14 Years Later, Mystery Still Remains in the Death of Vince Foster

The New Media Journal ^ | 7/21/2007 | Kathy Miller

[mo]

anybody know how to ping this to Drudge?!!

[Nihil Obstat]

look at the lower case “d”’s — and compare the “ton” of the signature and Washington in the letter

[mo]

Geeze!!Identical!!

[pandoraou812]

look the same to me but she would have to be really stupid

[TigersEye]

You never heard me call her the smartest woman in the world. In fact I’ve often said she is stupid. Her campaign should be proof enough of that all by itself. Luckiest criminal in the world maybe. So far.

[smoketree]

hey shooter this is not a Kennedy thread, it’s a Foster thread.
Why don’t you start a Kennedy thread and go there.

[Taffini]

don’t you think he would leave his wife a personal note?

[DoughtyOne]

There are so many inconsistancies surrounding this case that it is difficult to know where to begin. Foul play is a certainty IMO.

[secretagent]

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 from the muzzle.

Because the muzzle was deep in Foster’s mouth, any visible residue found on his hands could not have come from the muzzle but, rather, from the front cylinder gap.

This was established in an “Independent Pathology Report” that was appended to the Fiske Report of June 30, 1994.

“With the barrel of the revolver placed into the decedent’s mouth,” the report noted, “the only source of such gunpowder would be the gap between the cylinder and the frame of the weapon. Multiple test firing of the revolver in the FBI laboratory conclusively demonstrated that gun powder residue escapes from its cylinder gap.” According to the autopsy and its photographs, a heavy deposit of soot was found on Foster’s right index finger and the web area between it and his right thumb. A similar deposit was found on his left index finger on the side nearest his thumb.

Because of these deposits, Fiske’s pathologist panel was prompted to conclude “that Mr. Foster’s index fingers were in the vicinity of the cylinder gap when the weapon was fired” - meaning that neither hand could have been on the weapon’s grip.

Similarly, an FBI analysis attached to the Fiske report states that soot marks on Foster’s right hand are consistent with circumstances “when this area of the right hand is positioned near the front of the cylinder. ...” This indicates that as 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, is regarded as one of the nation’s leading firearms forensic experts. He pointed out how difficult it would be to fire a weapon with both hands forward of the grip and trigger.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “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 counterpressure,” he said, referring to the need to brace the weapon against the force of the trigger pull.

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.

http://archive.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1995/1/18/234735

[secretagent]

Nothing in the Starr reports indicates anything about an unusual pattern. It was consistent with holding the gun in both hands and firing.

Does the Starr report comment on the remarks by the experts cited in Ruddy's article?

[secretagent]

Document Not Found

Sorry, the requested document does not exist on this server.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for remembering the Downside Legacy!

[Non-Sequitur]

Does the Starr report comment on the remarks by the experts cited in Ruddy's article?

The Starr report contains the comments made by people actually involved in the autopsy and the investigation, not those speculating.

[CGVet58]

bttt

[brityank]

Sorry; I just copy/pasted AG’s link without checking it.

Try this: http://www.Alamo-Girl.com

Alamo-Girl: The link from your ‘Contact’ page is screwed up; has your FR page link appended causing a 403 error. I think you need to add the “http://"; at the front in the page location to enable the live link — at least that’s the screw-up I’ve made before. :^)

Thank YOU for keeping it alive and maintaining the history of the most criminal administrations from the 20th Century. Unless I miss my guess, we’ll need another one for this Century — either Clinton II or Obama I — probably the latter and the next four years will not be pretty.

Be well, FRiend, and God bless you.
Cheers,
Mike.

[mad_as_he$$]

I tend to agree with you. I suspect they are used for leverage to say - oh your kid did this and if you do not play ball we will have them put in the Federal pen. Of course just guessing. There defiantly is something though. It is like when astronomers look for bodies. They use unusual movement of other things to know where to look.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up, brityank!

[RJR_fan]

rather than damaging my own soul with futile aggravation, I selected one thing to pray about concerning the Clintons — that Vince Foster might receive justice.

[ml/nj]

Nothing in the Starr reports indicates anything about an unusual pattern.

Fixed it.

ML/NJ

[afraidfortherepublic]

I would like to know how the gun could have gotten from the left (Foster was left handed) to the right hand and how the trigger finger could have slipped out and the thumb slipped in the trigger guard after he fell?

Methinks I smell fish...