The Truth Behind the Clinton Body Count

It is a well-accepted fact that any American politician who has served multiple terms in congress likely has more than a few skeletons hiding in their closet. After all, one does not make it to Washington DC and remain there long-term without cutting a few deals and greasing a few palms. You either play by the unwritten rules, find a few corporate donors to keep your campaigns funded, and avoid making waves, or you are destined to be an outcast among DC’s upper echelon.

While this may sound like a pessimistic view of the American government, that’s because it is. Many things have gotten better over time, and while that is generally true, politics is an exception to that rule. Even with cameras pointed at our leaders every day, corporate bribes, insider trading, and embezzlement are all expected perks of the job at this point. Everybody in Washington knows about it, but nobody wants to be the person to put the brakes on the party bus.

However, while joining in on the corruption may keep you in the good graces of those within your own political party, eventually some scandal is bound to rock your world. It is an obstacle that cannot be avoided, and deciding how to best address the problem at hand is hugely important; every scandal has the potential to be the end of your political career. One minute you’re sitting pretty and then the next you’re on a plane back to your home state as the entire country shares leaked screenshots of text messages between you and your mistress.

So, with everything in Washington being as cutthroat as it is, how do some people manage to remain electable for decades? Well, if you are Bill and Hillary Clinton then you don’t need to worry about it because everyone with dirt on you has a nasty habit of dying prematurely in inexplicable ways.

Yes, although the Clintons are no stranger to controversy and scandal themselves, it is believed by some that they have avoided the worst consequences of their actions by causing the deaths of dozens—if not hundreds—of people around them. This is what is known as the Clinton Body Count Conspiracy, and how exactly they caused these deaths is irrelevant; perhaps they used their money and power to have someone do the killing for them or perhaps Bill himself was the one hopping the White House fence in the night with a heart-attack gun hidden inside his saxophone case.

Either way, this is a conspiracy that has roots stretching as far back as the early 90s, yet even today, it continues to be one of the most well-known and widely believed political conspiracies in America, often reappearing alongside other modern conspiracies such as QAnon and Jeffrey Epstein. Yes, it is a conspiracy that has proven it has the staying power needed to remain relevant, but is there any evidence whatsoever to support it?

Conspiracy Origins

To tackle this very lengthy topic, the major deaths related to the conspiracy will be broken down one by one. Some deaths will be discussed in great detail while others will only receive a single paragraph or may be skipped entirely for the sake of time. The ones focused on here will be the most notable and/or most suspicious. Bill and Hillary Clinton are so well-known and accomplished that they require only a brief description; any other necessary information about their lives and careers will be discussed in depth in later sections once it becomes relevant to the particular death being discussed.

All you need to know about Bill and Hillary is they are considered by many to be the ultimate power couple in American politics, both having occupied powerful positions in state and federal government at different times throughout the past 40 years. Bill is a licensed attorney, the former Governor of Arkansas, and—most notably—the 42nd President of the United States. Hillary is also a licensed attorney, a former US senator for New York State, a former Secretary of State for the United States, and Donald Trump’s main political rival in the 2016 presidential election.

Both Bill and Hillary are lifelong Democrats, have raised a daughter together, and have been involved in numerous scandals involving alleged financial improprieties and various abuses of office. Bill has also famously been involved in multiple scandals surrounding sexual misconduct, including one that resulted in his impeachment in 1998 while serving his second term as president. Together, they are often referred to as “The Clintons,” and they continue to be two of the most divisive people in American politics.

So, where did the idea that they are cold-blooded killers originate?

According to most sources, an essay titled, “The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death?” was the first written document to be distributed that implied Bill Clinton may be involved in the deaths of some of his friends, acquaintances, and business associates; although, it wouldn’t take long for Hillary’s involvement in the deaths to be assumed as well. This essay was written in 1993 by Linda Thompson, an attorney from Indianapolis, Indiana, and it lists 34 deceased people by name; however, it did not outright accuse the Clintons of murder for legal reasons. The document begins:

This administration seems to be plagued with an inordinate number of ‘suicides,’ plane crashes, one-person fatal ‘accidents,’ and unexplained deaths. The following is a summary of the deaths of people who have died, none of them from natural causes, who are connected to Bill Clinton.

The list then goes on to name many of the people we will be speaking about in greater detail later as well as a brief description of their relation to the Clintons, a quick overview of the circumstances surrounding their deaths, and anything else Linda found noteworthy enough to include. It does not, however, provide any verifiable evidence that the Clintons were involved in the deaths. Essentially, this document simply says, “look at all these deaths. Pretty weird, huh? Someone should look into this.”

And that’s it. Linda herself even admitted as much and said that she didn’t believe the Clintons had killed anyone personally; the deaths on her list were likely caused by someone trying to control the president from the shadows. Her main goal, she stated in interviews, was to start a conversation; in that, she succeeded.

Shortly after the list’s release, California congressman William Dannemeyer latched onto the idea of Bill Clinton being a murderer, trimmed the list of 34 names down to 24, and then submitted this new list to the United States congress to be reviewed.

By this point, the conspiracy was already gaining traction, and news outlets—particularly those opposed to Clinton’s presidency—were quick to report on the story while not directly saying that Bill or Hillary had orchestrated anyone’s death. Like Linda Thompson, they were just pointing out how suspicious all those deaths were. The tabloids, on the other hand, did not hold back and began running headlines insinuating that Bill himself had blood on his presidential cufflinks. Some people legitimately believed that Bill Clinton was sneaking out of the White House to commit murder.

After this, the conspiracy took on a life of its own and spread quickly throughout the United States with the help of political commentators like Rush Limbaugh and religious figures like Pat Robertson. Many took the unsubstantiated claims as fact, and during the 30 years since the release of Linda Thompson’s essay, many more names have been added to her list.

Vincent Foster

In 1994, an article titled “Whatever it is, Bill Clinton Likely Did It,” was published in the U.S. News & World Report by authors Greg Ferguson and David Bowermaster. Within it, they say: “The starting place for all Clinton murder theorists seems to be Vincent Foster.”

This turned out to be right on the money as his death was the most notable mentioned within Linda Thompson’s paper, and it continues to raise many eyebrows to this day. But is there any evidence?

As many people alive at the time remember, Vincent Foster was one of Bill Clinton’s personal White House advisors and a former legal partner at their firm prior to Bill’s presidency. Foster’s death occurred during Clinton’s first term in office and was a major point of speculation for conspiracy theorists because it coincided with a Clinton-era scandal known as “Travelgate.” This will be the first of many scandals we will be discussing as we move forward.

The Travelgate scandal began in May of 1993 when then-President Bill Clinton ordered the termination of seven executive-level federal employees who each worked in highly coveted positions at the White House Travel and Telegraph Office. Essentially, these employees were in charge of overseeing the travel arrangements of the White House Press Corps, and their firing was noteworthy because several of the men terminated had held their positions since before Bill Clinton himself had even entered politics. For several decades, they had served at the pleasure of both Republican and Democratic Presidents without issue, and their work had never been called into question.

Officially, the White House’s declared justification for this decision was a multi-year, multi-presidential investigation by the FBI that had revealed financial fraud had taken place within the office during past administrations. Legally, since all seven of the men served at the pleasure of the sitting president, Bill Clinton was well within his right to fire them; however, the press uncovered evidence that there was another reason for Clinton’s decision: after the men were fired, Clinton appointed his own friends and campaign donors to those newly vacant, highly coveted positions. To this day, both Bill and Hillary claim that this entire scandal was fabricated by the media, but nevertheless, Clinton was forced to fire his friends and reinstate the original seven employees due to the backlash.

This brief explanation of Travelgate does not include many of the important smaller details of this controversy because it is just a single part of a much larger scandal that will be discussed in a later section. The ethics investigation that resulted from this larger scandal outlived Clinton’s presidency and stretched well into George W. Bush’s first term. Some at the time thought it had the potential to be the next Watergate.

Whether that was just hyperbole was up to who you asked and where they fell on the political spectrum.

However, the reason Travelgate is important to us is because Vincent Foster died during the media fallout from this scandal.

On July 20th, 1993, Foster’s body was discovered in Fort Marcy Park near George Washington Parkway in Virginia. He had been killed by a single round from a .38 caliber handgun that had been fired into the roof of his mouth. That handgun was found in his hand at the scene.

During the investigation, which was conducted by local authorities, police learned that Foster had been seeking help for his mental health the day prior to his death, and he had also told his friends and colleagues that he could not handle the personal and professional humiliation that the investigation into Travelgate had caused him. He knew he would likely have to testify before congress and was considering resigning from his post to escape the national spotlight; however, he was conflicted because he knew he would never be happy if he returned to his home state a miserable failure. Learning this, it didn’t take long for the police to rule Foster’s death a suicide.

Days later, their theory was further confirmed when a draft of a handwritten suicide note/resignation letter—which had been ripped into 28 separate pieces—was discovered inside Foster’s briefcase inside his office. The letter was found by one of Foster’s colleagues, a man named Steve Neuwirth, and it was then immediately turned over to another of Clinton’s advisors, Bernard Nussbaum, who then turned it into federal authorities the following day.

So, where does the conspiracy come into play? Well, part of it started when Police Major Robert Hines, a police officer present at the park when Foster’s body was first discovered, stated publicly to the media that he had not seen an exit wound on the back of Foster’s head. Seeing as one would expect a .38 caliber round to easily create an exit wound when fired from such a close range, this statement made the entire investigation appear shady because it ran counter to the police’s official statement.

Following this, the ripped-up resignation letter was analyzed by three independent handwriting experts who each concluded that it was undoubtedly a forgery. In interviews given to the media in 1995, these experts claimed that the letter had been written by someone with a moderate knowledge of forgery and, at first glance, could pass as real. Under increased scrutiny, however, several key indicators of forgery could be detected. They also provided a detailed breakdown of these indicators so that laymen could easily follow along:

First, there was an unusual amount of hesitation dots found throughout the document where the writer had placed the pen to paper and held it there for a moment before writing. This wouldn’t have been considered strange if those marks had been in expected places, such as at the start of a sentence, but some words showed multiple hesitation marks within a single word—sometimes multiple in a single letter. In one instance, there was a letter “N” that had been written using only three strokes but showed four hesitation marks.

Additionally, when observing the number of strokes used to create individual words and letters, experts noted several major deviations between Foster’s typical writing style and the writing style seen inside the resignation letter. Normally, Foster used one long, confident stroke, but there was one particular “B” present in the letter that had been written using 4 separate, sloppy strokes. This indicated to them that someone had likely been trying very hard to copy Foster’s style without much practice or experience.

In total, the experts were able to point out 12 separate indicators within the letter that they asserted were only present in cases of forgery.

Further adding to the speculation, the letter had not been signed, and no clear fingerprints or handprints from Foster were found anywhere on the paper despite it being a lengthy document that would have taken him considerable time to write. There was one smudged handprint found on the paper; however, it was later determined to belong to Bernard Nussbaum, Clinton’s other advisor who had turned the letter into the authorities three days after Foster’s death.

Following these revelations, the conspiracy theorists were off to the races, and several articles were written that alleged Bill Clinton had ordered Foster’s death in order to cover up information relating to Travelgate and bury other sensitive information about his life and crimes that, as his lawyer, Foster was privy to. There were also reports of blonde hair and red carpet fibers on Foster’s suit jacket and semen in his underwear, which several outlets suggested was significant. They theorized that Foster had been murdered by a secret mistress with blonde hair, wrapped in a carpet, and then dropped off at the park where his body would eventually be discovered.

According to them, the gun found at the scene was Foster’s gun and it had been used to end his life, but Foster had not been the one to pull the trigger. They also argued that the entire police investigation had been rushed in order to prevent any media outlets from delving into speculation.

So, what damaging information did Foster have that could have placed a target on his back? Well, according to some outlets, Foster was in possession of incriminating documents related to another Clinton-era scandal known as the Whitewater controversy. For now, all you need to know about Whitewater is, around the same time as the Travelgate scandal, Bill Clinton was under investigation for his past business dealings with a man named James McDougal. McDougal and Whitewater will both be discussed at length in another section because, spoiler, McDougal also turned up dead under mysterious circumstances.

Anyway, according to the conspiracy, shortly after his death, Foster’s office was raided by another of Bill Clinton’s personal attorneys and those incriminating documents were removed under the cover of night and hidden from the authorities.

Altogether, the claims made for a very convincing narrative, a narrative that has never fully faded from public consciousness; however, almost everything presented so far can be explained away rather simply, and the information needed to dispel this theory was uncovered just years after Foster’s death:

In 1997, while trying to prove Foster’s death was not a suicide, a right-wing publishing group known as Regnery Publishing House reached out to true-crime author Dan Moldea to research and write a book for them on the subject. Before receiving this offer, Moldea had researched and written several other books about sensitive topics at the time, including The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means, and Opportunity and Evidence Dismissed: The Inside Story of the Police Investigation of O.J. Simpson.

Impressed with his work, the higher ups at Regnery hoped that Moldea’s research and subsequent book would confirm their beliefs, however, when the book they had financed was submitted, it was titled A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm, and—if you couldn’t guess from the title—it concluded the exact opposite. The publishing house then fought against the book’s release, but Moldea fought harder and won.

According to him, the very first thing that sparked this conspiracy was the statement given to the media by Police Major Robert Hines in which he claimed there had been no exit wound found on the back of Foster’s head; however, Hines’s claim turned out to be untrue. There was an exit wound, and as Moldea stated in interviews, Hines had simply been flustered at the time of the interview and had said the wrong thing: “I don’t think there was anything nefarious here; he was being approached by reporters and he wanted something to say.”

As for the incriminating documents that were removed from Foster’s office, Moldea concluded that something like this did happen, but it wasn’t as shady as the media made it seem. In a statement released by White House Communications Director Mark Gearan, Gearan states:

Following the death of Vincent Foster and following the examination of the files in his office on July 22, 1993, by White House counsel [Nussbaum] in the presence of representatives of various law enforcement agencies, Mr. Foster’s files were distributed as follows: (1) those files pertaining to his White House duties remained in the counsel’s offices; (2) those files that were personal to Mr. Foster and his family were sent to his family’s personal attorney [Jim Hamilton]; and (3) those files that pertained to the personal legal affairs of the president and Mrs.

Clinton (including documents relating to their personal tax returns, the filing of Whitewater Development Corp. tax returns, and the disposition of their interest in Whitewater)—all of which were preserved—were sent to the Clintons’ personal attorney [Robert Barnett and, later, David E. Kendall, both of Williams & Connolly].

As for the blond hair, red carpet, and semen found on Foster’s body, those can easily be explained away in a number of different ways—none of which involve the Clintons. Maybe Foster was having an affair with a blonde woman, maybe he wasn’t; it’s irrelevant. Maybe he took his jacket off and laid it on the carpet to have sex with her; it doesn’t prove anything. Everything related to the hair, carpet, and semen is circumstantial, and the only reason we are discussing them is because of the speculation of 90’s tabloid journalists.

So, with these claims out of the way, what is left? Well, we still haven’t addressed the forged suicide note/resignation letter:

As stated earlier, three handwriting experts each asserted that this note was unequivocally a forgery; however, the FBI quickly stepped in and released their own assessment concluding that it was genuine. Other independent handwriting experts came to the same conclusion.

So, what is going on here? Were the three handwriting experts lying? Were they themselves conspiracy theorists?

Well, as explained by investigators, the document the original experts had each examined was a photocopy of the letter and not the original letter itself. This copy did not reveal the finer details of Foster’s penmanship, and what first appeared suspicious was just the result of poor image quality. As for the deviations in Foster’s writing style, they pointed out that the letter had been penned by a shaky hand guided by a man on the verge of suicide. And that’s really all there is to it.

After an extensive investigation into Foster’s death was conducted, it was concluded that: “In sum, based on all of the available evidence, which is considerable, the OIC [Office of Independent Counsel] agrees with the conclusion reached by every official entity that has examined the issue: Mr. Foster committed suicide by gunshot in Fort Marcy Park on July 20, 1993.”

Don Henry and Kevin Ives

So, Vince Foster’s death may have been a nothingburger, but now we need to go back in time to the 80s and talk about two deaths that I am personally convinced are related to some sort of coverup.

On August 23, 1987, at around 4 AM, a Union Pacific locomotive pulling over 6,000 tons of goods was on its way to Little Rock, Arkansas when something strange happened. As it passed through the town of Alexander, the train’s engineer noticed two teenage boys lying on the tracks approximately 300 feet ahead of him. Immediately, the engineer engaged the brakes and began desperately blowing the horn, but it was too late. Because the train was moving at over 50 miles per hour and carrying so much weight, it was simply unable to stop, and the boys never even tried to move.

40 minutes later, officers were on the scene, and the teens were identified as 16-year-old Don Henry and 17-year-old Kevin Ives. Near the tracks, police found a hunting rifle and flashlight, which indicated they had likely left home earlier in the night to go spotlight hunting. (Spotlight hunting involves shining a bright light into a dark forest to illuminate the eyes of nearby animals.)

The following day, an autopsy was performed by Dr. Fahmy Malak, a state medical examiner, and he found extremely high levels of THC in both teens’ bodies. And when I say high, I’m talking about the equivalent of over “20 marijuana cigarettes each.” According to Malak, this would have been more than enough to leave them incapacitated and unable to hear or feel the train as it approached.

As such, the police determined that, while high, the teens had likely laid across the tracks to look up at the stars and had been hit without ever waking up. Their deaths were ruled a tragic accident and touted as yet another reason to avoid the devil’s lettuce.

But here’s where things get interesting:

The following year, in March of 1988, the parents of both Don and Kevin requested that the teens’ bodies be exhumed so a second autopsy could be performed. Their request was granted, and two other independent examiners from out of state, James Garriot from Texas and Joseph Burton from Georgia, were brought in to verify Dr. Malak’s findings. They both disputed Malak’s claim that “20 marijuana cigarettes” worth of THC was present in the teens’ bloodstream and stated that it was significantly less, likely closer to 1 or 2 cigarettes’ worth.

Additionally, although Malak’s original autopsy had made no mention of it, there were other notable wounds on both teens’ bodies that had not resulted from the train accident: Kevin’s skull had been crushed prior to being run over, and Don had been stabbed in the back with a knife. Following these new autopsies, both deaths were reclassified as homicide.

Like Vince Foster’s death, some conspiracy theorists latched onto the idea that Bill Clinton had ordered a coverup of the teens’ deaths because they had witnessed something in the woods that night that they shouldn’t have. As a reminder, Bill Clinton was serving as Arkansas’s governor when this occurred because he had not yet been elected to the White House. According to this theory, the teens had witnessed a drug drop occurring at an airfield that was nearby the section of tracks on which their bodies were discovered.

This isn’t actually a wild assumption because there were well-documented cartel activities happening in the area in those years that many people in town were well-aware of at the time. People assumed that the teens must have stumbled upon one of those drops, been spotted, killed, and placed on the tracks to make their deaths appear like an accident.

No legitimate evidence to support this theory was ever presented, and the assumption that Bill Clinton was involved basically stems from another conspiracy that he was a secret drug user/drug dealer/drug trafficker while serving as the state’s governor. This is yet another conspiracy we will be speaking about in a later section. However, as it pertains to the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives, there were a few notable occurrences that indicate there may have been something rotten in the state of Arkansas:

After the teens’ deaths were reclassified, the prosecuting attorney in charge of their case, Dan Harmon, was discovered to be a drug dealer himself and possibly one of the people involved in the teens’ deaths. After his arrest, several people came forward claiming to have information about Dan Harmon, but each died under mysterious circumstances before being able to testify against him. Also, around the same time, another person believed to be involved in the case, Keith McCaskie, died after being stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant who was never identified.

This was all very convenient for prosecutor-turned-drug-lord Dan Harmon, but the biggest mind blower is the fact that all the autopsies performed on the people mentioned in this section were performed by Dr. Fahmy Malak, the examiner who ostensibly lied about his findings on the teens’ original autopsy report.

Could this be a coverup of a coverup of a coverup?

Obviously, whenever drug cartels are involved, just about anything is possible, and like I said at the beginning of this section, I believe there is something going on here. I also believe that some official agency should reopen this case; however, there is no evidence that the Clintons were involved.

Multiple Aviation Accidents

Next up is C. Victor Raiser II, his son, and four other unrelated people who just so happen to be collateral damage on one of Bill Clinton’s murderous rampages—at least that’s how it was pushed by some outlets.

On July 30th, 1992, the six aforementioned individuals were riding in a privately chartered, single-engine aircraft near Dillingham, Alaska when tragedy struck. The plane had taken off from Bristol Bay Lodges, a fishing lodge ranked fourth best in the world, and was headed 50 miles southwest to a lodge-owned camp near the Togiak River. This is where the six passengers, all of whom were guests of the resort, planned to fish that day.

According to flight records, the route the pilot had chartered was over a mountainous region with peaks approximately 4000 feet high, and before taking off, he had been assured by the local flight operator that the weather was clear along the entire route; however, that day, the weather was proving unpredictable. Shortly after taking off, the pilot saw that the pass he intended to fly through was closed off by low clouds, and with less than a mile of visibility around him, was forced to reverse course. While doing this, the plane failed to maintain airspeed, stalled, and then plummeted into the mountains below. The pilot was the only survivor.

Now, when this crash first occurred, it made headlines but not for the reasons we are about to discuss. C. Victor Raiser II was an important man, so his death was noteworthy on its own, but it wasn’t until Linda Thompson’s list was released that people began to look closer at his relationship to the Clintons.

As it turns out, he was a former National Finance Co-Chairman under Clinton, and it was alleged that he was killed because he “knew too much.” Theories of what really caused the crash soon surfaced, which included mechanical sabotage, a bomb hidden inside the engine compartment, and even an assertion that the pilot was a hired professional hitman and the crash had been staged. Thank you, Alex Jones, for that last one. Allegedly.

The fact that the pilot was the only survivor was a huge driver of this conspiracy, but this wasn’t the only “suspicious” plane crash that occurred around that time.

Fifteen months later, on September 10th, 1993, Dr. Stanley Heard, a chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee and doctor for several members of the Clinton family, died when the plane he was riding in caught fire. There were no survivors during this crash, and Heard’s attorney, Steve Dickson, was on board with him.

What was notable about this accident—other than the fact that both Heard and Dickson knew the Clintons—was the fact that Heard had just come from a meeting at the White House where he had discussed the Clinton Administration’s healthcare plan. This meeting had supposedly not gone well.

Had Bill snuck onboard and planted a device rigged to explode? Probably not.

The plane Heard and Dickson were flying had been badly maintained and was not even the plane they normally flew. Their normal plane had developed a mechanical issue while en route to DC, and they had rented another to avoid staying overnight while waiting for repairs. They cheaped out and paid the price.

Or is that just what the government wants you to believe?

Jerry Parks

As a career private investigator, Jerry Parks acted as the head of security for Bill Clinton’s campaign headquarters during his first campaign for president in 1992. On September 26th, 1993, he was murdered while exiting a Mexican restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas by a man in a car wielding a 9mm pistol. Parks was shot 10 times and died at the scene. No suspect was ever located, and his murder remains unsolved to this day.

Shortly after this occurred, a straight-to-VHS film titled “Bill and Hillary’s Circle of Power” was released, and it made some truly incredible claims. Without providing much evidence, it stated that Bill, Hillary, and their “inner circle” had committed insider trading, racketeering, and murder while also participating in various other illegal activities to help obfuscate said crimes, such as arson and witness intimidation. It also leaned into the aforementioned drug dealing governor conspiracy, which stated that, as governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton had facilitated the importation and sale of hard drugs in his state by working alongside South American Cartels and ordering the state’s drug enforcement taskforce to allow these cartels to operate within the state with relative impunity.

As evidence, the film primarily uses the testimony of people who either knew or had known the Clintons at one point, and one of those people featured was Jerry Parks’ own son, Gary Parks. Gary claimed that, at the time of his father’s death, Jerry was in possession of a substantial amount of evidence linking the Clintons to these crimes as well as other evidence showing that Bill himself had misappropriated Arkansas state funds to purchase sexual favors from five separate women in an Arkansas hotel he frequently visited. According to Gary, his father had acquired this information while working for the Clinton campaign and was actively trying to blackmail the Clinton presidential administration when he was gunned down.

This information was supposedly kept in a file that Gary believes was stolen and destroyed by someone working for the Clintons around the time of his father’s death. Neither Gary nor anyone else associated with the film has ever been able to prove that a file ever existed in the first place.

Nevertheless, once these allegations were made, Jerry Parks’ name was added to the list of Clinton’s alleged victims.

As a side note, the film also featured the story of Don Henry and Kevin Ives. Kevin Ives’ mother appeared in the film and, to summarize, stated she was convinced Bill Clinton was responsible for her son’s death. Others interviewed in the film later stated that they would not have agreed to give statements to the film’s producers if they knew how unhinged the claims against Clinton would be.

James McDougal

Now, do you remember the Whitewater scandal I mentioned while speaking about Vince Foster? Well, it’s finally time to return to that discussion and talk about another related death, that of James McDougal, one of Bill Clinton’s former investment partners who died in prison shortly before his scheduled release. Let me back up and provide some much-needed context:

According to official records, Bill and Hillary Clinton entered a real estate investment partnership with husband-and-wife James and Susan McDougal in 1977. Their plan was to construct a community of vacation homes along the White River in Flippin, Arkansas to cater to wealthy individuals based primarily in nearby Chicago and Detroit. In pursuit of this plan, the four of them founded the Whitewater Development Corporation, of which Bill, Hillary, James, and Susan each received an equal share of ownership. They then purchased 230 acres of land for the homes using $203,000 of borrowed money, but before construction could begin, the economy went belly up and interest in the area dried up.

Initially, all four fully intended to hold out and wait for an economic upturn to begin construction—they even built a show home to draw prospective buyers to the area—but after several years, the project was scrapped, the partnership was dissolved, and all joint assets were liquidated. In total, Bill and Hillary lost an estimated $69,000 dollars while James and Susan lost significantly more.

Following this failure, both the Clintons and the McDougals suffered even harder times. In 1980, Bill lost his reelection bid for Arkansas governor—although he would win again 2 years later—and Jim lost his job working under Bill as one of the governor’s economic aides. In the years that followed, Bill would recover well financially during his decade-long journey toward the White House; however, James and Susan would continue to struggle.

In 1982, the McDougals acquired two banks, renaming them the Madison Bank & Trust and the Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. They then invested in another real estate project near Little Rock, Arkansas called Castle Grande using funds borrowed from one of their own banks. However, like Whitewater, this venture failed, which also caused Madison Guaranty Bank to fail as well several years later.

This was a very big deal because, when a bank fails, the US government must step in and clean up the mess, a task that cost taxpayers an estimated $73 million dollars in 1990’s money. This was unfortunate for the McDougals, who found themselves in the middle of a large federal investigation. But they were safe because they hadn’t done anything illegal, right?

No. As it turns out, financing a personal venture using your own bank is very risky business, which is why the law states a person can borrow a maximum of $600,000 from a bank they own—and not a penny more. James had borrowed almost 2 million, but he had attempted to hide this fact by funneling that money through other shell companies and intermediaries.

This investigation caused quite a stir in both Arkansas and DC; however, nothing serious would come of it for the Clintons until March of 1992 when, during the Democratic Party’s primary election season, the New York Times published an article that highlighted the Clintons’ and the McDougals’ previous business relationship. This link caused both Bill and Hillary to be recommended to the FBI as witnesses in the ongoing investigation into Madison Guaranty Bank’s failure. Having their names attached to such an investigation was obviously not ideal for a potential president.

In 1993, after Bill won the election anyway, things got even worse for him and Hillary when a loan officer named David Hale claimed that Bill had illegally pressured him into approving a $300,000-dollar loan for Susan McDougal as part of the Castle Grande venture. After this, it was also learned that one of the law firms that provided counsel to Madison Guaranty Bank during their time in business was Rose Law Firm, the law firm where Hillary Clinton was employed. Then, in case that wasn’t enough, an allegation that Bill had misappropriated campaign finance funds during his prior gubernatorial campaign soon resurfaced that further tied them to claims of corruption and financial fraud.

So, essentially, although they themselves were not investors in the Castle Grande scheme, the Clintons’ names were all over the deal, and although they claimed to have done nothing illegal, a separate and much larger investigation into the Clintons was launched that became known as the Whitewater Investigation. (If you recall, Vince Foster was allegedly in possession of incriminating information related to this investigation at the time of his suicide.) However, while the committee in charge of this investigation was initially created to focus solely on Whitewater, the hearings grew to include many more allegations—including those surrounding Monica Lewinsky—and ultimately resulted in Clinton being recommended for impeachment based on 11 separate offenses, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and abuse of power. However, none of those were the result of the Whitewater or the Castle Grande investigations; they all came from the Monica Lewinsky investigation.

In the end, most people know how this story ends for Clinton; he was impeached by the House of Representatives, acquitted by the Senate, and remained in office until his second term was finished in 2001. He never received any real consequences for his actions while president, but James and Susan McDougal did—as did 13 others involved in the Madison Guaranty Bank scheme, many of whom were Clinton’s own former associates. James McDougal alone was sentenced to 81 years in prison for his role.

But this is where things get truly interesting.

James was found guilty early on in relation to Clinton’s other investigations and, to have his sentence reduced, agreed to help investigators by providing information on “a wide range of matters, including matters previously unknown to (the prosecution).” This is likely how the other 13 defendants were able to be convicted, and James’s sentence was reduced to only 3.5 years.

After the other sentences were handed out, Bill Clinton pardoned several of his former associates, including Stephen Smith, one of his former aides who was found guilty of conspiracy to misapply Clinton’s own campaign funds. He also pardoned Chris Wade, a banker found guilty of loan fraud; Robert Palmer, an appraiser found guilty of fraud; and Susan McDougal herself, who was convicted on multiple counts of fraud. Clinton did not, however, pardon James McDougal. It is theorized—although not confirmed because his testimony is sealed—that James’s cooperation may have aided in Clinton’s impeachment.

Following this, James served the majority of his sentence with good behavior and was on the fast track to an early release; however, at age 57, he suffered a “massive cardiac incident” just a few months before the parole hearing that was expected to grant his release.

Before this, conspiracy theorists were already buzzing around the entire Clinton investigation like flies as they continued to push dozens of interconnected conspiracies, but when James McDougal dropped dead just before his release after being snubbed for a pardon, they shifted all their focus to him.

What had really caused McDougal’s death? A heart attack didn’t make sense to most people because James was relatively young and did not suffer from any major health problems. Stress from being in prison could have caused it, but he had already served over two years without incident, which made this theory unlikely.

Had McDougal been killed as revenge for his cooperation with the prosecution? Had he been killed because Clinton feared he would reveal other damaging information after his impending release?

There is no evidence that I have seen, yet the conspiracy lives on.

Many More Deaths

Now, in this section I’d like to pick up the pace a bit and name off several more often-cited people—some of whom were on Linda’s original list, some of whom were not—and provide a few basic details about their relationship to the Clintons, their officially recognized cause of death, and any other relevant details about their lives. Unless specified otherwise, assume the motive for each alleged murder was that the deceased had “information” that could harm either the Clintons or the larger Democratic party:

In February of 1993, during the siege in Waco, Texas, three of the four ATF agents killed during the famous two-and-a-half-hour gunfight were former bodyguards of Clinton during his run for president. Their names were Todd McKeehan and Conway Le Bleu of New Orleans, Louisiana; Steve Willis of Houston, Texas; and Robert Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, Bill Clinton’s hometown. They were assumed to have been reassigned and killed after witnessing Clinton engage in shady dealings.

In May of that same year, four marines, all of whom were members of Clinton’s presidential helicopter squadron, were killed when the Blackhawk they were flying suddenly fell out of the sky near Quantico, Virginia. Clinton himself had ridden inside this helicopter prior to the accident, and what some people found most suspicious was the fact that only one man who died that day had been part of the helicopter’s regular crew; the other three had been reassigned to it last-minute. Also, while sifting through the wreckage, all media personnel and cameras had been banned from the scene, which only increased speculation.

The following month, in June of 1993, Paul Wilcher, an investigator looking into the deaths of the aforementioned ATF agents, Clinton’s alleged link to the Arkansas drug problem, and the Whitewater scandal was discovered dead inside his home after submitting a 99-page report to attorney general Janet Reno three weeks prior. He was found sitting on his toilet, but his exact cause of death was not determined.

Three years later, in 1996, Ron Brown, the former Secretary of Commerce who worked under Bill Clinton during his first term as president, died in the 1996 Boeing CT-43A plane crash alongside 33 others. At the time of his death, he was a material witness in a lawsuit filed against Clinton’s Commerce Department.

Three years later, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. was also killed in a plane crash while running against Hillary during the 2000 US Senate election in New York. According to polling, Kennedy was the favorite to win; however, after his death, Hillary won instead.

And now that we’ve mentioned a death supposedly committed in furtherance of Hillary’s political career instead of Bill’s, let’s keep that train rolling by skipping ahead to the 2016 presidential election. That year, a man named Seth Rich, a Democratic staff member working for Hillary’s campaign was murdered. Officially, police announced that he had been killed in a “robbery gone wrong” while jogging; however, none of his valuables—his wallet, cell phone, or watch—had been stolen.

As for motivation, it was speculated that Rich was the person responsible for the 2016 DNC email leak that was picked up and spread by Wikileaks that year. This theory was only strengthened when Wikileaks’ official Twitter account offered a $20,000 dollar reward for information related to Rich’s death. However, the US’s official position was that the leak had been perpetrated by a Russian hacking group known as “Guccifer 2.0.”

Fox News and other outlets issued a retraction after this, but many remain unconvinced it was a random robbery.

In June of that same year, Christopher Sign, a reporter who uncovered evidence of a secret meeting that had occurred between Bill Clinton and former-Attorney General Loretta Lynch was found dead in his Alabama home. His death was ruled a suicide; however, theorists claimed his death did not result from an effort to cover up any information; it was done to warn other reporters to keep their mouths shut.

In 2021, former-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by several gunmen while in his home during a period of nationwide civil unrest caused by a number of different controversies. During this time, rioters had been calling for his resignation, but theorists were quick to tie his death to the Clintons due to a past public statement by Moïse where he had condemned The Clinton Foundation for building unsafe structures in Haiti following an earthquake. These structures were reportedly shoddily built using toxic materials laced with formaldehyde that were causing people to become ill.

As the theory goes, this was a bad look for the Clintons and their nonprofit group, so they orchestrated his deposition, violently. QAnon followers played a pivotal role in spreading this theory, just as they had done several years prior with the death we’ll be talking about next.

Jeffrey Epstein

If there was ever a person more likely to be killed by Bill Clinton than Jeffrey Epstein, I cannot imagine who it would be; however, this topic has already been covered extensively elsewhere, so this section will be kept very brief and will only mention the facts necessary to discuss Epstein’s relationship to the Clintons, specifically Bill Clinton.

Keeping things short, Epstein’s body was found in his jail cell on August 10th, 2019, after his supposed suicide. At the time of his death, he was facing charges of sex trafficking after years of allegedly grooming and engaging in sex acts with girls as young as 11 on his private island, Little St. James, AKA Pedophile Island.

Epstein was also very well connected, having been friends with many wealthy and powerful men from all around the world, and according to his accusers, some of those men and women would also participate in the abuse. Epstein kept the contact information for many of his friends—who some people have claimed were also his clients—in a little black book that was discovered after his death. The names of Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, Prince Andrew, Woody Allen, and many more were all listed in that book.

Oh, and let’s not forget Bill Clinton’s name.

Keep in mind that most of these allegations have never been proven in court due to Epstein’s untimely death.

Now, I’m not even going to touch the whole Epstein didn’t kill himself debate with a ten-foot pole, but there are people who believe he was murdered to help obfuscate the sex crimes of the world’s powerful elites. Of the people who believe this, many also believe that Bill Clinton is the person most likely responsible.

Is that what I’m saying? Absolutely not, and that’s because there is no tangible evidence to support this claim. Here are the only facts known about Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein:

Bill has denied being close friends with Epstein; however, he was an infrequent visitor of Little St. James, and Epstein kept multiple photographs of Bill inside his home. Bill claims that these trips were taken as part of his work for The Clinton Foundation; however, there are also photos available online of Bill receiving a neck massage from one of Epstein’s accusers after flying on Epstein’s plane, the Lolita Express, in 2002. Much speculation has resulted from this photograph, but the accuser in the picture has stated on record that Bill Clinton was “a perfect gentleman” during their brief interaction.

Beyond the Clintons

So, now that we’ve touched on every death that I see as relevant, where does that leave us? Well, before sitting down to research this topic, I was only somewhat familiar with this conspiracy and curious about what—if any—real evidence there was out there to support it. And now that I’ve spent several weeks reading every credible source that I could get my hands on—as well as a few shady ones from the darker parts of the internet—this is what I have concluded:

Are the Clintons corrupt? Beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Are they more corrupt than other politicians in Washington? Perhaps, or maybe it only seems so because of the amount of scrutiny they were placed under during the 90s.

Are they murderers? No, I don’t believe so. There is simply no credible evidence that links any of the events mentioned throughout this article to the Clintons, and the only death that remains even remotely suspicious—besides Epstein’s—is that of Don Henry and Kevin Ives, which was only included in Linda Thompson’s original list because Bill Clinton was governor of the state at the time of the murders. Likewise, the most convincing feature of this conspiracy is the sheer number of supposed victims, and that still proves nothing because most of the cases are tangentially related to the Clintons at best.

So, that is my answer; however, because I was only able to go in depth on a few of the deaths for the sake of time, I know most believers in this conspiracy won’t be satisfied with my answer. They’ll point to some obscure piece of evidence or death that I did not mention and accuse me of being part of the conspiracy. However, if you’ll allow me one last opportunity, I’d like to take a different approach, a broader approach, to explain the reason this conspiracy is so convincing to some people: it was designed to be.

Throughout the rest of this article—with the help of information obtained from Snopes.com—I’m going to explain the way body count lists are crafted. If you are not aware, the Clinton body count is not unique. Throughout history, there have been dozens—if not hundreds—of documented body count lists, and creating one is quite rudimentary because there are a number of “tricks” that conspiracy theorists use—sometimes subconsciously but oftentimes on purpose—to make their claims seem more believable.

And to make this more interesting, I’m going to present this information as a step-by-step, how-to guide so that you, the reader, can craft your own body count conspiracy. All you need is a little imagination and a complete disregard for ethics!

#NotLegalAdvice

Let’s get to it:

The first trick is to make a very, very long list of victims. This is what Linda Thompson did, and it works because, in some people’s minds, a larger number translates to a higher likelihood. After all, one or two questionable deaths can be dismissed as coincidence, but thirty-four? Surely not!

Plus, a larger number is much more difficult to disprove because researching one or two cases is not difficult for the average reader, but researching several dozen cases is another story entirely. By the time someone has reached the end of your magnum list, they will be far too exhausted to question anything you’ve said, especially the finer details that may be somewhat dubious.

And speaking of those finer details, let’s talk about what you should and shouldn’t present to your readers because compiling a big list won’t do you any good if you are disproving your own claims in the next sentence. Remember, we’re not trying to be objective here, we’re trying to get people to buy into our conspiracy and possibly buy our upcoming book in hardback.

In essence, if a piece of evidence supports your claims, focus on it heavily; if it doesn’t, just disregard it. To see this in action, let’s look back at the case of Vince Foster: the fact that his friends, family, and colleagues all knew he was suffering from mental health problems before his suicide was completely ignored by most theorists because it didn’t fit the narrative they were pushing. Some even claimed his family were in on the conspiracy, which is beyond wild—or genius!

Also, nobody pushing the conspiracy ever asked questions like: if the Clintons were killing people to protect their image, why did Bill Clinton get impeached? Why wasn’t Monica Lewinsky killed? Why were the people exposing this very body count list allowed to live? These are the types of questions that can be detrimental to a good conspiracy—which is exactly why you are not going to bring them up or acknowledge them!

If someone else brings them up, simply ignore that person and accuse them of being a member of the “deep state.”

The next trick revolves around how you present this evidence to your reader. You should play word games with them by presenting every fact as a claim and every claim as potentially dubious. Instead of saying, “all the evidence uncovered corroborates the police’s theory of suicide,” say “according to the official narrative, the police claim they were not able to uncover any evidence of homicide, but they have refused to release all their findings to the public, and they will not return my many calls.”

(And make no mention that the “findings” you are requesting is a collection of closeup, graphic photographs of Vince Foster’s gunshot wound. Yes, people did actually request those very disturbing photos be released to the public and then complained when their request was denied.)

Likewise, you should also seek to overwhelm your reader with a tremendous amount of useless information while making that information seem both mysterious and incriminating. Most people lack the ability to think critically, and you can use this to your advantage. If a man dies from a fall during a rock-climbing expedition and the police discover three protein bars in his backpack, don’t assume that he was simply a hungry man in need of the extra calories; assume that there must have been two other people with him—Bill and Hillary Clinton perhaps—and they must have been the ones to push him off the cliff.

Keep people focused on those protein bars, and don’t let a lack of evidence stop you from jumping to some truly incredible conclusions. (Remember the red carpet fibers on Vince Foster’s suit jacket? Obviously, he was rolled up in a carpet at some point.)

And just like that, your body count conspiracy is now fully crafted and ready for release. But don’t get comfortable yet because your work is just beginning!

The final trick is to remain flexible and never stop defending your conspiracy; keep feeding it for as long as possible, and if you can add more names over time, do it. People tend to believe that older claims are more credible, which is basically how all religions maintain any semblance of credibility in the modern day.

This is how the Clinton Body Count Conspiracy was started and perpetuated for over three decades, and the fact that so many anti-Clinton republicans latched on to this theory in an attempt to have Bill Clinton removed from office in the 90s was a major reason it has remained relevant. Remember, it wasn’t just Alex Jones pushing this theory, the original list was delivered to congress by an elected congressman, an act that, in and of itself, provides some level of credibility. Plus, years after Clinton’s two terms were over, the conspiracy found new life among politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.

However, if you are still unsatisfied with this vague explanation, let me offer a more specific reason as to why so many people involved with the Clintons have died:

The Clintons have been in politics for over 4 decades, and they have been in business for themselves for even longer. In that time, they have met with, shaken hands with, partnered with, taken pictures with, gone to dinner with, and attended events with more individuals than most regular people will pass on the street in their entire lives. They have made friends and enemies, business partners and political rivals, and everything in between.

Simply put, when you are rich and powerful, you are going to associate yourself with other rich and powerful people, and some of those people are going to die. Not by your hands—or the hands of the Clintons—but in any number of ways that normal people die. And if someone is determined enough, they can make those deaths fit their own sinister narrative.

Or maybe the Clintons did do it. Who knows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Clinton Body Count Conspiracy?

The Clinton Body Count Conspiracy is the belief that Bill and Hillary Clinton have avoided the worst consequences of their actions by causing the deaths of dozens—if not hundreds—of people around them. This conspiracy has roots stretching back to the early 90s and continues to be one of the most well-known and widely believed political conspiracies in America.

Who first wrote about the Clinton Body Count?

Linda Thompson, an attorney from Indianapolis, Indiana, wrote an essay titled ‘The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death?’ in 1993. This essay was the first written document to imply Bill Clinton may be involved in the deaths of some of his friends, acquaintances, and business associates.

What was the Travelgate scandal?

The Travelgate scandal began in May of 1993 when President Bill Clinton ordered the termination of seven executive-level federal employees who worked in highly coveted positions at the White House Travel and Telegraph Office. The firings were noteworthy because several of the men terminated had held their positions since before Bill Clinton entered politics. Officially, the White House’s justification was a multi-year, multi-presidential investigation by the FBI that had revealed financial fraud within the office.

What was the official cause of Vincent Foster’s death?

Vincent Foster’s death was ruled a suicide. He was found in Fort Marcy Park near George Washington Parkway in Virginia with a single gunshot wound to the roof of his mouth. The investigation concluded that Foster had been seeking help for his mental health and was overwhelmed by the personal and professional humiliation caused by the Travelgate scandal.

What was the Whitewater scandal?

The Whitewater scandal involved Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate investment partnership with James and Susan McDougal. The partnership aimed to construct a community of vacation homes along the White River in Arkansas, but the project failed due to economic downturns. The scandal resurfaced during Bill Clinton’s presidency when it was revealed that James McDougal had borrowed nearly $2 million from a bank he owned, which was illegal.

What happened to James McDougal?

James McDougal was sentenced to 81 years in prison for his role in the Madison Guaranty Bank scheme. He agreed to cooperate with investigators to reduce his sentence and was on track for an early release when he suffered a ‘massive cardiac incident’ just months before his parole hearing.

What was the official cause of death for Don Henry and Kevin Ives?

The official cause of death for Don Henry and Kevin Ives was initially ruled as a tragic accident due to high levels of THC in their bodies. However, a second autopsy revealed that Kevin’s skull had been crushed and Don had been stabbed before being placed on the train tracks. Their deaths were reclassified as homicides.

What was the official cause of death for C. Victor Raiser II?

C. Victor Raiser II died in a plane crash near Dillingham, Alaska. The plane failed to maintain airspeed, stalled, and plummeted into the mountains. The pilot was the only survivor. The crash was attributed to poor weather conditions and pilot error.

What was the official cause of death for Jerry Parks?

Jerry Parks was murdered while exiting a Mexican restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was shot 10 times by a man in a car wielding a 9mm pistol. No suspect was ever located, and his murder remains unsolved.

What was the official cause of death for Jeffrey Epstein?

Jeffrey Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide. He was found in his jail cell on August 10th, 2019, after facing charges of sex trafficking. The circumstances surrounding his death have been the subject of much speculation and conspiracy theories.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: The Truth Behind the Clinton Body Count
• Hero image source by ITAR-TASS / openverse, by.