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     FORENSIC EXPERTS DOUBT FOSTER SUICIDE FINDING

By Christopher Ruddy
in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
January 18, 1995

Leading forensic and firearms experts have cast serious doubts on
the official suicide ruling in the case of Deputy White House
Counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. in July 1993 - strongly suggesting
that Foster might not have fired the gun that is said to have
killed him.

Based on the FBI's analysis of the death weapon's residue-emitting
characteristics and on such residue found on Foster's hands, the
experts concluded that if Foster fired the fatal shot, he would
have had to have held the gun in a highly unusual position, with
both hands on the forward part of the gun - neither hand being on
the grip when it was fired.

Earlier this month, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr convened a
grand jury to review the Foster case. The Associated Press reported
that Starr has been reviewing the "thoroughness and competence" of
the investigation into Foster's death in a top-to-bottom review of
the case. Such a review, according to law enforcement experts,
should touch upon discrepancies involving the apparent suicide
weapon.

WRONG HAND

Foster's body was found in Fort Marcy Park, Arlington, Va., with an
antique 1913 Colt Army service revolver in his right hand. He had
supposedly placed the gun's 4-inch barrel deep into his mouth and
fired it using his right thumb and hand. This was suspicious in
itself, according to some experts, since Foster was left-handed.

Massad Ayoob, who heads the Lethal Force Institute, noted that
holding a gun with neither hand on the hand-grip constitutes "an
extremely unnatural and awkward grasp totally inconsistent with
what both experience and logic show us to expect of a suicidal
person."

Ayoob, who has served as a forensics expert for the states of
California and Michigan, said that gunpowder residue found on
Foster's hands indicate he wasn't a "deliberate suicide."

"It looks like someone faked it," he said, suggesting that a gun
may have been placed in Foster's hands and then fired, in order to
leave "gunpowder residue on his hands." This, he said, might lead
relatively inexperienced investigators to conclude Foster had fired
the gun himself.

Ayoob conducted a detailed analysis of the shooting using a replica
of the death weapon wielded by someone with hands comparable in
size to those of the 6-foot-4-inch tall Foster.

Ayoob concluded that not only would the gun have been difficult to
fire according to the scenario suggested, but that Foster's hands
would have interfered with the guns operation. With his hands
pressed across the cylinder he would have inhibited its necessary
rotation, and the fourth and fifth finger of his right hand would
have likely prevented the hammer from striking the bullet.



Dr. Richard Mason, who specializes in firearms forensics, and is
the pathologist for Santa Cruz, Calif., is similarly bothered by
the unusual residue deposits on the deceased's fingers. It "doesn't
make any sense," he said. "I wonder if they came to erroneous
conclusions."

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 the muzzle.

 ________________________________________________________
|                                                        |
|                                                        |
|                                                        |
|                                |<------ 4" ------>|    |
|                     _    ______|__               _|    |
|                     \\/\/______   \_____________/_|    |
|                      \ /|      || |               |    |
|                      // |      || |_______________|    |
|                    _</  |      |\ |______%%%           |
|                   /|    |______||\/                    |
|                  / |    --------+/\                    |
|                 /  |____________/  \__ Front cylinder  |
|                /( ) /\\ ((  ||         gap             |
|               /    |  \\____//                         |
|              /     |   \____/                          |
|             |      |                                   |
|             |      |                                   |
|             |      |                                   |
|             |      |                                   |
|             |      |                                   |
|             |______|                                   |
|                                                        |
|________________________________________________________|
 __________________________________________________________
|                                                          |
| Colt .38 Service Revolver found in Foster's hand. The FBI|
| lab found that gun powder is discharged from the barrel's|
| muzzle and the front cylinder gap when the gun is fired. |
| Residues on Foster's index fingers indicated both hands  |
| were in the vicinity of the front cylinder gap when the  |
| gun was fired.                                           |
|__________________________________________________________|



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 frame of the weapon. Multiple test
firings 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.

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..."

 _________________________________________________________
|                                                         |
|                 GRIP USED BY FOSTER                     |
|         (Based on location of powder burns)             |
|                                                         |
|                             __  _____ Third Finger      |
|         Little Finger ---->/ / / __                     |
|                           /_/ __/ /|                    |
|                          / / / /_/ |  __                |
|                         /_/_/_/ /|_| / |<--Index Finger |
|                        / / / /_/\  \/_/|_________/_|    |
|                    /\ / / /_/_  |\ |               |    |
|                   /_\/ / |  /|  | \|_______________|    |
|                     \\/  | | |\ |  \______%%%           |
|                    /     |_| |_\|  /\                   |
|                   /        / |  \ /  \__ Second Fiinger |
|                  /    ____/  |___\                      |
|                 /    /|||/   /|   \                     |
|                /    |  \\\__///    \___ Thumb           |
|               /     |   \____/                          |
|              |      |    /                              |
|              |      |   /                               |
|              |      |  / \                              |
|             /|      | /   \__ Wrist                     |
|              |______|/                                  |
|_________________________________________________________|
 ____________________________________________________________
|                                                            |
| Based on residue deposits, Foster's hands were likely      |
| configured in a manner similar to this. Neither hand is    |
| on the hand grip making the gun unstable. The palms of     |
| the hands, pressed against the cylinder of the gun, would  |
| interfere with the cylinder's rotation. Foster's large     |
| hands would likely have put his two smallest fingers in    |
| jeopardy of the gun's hammer when it was fired. The thumb  |
| would have to depress the trigger in an unnatural movement.|
|____________________________________________________________|

This indicates that 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, Tex., is
regarded as one of the nation's leading firearms forensics experts.
He pointed out how difficult it would be to fire a weapon with both
hands forward of the grip and trigger. "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 counter pressure," he said,
referring to the need to brace the weapon against the force of the
trigger pull.

 _________________________________________________________
|                                                         |
|               A TYPICAL SUICIDE GRIP                    |
|                                                         |
|                           _________               _     |
|                          /______   \_____________/_|    |
|                    /\   /|      |  |               |    |
|                   /_\  / |      |  |_______________|    |
|                 _   \\/  |      |  |_______%%%          |
|                | \ /  |\ |______|  /                    |
|   Fingers     _\  \   | \         /                     |
|   of right   | \\  |  \  \_______/                      |
|   hand ---> _\  \\_| /|\  \  ||                         |
|            | \\  \  | /\\__|_//<-- Trigger guard        |
|            \  \\  \ |   \_\__/                          |
|            _\  \\_| |    / \                            |
|           | \\  \   |  _/\  \___ Thumb                  |
|           \  \\_|   |     \                             |
|            \  \     |      \                            |
|             \_|_____|       \                           |
|                    \                                    |
|                     \                                   |
|_________________________________________________________|
 _________________________________________________________
|                                                         |
| A typical suicide will fire a gun in this manner. The   |
| fingers  grasp the gun's handgrip to stabilize the gun, |
| and allow for a natural pull on the trigger.            |
|_________________________________________________________|


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.

All four forensic pathologists who served on Fiske's team were
contacted about the gunpowder  residue discrepancies. Calls were
referred to the Independent Counsel's office or went unreturned.

POLICE FAULTED

Scalise faulted the U.S. Park Police, who handled the Foster
investigation, for not following standard police procedure. which
is to treat such a death as a homicide until established otherwise.

The Park Police, an agency that investigates only around 35 deaths
a year, has asserted that it followed such procedure.

But Scalise said the testing of the gun and powder residue on the
hands would be "critical" aspects of a homicide investigation. He
added that, had he worked on a case involving the type of residues
in the Foster death, he would have assumed that there was a "strong
possibility that it was an actual homicide."

The Park Police did not send the gun for testing until two days
after they officially declared Foster's death a suicide, on Aug.
10, 1993.

Homicide experts say that killers are becoming increasingly
sophisticated in staging suicides, including the deliberate firing
of a gun to leave powder marks on the victim's hand to fool
investigators.

"In some parts of the country, it's become a license to kill," said
Vernon Geberth.

Geberth, author of the authoritative police text Practical Homicide
Investigation, said experienced investigators look for
"inconsistencies" with what one would expect from a typical
suicide.

In the Foster case, not only does the powder residue not fit, but
there are a number of other inconsistencies involving the gun
alone: no fingerprints were found on it; the fired bullet was never
found; the gun could not be positively identified by Foster's
family; no matching ammunition was found for the gun in either of
the victim's two homes; and no visible blood or blowback material
was found on the gun.

LAPSES CITED

The then-Republican minority report to the Senate Banking Committee
report on its Whitewater hearings noted "variances" in Park Police
procedures, assigning blame for them on "interference by staff from
the White House."

Among the lapses in police procedure noted in that minority report
and by law enforcement experts:

(*)  Failure to retain as evidence Foster's beeper, turning it over
     to the White House within hours of his death. (A Park Police
     officer in an interview in January 1994 said Foster's beeper
     was found in his car, but the Fiske report stated it was found
     on his body.

(*)  Similar failure to retain other critical evidence such as
     personal belongings and papers found at Fort Marcy Park the
     day after his death, returning this evidence to the White
     House.

(*)  Failure to conduct a standard canvass of residences
     surrounding Fort Marcy Park and failure to interview
     individuals who frequent the park.

(*)  Failure to immediately secure Foster's office as a crime
     scene.

(*)  Delay in testing of the gun, and failure to conduct a vacuum
     sweep of Foster's clothing and shoes.

-------------------------------------------

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
January 25, 1995

FOSTER'S DEATH SITE STONGLY DISPUTED
by Christopher Ruddy

    As irregularities in the investigations of the death of
Deputy White House Cousel Vincent W. Foster Jr. come to
light, doubts are mounting over the location where U.S.
Park Police say his body was found in Fort Marcy Park,
Arlington, VA., July 20, 1993.
    A park maintenance worker who was asked by a passer-by
who discovered the body to call 911 has disputed key parts
of the 911 transcript.  That document shows the worker
locating the body at what was subsequently designated the
official location in the report of Special Counsel Robert
Fiske.
    The worker, Francis Swann, who never saw the body, was
asked to make the call by a man driving a white utility
van.
    According to official reports, Swann and a co-worker
were standing in the parking lot of a parkway maintenance
facility, which is some two miles from the park, when the
unidentified man drove up asking that they report the body
to authorities.  Neither of the men noted the license
plates of the van.
    Swann says he immediately went to a pay phone and made
two calls.  First he called Fairfax County's 911 service.
Then he made a call to U.S. Park Police.
    DISPUTED 911

    In two separate interviews conducted with Swann, he
reviewed transcripts of those calls.  Both times he
categorically denied statements attributed to him in the
first of the two calls, to Fairfax's 911, that quote him as
identifying the location of the body near a "last cannon."
    Following is an excerpt from the Fairfax 911
transcript:
    Swann:  There's ah, have ah, this is a body, this guy
told me there was body laying up there by the last cannon.
    911 Dispatcher:  Last what?
    Swann:  Huh?
    Dispatcher:  There's a body laying near what?
    Swann:  There's a man lying up there by the last cannon
gun.
    Dispatcher:  Cannon.
    Swann:  Yes, they have a cannon up there.  Those big
guns.
    In both interviews, Swann emphatically denied that he
could have used the term "last cannon", since he believed
there was but one cannon in the park.
    "He (the van's driver) said a cannon.  There's nothing
but one cannon up there," Swann insisted.  "Just one."
    There are actually two cannons in the park but Swann
was unaware of the second one, which is in the northeast
corner of the park obscured by brush and hilly terrain.
Several of the officials who came to the park the evening
of Foster's death were also unaware of that second cannon.
    Swann was unaware the official Park Police located the
body in front of that second or "last" cannon.
    Swann is a veteran Park Service employee whose tenure
dates back to the Kennedy administration, when he was
assigned to maintenance at the White House.  His
recollection is important because it contradicts the police
claim that Foster's body was lying 10 feed directly in
front of the second cannon.
    A growing number of observers dispute that.  They
position the body some 200 fee away in the general area of
the "first" cannon - the only one most visitors to the park
are aware of.
    According to Fairfax County Police spokesman Warren
Carmichael, the 911 tape in question was transcribed and
given to the Fiske investigators.  A copy of that
transcript shows it was transcribed March 9, 1994, shortly
after Fiske began his probe.  An FBI report says agents
took possession of the original tape April 21.
    KEY WORK MISSING

    In a Park Police memo of July 20, 1993, labeled
"Sequence of calls and transmissions," a Park Police
sergeant notes that at 6:03 pm., minutes after Swann called
Fairfax 911, a park service employee (Swann) called the
Park Police "to say a white contractor-type van pulled into
Turkey Run (maintenance facility) and a w/m (white male)
advised them of a dead body by the last cannon in Fort
Marcy."
    Bua a careful read of the Park Police 911 transcript of
Swann's call to that department shows that Swann,
consistent with his recollection, had NEVER REFERRED to any
"last" cannon, nor had he referred to a cannon in any way
that indicated there was more than one.
    This is the pertinent part of the police transcript:
    Swann:  He (the van driver) said you got a dead body
down there at the the Fort Marcys (sic)
    Police:  OK, did he (the van driver) say it was in the
parking lot or back in the woods or -
    Swann:  He said it was back up there by the cannon.
    Swann's recollection is also buttressed by the
statements of numerous Fairfax County rescue workers
interviewed by Fiske's staff.  None of them said that, when
they arrived at Fort Marcy Park that night, they were
directed to a "last" or "second" cannon - even though the
911 dispatch reads to that effect today.
    For example, paramedic George Gonzalez stated in his
deposition to Senate Banking Committee investigators, "the
report (911 dispatch) was it (the body) was at the first
cannon, excuse me, the report was that it was at a cannon."
    Another rescue worker, Richard Arthur, said he reviewed
the 911 dispatch after he returned to his McLean fire
house.  He described as "weird" the fact that the 911
dispatch didn't identify a specific cannon, and gave no
other details as to the body's placement.
    CW CHANGES LOCATION

    Swann's statements draw the focus back on the van
driver, an enigmatic figure whom the Fiske report names as
the first person to discover the body.  In that report, he
is designated "CW", or confidential witness.
    CW is also important because, if foul play was
involved, police normally treat the person discovering the
body as a suspect.
    In the Fiske report, CW is key to corroborating the
Park Police's placement of Foster's body directly in front
of the "second" cannon's barrel.
    But since the report was issued, on June 30, 1994, CW
has been saying something quite different.
    "I'm going to say this," said CW in a taped telephone
interview conducted by Reed Irvine, "I still recall him
(Foster) being to the right of the cannon, not directly in
front of it."  Irvine is chairman of the conservative media
watchdog group Accuracy in Media.
    On the tape, which was made available to the
Tribune-Review, CW was insistent that the body was not
where the police said it was.  Though not disputing it was
near the "second" cannon, he said it was on a slope close
to a maple tree to the right of the cannon.
    CW told Irvine that FBI agents working under Fiske had
persuaded him that the body was found on a slope directly
in front of the cannon.
    CW altered his account when confronted by Irvine with
the fact that the area directly in front of the second
cannon is a well-worn dirt path - inconsistent with the
heavy foliage under and around Foster's body, as originally
described by CW and other witnesses, and recorded on
Polaroid photos.
    An FBI analysis found no soil on Foster's shoes and
clothing, stongly supporting the conclusion that the body
could not have been in front of the second cannon, where
the soil is almost totally exposed and bare.
    Greg Howland, a National Park Service historian for
Fort Marcy Park, said that the dirt path on which Foster's
body was said to have been found has for years been bare,
shaded ground, etched by root.
    Howland's description of that dirt path is consistent
with a Gannett news report, as well as the statements of
other knowledgeable persons.  In his FBI statement, CW
denies the dirt path even existed.
    CW AND FBI

    CW first came forward as a critical witness to G.
Gordon Liddy, who hosts a popular syndicated radio talk
show on Virgina's WJFK.  Liddy says he first verified CW's
credibility as best he could and then helped publicize CW's
version of events.
    CW told Liddy that when he discovered the body there
was no gun in either hand.  Officials say the body was
found with a 1913 Colt revolver in the right hand.
    Liddy said that once he began publicizing CW's account,
FBI agents contacted him, asking to meet his witness.
Liddy said that he persuaded CW - who intimated Foster had
been murdered and that there was a high-level cover-up - to
meet with the agents.
    Apparently Fiske's staff was anxious to accept CW's
account at face value, because the FBI agents working under
Fiske never bothered to have park worker Swann, who made
the 911 call, positively identify CW.
    According to Swann, FBI agents never showed him a photo
or a lineup to ensure they had the right witness, even
though it was Swann who placed the critical 911 call.
    Swann said he believed his co-worker, Chuck Stough, had
identified CW.  Stough refused to comment on this, stating,
"I was informed by the FBI I can't disclose information."
    In an FBI report of Stough's identification of CW, he
states only that CW "could have been him".
    The identification by Fiske's staff of CW appears to
have been something of an afterthought - since CW was
presented to Stough June 22, 1994, just a week before the
report was released and over two months after Fiske had
been treating CW as a credible witness.
    A number of homicide experts said the failure of
Fiske's investigators to have the identification made by
Swann, who was the actual 911 caller, was an indicator of a
less-than-thorough investigation.
    "It's not enough," said Vernon Geberth, referring to
the FBI's interviewing of Swann's co-worker rather than
him.
    "It's only common sense, you don't interview just one
when two were present," he said, explaining that "you want
the witness, the person who called 911 and said there was a
dead body, to ID the man.  It's basic police work."
    Gebert, a former lieutenant commander in the New York
City Police department who investigated over 5,000
homocides, stressed that "it's important to take each point
to its ultimate conclusion.  Apparently it wasn't done
here."
    Experts say that a positive identification and thorough
investigation of CW should have been routine - especially
since his testimony had major discrepancies.
    CW BADGERED?

    CW himself has taken exception to his testimony as
represented in the Fiske report - but only after the report
had been out a few weeks and evidence began to emerge that
he, like the Park Police, seemed to have given the wrong
location of the body.
    "He was absolutely furious," when he read the Fiske
report, said Liddy about CW.
    And, although he says his life is in danger, CW has
embarked on a bold, if anonymous, campaign to criticize the
report, appearing on radio, television and before print
journalists.
    CW has said that FBI agents badgered him to change his
testimony, asking him as many as 25 times if the gun he
failed to see might have been hidden by foliage.  The Fiske
report states, "CW has further stated that the natural
foliage in the area made it difficult to see Foster's
hands."
    Liddy, a former FBI special agent and supervisor whose
program draws a large number of Washington law-enforcement
professionals, feels that the FBI investigation was far
below bureau standards.  Liddy, based on information he
obtained from sources in the bureau, has been critical of
the assigning of senior FBI agents Larry Monroe and William
Colombell to the case, pointing out that neither has
substantive homicide experience.
    Susan Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington
field office, provided no information on either agent's
homicide experience, stating that because both agents had
been assigned to the Independent Counsel's office, she
could not comment.
    FISKE FAULTED

    Dismissing any suggestion that Colombell might have
mishandled a witness, a ranking FBI source added:  "He is
known as a cracerjack investigator, a very successful agent
and field supervisor."  He said Colombell has had a
"distinguised" career, and approximately five years ago had
been promoted from the Baltimore office to Headquarters.
    Several former and current FBI sources rejected
criticism of the two agents, both of whom are highly
regarded, suggesting that higher bureau officials erred in
allowing Fiske's staff to put the agents before the Senate
Banking Committee, where the agents drew several
conclusions about Foster's death.  These conclusions,
sources said, should have been offered by Fiske or his
attorneys.
    "It gave the appearance we were covering these things
up," said another bureau source, who explained that bureau
policy is not to draw conclusions, but the pass evidence to
prosecutors.
    Sources criticized Fiske and his staff for not giving
the agents subpoena power and for not having them
thoroughly investigate such essential matters as Foster's
whereabouts on the day he died, possible motives for his
suicide, and trace evidence on his clothing.
    As for CW's complaints about badgering, several FBI
sources expressed doubts, since he had gone through his
witness statement line by line with the agents involved,
and then signed it.
    Irvine, who had championed CW, now finds his
credibility "very dubious", and wonders as do several
experienced investigators, if CW is merely an innocent
bystander or has deliberatly been misleading federal
investigators, for example, on the body's location.
    Irvine questions CW's account on how he found Foster's
body.  CW said he entered the park to urinate and came upon
the body - but to get to that site, he would have had to
walk through 600 feet of heavily wooded park where there
are many areas of seclusion.
    The Western Journalism Center assisted in the
preparation of this report.  For more information call
916-852-1200.





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