Houstonians Debate: Was Baxter 'Vince Fostered'?

NewsMax ^ | January 26, 2002 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

NewsMax.com

 

Saturday Jan. 26, 2002; 10:30 a.m. EST

Houstonians Debate: Was Baxter 'Vince Fostered'?

News that ex-Enron executive Cliff Baxter had been found shot to death ignited a firestorm of speculation on Friday, and nowhere was the debate more intense than on talk radio in Baxter's hometown of Houston, Texas.

"I would say it's about 60/40 that people down here think he may have been Vince Fostered," said KPRC radio host Chris Baker Saturday morning.

Suspicions intensified when police rushed Baxter's body from his late model Mercedes where it was found in a Houston suburb to a local funeral home without further examination, the Texas radio talker noted.

But then "the Justice of the Peace in the area decided he was going to be much more thorough," Baker told WABC radio's John Gambling in New York. "So now the body's going to go for autopsy and that cooled down a lot of that, maybe-this-guy-was-murdered thing."

Still, questions continue to swirl, he said.

"You know, there's a saying that you can always blame a dead man so - (while) I truly believe it's a suicide, the rumors are going to start," Baker predicted.

The KPRC host said that any attempt to make Baxter Enrongate's fall guy would be complicated by his image as a straight shooter. "It would be strange to see (Baxter's colleagues) point the finger because this guy did have a reputation for boldly speaking with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and protesting against a lot of (the company's) business practices."

Houston police have so far declined to release the contents of a suicide note found in Baxter's car. But ABC News reported Friday night that several coworkers said the ex-Enron executive had expressed distress over the prospect of having to testify against his former colleagues in upcoming Congressional hearings.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Enron

[MeekOneGOP]

Easy Link to this article
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/1/26/93151

[JoeFromCA]

No matter what the circumstances of his death (suicide note, angle of trajectory, obvious motive) there are sure to be those who will claim foul play. The chances are 99.99999% that this was a suicide. Investigation won't eliminate that .00001% chance that it wasn't, so let's go with that slim chance, and build a theory on it!!

[Brad C.]

Interesting that a man does himself in with a gun and the media referes to him as a "straight shooter".

[concerned about politics]

Houstonians Debate: Was Baxter 'Vince Fostered'?

Yes.
Clinton was into Enron from start to finish. Kick-backs galore. He had to be silenced.
He had already shown his desire to tell the truth, something the Clintons have always hated.
He should be burried next to Rob Brown and Vince Foster. Heck, why not start a Clintron death cemetary? Look at all the dead people who were associated with the Clinton fallen legacy.
The Satanic Bible says : "If someone gets in your way, walk around them. If they get in your way again, kill them."
The Clintons do read their Bible.

[norton]

No matter what the circumstances of his death (suicide note, angle of trajectory, obvious motive) there are sure to be those who will claim that eight years of weird and timely deaths of critical personalities are immaterial to any suspicion of foul play. The chances are way less than 99.99999% that this was a suicide. Investigation...so far has not even started, but it's already been contaminated by moving the body. So what sense is there of trying to go with that slim bit of knowledge and build any kind of theory on it yet??

[archy]

No matter what the circumstances of his death (suicide note, angle of trajectory, obvious motive) there are sure to be those who will claim foul play. The chances are 99.99999% that this was a suicide.

I certainly agree with you that it's most probable that he died by his own hand, and likely wrote the note himself, though the contents have yet to be released.

The question is, did he do so to in resopnse to a choice of doing so, or having something similar happen to his sixteen-year-old son or others for whom he cared.

Perhaps James Watkins, another Enron scandal figure, employed as a *telecommunications consultant* by the Enron financial partner firm of Arthur Anderson could tell us. If he too hadn't been found shot to death in his car, a piastol handy and a bullet in his head. Of course, it's not like he was found in Fort Marcy Park or anything....

-archy-/-

[b4its2late]

"I would say it's about 60/40 that people down here think he may have been Vince Fostered," said KPRC radio host Chris Baker Saturday morning.

aka Arkancide.

[SkipLethal]

You got that right. As I said in a thread yesterday, this has the odor of Ft. Marcy Park all over it. Cant stand the thought of testifying against friends, indeed. Oh well, you are either a "conspiricy theorist" or you have your "head in the sand". Why cant we just be "concerned citizens able to remember the past,putting two and two together"? Of course we all hope no foul play is involved, but often, when theres a foul odor, ...........

[SkipLethal]

Nice pull, archy...

[kassie]

My daughter lives in Sugar Land. She say's the people she talks to, are of the opinion he did NOT commit suicide. These are her co-workers that live in Houston.

[Uncle George]

Clintons old Basement Mafia must have found a new sewer to hide in and has their spin machine all oiled up. Too bad that 82% rateing un-spins their garbage. But they are real libs and never quit or change, what a life they must have.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

.....so let's go with that slim chance, and build a theory on it!!

I'm for it, let's go!! You first.

[Mommyof3]

I totally agree with you. I think he did commit suicide but I have to think it was to protect his loved ones. That way no one will ever be able to prove he didn't off himself all on his own.

[varon]

He should be burried next to Rob Brown and Vince Foster. Heck, why not start a Clintron death cemetary?

Perhaps next to the Clinton Library ;-)

[lsee]

The question is, did he do so to in response to a choice of doing so, or having something similar happen to his sixteen-year-old son or others for whom he cared.

It is amazing what fear and despair can cause a man to do. Your theory makes an eerie kind of sense after all the questionable deaths we've seen during the Clinton years. Even if the threat to his family was only implied or he inferred the threat from the fact that such powerful people were involved in the scandal, I'm sure he felt threatened. In that light, even if he did pull the trigger, there were a multitude of hands holding his fingers around the gun in the first place.

I wish a forensic pathologist would prove to all that it was a suicide, otherwise, I will entertain doubts in the back of my mind. In spite of his troubles, he had a lot to live for. In times of personal despair, it has been the thought of my children that prevented me from seriously contemplating ruining their lives by ending mine. He didn't seem the type of person to take the "easy way out" to escape the humiliating trials to come. I hope the truth of his death is proven one way or the other, along with the pressures surrounding him at that moment.

[monkeyshine]

I just heard on the news that he was found with a .38 in his hand. Is that typical, that when you commit suicide that the gun will remain in your hand?

[Right_in_Virginia]

I heard (I think on Fox) this morning that while Baxter resigned from Enron, he continued to receive money from the company as a paid consultant.

This, IMHO, moves Baxter a little bit away from the "whistle blowing, good guy" image.

Maybe HE had something to hide?

[woofie]

This just shows that we need federal legislation against shooting guns in Mercedes.... As to whether or not it was a suicide or murder I'd say if the gun and the car both belonged to him and the suicide note was in his handwriting in his home then it was definately murder ,because all it would take is for armed government agents or enron hit men to sneek into his well protected (I am sure) home... force him to write a credible note,find a gun he has around the place , force him to hop into the car (all this without his wife,child or servants seeing it)drive undetected to the correct place and simply force him to pull the trigger.These murders are daily occurances as we all know.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Perhaps next to the Clinton Library.

Actually, you brought up a very good point. How about this: Everybody who met their untimely questionable death while Clinton was governor and president should be uprooted and reburied in a graveyard at his obnoxious library. I ask myself, though, if there is enough acreage.

[Rockitz]

When I saw this I immediately thought how convenient- another dead scapegoat.