Copyright © 1994 The Telegraph plc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
The Electronic Telegraph   Sunday 11 December 1994   World News
[World News]

Murder link suspected in Clinton probe
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

THE Whitewater investigation has broadened its net beyond the Arkansas business dealings of Bill and Hillary Clinton to include inquiries into the unsolved murder of Jerry Parks, the former security chief for the Clinton campaign headquarters who was shot outside Little Rock last year.

The fact that the Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is investigating a murder is likely to cause consternation in Washington, where many still treat Whitewater as a minor issue.

Mr Parks, the owner of a Little Rock private security firm, was the victim of a mob-style hit on Sept 26, 1993. He had long-standing ties to the late Vince Foster, the White House Deputy Counsel found dead in a Virginia park last year. Sources close to Mr Starr's investigation team say testimony has been taken on two occasions from Mr Parks's widow, Jane.

The Parks family have accused Little Rock Police of orchestrating a cover-up after the detective on the case was removed. In exclusive interviews with The Sunday Telegraph earlier this year, Mrs Parks said that her husband had kept sensitive files on Mr Clinton dating back to 1984. One concerned a series of drug parties allegedly attended by Governor Clinton. A second stemmed from work undertaken by Mr Parks in 1987 involving night surveillance of the governor.

Mrs Parks alleges that the files were stolen in July 1993 in a well planned burglary that disabled the house's sophisticated alarm system. Mr Parks was murdered two months later.

The Whitewater investigation has reached a critical stage. Last week Mr Starr announced that he had secured guilty pleas from Webster Hubbell on felony charges. Mr Hubbell, golfing friend of Mr Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas, was a former law partner of Mrs Clinton.

In a separate development, the New York Times reported yesterday that a second investigation which was looking into gifts accepted by the outgoing Agriculture Secretary, Mike Espy, has evolved into a full-scale probe of the Arkansas poultry king, Don Tyson.

The Sunday Telegraph broke the story last October that Tyson was under investigation in the 1980s by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for possible trafficking.


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