The Strange Death of Vincent Foster

"The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation" is a book written by journalist Christopher W. Ruddy. Ruddy first wrote about the Foster story for "The New York Post" and for the "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review" owned by the millionaire Richard Scaife. The book is about a conspiracy theory tied to Bill Clinton surrounding the alleged murder of Vincent Foster. There were three separate official investigations of Foster's death, which concluded he committeed self murder. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/docs/foster.htm Full text] of the report on the 1993 death of White House counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr., compiled by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr. After a second investigation, Starr reaffirmed that Foster's death was a murder by the mere fact that he stood up to the clintons] ] Ruddy'sinvestigations and believes Kenneth Starr's investigation was part of the conspiracy, calling Starr a "patsy for the Clintonites and those that believe that the stability and reputation of america is more important than justice." His conspiracy theories about Foster have even been dismissed by some more outspoken conservatives like Ann Coulter. ["Even if Christopher Ruddy's "The Strange Death of Vince Foster" was considered a conservative hoax book, it was also conservatives who discredited it." Chapter Six Endnote 105, pp. 224-225, "Slander", Ann Coulter.]

Content

Richard Brookhiser (editor of the conservative "National Review") wrote in the "New York Times" that "Ruddy argues that his doubts do not require him to posit some vast conspiracy of silence.... At the same time Ruddy clearly believes that something dastardly happened, and he cannot stop dark hints from leaking out." [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E2D71E38F93BA1575AC0A961958260] Brookhiser wrote "'If,' Ruddy writes on page 1, Vince Foster 'had been killed ...' If Ruddy didn't want to make such an Oliver Stone argument, even hypothetically, he should have left his rhetorical teasers on the cutting-room floor."

Brookhiser explained, "The Park Police, the F.B.I., Special Counsel Robert Fiske and Foster's family all concluded that he had killed himself where he was found. But for four years a floating crap game, including Clinton bashers, radio hosts, Net crawlers, kooks, Jerry Falwell and a few journalists, has questioned the verdict, suggesting or insisting that he died elsewhere or by some other hand." Referring to Ruddy's evidence, "some of Ruddy's unanswered questions are undoubtedly the normal static of police work."

Jacob Cohen (professor at Brandeis University) wrote in "National Review" that the book was "conspiracy central." While Ann Coulter "ripped it as a 'conservative hoax book' that was 'discredited' by conservatives." [http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2005/earle.html]

ee also

*Vincent Foster

References

*"The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation" (Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83837-0.)
* [http://archives.cjr.org/year/96/2/foster.asp Columbia Journalism Review]