||| WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE - Without anything that can be called a serious
investigation, local authorities in a wealthy Houston suburb have
whitewashed the death of former Enron vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter,
calling it a suicide. Baxter, 43, was found shot to death in his Mercedes
Benz in the early hours of Friday morning, January 25, near his home in
Sugar Land. Baxter's body was discovered inside his Mercedes Benz, which was
parked in a turnaround on a street near his home. Officials in Sugar Land
moved swiftly to label Baxter's death a suicide. Local Justice of the Peace
Jim Richard initially declared that Baxter died of a self-inflicted gunshot
wound and no further inquiry was required. But within hours he reversed
himself, citing the intense public interest in the death, and ordered an
autopsy. Harris County Medical Examiner Joye Carter conducted the autopsy
and found the cause of death to be suicide by a "penetrating gunshot to the
head." The weapon was a .38 caliber revolver which was found in Baxter's
car, next to his body.
Neither the perfunctory official probe nor the media coverage has addressed the obvious suspicions aroused by the death of a critically important witness in the investigation into the criminal activities at Enron, the biggest corporate fraud in American history. Baxter quit as vice chairman of the company last May, after reportedly come into conflict with other top executives over the phony accounting gimmicks used to plunder billions of dollars.
The most disturbing account of Baxter's last days comes from a former business associate who spoke to the New York Times but was not identified by the newspaper. This person spoke with the former Enron vice chairman two days before his death and congratulated him "for being named among those people who complained about Enron." According to the Times account, the unnamed associate added that Baxter "was talking about perhaps needing a bodyguard, though I'm not sure where that idea came from."
That a man only two days away from suicide would be considering hiring a bodyguard defies belief. But neither the Times nor any other media outlet has raised the possibility that Baxter felt his life to be in danger because of what he knew and could divulge about the internal affairs of Enron. Men have been killed for much less.
||| STEVE LONG AND JESSICA SOMMAR NY POST - A close friend of Baxter said he
thought the former Enron vice chairman had been murdered. "It's absolutely
incongruous that this guy would kill himself," the friend said. "He's not
the kind of person who would ever do himself in." The friend said Baxter
loved yachting and had recently traded in his 72-foot boat for one with a
larger engine so he could travel to Florida in two days.
||| IT'S NOT BEING REPORTED in the corporate media, but the medical examiner
in the Clifford Baxter death, Joye Carter, has been involved in a number of
controversial cases including the alleged suicide of Paul Wilcher who found
dead on a toilet in his apartment in 1993. Some belief Wilcher was murdered.
He was said to be investigating various scandals including the October
Surprise, the 1980 election campaign, drug and gun-running through Mena and
the Waco assault. He was also planning a TV documentary on his findings. He
delivered an extensive affidavit to Janet Reno three weeks before his death