In her FBI interview, Lisa Foster remembered an "unusual event" before VWF left home on the 20th for the WH [1644]: He asked her about her schedule for the day. It was uncommon for VWF to ask her about her plans, she told the FBI.
Perhaps he needed to know where she would be during the day so as to be better able to contact her with some news of his own (such as the "word" on his letter of resignation?). There is no indication in the record that VWF tried to contact his wife in the hours before his death, despite his asking this unusual question.
Lisa Foster played tennis at 0830 Tuesday morning with Mrs. David Watkins, the wife of the White House Director of Personnel [82,1644], attended a charity meeting at 1145, had a late lunch with Mrs. McLarty, wife of Chief of Staff Thomas McLarty, taking a taxi back to VWF's home with Mrs. McLarty around 1530 and then driving to the McLarty residence, and finally returned to the Foster home at about 1700.
Mrs. Foster certainly spent a good deal of time on Tuesday with the "core" Arkansas crowd, even though it appears that her husband did not. Why would VWF ask an unusual early morning question about his wife's schedule on the day he planned to commit suicide? Did he really care what she was going to be doing when he shot himself? Did he plan to phone her just before his death? Unlikely, in the author's opinion.
However, VWF's concern about his wife's schedule (in the context of his alleged suicide) is not consistent with the total lack of effort he made to prepare his family (and extended family) for that suicide and, given he had decided to kill himself, the total lack of effort he made at FMP to make this shocking event as easy as possible on them under the circumstances [see the Comment below re his unlocked Honda and his having left his wallet inside].
Mrs. Foster called the WH around 1700 [1644], asked for VWF, and was told by Deborah Gorham, VWF's Executive Assistant, that he was unable to come to the phone. Lisa Foster was not told that VWF had left the WH around 1300 and had not returned as promised. It is unknown how insistent Lisa Foster was when she tried to reach her husband late Tuesday afternoon.
A Routine Start To VWF's Last Workday
VWF arrived at his WH office about 0850 [1448] and attended the routine 0900 WH OLC staff meeting and then the Rose Garden ceremony announcing the selection of Louis Freeh to head the FBI [201]. [The previous Director of the FBI, William J. Sessions, the first-ever FBI Director to be fired, had been dismissed the previous day.]
Beth Nolan, Associate Counsel at the WH OLC, saw VWF at the Rose Garden ceremony for Louis Freeh on Tuesday morning [1755].
In the words of Nolan's FBI interview, "His mood had lifted in the last couple of days." She noted that he had been joking around in the staff meeting the prior Friday morning (the 16th, four days prior). When she had seen him on the 19th, he did not seem distracted and handled his exchange with her normally.
All this, notwithstanding that, on the morning of Tuesday, July 20th he "officially" had very likely previously decided to kill himself that very afternoon and in all likelihood already had the loaded gun in his possession (at the WH or in his Honda) or knew where he was going to get it.
VWF left his office for an hour the morning of the 20th between 1030 and 1130, saying "I'll be back [1449]." He appeared "relaxed and normal" to Gorham on his return. He may have attended the Rose Garden ceremony for Louis Freeh during some of this time, but he was not a participant and was on the periphery of the event.
Did VWF meet with anyone in particular during this absence from his office? What did they talk about?
VWF's Sister, Sharon Bowman, Had Just Arrived In DC For A Visit
It should be noted that VWF's other sister, Sharon Bowman, had come to Washington D.C., apparently arriving on the 20th, and was staying with her sister, Sheila Anthony [1482]. Hubbell told the FBI that Sharon Bowman just happened to be in town that day [1482], another coincidence.
Sharon Bowman was never interviewed directly by the USPP or the FBI. Ms. Bowman was the sister who lived in AR as opposed to Sheila Foster Anthony, VWF's sister who lived in the DC area and was an Assistant US Attorney General.
Whether or not there was a particular specific reason for his sister's visit from AR, VWF was a known family man. According to Hubbell's FBI interview VWF "loved his children more than anything, very close to them [1478]."
Sheila Anthony told the FBI that she and VWF were extremely close and they spoke with each other often [1574]. The FBI interview with Sheila Anthony described VWF's family life in the following terms:
Anthony regarded it as warm and real. Foster was married to Lisa Foster for about twenty-five years. Anthony regarded Foster as an excellent father who spent much time with his children. In particular Foster was very conscientious about spending time with each of his children so that they each received individual attention. Foster would occasionally take one of the children on a trip with him just so the child could receive this individual attention. Foster was very interested in everything his children did [1579]."
Your sister comes a thousand miles to see you. You kill yourself the day she arrives in town before she even has a chance to see you? The day before you promised her lunch at the WH and a personal tour? Anything is possible, but this sounds out of character for VWF, given the picture of him that emerges from the record.
Note, too, that he seemed to have crossed some sort of emotional hump several days before he died and was clearly more cheerful from at least Friday the 16th onward. In the author's opinion, as of Friday, VWF thought he was pedaling downhill [whatever hill he was on], not up it.
If he appeared more cheerful only because he had obtained the emotional peace that could possibly come (?) from making the suicide decision, why would VWF knowingly have caused Lyons to fly to DC from Denver to meet with him the next day, the day after VWF knew he would be dead? The Wednesday, July 21, 1993, appointment with Lyons in DC was confirmed by VWF just the prior Sunday. The record does not say why Sharon Bowman picked that particular day to fly to DC. No one bothered to ask her for the record.
Did VWF make a snap decision to kill himself between Sunday night and Tuesday lunch? Unlikely? It's certainly possible, but those who gave statements of one kind or another about his mood from Friday, July 16th, through Tuesday, July 20th, uniformly give evidence of VWF's general good spirits and unstressed demeanor.
A Brief Look Ahead: The White House Changes Its Stance On VWF's Death
At first, the death was pronounced a completely unexpected tragedy by the WH. After a week or two, numerous people began making statements about VWF's having been seriously depressed for a couple of months. The statements about VWF's improved spirits in the immediately prior Comment were all provided long after Administration figures had switched their statements (a week or two after his death) from, in effect, "This was a huge and totally unexpected surprise!" to "Well, you know, he had been really depressed for some time. I had noticed something along those lines, but I had no idea it was so serious. I should have paid more attention to it at the time, but I didn't."
Thus, the statements in the record about VWF's improved spirits the last few days he was alive are contrary to the "Pravda" about VWF's ongoing depression that began to be publicly bruited about some ten days or so after his death.
The day after VWF's death, the "huge and totally unexpected surprise" orientation was still on display. The author admits that the "who could have known" initial reaction is a common one for many people, but WJC had a bit more to say than that. Part of the approach included "marching orders" that, whatever their intention, certainly did have the effect of discouraging those who knew him from speculating with those outside the small group of senior WH staff why VWF died. The author does not think he is exaggerating when he makes this statement.
On July 21st, WJC spoke to the WH staff members that knew VWF well:
"In the first place, no one can ever know why this happened. Even if you had a whole set of objective reasons, that wouldn't be why it happened, because you could get a different, bigger, more burdensome set of objective reasons that are on someone else in this room [?]. So what happened was a mystery about something inside of him and I hope all of you will always understand that. . . Vince Foster had an extraordinary sense of propriety and loyalty, and I hope when we remember him and this we'll be a little more anxious to talk to each other and a little less anxious to talk outside of our family [1916].
WJC's statement is somewhat elliptical, but the author believes that there were those present who understood these words far better than the author does, even today. Were these words a warning?
In his deposition months later [1827-1829], WJC mentioned knowing VWF was under a lot of stress in the WH OLC and also that VWF was "down" about the Travel Office Matter, but these factors were not mentioned when he addressed "the troops" on the 21st.
VWF Orders Lunch
At around noon on Tuesday, VWF asked Linda Tripp, one of Bernard Nussbaum's Executive Assistants [the other was Betsy Pond] to fetch the lunch he had selected off the daily menu of the WH cafeteria [201]. His own Assistant, Deborah Gorham, had already left for her own lunch break. Thomas Castleton, a junior employee of the WH OLC, was soon dispatched to the cafeteria by VWF to discover what was taking Tripp so long to return with VWF's meal. Castleton told Tripp that VWF had sent him to find out what was taking her so long [201], but by then she was already on her way back with VWF's lunch.
Tripp delivered VWF's lunch to his office, having added some M&Ms to his tray, apparently on her own initiative. VWF relaxed on his couch and read his newspaper while he ate his meal [1534]. Tripp was surprised that VWF had sent Castleton to look for her since she had not been gone long at all [1534].
Why was VWF in a hurry to get his cheeseburger? Had he scheduled the precise time of his suicide in advance?
VWF Leaves The White House For The Last Time
At about 1300 [201], VWF left his office, carrying his suit jacket, but without a briefcase.
The Fiske Report (issued about a month before the start of the 1994 Senate Whitewater Hearings), is at times shy on details and finesses some matters, but it explicitly states that VWF was not carrying a briefcase when he left the White House. The author does not know whether VWF owned more than one, but presumably the black briefcase that he did not leave with was the one in which Mr. Neuwirth found the torn note on July 26th (see that Heading below). The statement that VWF was not carrying a briefcase may be important since several witnesses at FMP later saw a briefcase in VWF's Honda in the FMP parking lot, although the official Reports reach the conclusion that this briefcase did not exist (see the sub-heading, "Was There A Briefcase In VWF's Honda At FMP?" below).
VWF told Tripp that there were still some M&Ms on his tray if she wanted them [1534].
While the author does not believe that casual talk about leftover M&Ms a couple of hours before one is supposed to have committed suicide (after a leisurely lunch spent reading the newspaper) is that strong an indication that a suicide did not occur, he does believe that casual conversation volunteered about leftover M&Ms constitutes slight evidence that VWF did not leave the WH with the intention of killing himself that afternoon. The author claims no psychological or psychiatric training of any sort. However, to this layman, VWF as he left the WH, considering the information in the record about the prior week or two, just does not look like a fellow hell-bent on killing himself that Tuesday afternoon.
There is some question whether the letter to his mother (see the Comment, "VWF Sends A Letter To His Mother" above) was mailed on the morning of the 19th or the morning of the 20th. Since the Fiske Report states that it was mailed on the 19th, it is discussed in this report under that date.
VWF told Tripp, "I'll be back," just as he had when he had left the office for an hour that same morning between 1030 and 1130 [201,1449,2130].
This time he did not come back.
According to Gorham's FBI interview, "Foster had never left in the middle of the day before [1449]." There was nothing unusual in his demeanor and he did not seem distressed [1534]. When he left his office shortly after 1300, he was not carrying anything with him (he was not carrying a briefcase, per Tripp, just his suit jacket) [1534].
The author believes that it is reasonable to think that VWF's behavior around lunch time indicated that he had some sort of appointment outside the WH shortly after 1300. Was he on a "time-line" with a limited cushion in it? Hence his concern that Tripp not take too long bringing him his lunch.
However, since there actually had been little delay in obtaining his lunch, VWF had ample time to eat his medium-rare cheeseburger with fries and drink his Coke at his couch while working his way through the newspaper [2130].
He was concerned enough, in light of his schedule that afternoon (killing himself?), about the onions on his cheeseburger to remove them [1534], leaving only the onions and a few M&Ms behind on his tray.
Anything is possible, but one might wonder why thoughts of his impending suicide did not interfere with eating his entire medium-rare cheeseburger, reading his newspaper, or deciding whether he wanted onions on his burger that day [1448]. The author concedes there is some evidence that VWF removed the onions because he simply did not like onions. But, who cares about the damn onions, anyway? The FBI.
Some days after Tripp wondered to the FBI why VWF bothered to remove the onions from his cheeseburger (she, like the author, had thought it singularly unusual that VWF would have concerned himself with the onions on his cheeseburger shortly before he left the WH to commit suicide and had told the FBI her opinion) [1534], the FBI elicited from Gorham that VWF always removed onions from his cheeseburgers [1448]. The FBI cared enough about the onions to ask a follow-up question to another interviewee.
The record shows no evidence how VWF filled the roughly five hours between departing the WH and the discovery of his body by CW in FMP just before 1800 (other than that he was presumably in transit and at FMP (dead, alive, or both) for some portion of the five hours).
Phone Calls VWF Missed At the WH on July 20th And The Relevancy Of His Pager
In addition to calls to VWF from Brantley Buck [see under Blind Trusts] and James Lyons [see James Lyons' Trip to DC] that did not reach VWF because he had already left the White House, Gordon Rather, a Little Rock Attorney at Bruce Lindsey's (and WJC's) old firm, happened to call VWF [202, 1733, 1449] concerning what Rather's FBI interview describes as a completely routine matter involving the business of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He too, failed to connect.
Maggie Williams, HRC's Chief of Staff, and William Kennedy also tried to reach VWF after he left the WH just after 1300 [1449]. Maggie Williams also tried to reach VWF at about 1820. She called the WH OLC for him and had Betsy Pond page him at that time. Since the body was first found per the record at 1814:32 [2252] had the pager been turned on, it would have gone off as USPP Officer Fornshill and the first two FCFRD EMS personnel were attending to the body.
Were records from his pager ever examined [85] to determine if he was paged because he missed any of these calls (he had his WHCA Motorola Bravo pager, #052943 [438,2185] clipped to his waist), either before or after the body was found?
The official Reports are quite clear that the pager had been turned off when USPP Investigator Rolla reached the body about 1845. Do pager records reveal only pages that connect or do they also reveal unsuccessful attempts? The author would expect that only connections, not attempts, are preserved in the communications companies' records, but he does not know.
VWF's Last Official White House Contact, The Uniformed USSS Guard at Post E-4
The last WH person officially to see VWF alive was Officer Skyles, a uniformed USSS officer who was at the guard post in the west lobby (referred to as "E-4" [sic]) [1546]. He remembered seeing VWF leave the west wing of the WH through E-4 sometime "about lunch time" on July 20th.
According to the Skyles FBI interview, "He distinctly recalled that Foster did not appear to be at all depressed or preoccupied as he walked by. He said he was therefore quite surprised to learn that Foster had committed suicide [1547]." This, from the last person in the WH compound who officially saw VWF alive.
VWF normally parked his car in slot 16 on Executive Boulevard West when he was at the WH [1649], a short stroll from E-4.
There are no reports in the record of anyone employed by the WH having seen VWF after Skyles did. The author does not remember the WH compound well enough to say what other checkpoints or gates, if any, lay between Guard Post E-4 and VWF's Honda, presumably parked, as usual, in Slot 16, Executive Boulevard West.