Death of Vince Foster
Encyclopedia
Deputy White House counsel
Vince Foster
was found dead in Fort Marcy Park
off the George Washington Parkway in Virginia
, outside Washington, D.C.
, on July 20, 1993. His death was ruled a suicide
by multiple official investigations, but remains a subject of conspiracy theories
.
of sorts, actually a draft of a resignation letter, was found torn into 27 pieces in Foster's briefcase after his death. The full text of Foster's note was as follows:
, the Department of Justice
, the FBI, the United States Congress
, Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske
, and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
.
After a three-year investigation, Starr concluded that Foster's death was a suicide. CNN
stated on February 28, 1997, "The Starr report
refutes claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup," but "despite those findings, right-wing political groups have continued to allege that there was more to the death and that the president and first lady [Bill and Hillary Clinton] tried to cover it up."
, a key figure in the Troopergate and Whitewater
scandals whose disillusionment with the political corruption motivating what would come to be known as the Arkansas Project
ended his lifelong commitment to the Conservative movement and facilitated public dissemination of insider details on G.O.P. machinations. The article explains how Brock was "summoned" to a meeting with Rex Armistead
in Miami, Florida
at an airport hotel. Brock claims that Armistead laid out for him an elaborate "Vince Foster murder scenario," – a scenario that he found implausible."
In an interview for Salon.com
in 2000, Brock also revealed that he and Armistead received funding throughout Clinton's two terms in office from Richard Scaife for the initiative known as the Arkansas Project
. The Project aimed to discredit the sitting President & First Lady through investigations into a range of issues that could potentially prove problematic for the couple, from rehashed drug smuggling allegations to their long-standing relationship with Foster and other professionals/officials in Arkansas.
Another prominent reporter to have received funds from Mr. Scaife was Christopher W. Ruddy--a former writer for the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
(and later founder of NewsMax). Eventually, Scaife became the third-largest stockholder of Ruddy's Newsmax
; and both NewsMax and the WorldNetDaily
continued to publish materials that showed the Clintons in a negative light."
Mr. Ruddy also enjoyed the backing of Joseph Farah
and Farah's organization, the Western Journalism Center
. This group supplied him with "additional expense money, funding for Freedom of Information Act
requests, legal support and publicity around his book deal & the requisite research into a conspiracy surrounding Foster's death. He published his findings in 1997 under the title The Strange Death of Vincent Foster
(pub. Simon & Schuster). Inside, he discusses mistakes & transgressions that occurred in the original investigations--in particular, alleged obstruction of justice by White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum--but stops short of positing an original theory on the circumstances surrounding Foster's death. Interviews revealed his personal belief that some sort of cover-up took place, involving Foster's body being moved to the park where it was discovered from the (unknown) site of his death.
Despite Ruddy's passionately inconclusive assertions, the Western Journalism Center "placed some 50 ads reprinting Ruddy's [previous] Tribune-Review stories in the Washington Times in 1999; and then refashioned the Times articles into a $12 packet called simply The Ruddy Investigation." Shortly thereafter, the Center "circulated a video featuring Ruddy's claims, Unanswered-The Death of Vincent Foster, that was produced by James Davidson
, chairman of the National Taxpayers Union
(NTU) and co-editor of the Strategic Investment newsletter."
, titled A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm. Moldea was approached in 1997 by Regnery Publishing House, a famously conservative group whose leadership was nevertheless impressed by Moldea's published works, including an exhaustive critique of LAPD
Detective Mark Fuhrman
, another Regnery author. In researching the debacle created by and surrounding Foster's death, Moldea found that the most oft-used conspiracy scenario could be traced back to Park Police Major Robert Hines, who shared the idea with Reed Irvine
of (Accuracy in Media
), and Christopher Ruddy, who was then at the New York Post
. Moldea concludes, and Maj. Hines publicly maintains, that Hines incorrectly told Irvine and Ruddy "...that there is no exit wound in Foster's head." Moldea profers further: "I don't think there was anything nefarious here; he was being approached by reporters and he wanted something to say." Still, the "missing" exit wound claim continued to surface, propagated mainly by Christopher Ruddy and Joseph Farah
.
Moldea's research sought, among other things, to discover the origins of this line of investigation into the Clintons' credibility. In an interview for Salon.com
, he suggests that "Foster had some blond hair and carpet fibers on his suit jacket, and he had semen
in his underwear. So, the Jerry Falwell
s and the right-wing crowd get a hold of this information, and…they start making movies alleging that the Clintons were involved in this murder." In 1994, Falwell subsidized the creation of a film called The Clinton Chronicles that featured Christopher Ruddy's claims that the gun that killed Foster was placed in his hand after the fact, and that Foster's body was laid out to give the appearance of suicide, among others. Funding for the film was provided by Citizens for Honest Government, an organization to which Falwell gave $200,000 in 1994 and 1995. The CHG covertly paid individuals who had provided information to media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the American Spectator magazine;" and in 1995, made discretionary payments to two Arkansas state troopers who had spoken out in support of the idea of a conspiracy surrounding Foster's death. The two troopers--Roger Perry and Larry Patteson--had also previously given testimony supporting Paula Jones
' claims of sexual misconduct and misuse of government resources against Bill Clinton
(See: Troopergate) .
Patrick Matrisciana, president of Citizens for Honest Government, produced The Clinton Chronicles video and appeared in its commercials as an "investigative reporter" where he & Rev. Falwell engaged in the following exchange:
When asked about the spot, Matrisciana admitted he was not a reporter and replied "I doubt our lives were actually ever in any real danger. That was Jerry's idea to do that ... He thought that would be dramatic."
, Travelgate, or other matters; or the implication of Hillary Clinton
's involvement in covering up activities together with Foster before his death.
With respect to this case, conspiracy theorists are largely 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. 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 claims that Foster and Hillary Clinton were involved in an affair that led to Foster's death.
Speculative variations on this theory abound, including claims that Mrs. Clinton either killed Foster herself or was personally responsible for having him killed. Aides to Hillary Clinton were investigated for the removal of unidentified files from Foster's office before the Secret Service
or FBI could secure the premises. Furthermore, three federal judges (David Sentelle, John Butzner, and Peter T. Fay
) attached an addendum to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's Report on Foster's death despite Starr's objection. However, no credible evidence or charges were ever brought forward in connection with any of these allegations.
Urban-legend
-debunking website
Snopes.com cites the finding of the Starr investigation as evidence that Foster was not murdered: "If Foster had been murdered or if unanswered questions about his death remained, Starr would have been the last person to want to conclude the investigation prematurely."
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
Vince Foster
Vince Foster
Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. was a Deputy White House Counsel during the first few months of President Bill Clinton's administration, and also a law partner and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton...
was found dead in Fort Marcy Park
Fort Marcy Park
Fort Marcy Park is a public park located in unincorporated McLean, Virginia, in Fairfax County. It is administered by the National Park Service as part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.thumb|thumb|right|Fort Marcy as it appeared during the Civil War...
off the George Washington Parkway in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, outside Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, on July 20, 1993. His death was ruled a suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by multiple official investigations, but remains a subject of conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
.
State of mind
A suicide noteSuicide note
A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide....
of sorts, actually a draft of a resignation letter, was found torn into 27 pieces in Foster's briefcase after his death. The full text of Foster's note was as follows:
I made mistakes from ignorance, inexperience and overwork
I did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct
No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the travel officeWhite House travel office controversyThe White House travel office controversy, sometimes referred to as Travelgate, was the first major ethics controversy of the Clinton administration. It began in May 1993, when seven employees of the White House Travel Office were fired...
. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group
The FBI lied in their report to the AGUnited States Attorney GeneralThe United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff
The GOPRepublican Party (United States)The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
has lied and misrepresented its knowledge and role and covered up a prior investigation
The Ushers OfficeWhite House Chief UsherWhite House Chief Usher is the title of the head of household staff and operations at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States....
plotted to have excessive costs incurred, taking advantage of Kaki and HRC
The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staff
The WSJ editors lie without consequence
I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport
Official findings
Foster's death was concluded to have been a suicide by inquiries/investigations conducted by the United States Park PolicePark police
Park police are a type of security police who function as a full service law enforcement agency with responsibilities and jurisdiction in park areas primarily located in cities and other urban areas...
, the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, the FBI, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske
Robert B. Fiske
Robert Bishop Fiske, Jr. is a prominent trial attorney and a partner with the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City...
, and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
.
After a three-year investigation, Starr concluded that Foster's death was a suicide. CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
stated on February 28, 1997, "The Starr report
Starr Report
The Starr Report was an investigative account of United States President Bill Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and released on September 11, 1998.-Background:...
refutes claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup," but "despite those findings, right-wing political groups have continued to allege that there was more to the death and that the president and first lady [Bill and Hillary Clinton] tried to cover it up."
The Arkansas Project
On May 2, 1999, the Washington Post published new details on the pursuit of a Vincent Foster conspiracy in an article by David BrockDavid Brock
David Brock is an American journalist and author, the founder of the media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, and a Democratic political operative...
, a key figure in the Troopergate and Whitewater
Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
scandals whose disillusionment with the political corruption motivating what would come to be known as the Arkansas Project
Arkansas Project
The Arkansas Project was a series of investigations that were initiated with the intent of damaging and ending the presidency of Bill Clinton...
ended his lifelong commitment to the Conservative movement and facilitated public dissemination of insider details on G.O.P. machinations. The article explains how Brock was "summoned" to a meeting with Rex Armistead
Rex Armistead
Rex Armistead, born 1930 in Lula, Mississippi is a private detective and former Mississippi state police officer and leading operative for the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, who was heavily involved in the Arkansas Project, a co-ordinated attempt in the 1990s to investigate former U.S...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
at an airport hotel. Brock claims that Armistead laid out for him an elaborate "Vince Foster murder scenario," – a scenario that he found implausible."
In an interview for Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
in 2000, Brock also revealed that he and Armistead received funding throughout Clinton's two terms in office from Richard Scaife for the initiative known as the Arkansas Project
Arkansas Project
The Arkansas Project was a series of investigations that were initiated with the intent of damaging and ending the presidency of Bill Clinton...
. The Project aimed to discredit the sitting President & First Lady through investigations into a range of issues that could potentially prove problematic for the couple, from rehashed drug smuggling allegations to their long-standing relationship with Foster and other professionals/officials in Arkansas.
Another prominent reporter to have received funds from Mr. Scaife was Christopher W. Ruddy--a former writer for the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
(and later founder of NewsMax). Eventually, Scaife became the third-largest stockholder of Ruddy's Newsmax
NewsMax Media
Newsmax Media is a conservative American news media organization founded by Christopher W. Ruddy and based in West Palm Beach, Florida. It operates the news website Newsmax.com and publishes Newsmax Magazine.Christopher W...
; and both NewsMax and the WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
continued to publish materials that showed the Clintons in a negative light."
Mr. Ruddy also enjoyed the backing of Joseph Farah
Joseph Farah
-External links:* Official website* *...
and Farah's organization, the Western Journalism Center
Western Journalism Center
The Western Journalism Center was founded in 1991 by Joseph Farah and James H. Smith. It is based in Sacramento, California.-Projects:...
. This group supplied him with "additional expense money, funding for Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...
requests, legal support and publicity around his book deal & the requisite research into a conspiracy surrounding Foster's death. He published his findings in 1997 under the title The Strange Death of Vincent Foster
The Strange Death of Vincent Foster
The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation is a book written by journalist Christopher W. Ruddy. Ruddy first wrote about the Foster story while reporting for The New York Post and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by the millionaire Richard Scaife. The book is about a conspiracy...
(pub. Simon & Schuster). Inside, he discusses mistakes & transgressions that occurred in the original investigations--in particular, alleged obstruction of justice by White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum--but stops short of positing an original theory on the circumstances surrounding Foster's death. Interviews revealed his personal belief that some sort of cover-up took place, involving Foster's body being moved to the park where it was discovered from the (unknown) site of his death.
Despite Ruddy's passionately inconclusive assertions, the Western Journalism Center "placed some 50 ads reprinting Ruddy's [previous] Tribune-Review stories in the Washington Times in 1999; and then refashioned the Times articles into a $12 packet called simply The Ruddy Investigation." Shortly thereafter, the Center "circulated a video featuring Ruddy's claims, Unanswered-The Death of Vincent Foster, that was produced by James Davidson
James Dale Davidson
James Dale Davidson is an American investment newsletter writer and author of The Sovereign Individual, The Great Reckoning, and Blood in the Streets, all three co-authored with William Rees-Mogg. He also wrote The Plague of the Black Debt - How to Survive the Coming Depression. He is also the...
, chairman of the National Taxpayers Union
National Taxpayers Union
National Taxpayers Union is a taxpayers advocacy organization and taxpayers union in the United States, founded in 1969 by James Dale Davidson. NTU advertises that it is the largest and oldest grassroots taxpayer organization in the nation, with 362,000 members nationwide. It is closely...
(NTU) and co-editor of the Strategic Investment newsletter."
The Clinton Chronicles: A Political Firestorm
This reintroduction of Ruddy's ideas followed the publication of another book, penned by veteran crime reporter Dan MoldeaDan Moldea
Dan E. Moldea is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who has reported on organized crime and political corruption since 1974. He is the author of books about the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa, the contract killing of an Ohio businessman, the Mafia's penetration of Hollywood, and its...
, titled A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm. Moldea was approached in 1997 by Regnery Publishing House, a famously conservative group whose leadership was nevertheless impressed by Moldea's published works, including an exhaustive critique of LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
Detective Mark Fuhrman
Mark Fuhrman
Mark Fuhrman is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department , known for his part in the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and his subsequent felony conviction for perjury...
, another Regnery author. In researching the debacle created by and surrounding Foster's death, Moldea found that the most oft-used conspiracy scenario could be traced back to Park Police Major Robert Hines, who shared the idea with Reed Irvine
Reed Irvine
Reed Irvine was an economist who founded the media watchdog organization Accuracy in Media, and remained its head for 35 years....
of (Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media
Accuracy In Media is an American, non-profit news media watchdog founded in 1969 by economist Reed Irvine. AIM describes itself as "a non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that...
), and Christopher Ruddy, who was then at the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
. Moldea concludes, and Maj. Hines publicly maintains, that Hines incorrectly told Irvine and Ruddy "...that there is no exit wound in Foster's head." Moldea profers further: "I don't think there was anything nefarious here; he was being approached by reporters and he wanted something to say." Still, the "missing" exit wound claim continued to surface, propagated mainly by Christopher Ruddy and Joseph Farah
Joseph Farah
-External links:* Official website* *...
.
Moldea's research sought, among other things, to discover the origins of this line of investigation into the Clintons' credibility. In an interview for Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, he suggests that "Foster had some blond hair and carpet fibers on his suit jacket, and he had semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
in his underwear. So, the Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
s and the right-wing crowd get a hold of this information, and…they start making movies alleging that the Clintons were involved in this murder." In 1994, Falwell subsidized the creation of a film called The Clinton Chronicles that featured Christopher Ruddy's claims that the gun that killed Foster was placed in his hand after the fact, and that Foster's body was laid out to give the appearance of suicide, among others. Funding for the film was provided by Citizens for Honest Government, an organization to which Falwell gave $200,000 in 1994 and 1995. The CHG covertly paid individuals who had provided information to media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the American Spectator magazine;" and in 1995, made discretionary payments to two Arkansas state troopers who had spoken out in support of the idea of a conspiracy surrounding Foster's death. The two troopers--Roger Perry and Larry Patteson--had also previously given testimony supporting Paula Jones
Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The lawsuit was dismissed before trial on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages...
' claims of sexual misconduct and misuse of government resources against Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
(See: Troopergate) .
Patrick Matrisciana, president of Citizens for Honest Government, produced The Clinton Chronicles video and appeared in its commercials as an "investigative reporter" where he & Rev. Falwell engaged in the following exchange:
Falwell: "Could you please tell me and the American people why you think that your life and the lives of the others on this video are in danger?"
Matrisciana: "Jerry, two weeks ago we had an interview with a man who was an insider; his plane crashed and he was killed an hour before the interview. You may say this is just a coincidence, but there was another fellow that we were also going to interview, and he was killed in a plane crash. Jerry, are these coincidences? I don't think so."
When asked about the spot, Matrisciana admitted he was not a reporter and replied "I doubt our lives were actually ever in any real danger. That was Jerry's idea to do that ... He thought that would be dramatic."
Alternative explanations
One theory suggests that Foster was murdered to prevent either the revelation of information derogatory to President Clinton – about WhitewaterWhitewater (controversy)
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
, Travelgate, or other matters; or the implication of Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
's involvement in covering up activities together with Foster before his death.
With respect to this case, conspiracy theorists are largely 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. 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
Christopher Andersen
Christopher Peter Andersen is an American journalist and the author of 30 books, including many bestsellers. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Andersen joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. From 1974 to 1986 Andersen was senior editor of Time...
entitled Bill and Hillary: The Marriage claims that Foster and Hillary Clinton were involved in an affair that led to Foster's death.
Speculative variations on this theory abound, including claims that Mrs. Clinton either killed Foster herself or was personally responsible for having him killed. Aides to Hillary Clinton were investigated for the removal of unidentified files from Foster's office before the Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
or FBI could secure the premises. Furthermore, three federal judges (David Sentelle, John Butzner, and Peter T. Fay
Peter T. Fay
Peter Thorpe Fay is an American lawyer and judge.Fay was born in 1929 in Rochester, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951 from Rollins College. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant from 1951 to 1953 before attending the University of Florida College of Law, where he...
) attached an addendum to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's Report on Foster's death despite Starr's objection. However, no credible evidence or charges were ever brought forward in connection with any of these allegations.
Urban-legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
-debunking website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
Snopes.com cites the finding of the Starr investigation as evidence that Foster was not murdered: "If Foster had been murdered or if unanswered questions about his death remained, Starr would have been the last person to want to conclude the investigation prematurely."
Books
- Hugh Sprunt, Citizen's Independent Report: Material Errors, Omissions, Inconsistencies, & Curiosa
- John ClarkeJohn Clarke-Canada:* John Clarke , Canadian political activist and founder of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty* John Clarke C.M., Canadian mountaineer, explorer and wilderness educator* John Clarke -Canada:* John Clarke (activist), Canadian political activist and founder of the Ontario Coalition...
, Patrick Knowlton, and Hugh Turley."Failure of the Public Trust" (McCabe Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0-9673521-0-X) - Brock, David.David BrockDavid Brock is an American journalist and author, the founder of the media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, and a Democratic political operative...
"Blinded by the Right : The Conscience of an Ex-ConservativeBlinded by the RightBlinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative is a 2002 book written by former conservative journalist David Brock detailing his departure from the conservative movement. It is also the story of his coming out as a gay man. In the book, he states that he visited gay bars with Matt...
." (Three Rivers PressThree Rivers PressThree Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprints.- History :...
, 2003) - Clinton, BillBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
(2005). "My Life: Bill ClintonMy Life (Bill Clinton autobiography)My Life is a 2004 autobiography written by former President of the United States Bill Clinton, who left office on January 20, 2001. It was released on June 22, 2004. The book was published by the Knopf Publishing Group; the book sold in excess of 2,250,000 copies...
." Vintage Publishing. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X. - Conason, Joe.Joe ConasonJoe Conason is an American journalist, author and political commentator. He writes a column for the weekly New York Observer newspaper, for Salon.com and has written a number of books, including Big Lies , which addresses what he says are myths spread about liberals by conservatives.-Life and...
and Lyons, Gene.Gene LyonsGene Lyons is a liberal political columnist and co-author with Joe Conason of The Hunting of the President: The 10 Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, a documentary book published in 2000, with a supporting film. The book outlines a purported right wing campaign waged against...
"The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary ClintonThe Hunting of the PresidentThe Hunting of the President is a 2004 English language documentary film about Bill Clinton. Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton appear in archived footage...
." (St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, 2001) ISBN 0312273193 - Dan MoldeaDan MoldeaDan E. Moldea is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who has reported on organized crime and political corruption since 1974. He is the author of books about the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa, the contract killing of an Ohio businessman, the Mafia's penetration of Hollywood, and its...
. "A Washington Tragedy : How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm." (Regnery PublishingRegnery PublishingRegnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
, Inc, 1998) - Evans-Pritchard, AmbroseAmbrose Evans-PritchardAmbrose Evans-Pritchard is the international business editor of the Daily Telegraph.A long-time opponent of the EU's constitution and monetary union, he was the Telegraph's Europe correspondent in Brussels from 1999 to 2004....
. "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton", (Regnery PublishingRegnery PublishingRegnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
Inc., 1999.) ISBN 978-0895264084.
External links
- America's Dreyfus Affair
- Once Upon a Time in Arkansas: Vince Foster's journal from Frontline
- Vincent W. Foster, Jr./Missing Gun File FBI FOIA
- Interview with crime reporter Dan Moldea
- Foster Report posted by the Washington Post