The case of Clifford Baxter: more questions raised over alleged
suicide of Enron executive
" 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."
By Patrick Martin
17 April 2002
wsws.org
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 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. |
