material was found on the gun.

LAPSES CITED

The then-Republican minority report to the Senate Banking Committee report on its Whitewater hearings noted "variances" in Park Police procedures, assigning blame for them on "interference by staff from the White House."

Among the lapses in police procedure noted in that minority report and by law enforcement experts:

(*) Failure to retain as evidence Foster's beeper, turning it over to the White House within hours of his death. (A Park Police officer in an interview in January 1994 said Foster's beeper was found in his car, but the Fiske report stated it was found on his body.

(*) Similar failure to retain other critical evidence such as personal belongings and papers found at Fort Marcy Park the day after his death, returning this evidence to the White House.

(*) Failure to conduct a standard canvass of residences surrounding Fort Marcy Park and failure to interview individuals who frequent the park.

(*) Failure to immediately secure Foster's office as a crime scene.

(*) Delay in testing of the gun, and failure to conduct a vacuum sweep of Foster's clothing and shoes.

 --------------------------------------------------------------
Prediction of the decade: "The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons & their loyal staff." — author unknown

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Subject: Re: THE CLINTON CONNECTION TO PARKS MURDER
From: lar-jen@interaccess.com (Larry-Jennie)
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 07:07:17 -0600
Message-ID:
Organization: InterAccess, Chicagoland's Full Service Internet Provider
Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater
References: ,<19970605185400.OAA01882@ladder02.news.aol.com>,

In article cayenne@nyct.net (Martin McPhillips) writes:

> And why the Foster death is, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has suggested, the "Rosetta stone" of the Clinton scandals.

I know what you Mena.

Electronic Telegraph
July 14, 1996
Foster 'hired detective to spy on Clinton' Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Little Rock reports on the latest twist in the saga of the former White House aide

---------------

External Links

VINCENT Foster, the Arkansas lawyer whose mysterious death is still the subject of official investigations, orchestrated secret surveillance of Bill Clinton in 1990, two years before he became Deputy Counsel in the Clinton White House.

The claim is made by the widow of Jerry Parks, a Little Rock investigator allegedly contracted to do the work. What is more, Mrs. Parks' husband told her the operation was instigated by Foster's law partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton. The allegations have to be treated with great caution. They are based on the word of one person and are almost impossible to corroborate. Even so, Jane Parks' story deserves to be reported.

Her husband went on to become chief of security at the Clinton-Gore headquarters during the presidential campaign. A few months later, in September 1993, he was murdered, gangland-style, in a case that has never been solved by the Little Rock police.

Vince Foster had died two months earlier in circumstances that have led to formal accusations by the US Senate of a White House cover-up. His body was found in a Virginia park, next to a civil war cannon, with an unidentified revolver lodged in the right hand. His death was recorded as suicide at first, but the case has been re-opened by independent counsel Kenneth Starr. After two years, Starr has still not concluded whether it was suicide or murder. Jane Parks, 43, has never sought out the press. She reluctantly told me about her former husband's ties with Foster during a dinner at her house two months ago. She has now finally consented to go on the record, saying she is weary of living with secrets.

She said that her late husband, Jerry, respected Vince Foster. Around 1985, he started taking on sensitive assignments for him. These appeared to have involved a variety of strange activities — including two mysterious trips the two men took to the town of Mena, west Arkansas, during the 1992 presidential campaign.

"Jerry had a reputation for doing high-profile cases for prominent people. He knew how to keep his mouth shut," she said. Nevertheless, he confided in his wife, and told her about the covert surveillance of the state governor in 1990.

She said: "Jerry asked Vince why he needed this stuff on Clinton. He said he needed it for Hillary."

She believes that Hillary Clinton was trying to gain leverage over her husband, possibly in relation to future divorce proceedings. It is possible Mrs. Clinton wanted to get to the bottom of persistent rumors about her husband's philandering before subjecting herself and her daughter to the media glare of a presidential campaign. At the time, Mrs. Clinton and Vince Foster were partners at the Rose Law firm. The two were so close, in fact, that they even shared a brokerage account called Midlife Partners. Several new books claim that the two were lovers for many years.

Mrs. Parks said that Foster had telephoned her husband over a hundred times at their home outside Little Rock, and when she met him at a political function Foster complimented her by saying: "You must be Jerry's wife, I'd heard he'd robbed the cradle." She said her husband started having dealings with Foster around 1981, when the Rose Law firm represented Guardsmark, the security firm that Parks was working for at the time. Later, Parks set up his own business and took on personal assignments for Foster.

It appears that Parks collected extensive surveillance files on Bill Clinton over the years.

On one occasion, Parks was asked to provide home security for Foster's brother-in-law, Lee Bowman, whose house was damaged in a fire. Mr. Bowman, confirmed the story, saying that he was struck by the way Foster insisted that Parks was a man who could be trusted.

It appears that Parks collected extensive surveillance files on Bill Clinton over the years — though not always for Foster. Some of it was clearly undertaken for other clients. Parks' son Gary, now 25, accompanied him on several night missions in 1987 which involved watching the apartments of Gennifer Flowers and other women, using long-range cameras.

Parks also did some spying on Clinton in 1984 when the Governor attended a number of cocaine-and-sex parties given by his younger brother, Roger, at the Vantage Point apartment complex where Jane Parks was manager.

Roger Clinton went to prison shortly afterwards for dealing in cocaine. In a police surveillance video taken at the time, Roger can be heard saying that he must get some cocaine for his brother: "He has a nose like a vacuum cleaner."

Parks kept a set of photos and hand-written notes at his home. The files were stolen in a burglary in July 1993, about the time of Foster's death. "That's when Jerry got paranoid," said Mrs. Parks. "He believed that Foster had been murdered and he was afraid that he'd be next."

His paranoia was vindicated. Two months later, on September 26, Parks was shot several times at short range outside Little Rock. An eye-witness told Mrs. Parks that he saw an Arkansas State Trooper leaving the scene of the crime. No charges have been brought.

During the early part of 1993, Parks constantly battled with the White House. He told his wife that the Clinton campaign owed him more than $60,000 for work done by the firm. Asked if it was possible that her husband could have played "hardball" with the White House to recover his money, Mrs. Parks replied: "He would never have been so stupid as to try to blackmail the President of the United States."

During the summer of 1993, the debt was suddenly paid in full. Mrs. Parks has had trouble finding out what happened in those months — and which White House telephone numbers her husband may have called — because police have removed records from Mr. Parks' office.

She says her home was also ransacked, with as many as eight federal agents in her house at one time — flashing FBI, Secret Service, IRS, and, curiously, CIA credentials — not to mention visits by Little Rock police officers. A computer was purged by an expert, files went missing and 130 tapes of telephone conversations were confiscated. "I've asked them to give it all back, but the police refuse to relinquish anything," she said. "They told me there's nothing they can do about the case as long as Bill Clinton is in office."

When she told the FBI agent in charge that the murder could have a political dimension because her husband had had dealings with Vince Foster and Bill Clinton, the man cut her short. "He threw up his hands and said 'I don't want to hear anything about that'," said Mrs. Parks. The FBI office in Little Rock seemed surprised at the suggestion that its agents were involved. "It's a homicide. We don't have jurisdiction," said an official.

Mrs. Parks' allegations clash with the usual description of Foster as a well-meaning lawyer, out of his depth in the cut-throat world of Washington. But revelations that the White House Counsel's Office, where Foster worked, was behind the illicit request of over 900 FBI files has changed the picture dramatically. The White House is now leaking information that Foster was responsible for hiring Craig Livingstone — exposed as a dirty tricks operative — to head security. If Foster did indeed hire Livingstone, it is not far-fetched to suggest he previously hired Jerry Parks.

As for Mrs. Parks, it is hard to see why she might fabricate this story. She has shunned the media spotlight for the past three years, refusing substantial offers of money from tabloid publications. She is a Pentecostal Christian, has remarried and retreated to the Arkansas hills, where she is seeking a quieter life, having developed multiple sclerosis. The White House has refused to comment.

This report appeared in the last edition of the Sunday Telegraph.

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TheCIAcocainesmugglingonbehalfoftheContras
throughMena,ArkansascorruptedthePresidencies
ofBillClinton,GeorgeBushandRonaldReagan.
Fordetails,see:
ftp://pencil.cs.missouri.edu/pub/mena/

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