Whether Suicide or Suicided - Interesting!

[Peter Lemkin]

Thanks for posting this Peter. The guy is making something like $800k this year, and he supposedly offs himself? Why?

My hunch is he didn't, they did...why exactly - don't know - probably knew something too big or did something someone didn't like..... While not impossible he could have been upset being the captain of a sinking ship, I know I only get suicidal when I'm at or below zero funds and homeless. The guy was loaded, nice houses, the works.... The MOST suspicious thing to me were the police IMMEDIATELY declaring it a suicide before an investigation. When I hear that, I tend to think suicided.

Agreed on all points.

The CFO would be the one in charge of cooking the books I would think. So in theory he knew a lot.

When Enron started to 'go under' one of the top men [see below] was said to have committed suicide in his luxury car - shot himself in the head. Notice in the article those that knew him are surprised - i.e. they hadn't found him depressed of late. One wonders how many murders are done by the men behind the curtains in this country every year!....Given the brutal level of the discussion on the tickerforum - those guys are just raw meat eaters and IMO would do anything to anyone to get a step up or a million more....

Enron - Baxter's Suicide
Was Murder Say Top Cops

It was murder. That's the stunning verdict of top law enforcement experts who have independently examined the shooting death of Enron executive Cliff Baxter, which was hurriedly ruled a suicide by a controversial medical examiner.

And insiders believe the popular boss' tragic death is linked to the giant energy company whose shoddy dealings and bankruptcy have shattered the lives of thousands of employees. "Mr. Baxter's death was NOT a suicide-and nothing points to a natural death, which leads to the unavoidable conclusion that foul play was involved," said Peter Levin, a veteran prosecutor in Philadelphia.

Baxter, a 43-year-old former vice-president of the Houston-based company, was found dead in his Mercedes just half a mile from his $700,000 home.

He had been steeling himself to testify before congressional committees about Enron's questionable accounting practices-and just dayus earlier had talked to a business associate about "perhaps needing a bodyguard."

"He knew where all the Enron bodies were buried and he was apparently ready to talk," former congressman John LeBoutillier, who attended Harvard Business School with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling.

"The evidence for foul play is pretty strong. Here's a man who had everything to live for-children he loved and a comfortable future. He's lying in bed in the middle of the night when he suddenly gets up, dresses, gets into his car, drives a short distance and blows his brains out. It doesn't make sense.

"There's billions of dollars missing. If the people involved are capable of cheating, lying and stealing money, it's not going much further to hire a hit man and have someone whacked."

Veteran prosecutor Craig Silverman, who nailed dozens of murderers in his 16 years as chief deputy district attorney of Denver, Colo., told:

"A trained killer can make a murder look like a suicide. There are hit men who work for lrge sums of money and do a very efficient job of killing the the way that suits their clients' purposes." Company insiders say Enron was a cesspool of greed, inflated egoes and illicit sex. And Baxter's friends and co-workers have deep doubts about the so-called suicide of a former boss who knew the inner workings of the firm.

"He wasn't the kind of guy who'd kill himself," his friend Lyndon Taylor.

"Cliff had a happy disposition and I never really saw him get rattled. If someone could have walked out of this Enron scandal it would have been Cliff. He was a survivor." Added another close friend: "Here is a guy with everything in the world to live for. He still had his money, he had a huge yacht and a wonderful family. The thought that he would kill himself is absolutely mind-boggling."

Baxter's body was found at 2:23 a.m. on January 25, Harris County medical examiner Joye Carter completed the autopsy and decided it was suicide by that night-unusual speed, according to insiders.

Dr. Carter has a controversial past. In 1993 she was the District of Columbia Chief Medical Examiner when Washington lawyer Paul David Wilcher was mysteriously found dead in his apartment. Wilcher had been investigating the events leading up to the Branch Davidian fire in Waco, Texas. But no cause of death was ever determined and autopsy reports were never made public.

In February 2001 Carter was fined $1,000 and narrowly escaped being fired for allowing an unlicensed pathologist to perform roughly 200 autopsies in the Houston area. And during her time in Houston, the county has paid hefty damages in two lawsuits brought by whistle-blowers on her staff who alleged official mis-conduct.

Nine days after Baxter's death, police still hadn't publicly supported the suicide verdict. "It's highly significant that the police are being so cautious," a former senior detective told: "There are so many questions here-most importantly, why did he leave the house so suddenly? Was he lured by a phone call? Had he agreed to meet someone?

"The fact that the police investigation is still going on tells me that despite what the medical examiner says, the detectives on the ground haven't ruled out murder."