Posted on 01/26/2002 1:18:16 PM PST by Wolfstar
Police examine note in apparent suicide
By ERIC HANSON and MARY FLOOD
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
SUGAR LAND -- A former Enron executive who resigned last year -- reportedly after complaining about accounting practices that led to the firm's collapse -- was found dead Friday, an apparent suicide.
Police said they expect the autopsy results on John Clifford Baxter, the former Enron Corp. vice chairman, to be released Monday.
SNIP...
...Baxter, 43, was discovered about 2:20 a.m. in the driver's seat of his Mercedes-Benz, parked in the 5800 block of Palm Royale Boulevard.
He had been shot once in the head and a .38-caliber revolver was found inside the locked car, investigators said.
Sugar Land police were examining a suicide note, said [Sugar Land police spokeswoman Pat] Whitty, but she would not disclose its contents or say where it was found.
Sources familiar with Baxter's death said Enron was mentioned in the note.
Baxter's car was being inspected for fingerprints or other evidence this weekend.
SNIP...
His luxury sedan was parked in a cut-through in the median of the tree-lined boulevard, within blocks of the $700,000 home he shared with his wife and two children in Sugar Land's most exclusive neighborhood.
Because the evidence of suicide was considered so strong, Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace James Richard initially chose not to order an autopsy.
"There just wasn't any evidence of foul play," said Richard, noting that police did not request an autopsy.
However, because of the attention being focused on Baxter's death, he changed his mind just before noon.
"I decided to use an overabundance of caution," Richard said.
SNIP...
He had hired an attorney and knew it was likely he was about to be deposed and questioned by lawyers, federal investigators and maybe even Congress. In addition to questions about his work at Enron, there were questions about his own sale of more than 577,000 shares that garnered him $35.2 million between October 1998 and early 2001.
SNIP...
Also Friday, ABC News reported that Baxter and 48 other people had received subpoenas this month from the Senate Government Affairs Subcommittee on Permanent Oversight and Investigation.
Baxter was discovered by a Precinct 4 constable's deputy, who saw the Mercedes during routine patrol, said police Sgt. Truman Body [note: his last name is Body]. He said the deputy drove by again about 15 minutes later, saw the mortally wounded Baxter and called for an ambulance.
Police had to smash the right-rear window to get into the car. The car was towed to a private storage lot near Richmond for examination.
SNIP...
When Baxter resigned in May 2001, Enron's news release said it was to spend additional time with his family. It said he still would be an Enron consultant.
By all accounts, he did not take on significant other work. Instead, he stepped up his interest in yachting.
But when the company faltered several months later, Baxter was named in dozens of federal lawsuits, along with other former and current Enron executives who sold stock and took profits while lower-level employees were left with little in stock and retirement plans.
Dennis Onstott, a Gulf Coast marine insurer, knew Baxter from selling him yachts years ago and from his largess with Onstott's favorite charity, the Sunshine Kids, which helps children with cancer.
"He was the nicest, most conscientious man. It's hard to imagine him (committing suicide)," said Onstott.
But Jerry V. Mutchler, president of Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas, where Baxter served on the board, saw a different side.
Baxter's activity with the board was at its peak while he was at Enron, Mutchler said. He even was scheduled to join the board's executive committee until he left Enron.
"I consider him larger than life. He was a very generous man who worked very hard and ran very hard," Mutchler said. "That kind of man can be more sensitive than someone who plodded through life."
He said several others active in Junior Achievement had talked with Baxter recently and found "he wasn't very happy these last few weeks."
"He was depressed and disappointed about all that had happened," Mutchler said. "Who wouldn't be?"
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I'm sure the Houston ME will lose sleep over that.
There WAS a suicide note and the positioning of the gun is probably THE determinant.
If the ME wasn't sure, there wouldn't be this quick ruling.
Some here, however, think everybody's on the take, so everybody's compromised.
Hell, you might even be compromised.
Should foul play be ruled completely out? Probably not yet, but thanks for posting with a skeptical eye and a logical opinion. Sure looks like suicide to me, so far.
The ME (JP's don't rule on causes of death in Texas) isn't curious about the cause because he KNOWS the cause.
He also knows his office will be scrutinized. He wouldn't rule as he did, as quickly as he did, unless his ruling will withstand investigation.
It doesn't. His estate can be sued.
OTOH, life insurance settlements are usually lawsuit-proof.
So, if he loved his family as much as those who knew him said he did, he must have hit bottom mentally to have deprived them of the only financial lifeline they had.
I believe that life insurance is immune to SOME lawsuits, but not others, such as those over inheritance.
In that case his revolver should have accidentally discharged while he was cleaning it.
It would seem that the widow would have an interest in having this investigated if he had an insurance policy.
Surely the family does not deserve to have their family member exploited like this!
Exactly what I was thinking.
Not testy.
Just sick of a bunch of amateur sleuths second-guessing criminal pathologists from hundreds of miles away.
If it's just in fun, that's OK. But most of this conspiracy stuff grows into a cottage industry that is perpetuated on Free Republic.
Pretty soon this place starts looking like a rubber room.
Your M.O.
Why am I not surprised that you're on the kook-bandwagon?
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