The Death of Kathy Ferguson "Again"

Maybe you didn't find me, but I found you.....Here I am again - Ferguson's daughter. This is a previous post that I encountered that was dated in 99; I'm simply reposting it to stir up any interest that may still linger. My purpose is simply to rebut any fowl play rumors as I did in the summer of 97. If an interst is shown I will gladly participate.

As promised, I'd like to present information I've gleaned from various sources concerning the death of Kathy Ferguson, ex-wife of Arkansas State Trooper Danny Ferguson, on May 10, 1994 in Sherwood, Arkansas. I'll try to be as brief as possible, outlining what I think are the essential areas of conflict in the official version of her "suicide."

Most of you are probably familiar, at least in part, with Kathy's passing just four days after Paula Jones filed her sexual harrassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton. The proximity of these two events, coupled with the "suicide" of Vince Foster less than a year earlier, initially aroused my suspicion that Kathy might not have taken her own life. While I can't say for certain what happened to her, I feel there is sufficient doubt regarding the official finding of suicide to merit a reopening of her case. Questions need to be answered.

Kathy's body was found by her fiance Bill Shelton, a Sherwood police officer, in the living room of their apartment. In a bizarre twist, Shelton himself would be found dead one month later, lying face up on Kathy's grave sight.

Shelton, seven years younger than Kathy at 31, had been seeing other women, a sore subject in their relationship. On the afternoon Kathy died, he also suspected her of becoming involved with someone and had left her a brief note expressing his doubts about her faithfulness. Kathy always denied any disloyalty. Such was the fragile state of their engagement when Kathy died.

The Pulaski County Coroner's Report stated that police found Kathy's body slumped over a bag of clothing on a couch in the living room of the apartment she shared with Shelton. A .38 handgun lay on the floor by the sofa, and a .38 shell casing was located in an ashtray on a table to Kathy's right. The fatal bullet was eventually found in the ceiling some 12 feet to the front and left of kathy's body.

The Report indicated an entrance wound approximately 2" x 2" located about 2" above Kathy's right ear. It placed the exit wound, about 1" x 1", above her left ear. In addition, Kathy had lipstick on her lower lip.

Among the original dissenters from the Coroner's finding of suicide was a group of nurses with whom Kathy worked at Little Rock's Baptist Memorial Hospital. Able to view Kathy in an open casket at her funeral, they contend that a cotton ball was stuffed behind her left ear and that her right temple was blown out. They unanimously agreed that the entrance wound was on the left side of Kathy's head, not the right. If that were the case, why would the right-handed nurse shoot herself with her left hand?

Another source who was able to view photos of the crime scene and Kathy's body has told me that one or two of them displayed a shaved area around the exit wound. None of the nurses saw any such area on Kathy's head at the funeral.

Aside from the obvious conflict between the nurses' description of Kathy's head wounds and that of the Coroner's Report, there are several other problems. For instance, how would a bullet fired by Kathy sitting on a couch go through her head and land in the ceiling 12 feet away? Isn't it odd that the shell casing landed conveniently in an ashtray directly beside here where it could be easily discovered? And why would she put lipstick on only one lip, sit down and shoot herself? Doesn't the unfinished application of lipstick imply that she was interrupted in the task?

Police interviews state that a neighbor heard a single gunshot sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 that night. What has never been reported, however, is the eyewitness account of another neighbor never interviewed by police. According to my source, this witness lived in the apartment next door to Kathy and Shelton and heard yelling and a thump against the wall just before a gunshot. The time these distractions occurred is unknown to me, but I believe the witness indicated they may have taken place as late as just a half hour before police arrived at the scene. If that were true, it would completely disrupt their suicide finding.

Another eyewitness account which has largely gone unreported comes from another neighbor who lived in a house diagonally across from Kathy's apartment. Having a clear view of the living room, this witness overheard an officer at the scene say that Kathy's death was "definitely a homicide. No way a bullet could end up in the ceiling at that angle."

Friends and family have suggested that they don't believe Kathy would have taken her own life. In her police interview, Kathy's daughter said she didn't think her mother "really did it." Dr. Samuel Houston, a urologist who worked with Kathy for over three years, doesn't think so either. He questions whether such an attractive, vivacious woman would shoot herself in the head. Much more likely, he suggests, is that Kathy would've taken pills or drugs acquired from the hospital where she worked.

Kathy had been distraught over the tenuousness of her relationship with Shelton. A note was found on the coffee table in front of her body which stated in part, "I can't stay here any longer. things will never be the same for us." Nowhere in the Coroner's Report nor the Sherwood Police files is their any indication that this note, the gun, the fatal bullet, or the shell casing were tested for fingerprints. And though I've seen the note and other samples of Kathy's and Shelton's handwriting, and feel they look legitimate, none of them have ever been authenticated by an expert.

When I originally began investigating Kathy's death with an eye toward writing an article for a local weekly, I received cooperation from Dr. Houston and family members in Arkansas. Living on the other side of the country as I do, however, I found the search for information increasingly frustrating. None of the nurses at Baptist Memorial returned my calls, witnesses had moved, leads dried up - everyone stopped talking. Even Dr. Houston, who'd been so helpful in the beginning, stopped returning calls. He'd told me the nurses were afraid and that he was beginning to feel the same.

I promised myself that the next time I undertook a project like this it would be in the city where I lived. You can't pin down people unless you can find them physically. Apologies aside, I hope that some of this information has proven interesting and maybe even enlightening. I encourage anyone with more evidence to please introduce it here. Thanks.

Posted by: BHayes (bhayes@unistudios.com) * 02/05/99 17:33:25 PST To: BHayes Did you try and contact the detectives who investigated the crime scene? Maybe they will be able to provide more information.......... From: M. Peach (bigdaddio@earthlink.net) * 02/05/99 17:47:15 PST To: BHayes In the summer of '97 this was discussed here in great detail. One poster claimed to be Kathy Ferguson's daughter, and she had much to say on the topic, tending to support the conclusion of suicide.

Perhaps some FReeper search maven can help you locate the relevant threads -- I think they'd be worth reading over as you set about uncovering more information or validating facts apparently in evidence already.

GOOD LUCK with your researches!! From: rich. (^..^) * 02/05/99 17:54:22 PST To: BHayes Can't help but will bump it to the top. From: Aculeus (resign@leastujerk) * 02/05/99 20:45:38 PST

Exactly-- My mom fell into the tangled web of the Clinton Scandals per say the timing and the surrounding circumstances with the Paula Jones case and her involvement with Danny Ferguson. I do believe that many other lives have been taken at the expense of Clinton. The fact that the death of my Mom was a big shock to all that knew her and didn’t want to believe it put gas on the fire even more so. There’s a poem that I came across some years ago that reminds me of the view that many had.

Edwin Arlington Robinson. 1869–

Richard Corey

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed, 5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace: 10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, 15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

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