! New Info on Death of Former Enron Executive Cliff Baxter
pithy
life," said Taylor.
The Sugar Land Police Department was not the only agency to
investigate the case. In fact, this department relied on
state and federal investigators to conduct a broad range of
tests. The Texas Department of Public Safety concentrated
on the letter found after Baxter's death.
"According to the DPS handwriting experts, there were
indications Mr. Baxter wrote the hand printed note and that
DNA was, in fact, Mr. Baxter's DNA," said Taylor. "He's the
one that licked the note and sealed the note."
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced
the gun.
"And found that in January of 2001, Mr. Baxter himself
purchased the revolver found in his hand at scene and it was
later identified as firing the fatal bullet," said Taylor.
"Blood spatter evidence showed that Mr. Baxter was, in fact,
alone in vehicle at time gun was fired."
----------------------------------------
New info in death of former Enron executive
Former Enron executive Cliff Baxter's death back
in January was ruled a suicide. New information released
Friday supports that ruling.
By Patrick Nolan
By ABC13 Eyewitness News
(5/31/02)--There are new details into the suicide of former
Enron executive Cliff Baxter. Police say they hope the new
information debunks any conspiracy theories about his death.
Ever since Baxter's death four months ago, there have been
countless rumors about how he died. But in the end, police
relied on scientific evidence to close the case. According
to police, Cliff's Baxter's final hours were spent concealing
a suicide plan from his family.
"Mr. Baxter simply hid the fact he left the house that night
by placing pillows under the cover to make it appear that he
was in bed asleep," said Chief Earnest Taylor of the Sugar
Land Police Department.
For the complete article, go to:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/53102_news_baxter.html
________________________________________________________
More chuckles at the paranoid leftists.
Gary Sick's tinfoil investments just dropped 80%.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If he's in a "because he is working to correct those
mistakes", then they must be pretty important mistakes
and he shouldn't have been there at all.
--
You shouldn't able to vote.
--
Fuck you nigger
--Li'l dick travesty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
George Johnson
news:SWTJ8.16624$r5.66...@news1.epix.net...
BULLET?!?
BZZZTTTTT!!!
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Clifford Baxter was MURDERED with RATSHOT, not a BULLET.
The gun was fired TWO FEET AWAY from his head.
As always, a BAD COVERUP always leads to some interesting information.
I see some Sugarland Police going down from this.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/baxterautopsy.html
NEW INFO
Note that Baxter was killed with rat shot, essentially a small shotgun shell
sized to fit a handgun, which fires spread pattern useful against rodents
and snakes. The spread of the rat shot indicates a distance of about 2 feet
between the gun and Baxter's head. This clearly argues against a suicide.
Another argument against suicide is the choice of ratshot as the ammo in the
gun. In the sort of home Baxter was able to afford to live in, one does not
go hunting rats with guns loaded with ratshot; one hires an exterminator. In
addition, rat shot is the perfect murder ammunition, because unlike a solid
bullet, there is no ballistics test that can match rat shot or snake shot to
the gun that fired it.
There are other problems with this autopsy report.
There were shards of glass found on his shirt, on what would have been over
the superior RIGHT shoulder, following the removal of his shirt. What was
the source of this glass?
Baxter had Ambien--which is given for sleep--in his stomach and in his
blood. That means he had taken it very recently; Ambien works very fast;
peak levels are usually at about 1.5 hours. Is it likely that someone would
take a sleeping pill and then immediately drive somewhere to kill
themselves. Why take a sleeping pill if you are going to kill yourself?
Ambien is pretty powerful; you don't get in a car to drive someplace.
The abrasions/lacerations of Baxter's hands take on a new meaning when you
consider the unexplained glass shards on his superior right shoulder
clothing. This suggests a struggle.
Baxter's body was found on 01/25/2002. The specimens were received at the
lab on 01/26/2002. The date of the autopsy report is 01/25/2002 (the day
BEFORE the lab specimens were delivered), but the autopsy was not notarized
until 02/15/2002. It was signed by Dr. Carter on 01/31/2002. Dr. Carter
indicated very quickly to the press that it was a suicide, yet did not sign
the report until 01/31/2002. There are no initials or indications regarding
the processing of the report; no dictation or transcription dates, or
transcriptionists initials.
[ clipped ]
Readers have also asked some other questions whiich may or may not have good
answers such as why the clothes were wet, why was the body barefooted yet
the feet were clean, where were his shoes, why weren't the hands bagged for
protection, why there is nothing said about the condition of the right hand,
and why Baxter had taken a powerful and fast-acting sleeping pill if he was
planning to go driving somewhere and kill himself.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/baxt-a17.shtml
The case of Clifford Baxter: more questions raised over alleged suicide of
Enron executive
By Patrick Martin
17 April 2002
Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author
In the first major media inquiry into the alleged suicide of former Enron
Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter, CBS News broadcast a segment April 10
which raised significant questions about the police handling of Baxter's
death.
Baxter was found shot to death in his car in the early morning hours of
January 25, a few days after he agreed to testify to Congress. Formerly the
head of Enron's gas pipeline operations, and vice chairman of the company
until his resignation last May, Baxter was in a position to give insider
testimony on the causes of the biggest bankruptcy in US history.
According to congressional investigators, Baxter was being sought, not as a
target in his own right, but to provide evidence against other top
executives. He was known within Enron for having opposed the off-the-books
financial manipulations directed by CEO Jeffrey Skilling and Chief Financial
Officer Andrew Fastow.
Police in the wealthy Houston suburb of Sugar Land declared the death a
suicide without any investigation, and the Harris County coroner initially
declined to conduct an autopsy, only reversing herself after media publicity
and objections by Baxter's family.
According to the story narrated by CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, the
network obtained police, autopsy and lab reports and had them analyzed by
two independent experts, coroner Cyril Wecht and former homicide detective
Bill Wagner.
Wecht noted that the ammunition used was so-called "rat-shot," rather than
regular bullets, consisting of pellets that break apart and spread after
discharge. "This kind of ammunition cannot be easily or readily traced back
to the gun from which it was fired," he told CBS.
"It's not as frequently used by people for any reason. It's not the type of
ammunition one finds in guns-it has a specific purpose: shooting at snakes
and rodents in order to get a distribution pattern of the small pellets
contained within the nose portion of the bullet. It's not something that a
person is likely to have and to use if they intended to kill themselves."
Wagner said that murder could not be ruled out, despite the evidence
suggesting that the shooting was a suicide. "Murder can be made to look like
a suicide," he said. "Someone who is knowledgeable about forensics can very
well have the ability to stage a murder, commit a murder and stage it to
look as if it was a suicide, understanding what the police are going to be
looking for."
Apparently, however, the Sugar Land police were not looking for much of
anything. Wagner said their handling of the crime scene was deficient. They
neither "bagged" Baxter's hands-i.e., checked for chemical residues and
other indications that he had fired the gun-nor did they fingerprint the
interior of the car. "I'm just amazed frankly that the hands were not
bagged," Wecht said.
The timeline produced by the Sugar Land police has major inconsistencies.
For instance, the police report says that a blood stain was found on the
pavement outside the car, caused by someone laying Baxter on the ground. Yet
the body was in the car when the funeral home personnel arrived to handle
it.
This suggests two alternatives: that Baxter was shot on the pavement and
then placed in the car to make it look like suicide; or that the body was
removed from the car-perhaps in an attempt to resuscitate him-and then, for
unknown reasons, put back into the driver's seat.
Crime scene photos were only taken after the gun and other evidence, as well
as the body, had been moved. There are unexplained bruises on Baxter's left
hand, together with traces of black material, which are consistent with him
putting out his hand to brace a fall onto asphalt pavement after he was shot
in the right temple-a scenario that suggests murder rather than suicide.
Other questions have been raised about the fatal wound, which was very
large-7.2 cm by 4.5 cm-according to the coroner's report. One estimate of
the spread pattern of rat shot suggests that the gun muzzle must have been
two to three feet away from his temple for the shot to have diverged that
much, an improbably awkward position for a suicide.
The day after the CBS report, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn ordered the
release of the suicide note that was found on the seat of Carol Baxter's car
in the family garage. Cornyn is the Republican candidate for US Senate in
Texas, to fill the seat being given up by Phil Gramm.
Sugar Land police refused to release the note for nearly three months, after
the Baxter family sought to keep it confidential, citing their right to
privacy. Cornyn's office issued a ruling that cited "the substantial public
interest in the causes of Enron's failure and its far-reaching
consequences."
The brief 61-word note makes no direct mention of Enron. It is written in
block capital letters on a plain sheet of notepaper, and signed in block
capitals rather than handwriting, making it impossible to determine if
Baxter actually wrote the note.
The state attorney general's office also ordered the local police to release
photos of the death scene and other investigative records, long sought by
the press. However, Baxter family attorney Pike Powers obtained a court
order blocking the release temporarily until the issue is argued before a
judge.
See Also:
The strange and convenient death of J. Clifford Baxter-Enron executive found
shot to death
[28 January 2002]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/enro-j28.shtml
Enron VP tells Congress she feared for her life
But media remains silent on Baxter "suicide"
[22 February 2002]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/feb2002/enro-f22.shtml
Enron and the Bush administration: kindred spirits in fraud and criminality
[18 January 2002]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/enro-j18.shtml
-------------------------------
http://www.madcowprod.com/baxter.html
THE SUGARLAND SANCTION
"Like Chinatown, but set in Texas"
by Daniel Hopsicker
February 11--Houston Texas
An investigation in Houston Texas by the MadCowMorning News has uncovered
significant discrepancies in the official version of the death of former
Enron Vice Chairman Cliff Baxter. While Texas officials have been willing to
share only a few facts about the case, much of what they have revealed, we
have learned, is puzzling, misleading, or, amazingly, wrong.
Even more amazing is that -with billions at stake-the very real possibility
that Baxter might have been murdered has been completely ignored in the
press.
Early wire reports quoted Sugar Land Police Department spokeswoman Patricia
Whitty saying that Baxter was found inside his Mercedes early on Friday with
a gunshot wound to the head, a suicide note, and a revolver at his side.
It was an impressive litany. Police appeared to have all of their ducks in a
row.
"A gunshot wound, a suicide note, and a revolver at his side."
A statement released by the Sugar Land Police Department that morning broke
the news...
"At 2.23 a.m. this morning (January 25) Sugar Land police officers on
routine patrol discovered John. C. Baxter, a Sugar Land resident, inside a
vehicle parked between two medians on Palm Royale Boulevard of an apparent
self-inflicted wound to the head."
"Baxter was dead at the scene and the sole occupant of the vehicle."
Sugar Land Police Sgt Truman Body told assembled reporters that the
discovery of Baxter's body happened during a "routine patrol. It's my
understanding that a deputy had seen (Baxter's) vehicle a few minutes
earlier and through his routine patrol had doubled back to see if he could
offer any assistance."
Even a cursory examination of the facts reveals that very little of this is
true.
We uncovered this startling fact: Baxter's body had not been found by the
Sugar Land police, as they have been insisting...
And rather than being "dead at the scene" when authorities 'found' him,
Clifford Baxter had been still alive.
"Tell us one more time: which one of you found the body?"
S. H. "Hal" Werlein is the Constable for the county precinct encompassing
the posh Sweetwater development where Baxter lived. The Constable's Office
functions much like County Sheriffs' in many parts of the country, he
explained.
Contrary to the statements of the Sugar Land Police Department, it was not
two Sugar Land police officers but one of Hal Werlein's Deputy Constables
who discovered the former Enron executive slumped behind the wheel of his
new Mercedes sedan, parked just inside the Sweetwater development where
Baxter and his family lived, in much the poshest part of town.
"Our Constable's office has a contract deputy program which provides private
security guards for the Sweetwater homeowner's association, and it was one
of these men who discovered Mr. Baxter," Werlein told us.
"The report I got from my Deputy Constable there on the scene stated he had
come upon a Mercedes sitting parked in a turnout. He became suspicious and
approached the vehicle, where he found Baxter still alive. He then
immediately called for EMT's (Emergency Medical Technicians)."
Why such critical discrepancies about the most crucial of details? We've all
watched enough TV cop shows to grill detectives with a simple question that
usually calls for a yes or no answer...
"Was the victim alive when you found him?"
On the day we visited the crime scene, there were no gawkers at the turnout
on Palm Royale Boulevard. But there is, nearby, a security kiosk that has a
sign across the front reading 'Constable Precinct Four.'
"I don't know why the Sugar Land Police Department is saying they found
Baxter, because it isn't true," continued Constable Werlein. "My Deputy
Constable found him."
Confronted with Constable Werlein's statement, Sugar Land Police
spokesperson Patricia Whitty admitted that Werlein was correct. The police
statement contained inaccuracies, she stated. But she offered no explanation
for how or why these critical errors or mis-statements had occurred, nor why
they hadn't been corrected earlier.
"Trust us. We're really really sure that he took his own life."
There was one thing the Sugar Land Police Department was absolutely sure of:
Baxter was a "definite suicide," which they had already proclaimed by 10:00
that morning.
Sugar Land police spokesmen didn't know the caliber of the gun, were unsure
of the make of the car, or if a bullet was found, or where the gun was.
But--and thank god!--they DID know that there were "no apparent signs of
foul play."
The police captain in charge of the immediate investigation concluded that
it was clear Baxter had taken his own life. He then ordered Baxter's corpse
taken to a local mortuary without an autopsy.
Incredulous, Cliff Baxter's family then reportedly called on a local judge,
who intervened with a counter order insisting that the body instead be
taken to the county morgue for an official autopsy.
When the results of the autopsy were released last Thursday Clifford Baxter
became the second American so far this year to perish through 'suicide by
zit.'
These days, explanations for mysterious suicides can apparently be found as
needed, as close at hand as the nearest medicine cabinet.
Take for example the lead from the Associated Press report on the Cliff
Baxter autopsy, calling attention to the fact that the former Enron Corp.
executive had taken "a pain reliever, an anti-depressant and a sleeping aid"
before "he shot himself to death after the company's collapse."
If you parse this sentence a bit-looking for a hint of an official
explanation for the death of the most important witness in what some are
calling the biggest scandal since Watergate-you end up with some pretty
twisted pretzel logic.
No mention in the AP story about the possibility Baxter may have been
murdered to prevent him from divulging incriminating information to
Congressional committees investigating the Enron scandal, even though one
such committee had been negotiating a deal with Baxter's lawyer's to get him
to testify on the very day he 'killed' himself.
This is probably just coincidence.
"A pain reliever, an anti-depressant and a sleeping aid"
All things considered, this sounds like a pretty typical day in Mayberry
circa 2002. But maybe the AP is intimating that under certain
circumstances-like just before testifying to Congress, for example-mixing
Prozac and Advil can lead abruptly and with no warning to a heavenly choir
serenading you with the final chorus to "Goodbye Cruel World."
This sounds like logic that could have been conceived, in point of fact, by
the very same people who brought us the word of Tampa teen Charles' Bishops'
acne-induced self-immolation.
"Suicide by Zit."
If it had been our last night in town before heading out for that Great
Roundup in the Sky, we don't think that just before falling on our sword we
would be making sure that we'd taken all our evening pills.
Instead we might 'ingest' a little Jack Daniels to steel our nerve, or a
few shots of Stolichnaya to ward off the chill of cold gunmetal pressing
against our clammy forehead.
Because one thing we are not going to need, on this final night, is a
sleeping pill. Taking a sleeping pill just before committing suicide only
makes sense if you're going to have trouble nodding off even in the
Afterlife... It's redundant, right?
"You're already covered on that front."
In the wake of September 11th we think they need to run some kind of
disclaimer before the news. At least warn viewers of sticky wickets up
ahead.
"You are entering the Twilight Zone."
The 'news' of Baxter's List came hard on the heels of new developments in
the other currently-suspicious suicide, that of the Kamikazie Kid pilot in
Tampa.
Charles Bishop, the first American suicide bomber in history, committed the
only authentic terrorist attack in America since 9/11. Yet authorities have
still offered no explanation for his bizarre attack.
They were however forced to admit that young Charles Bishop showed no traces
of accutane, the previously little-known acne medication with recently
discovered suicide-inducing properties.
Clearly a steep price must be paid for a clear complexion in America today.
Or a clear conscience.
Was this misdirection? Disinformation?
Regardless, it helped forestall any closer examination of whether this
15-year-old boy-whose father is a mysterious half-Lebanese half-Sicilian
organized crime figure from Boston-might have overheard anything he shouldn'
t have.
Instead, the young pilot was adjudged to be troubled, but not a terrorist, a
strange conclusion to reach about someone who has just flown a plane into a
skyscraper at 160 miles per hour.
Authorities seemed unconcerned that something similar had--and just
recently--occurred.
"Nothing to see here. Move along."
"Unconcerned" is also a good way to describe Texas law enforcement officials
after the Enron Scandal had claimed its first victim, even though Cliff
Baxter was an insider who was fixin' to talk.
Little wonder then that today even the relatively non-paranoid are
entertaining suspicions that when they make the movie of the Cliff Baxter
story, it won't play like a Lifetime Original about 'a Dad who couldn't
cope,' but like a high tech spy thriller:
"The Sugarland Sanction."
Like "Chinatown," only set in Texas.
Whatever the ultimate truth of how he came to die in the middle of a chilly
late January night in Texas, the most immediate consequence of Cliff
Baxter's death is that Americans are now going to learn a lot less about the
Enron Scandal than if Baxter had managed to hang around long enough to enter
Witness Protection and get fitted for a bulletproof vest.
Baxter was talking of needing a bodyguard just 36 hours before he committed
suicide.
And here we thought you only need a bodyguard when you're trying to stay
alive.
Despite the blasé approach of the home-town Houston Chronicle to the
shocking death of the most important witness in the biggest scandal since
Watergate few in Houston we spoke to believe the former Enron Vice Chairman
took his own life.
After going, decisively, off the record, one long-time friend of Baxter's
explained it to us this way:
"What if, for example, they had 'gotten to' John Dean before his testimony
before the Watergate Committee made him a world-wide celebrity?"
"I'll tell you what would have happened. Nothing. The 'cancer on the
Presidency' gets covered with a big gauze bandage, and we'd have all been
none the wiser."
"Nobody would have seriously investigated the suicide of an obscure
mid-level Nixon staffer said to be despondent over having been called to
testify about misconduct in the Oval Office."
If you're talking cost-effective damage control, its hard to beat
assassination.
At the Houston Yacht Club, where Baxter had taken to virtually living aboard
his 72-foot yacht Tranquility Base, one club executive told us:
"Cliff Baxter was not a person who I could ever believe would kill himself.
He had boundless energy, a positive attitude, and everything to live for: a
wife, kids, and the time and money to enjoy them. He was anxiously awaiting,
for example, the delivery of his sleek new boat, which he was going to call
Tranquility Base II."
This yacht club skipper, a man with relatively extensive business dealings
with Cliff Baxter, stared for a long time at the slate-gray water of
Galveston Bay on a dreary February afternoon. Then he shrugged...
"Maybe Cliff just knew too much," he said. "That's what everyone around
here thinks, anyway."
An incredibly explosive political murder-if that's what it was-would seem to
be the very definition of Hard Ball.' You would think it would be the the
ideal topic for a special edition of the show of the same name.
Alas.
It seems as if Mr. Matthews, along with most of his brethren in the
mainstream press, find themselves otherwise engaged.
What's going on right now in Houston Texas may eventually come to be seen as
the most blatant media clampdown since the death of Vince Foster.
Last word goes to Lily Tomlin, who said it best:
"No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up."
Jim Alder
news:3cf82d50$0$1418$272e...@news.execpc.com:
Given that there were a total of four law agencies investigating, I
doubt it. On the surface of this case, it would not surprise me, given the
amount of money involved, if people were murdered to cover it up. But I see
very little indication that such is the case here.
> http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/baxterautopsy.html
>
> NEW INFO
>
> Note that Baxter was killed with rat shot, essentially a small shotgun
> shell sized to fit a handgun, which fires spread pattern useful against
> rodents and snakes. The spread of the rat shot indicates a distance of
> about 2 feet between the gun and Baxter's head. This clearly argues
> against a suicide.
I found nothing in the autopsy to indicate any 'spread of the rat
shot.' While DC Dave said the spread was over two inches, the autopsy said
"The wound edges are abraded and are surrounded by a zone of contusion,
which measures 1 1/2 inches in diameter." This means the actual wound had
to be somewhat LESS than 1.5 inches in diameter, not over two as Dave
stated.
Quoting the autopsy report: "There appears to be a slight muzzle
imprint associated with the wound descried above." (Page 5)
Also: "1. Penetrating contact gunshot wound to the head." (Page 9)
If memory serves, 'contact gunshot wound' means the muzzle was touching
the skin when fired. (BTW, the page numbers are those of the jpegs. For
instance, page nine would be www.whatreallyhappened.com/Autopsy_Pg9.jpg)
The report also says there is no gunpowder tattooing around the wound,
which I would think indicates the gun muzzle pressed firmly against the
head OR some distance away. But given the 'contact wound; and 'muzzle
imprint' I would have to assume the former.
> Another argument against suicide is the choice of ratshot as the ammo
> in the gun. In the sort of home Baxter was able to afford to live in,
> one does not go hunting rats with guns loaded with ratshot; one hires
> an exterminator. In addition, rat shot is the perfect murder
> ammunition, because unlike a solid bullet, there is no ballistics test
> that can match rat shot or snake shot to the gun that fired it.
There is no need to worry about ballistics evidence when you are
leaving the gun there at the scene. Rat shot is anything BUT the perfect
murder weapon. It requires point blank range, and even then is not a sure
shot. 22 ammo has been known to glance off a skull. Rat shot is tiny by
comparison with little inertia behind it.
> There are other problems with this autopsy report.
>
> There were shards of glass found on his shirt, on what would have been
> over the superior RIGHT shoulder, following the removal of his shirt.
> What was the source of this glass?
The source wouldn't be in the autopsy report. It would likely be in the
police report of the scene. Don't know either way, so can't really draw any
conclusions from it. It's interesting but not incriminating.
> Baxter had Ambien--which is given for sleep--in his stomach and in his
> blood. That means he had taken it very recently; Ambien works very
> fast; peak levels are usually at about 1.5 hours. Is it likely that
> someone would take a sleeping pill and then immediately drive somewhere
> to kill themselves. Why take a sleeping pill if you are going to kill
> yourself? Ambien is pretty powerful; you don't get in a car to drive
> someplace.
Yeah, this is interesting. While it's possible that he took it to make
the suicide less mentally traumatic, like taking a couple belts before
jumping off a cliff, it's also possible that someone else gave it to him.
Hard to tell if it was even significant amounts, since the dosage isn't
given. Maybe he took it because he was stressed, but it didn't help. There
was also citalopram, used to treat mental depression. These are both
prescription drugs. If he had a prescription for them, that would solve the
mystery.
> The abrasions/lacerations of Baxter's hands take on a new meaning when
> you consider the unexplained glass shards on his superior right
> shoulder clothing. This suggests a struggle.
Except there were no bruises on his body. I suppose if we're taking
wild-ass guesses (and I am at this point), when one blows his brains out
with a gun, the gun usually goes flying. It could have hit the dome light,
which is over his right shoulder when sitting in the drivers seat. That's
the only glass I can think of that is consistent with the suicide
hypothesis, unless he had a glass sunroof. That would take considerable
impact to break, though.
I don't see much of a Vince Foster nature to this case. As for his bare
feet, it sounds like he went from bed to his car, which, if it was in an
attached garage, would let him walk in bare feet without getting his feet
dirty. It doesn't sound like he even changed from his bedclothes, or at
best grabbed whatever was handy. Perhaps he didn't want his family to be
the ones to find him, so he drove somewhere where the cops would find the
body.
--
Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think,
the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very
well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly,
accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion- in the
long run, these are the only people who count.
-- Robert Heinlein