Arkansas Sudden Death Syndrome (Clinton related deaths)

*The Progressive Review's* Arkansas Sudden Death Syndrome A number of persons associated with WJ Clinton or Arkansas politics have died of unnatural causes or suddenly under circumstances that have raised questions. While lists compiled by some run as high as 61 deaths, the following is limited to those deaths with clear anomalies that, based on the information available to TPR, require further investigation. A few important points: (1) The fact that anomalies need to be investigated carries no presumption of how a death occurred, only that there remain serious questions that require answers. (2) The possibility of foul play must be taken seriously in a major criminal conspiracy in which over two score individuals and firms have already been convicted and over 100 witnesses have pled the Fifth Amendment or fled the country. (3) If foul play did occur in any of these cases, that fact by itself does not carry the presumption that the White House was involved. Given the footprints of organized crime, the drug trade, foreign espionage, and intelligence agencies along the trail of this story, such a assumption would not be warranted.
*NAME*	*OFFICIAL CAUSE OF DEATH*	*COMMENTS*
Vincent Foster	SUICIDE	Scores of anomalies remain despite two investigations. White House engaged in major obstruction of investigation including refusing to allow police officers to search office. Some experts consider Foster's suicide note to be a forgery. 7/21/93
Kathy Ferguson	SUICIDE	Gunshot to head. Death came five days after her ex-husband, Danny Ferguson, was named a co-defendant in the Paula Jones law suit. Left suicide note but body was found in her living room next to her packed bags as though she was planning to take a trip. Bullet hole behind the left ear, execution style, although she was right handed and found with the gun in her right hand. 5/11/94
Bill Shelton	SUICIDE	Arkansas state trooper. Kathy Ferguson's fiancée. Gunshot to behind ear at Ferguson's gravesite. Left note saying "I can't stand it any more." Local police chief says, "It puts big questions in your mind. Why?" 6/12/94
Ron Brown	AIR CRASH	Plane crash. Despite serious questions raised by examining pathologist, no autopsy. Other anomalies at site of crash. Was on the verge of being indicted. 4/3/96
Jim McDougal	HEART ATTACK	Heart attack. Serious health problems; died while in solitary. On 12 medications. Unusual Prozac level found during autopsy. Questions about other drugs given, including Lasix, which is contraindicated for heart patients. Despite being key witness against Clinton, had been treated at a welfare hospital. 3/8/98
Barbara Wise	UNKNOWN	Commerce Department (International Trade Administration) secretary and associate of John Huang found bruised and partially nude in a locked office at Commerce. Cause of death unknown. 11/29/96
Jerry Luther Parks	MURDER	Clinton security aide in Arkansas, known to have been keeping dossier on Clinton, gunned down in his car outside of Little Rock. Parks was shot through the rear window of his car and shot three more times, thru the side window, with a 9mm pistol. Parks ran American Contract Services, the business which supplied bodyguards for Clinton during his presidential campaign and the following transition. Bill Clinton still owed him $81,000. Parks had collected detailed data on Clinton's sexual escapades, including pictures and dates. Wife claims federal agents subsequently removed files and computer. She also says that upon learning of Vincent Foster's death, he told her, "I'm a dead man." Two months later he was. Wife also says he made large transfers of cash to Vince Foster. 9/26/93
Mary Caitrin Mahoney	MURDER	Former White House intern shot five times during the murder of three Starbucks employees in an execution-style slaying. No money was taken. Informant assisting police in case was murdered when sent by DC police into a botched drug sting. The handling of the 1997 Starbucks murder case continues to raise questions. Why, of all the 301 slayings that took place in DC that same year, did only these three killings attract the attention not only of the FBI but of Attorney General Reno herself? Reno overruled her own US Attorney and called for the death penalty in the case. Reno had intervened in only one other local case -- a gang leader accused of 14 deaths. Carl Derek Cooper pleaded guilty to the crimes in April 2000 after being threatened with the death penalty by Reno. 7/6/97
Steve Willis Robert Wiliams Conway LeBleu Todd McKeehan	GUN SHOTS	These four former ATF agents -- killed during the Waco Massacre -- had served as bodyguards to Bill Clinton. Questions have been raised as to the nature and source of their wounds. 2/28/93
Johnny Lawhon	ONE-CAR CRASH	Automobile mechanic who found $27,000 check made out to Clinton in car left at his shop. Single-car crash at 1 am after leaving gas station at high rate of speed. 3/26/98
Brian D. Haney William S. Barkley Jr. Tim Sabel Scott J. Reynolds	AIR CRASH	Clinton bodyguards. Helicopter crash in woods near Quantico VA. Reporters barred from site, but fire department chief reported security tight with "lots of Marines with guns." Videotape made by firefighter seized by Marines. 5/19/93
Ron Miller	UNKNOWN	Was under investigation for financial irregularities, Miller had turned over evidence of campaign finance wrongdoing to congressional investigators. Miller, suddenly took ill and died 9 days later. The death was strange enough that doctors referred it to the Oklahoma medical examiner which has refused to release the results of its tests. 10/12/97
William Colby	DROWNING	Colby's death, allegedly while canoeing, raises a number of questions. For example, the retired CIA head had left his home unlocked, his computer on, and a partly eaten dinner on the table. Colby had recently become an editor of Strategic Investment which was doing investigative reporting on the Vince Foster death. 4/96
Gandy Baugh	SUICIDE	Attorney who had represented Clinton buddy and drug distributor Dan Lasater allegedly jumped to his death. Baugh's law partner commited suicide one month later. 2/9/94
Dr. Ronald Rogers	PLANE CRASH	Plane crashed while this Arkansas dentist was on his way to an interview with a London Telegraph reporter covering the Clinton scandals. Plane went down far off its planned route after generator overheated.
Neil Moody	ONE-CAR CRASH	Son of the man Vince Foster's widow married was killed in a single car crash against a brick wall. Reports that he had been talking to reporters. There were other reports that Neil Moody had discovered something unsettling among his stepmother's private papers and was threatening to go public with it just prior to the beginning of the Democratic National Convention. Witnesses said they saw Neil sitting in his car arguing with another person and suddenly speeding off out of control and hitting a brick wall.8/25/96
Paula Grober	ONE-CAR CRASH	Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf was killed in a high-speed, no witness, one-car crash. Had traveled extensively with Clinton since 1978 12/9/92
Admiral Jerermy Boorda	SUICIDE	Boorda allegedly killed himself after going home for lunch. Explanations for suicide include his wearing an improper medal and stresses over Navy downsizing. Explanations for Boorda's suicide focused on a claim that he was embarrassed over two "V for Valor" pins he was not authorized to wear. When it turned out that Boorda was entitled to those decorations, blame shifted to stresses over down sizing of the Navy and the adverse affect that feminism was having on the Navy's morale.
Charles Meisner	PLANE CRASH	Assistant Commerce Secretrary responsible for giving John Huang a department contract with security clearances.
Jim Wilhite	ONE-PERSON SKIING ACCIDENT	Vice chair of Arkla with ties to Clinton and Mack McLarty. Wilhite was an associate of Mack McClarty's former firm. 12/21/92
Paul Wilcher	UNKNOWN	Washington attorney found dead on a toilet in apartment. Said to be investigating various scandals including the October Surprise, the 1980 election campaign, drug and gun-running through Mena and the Waco assault. Was planning a TV documentary on his findings. Delivered extensive affidavit to Janet Reno three weeks before his death. 6/22/93
Kevin Ives & Don Henry	Crushed skull & stabbing before being placed on railroad tracks	Two boys were killed in Saline County and left on a railroad track to be run over by a train There is an initial report of joint suicide and then State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak ruled the deaths "accidental," saying the boys had smoked too much marijuana and fallen asleep on the tracks. A second autopsy and grand jury probe, finding evidence of a knife wound and was punctured by dogged investigators whose efforts are repeatedly blocked by law enforcement officials. Although no one will ever be charged, the trail led into the penumbra of the Dixie Mafia and the Arkansas political machine. Some believe the boys died because they accidentally intercepted a drug drop, but othe information suggests the drop may have dispensed not drugs but cash, gold and platinum -- part of a series of sorties through which those working with US intelligence were being reimbursed. According to one version, the boys were blamed in order to cover up the theft of the drop by persons within the Dixie Mafia and Arkansas political machine. 8/23/87
Keith Coney Keith McKaskle Greg Collins Jeff Rhodes Richard Winters Jordan Kettleson James Milam Boonie Bearden Mike Samples	Motorcycle accident Stabbing Shotgun blast to face Gunshot, body burned, some mutiliation including hands and feet partially sawed off Shotgun blast Shot to death in front seat of his pick-up Decapitated Vanished, believed murdered Murdered	Nine persons reportedly had information on the Ives-Henry murders. McKaskle had expressed fear for his life of the "railroad track thing." Told his parents good-bye. Inmate reported being offered $4,000 to kill McKaskle. Collins death was ruled a suicide. Earlier he had failed to answer a subpoena before the Ives-Henry grand jury. Winters was a suspect in the murders. He was killed in what was initially thought to have been a robbery turned out to have been a set-up. Bearden was apparently murdered under mysterious circumstances March 1989.According to Micah Morrison in the Wall Street Journal, "he was a friend of both Greg Collins and Keith Coney. He 'vanished' without a trace. It was rumored he knew exactly what had happened at the tracks. An anonymous caller said he knew where he had been murdered. The police found a piece of a shirt, nothing more." Milam was found decapitated; nonetheless, the state medical examiner, Fahmy Malak - notorious for his curious rulings -- declared the death to be of natural causes. Mike Samples, murdered June 1995, was another grand jury witness in the train deaths. Wrote Morrison in the WSJ: "He was reported as knowing a great deal about the deaths of Ives and Henry. Sources say he had been involved with picking up drugs that were dropped out of planes at the Mena drop sites. He was shot to death in the head and was not found for some time."
Robert Bates	Drank himself to death with mouthwash	Mena Airport mechanic and a prospective witness in the Terry Reed case, allegedly drank himself to death on mouthwash.
Herby Branscum	Car accident	Arkansas bankers Herby Branscum and Robert Hill were tried on charges in connection with Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial campaign. They were acquitted on some, but a mistrial was declared on others. Branscum subsequently killed in a suspicious auto accident.
Eric Butera	Murdered during drug sting	An informant in the murder of White House intern Mary Mahoney. Assigned by DC police to make an undercover drug buy and was beaten to death.
Mohamed Samir Ferrat	Airplane crash	The Guardian of London, May 27, 1998: "Police are investigating the possibility that insurance fraud by a Swiss resident listed among the 230 people killed in the TWA Flight 800 explosion might have been behind the disaster, Swiss television reported last night. Swiss authorities have been investigating Algerian-born Mohammed Samir Ferrat, for 18 months, the report said. . . A Geneva lawyer, Gerald Page, alleged in an interview for the Swiss television report that Ferrat took out life insurance policies worth several million Swiss francs in the weeks before the plane crashed in July 1996, half an hour after taking off from New York . . . On August 19, a month after the crash, the local medical examiner in Suffolk County - in whose jurisdiction the disaster occurred - declared that Mohammed Ferrat had been positively identified as a dead passenger from TWA Flight 800. US investigators counted him out as a suspect early. . . The report showed footage of the late US commerce secretary, Ron Brown, at the Washington signing with Ferrat of a pounds 62.5 million contract between Sofin and the US construction firm Chatwick Inc, which was to build residences in the Ivory Coast." According to a CNN international report, Mohamed Samir Ferrat, an Algerian business associate of Secretary Brown, who was scheduled to accompany Brown on the Bosnian trip but withdrew at the last moment for reasons still unclear, died July 17, on the ill fated TWA Flight 800.
Carlos Ghigliotti	Suicide	Ghigliotti: 42, was found dead in his office just outside of Washington D.C. on April 28, 2000. Ghigliotti, a thermal imaging analyst hired by the House Government Reform Committee to review tape of the Waco siege, had said he determined the FBI fired shots during the incident. The FBI explained the light bursts on infrared footage as reflections of sun rays on shards of glass or other debris that littered the scene. "I conclude this based on the ground view videotapes taken from several different angles simultaneously and based on the overhead thermal tape," Ghigliotti told The Washington Post Ghigliotti said the tapes also confirm the Davidians fired repeatedly at FBI agents during the assault, which ended when flames raced through the compound.
Niko Jerkuic	Suicide	Chief Niko Jerkuic, technician in charge of the radio beacons used during the fatal Ron Brown flight committed suicide May 6, 1996. Christopher Ruddy and Hugh Sprunt wrote, "Brown's plane was probably relying on Croatian ground beacons for navigation. In the minutes before Brown's plane crashed, five other planes landed at Dubrovnik without difficulty, and none experienced problems with the beacons. But additional questions about the beacons and the crash will remain unanswered because, as the Air Force acknowledges, airport maintenance chief Niko Junic died by gunshot just three days after the crash and before he could be interviewed by investigators. Within a day of his death, officials determined the death was a suicide."
Shelly Kelly	Air crash	Shelly Kelly was the flight attendent on Ron Brown's ill fated flight (April 3, 1996) James Nugent of the Wall Street Underground wrote, "Four hours and 20 minutes after the crash, the first Croatian Special Forces search party arrives on the scene and finds only Ms. Kelly surviving. They call for a helicopter to evacuate her to the hospital. When it arrives, she is able to get aboard without assistance from the medics. But Kelly never completes the short hop. She dies enroute. According to multiple reports given to journalist/editor Joe L. Jordan, an autopsy later reveals a neat three-inch incision over her main femoral artery. It also shows that the incision came at least three hours after her other cuts and bruises."
Charles Wilbourne Miller	Suicide	Charles Wilbourne Miller, 63, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head on November 17, 1998 in a shallow pit about 300 yards from his ranch house near Little Rock. Police found a .410 gauge shotgun near Miller's body and a Ruger .357-caliber revolver submerged in water. Investigators concluded the Ruger was the weapon used by Miller to kill himself. Yet, two rounds in the handgun's cylinder had been spent. He had long served as executive vice president and member of the board of directors for a company called Alltel and was deeply involved in his own software engineering company until the day he died. Alltel is the successor to Jackson Stephens' Systematics, the company that provided the software for the White House's "Big Brother" data base system and that was behind the administration's plan to develop the secret computer "Clipper" chip to bug every phone, fax and email transmission in America.
Dan Short	Kidnapping and murder	Short was a bank president, abducted from his home in Benton Co., Arkansas, in 1989 and allegedly forced to open the State Bank in Noel, MO were $71,000 was allegedly taken. Three days before his abduction, he had told friends that he had been laundering drug money and was in trouble.

The following persons previously on the list have been removed for the following reasons
JON PARNELL WALKER: inadequate information. VICTOR AND MONTGOMERY RAISER, STANLEY HEARD, STEVE DICKSON, HERSHELL FRIDAY: evidence points to accidental death in various plane crashes. ED WILLEY: appears to have been a suicide for personal reasons. PAUL TULLY: apparent heart attack. SUZANNE COLEMAN: inadequate information

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