A Washington Tragedy:
Bill & Hillary Clinton and the Suicide of Vincent Foster
(2nd edition, 2015)


CHARACTERS

 


 

Foster-coverU.S. Park Police (USPP)

 

Renee Abt:  Crime-scene investigator

Cheryl Braun:  Crime-scene investigator

Robert Edwards:  Sergeant at crime scene

Franz Ferstl:  Reporting officer at crime scene

Kevin Fornshill:  Officer who found Vincent Foster's body

Patrick Gavin:  Lieutenant and shift commander at crime scene

Shelly Hill:  Identification technician at autopsy

Robert Hines:  Major, media liaison

Christine Hodakievic:  Officer at crime scene

Charles Hume:  Captain who directed Foster investigation; present at search of Foster's office

Wayne Johnson:  Identification technician at autopsy

Robert Kass:  Lieutenant who accompanied John Rolla to Jim Hamilton's office to review Foster's documents

Robert Langston:  Chief of the U.S. Park Police

Danny Lawston:  Supervisor of USPP crime lab

Pete Markland:  Chief detective of the Foster case; present at search of Foster's office

Joe Megby:  Detective who picked up Foster's torn-up note

Jim Morrissette:  Detective at autopsy

John Rolla:  Lead investigator at crime scene; reviewed Foster's documents in Hamilton's office

Larry Romans:  Head of the photo lab; tried to develop underexposed crime-scene photographs

Robert Rule:  Sergeant at autopsy

Peter Simonello:  Chief criminalist on Foster case

Eugene Smith:  Criminalist who inventoried Foster's car and fingerprinted his gun; Simonello's partner

Julie Spetz:  Officer at crime scene

William Watson:  Officer at crime scene

 

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department (FCFRD)

 

Richard Arthur:  Paramedic, Medic One; believed Foster had been murdered

Corey Ashford:  Rescue worker, Ambulance One; believed Foster had been murdered

William Bianchi:  Lieutenant, Truck One

George Gonzales:  Paramedic, Medic One; claimed by Christopher Ruddy to have found Foster's body

Todd Hall:  Firefighter, Medic One; first rescue worker to arrive at Foster's body

Roger Harrison:  Rescue worker, Ambulance One

James Iacone:  Firefighter, Engine One

Victoria Jacobs:  Firefighter, Truck One

Andrew Makuch:  Firefighter, Truck One

Ralph Pisani:  Firefighter, Engine One

Jennifer Wacha:  Rescue worker, Engine One

 

Fairfax County medical examiner's office/hospital staff

 

Dr. James Beyer:  Coroner, performed Foster's autopsy

Dr. Donald Haut:  Medical examiner, pronounced Foster dead at the crime scene

Dr. Julian Orenstein:  Attending physician, Fairfax Hospital; initially examined Foster's body

 

Secret Service

 

Bruce Abbott:  West Wing guard; saw Craig Livingstone carrying a box on the morning after Foster's death

Don Flynn:  Guarded Foster's office; present at search of Foster's office

Paul Imbordino:  Present at search of Foster's office

Dennis Martin:  Inspector who escorted Hume and Markland at the White House on the day after Foster's death

Henry O'Neill:  Officer who claimed that Maggie Williams removed a box on the night of Foster’s death

John Skyles:  Officer who was the last known person to see Foster as he left the White House

 

FBI (working with USPP)

 

Robert Bryant:  Special agent-in-charge, Washington field office

Dennis Condon:  Special agent; present at search of Foster's office

John Danna:  Special agent

Scott Salter:  Special agent; present at search of Foster's office

 

U. S. Department of Justice

 

Roger Adams:  Senior attorney; present at search of Foster's office

Philip Heymann:  Deputy U.S. attorney general; clashed with Bernard Nussbaum over search of Foster's office

Webster Hubbell:  Associate U.S. attorney general; partner of Foster and Hillary Clinton in Rose Law Firm

David Margolis:  Senior attorney; present at search of Foster's office

Janet Reno:  U.S. Attorney General, appointed Robert Fiske as independent counsel

Michael Shaheen:  Counsel, Office of Professional Responsibility

Carl Stern:  Justice Department spokesman

 

White House personnel

 

Bill Burton:  Assistant chief of staff; present at search of Foster's office

Lisa Caputo:  Mrs. Clinton's press secretary; present when she received the news of Foster's death

Tom Castleton:  Staff assistant, Counsel's Office

Bill Clinton:  President of the United States; life-long friend of Foster, whom he called the night before his death

Hillary Rodham Clinton:  First Lady; former law partner of Foster, Hubbell, and Kennedy at the Rose Law Firm

Lloyd Cutler:  Nussbaum's successor as White House counsel

Helen Dickey:  Staff assistant

Mark Gearan:  White House communications director

David Gergen:  Presidential advisor

Deborah Gorham:  Foster's executive assistant

Carolyn Huber:  Presidential aide; former office manager of the Rose Law Firm

William Kennedy:  Associate counsel; took the fall in Travelgate; former law partner in Rose Law Firm

Bruce Lindsey:  Assistant to the President

Craig Livingstone:  Chief of White House security

Thomas "Mack" McLarty:  Chief of staff; informed the President and First Lady of Foster's death

Abner Mikva:  Cutler's successor as White House counsel

Dee Myers:  Presidential spokeswoman

Stephen Neuwirth:  Associate counsel; present at search of Foster's office; found torn-up note in Foster's briefcase

Bernard Nussbaum:  White House Counsel; conducted search of Foster's office

Betsy Pond:  Assistant to Nussbaum

Jack Quinn:  Mikva's successor as White House counsel

Marsha Scott:  Deputy assistant to the President; spoke to Foster the day before his death

Ricki Seidman:  Assistant to the President

Clifford Sloan:  Deputy attorney in Counsel's Office; present at search of Foster's office

George Stephanopoulos:  Presidential aide

Patsy Thomasson:  Entered Foster's office on the night of his death with Nussbaum and Maggie Williams

Linda Tripp:  Nussbaum's executive assistant; last White House staffer to have seen Foster alive

David Watkins:  Director of personnel; accompanied the USPP to notify Lisa Foster of her husband's death

Margaret Williams:  Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff; entered Foster's office on the night of his death

 

Foster family and associates

 

Sheila Foster Anthony:  Assistant attorney general; Foster's sister; tried to persuade her brother to see a psychiatrist

Beryl Anthony:  Former congressman; Sheila's husband; gave Foster a list of attorneys for his legal concerns

Lee Bowman:  Foster's nephew

Sharon Bowman:  Foster's sister in Little Rock

Brugh Foster:  Foster's youngest child

Elizabeth (Lisa) Foster:  Foster's wife

Laura Foster:  Foster's daughter

Vincent Foster, Sr:  Foster's father who owned a gun collection

Vincent Foster, III:  Foster's oldest child

James Hamilton:  Attorney for Foster family; received Foster's personal papers after the search of his office

Dr. Robert Hedaya:  Washington psychiatrist who expected but did not receive Foster's call

John Sloan:  Executor of Foster's estate

Michael Spafford:  Hamilton's law partner; present at search of Foster's office

Dr. Larry Watkins:  Foster's personal physician in Little Rock

 

Whitewater-related principals

 

Robert Barnett:  Attorney for the Clintons; received most or all of their personal files from Foster's office

Brantley Buck:  Attorney, Rose Law Firm; worked on the Clintons' blind trust with Foster

David Hale:  Owner, Capital Management Services; testified against the McDougals and Tucker

David Kendall:  Law partner of Barnett; attorney for the Clintons

James Lyons:  Denver attorney who prepared the Clintons' 1992 response about Whitewater

James McDougal:  Owner of Madison Guaranty; the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater Corporation

Susan McDougal:  McDougal's wife; partner in Whitewater

Susan Thomases:  New York attorney and close friend of Mrs. Clinton

Jim Guy Tucker:  Arkansas governor implicated in Whitewater-related activities

Seth Ward:  Hubbell's father-in-law who was implicated in the Castle Grande real-estate deal

 

Office of Independent Counsel (OIC)

 

Dr. Alan Berman:  Executive director, American Association of Suicidology; worked for Starr

Dr. Brian Blackbourne:  Chief medical examiner of San Diego; worked for Starr

John D. Butzner:  Member, three-judge panel that selected Starr and supervised the OIC

William Colombell:  FBI special agent; worked for Fiske and Starr

Harry Edwards:  U.S. Court of Appeals judge, D.C. Circuit

Hickman Ewing:  Starr's senior counsel

Robert Fiske:  First independent counsel on Foster case, appointed by Janet Reno

Dr. Charles Hirsch:  New York City's chief medical examiner; worked on forensic matters for Fiske

Roderick C. Lankler:  Fiske's senior counsel

Dr. Henry Lee:  Chief, Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory; forensic expert for Starr

Dr. James Luke:  Worked on forensic matters for Fiske

Larry Monroe:  FBI special agent; worked for Fiske and Starr

Steve Parker:  Attorney under Starr

Miquel Rodriguez:  Attorney under Starr; suggested that a police cover-up in Foster's death existed

Judge David Sentelle:  Member, three-judge panel that selected Starr and supervised the OIC

Judge Joseph T. Sneed:  Member, three-judge panel that selected Starr and supervised the OIC

Kenneth Starr:  Second independent counsel on Foster case and Whitewater

Mark J. Stein:  Attorney under Fiske

Carl J. Stich:  Attorney under Fiske

Mark Tuohey:  Attorney under Starr

 

Congressional investigators

 

Richard Ben-Veniste:  Special minority counsel, Senate Whitewater Committee

David Bonior:  U.S. representative; critic of Rep. Dan Burton

Dan Burton:  U.S. representative; believed Foster's body had been moved to Fort Marcy Park

Michael Chertoff:  Majority counsel, Senate Committee on Whitewater

William Clinger:  U.S. representative who chaired House investigations of Travelgate and Foster’s death

Alfonse D'Amato:  U.S. senator; chairman, Senate Whitewater Committee

Bob Dole:  Senate majority leader; 1996 GOP candidate for President

Lauch Faircloth:  U.S. senator; member, Senate Committee on Whitewater

Newt Gingrich:  Speaker of the U.S. House

Henry Gonzalez:  U.S. representative; chairman, House Banking Committee

Donald Riegle:  U.S. senator; chairman, Senate Banking Committee during 1994 oversight hearing

Richard Shelby:  U.S. senator; Republican member of Senate Whitewater Committee

 

Journalists

 

Robert Anderson:  CBS's Sixty Minutes

R.W. Apple:  New York Times

Karen Ball:  New York Daily News

Robert Bartley:  Wall Street Journal

Paul Bedard:  Washington Times

Sidney Blumenthal:  New Yorker

Rebecca Borders:  American Spectator

Peter Boyer:  New Yorker

David Brock:  Author, The Seduction of Hillary Rodham

John Broder:  Los Angeles Times

Richard Brookhiser:  National Review

John Brummett:  Author, High Wire

Matthew Cooper:  U.S. News & World Report; New Republic

David Corn:  The Nation

John Corry:  American Spectator

Jamie Dettmer:  Insight

Jason DeParle:  New York Times

Ann Devroy:  Washington Post

Thomas Ferraro:  New York Post

William Gaines:  Chicago Tribune

Jeff Gerth:  New York Times

Paul Gigot:  Wall Street Journal

Joseph Goulden:  Accuracy in Media

Michael Hedges:  Washington Times

Brit Hume:  ABC News

Gwen Ifill:  New York Times

Michael Isikoff:  Washington Post; Newsweek

Douglas Jehl:  New York Times

David Johnston:  New York Times

Ted Koppel:  ABC's Nightline

Tom Kuntz:  New York Times

Howard Kurtz:  Washington Post

Stephen Labaton:  New York Times

Anthony Lewis:  New York Times

Neil Lewis:  New York Times

Gene Lyons:  Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Catherine Manegold:  New York Times

Ruth Marcus:  Washington Post

Mike McAlary:  New York Daily News

David Michelmore:  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Micah Morrison:  Wall Street Journal

Robert O'Harrow:  Washington Post

Ronald Ostrow:  Los Angeles Times

Walter Pincus:  Washington Post

Ellen Joan Pollock:  Wall Street Journal

Wesley Pruden:  Washington Times

Tim Russert:  NBC's Meet the Press

William Safire:  New York Times

Susan Schmidt:  Washington Post

Jerry Seper:  Washington Times

James Stewart:  Author, Blood Sport

Michael Tackett:  Chicago Tribune

David Von Drehle:  Washington Post

Mike Wallace:  CBS's Sixty Minutes

Russell Watson:  Newsweek

Tim Weiner:  New York Times

Philip Weiss:  New York Times Magazine

James Wooten:  ABC News

Byron York:  American Spectator

Pete Yost:  Associated Press

 

Witnesses in and around Fort Marcy Park

 

Judith Doody:  Accompanied Mark Feist to Fort Marcy for a picnic, saw a shirtless man in a car in the parking lot

Mark Feist:  Accompanied Doody to Fort Marcy for a picnic

Jim Ferris:  Driver on parkway; saw car cut in front of him and enter Fort Marcy

Patrick Knowlton:  Saw a man behaving suspiciously in the parking lot at Fort Marcy

Dale Kyle:  The mystery man in the white van; first person to find Foster's body

Jean Slade:  Washington lobbyist whose Mercedes broke down near the entrance to Fort Marcy

Francis Swann:  NPS employee at Turkey Run Park; called 911 after being told by Kyle of a body at Fort Marcy

 

Critics and Clinton-haters

 

David Bossie:  Investigator for Floyd Brown; staffer for Representative Dan Burton and Senator Lauch Faircloth

Floyd Brown:  Chairman, Citizens United

Jim Davidson:  Editor, Strategic Investment; chairman, National Taxpayers Union

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:  Author, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton; alleged that Foster had been murdered

Jerry Falwell:  Preacher; right-wing activist; supported documentaries that accused the Clintons of murder

Joseph Farah:  Executive director, Western Journalism Center

Reed Irvine:  Executive director, Accuracy in Media

Michael Kellett:  Author, The Murder of Vince Foster; accused the Clintons of being behind the crime

G. Gordon Liddy:  Talk-show host who was first approached by the mystery man in the white van.

Rush Limbaugh:  Talk-show host who alleged that Foster had been killed in an apartment owned by Mrs. Clinton

Pat Matrisciana:  Chairman, Citizens for Honest Government; owner, Jeremiah Films

Thomas McArdle:  Investor's Business Daily

Larry Nichols:  Ex-Arkansas state official who had filed suit against Governor Clinton

James Norman:  Reporter, Forbes, Media Bypass

Larry Patterson:  Arkansas state trooper

Roger Perry:  Arkansas state trooper

Pat Robertson:  Televangelist

Chris Ruddy:  Reporter, New York Post, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; author, The Strange Death of Vincent Foster

Vincent Scalice:  Former NYPD detective; key source for Ruddy

William Sessions:  Former FBI director; supporter of Ruddy's work

Hugh Sprunt:  Dallas-based tax attorney who began investigating Foster's death as a hobby

Richard Scaife:  Heir to banking fortune, financier of right-wing groups and Foster conspiracy theories

R. Emmett Tyrrell:  Editor, American Spectator

 

Other important characters

 

Michael Cardozo:  Washington attorney; owner of an estate on the Eastern Shore

Paula Jones:  Filed 1994 sexual-harassment suit against President Clinton

Larry King:  Talk-show host, Larry King Live

Monica Lewinsky:  White House intern who confided to Linda Tripp her relationship with the President

Larry Lockhart:  U.S. Capitol Police handwriting expert

Donna McLarty:  Mack McLarty's wife who had lunch with Mrs. Foster on the afternoon of his death

John Garrett Penn:  U.S. District judge, Starr v. Hamilton, Knowlton v. U.S., et al

Gordon Rather:  Little Rock attorney who called Foster on the day of his death

Philip Stinson:  Attorney for Officer Fornshill

Ileene Watkins:  David Watkins's wife who was among those who alleged that Foster and Mrs. Clinton had an affair