How many people do you know who have died mysteriously or of a bizarre suicide, or have been beaten to death or murdered in a hail of bullets, how about someone who committed suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head?

For most of us the answer is none, but if you are Bill and Hillary Clinton, the answer to that question is at least 35 – and possibly many more.

The Clinton dead pool list has grown extensively over the years and we have a new ‘suicide’ to add to the list.

Peter W. Smith, a well-known Republican researcher, was trying to locate the 33,000 emails that Hillary deleted off of her private server – it is believed that with the help of hackers he found some of them.

The Chicago Tribune reports that months after he said he had started to quietly work to contact Russian hackers to look for a cache of Hillary Clinton‘s emails, Smith called The Wall Street Journal on May 4 to explain.

The next day, the longtime Republican operative and donor checked into a hotel near the Mayo Clinic, far from his Chicago-area home, police records show. Smith, 81, would kill himself there fewer than 10 days later.

A worker at the Aspen Suites in Rochester said Smith was pacing in the lobby area the morning he died. “He would get up from his chair, walk over to the newspapers, then go back to his chair and sit down for about 30 seconds and then get up and walk over to the newspapers again,” the employee said. “It seemed like he had a lot on his mind.”

Police records say he killed himself later on May 14, more than a month before his name would be thrust into the political spotlight via the Journal’s report about his claims. They would be deemed explosive at a time when both Congress and former FBI chief Robert Mueller are investigating possible links between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign.

The Journal reported it had seen emails written by Smith showing his team considered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then a top adviser to Trump’s campaign, an ally.

We know that Flynn was being wiretapped because there was the leak that forced him to resign as a result of lying to Vice President Pence about whether he discussed sanctions in a December telephone call with a Russian diplomat.

Consider this, because Flynn was working with Smith he may have been targeted by Hillary in an effort to shut the investigation down.

As I said earlier, Smith died just ten days after talking to the Journal about his findings. Even though he was 81 years old, it’s evident through his work and active lifestyle that his health was not that bad.

Attempts to figure out how Smith passed away have turned up little results. Only his obituary from the Chicago Tribune could be found, and it made no reference to how he may have died.

No matter how you look at this – the ties to Hillary Clinton cannot be denied.

Let’s move on.

Three people who had direct connections to Bill and Hillary Clinton died of unusual circumstances during Hillary’s presidential campaign, adding to an already long, and suspicious list of accidents and supposed suicides.

Since the Democratic National Committee emails were first released by Wikileaks, three people associated with the DNC have all been found dead under questionable circumstances. One is suspected of being the leak that provided material to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

When DNC staffer Seth Rich was gunned down near his affluent neighborhood in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2016, theories exploded in the news media about Rich’s possible involvement in the WikiLeaks dump of nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee emails – some of the messages suggesting that the Democratic Party favored nominee Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders from the start.

Now reports reveal Brad Bauman, the man hired by Rich’s family to end the “conspiracy theories” surrounding the unsolved murder, is a public relations manager with the Pastorum Group and specializes in “crisis communications” for the Democratic Party.

WikiLeaks broke the news on Twitter, tweeting: “Seth Rich’s new ‘family spokesman’ is Brad Bauman, a professional Democrat crisis PR consultant with the Pastorum Group.”

Pastorum Group was founded by Joseph Cohen, according to a press release posted on Twitter. It describes Cohen as “a campaign veteran who has previously worked at SEIU, the Democratic National Committee, and Obama for America.” Also, the release says Bauman is a former executive director of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

As Truth Uncensored reported, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared to suggest in a television interview that Rich, 27, was the source of the WikiLeaks-exposed DNC emails. WikiLeaks has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Rich’s killer. The Metropolitan Police Department is offering a $25,000 reward.

According to WND, Joel Rich revealed to the London Daily Mail Tuesday that Seth, a DNC director of voter expansion, had been selected to work on Clinton’s presidential campaign only four days before his murder.

“He’d worked on Senate and House campaigns, but he’d always wanted to work on a presidential campaign,” the father said. “He had just found out they wanted him, and he was probably going to be moving up to Brooklyn through the election. He was really excited about that.”

Rich’s murder has sparked speculation that the young DNC staffer could be one of the latest deaths in a long string of mysterious deaths surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton spanning more than two decades.

Left-leaning “fact-check” websites have dismissed “Clinton body count” lists circulating on the Web for many years. In fact, some of the lists mention 80 to 100 people and contain names of individuals who are still living or loosely connected with the Clintons.

WND has sorted through the names and found 33 of the most mysterious deaths linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Notably, the largest number of mysterious deaths occurred during the most intense years of the Whitewater investigation, from 1993 (when Clinton’s first term as president began) to around 1996 (the year the Senate Whitewater committee finished its investigation).

The following is WND’s list of 33 people associated with the Clintons who have died the most mysterious and often violent deaths.

Shawn Lucas – Aug. 2, 2016

On July 3, attorney Shawn Lucas, 38, helped serve the DNC with a lawsuit claiming then-DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz “rigged the primary for Hillary Clinton.”

The complaint was served before Wasserman Schultz resigned amid the Wikileaks email scandal on July 24.

Less than one month after he helped serve the lawsuit, Lucas’ girlfriend found him dead in his bathroom.

Beverly Ann Fields, chief of staff at the Washington, D.C., Medical Examiner’s office, told WND, “The cause and manner of death for decedent [Shawn] Lucas are still pending.”

Victor Thorn – Aug. 1, 2016

Victor Thorn authored four books on the Clintons: “Hillary (and Bill): The Sex Volume,” Hillary (and Bill): The Drugs Volume,” “Hillary (and Bill): The Murder Volume” and “Crowning Clinton: Why Hillary Shouldn’t Be in the White House.” Thorn reportedly committed suicide with a gun on his 54th birthday on a mountaintop in Pennsylvania.

Inquisitr reported that Thorn made several appearances on “The Russell Scott Show” and told the host, “Russell, if I’m ever found dead, it was murder. I would never kill myself.”

Joe Montano – July 25, 2016

As WND reported, Joe Montano, who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee before Debbie Wasserman Schultz and was an aide to Hillary’s running-mate, Tim Kaine, reportedly died of a heart attack after the Wikileaks DNC email dump. Montano was only 47.

Seth Rich – July 10, 2016

DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered near his affluent neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Rich was shot in the back at 4:15 a.m. while he walked home from his girlfriend’s apartment. Rich previously worked on the failed U.S. Senate campaign of Nebraska businessman Scott Kleeb, whose clean-energy business had come under investigation after losing $300,000 in 2010 and another $300,000 in 2011 despite having been subsidized by the Clinton Global Initiative.

A commentary by Rachel Alexander at Townhall suggested possible corruption between the CGI and Kleeb “led to Sanders’ cronies pressuring Rich to leak what was going on.”

In one interview, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared to suggest that Rich, 27, was the source of the WikiLeaks-exposed DNC emails.

Assange hinted at the newest revelations during an interview on the Dutch television program Nieuwsuur.

“Our whistleblowers go to significant efforts to give us material, at often very significant risks,” Assange said. “There was a 27 year old, works for the DNC, who was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons other than that he was walking down the street in Washington.”

The interviewer interjected, “That was just a robbery, I believe, wasn’t it?”

Assange replied, “No, there’s no finding.”

The interviewer asked, “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that,” Assange continued.

“But was he one of your sources then?” asked the interviewer.

“We don’t comment on who our sources are,” Assange said. “We have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States. Our sources are, you know, our sources face serious risks. That’s why they come to us, so we can protect their anonymity.”

Assange continued, “Others have suggested that [Rich was murdered]. We are investigating. If you understand what happened in that situation with Seth Rich, I think it is a concerning situation. There’s not a conclusion yet. We wouldn’t be willing to state a conclusion, but we are concerned about it. More importantly, a variety of WikiLeaks sources are concerned when that kind of thing happens.”

Watch the interview:



WikiLeaks is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Rich’s killer.

The group released the following statement:

Our original and only statement on the murder of US Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. #DNCLeak pic.twitter.com/Qsjfyb696p — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 11, 2016

WND asked the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department if there have been any new leads in the death of Rich and whether police are considering a possible political motive in his killing.

Spokeswoman Alice Kim of the Metropolitan Police Department told WND, “There are no new updates at this time.”

As for the WikiLeaks reward, she offered this statement: “At this time, there is no indication that Seth Rich’s death is connected to his employment at the DNC. However, we welcome information that could potentially lead to the identification of the individual(s) responsible for his death and are pleased when any outside contributors help us generate new leads.”

John Ashe – June 22, 2016

Former United Nations General Assembly President John Ashe was found dead in His New York home, and the cause of death was reported as a heart attack, as WND reported. But the local Dobbs Ferry police said “his throat had been crushed, presumably by a barbell he dropped while pumping iron.”

“The death by barbell of disgraced U.N. official John Ashe could become a bigger obsession for conspiracy theorists than Vince Foster’s 1993 suicide,” the report by Richard Johnson said.

It’s because Ashe was scheduled to testify in just days with Chinese businessman and co-defendant Ng Lap Seng, who was accused of smuggling $4.5 million into the U.S. and lying that it was to buy casino chips and more.

The New York Post said Ng earlier was identified in a 1998 Senate document “as the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally funneled through an Arkansas restaurant owner, Charlie Trie, to the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton administration.”

“One source told me,” Johnson wrote, “‘During the trial, the prosecutors would have linked Ashe to the Clinton bagman Ng. It would have been very embarrassing. His death was conveniently timed.”

“Could this be Hillary Clinton silencing people who ‘know too much?’” questioned Kosar in the Political Insider. “We know there are at least 46 people from Clinton world who have died under mysterious circumstances. While some are certainly a coincidence, it is very clear that being deeply connected into the Clinton political world can be hazardous to your health.

“In this case, no definite evidence exists that it was murder and Ashe’s own lawyer disagrees with the theory. However, with Hillary Clinton’s track record, it’s definitely worth further investigation.”

The Post said Ashe formerly was the head of the U.N. General Assembly and was facing criminal charges in a federal bribery case.

He was from the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, and was accused of taking kickbacks in exchange for promises for real-estate deals and more, the report said.

Gareth Williams – Aug. 16, 2010

Gareth Williams, a transatlantic MI6 spy – whose dead body was found naked, padlocked and stuffed in a 32-inch by 19-inch duffel bag that was sitting in his London bathtub – had illegally hacked secret data on Bill Clinton, according to the U.K. Sun. The news site noted, “[H]is death is still one of Britain’s most mysterious unsolved cases.”

Scotland Yard had announced the death as a suicide, saying he locked himself in the bag.

But his DNA wasn’t found on the lock. There were no palm prints on the edge of his bathtub.

According to reports, messages left by Williams on the voicemails of his friends and family were deleted in the days following his death.

“And a rival agent may have also broken into the flat to destroy or remove evidence,” the Sun reported. There were no signs of forced entry into the apartment.

“In 2012, lawyers for his family said he could have been killed by someone who specialized in the ‘dark arts of the secret services,’” the Sun reported.

“The police did not rule out his intelligence work playing a part in his death. They thought he may have been stuffed in the bag by killers who later broke back in to cover their tracks. Investigators also suspect the flat had been ‘steam-cleaned,’ which would explain why no DNA evidence was found.”

No suspects in the case have been arrested.

Charles Ruff – Nov. 20, 2000

Charles Ruff, 61, an influential lawyer in Washington, D.C., who defended Clinton during his Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment trial, reportedly died “after an accident at his Washington home.” One report said he was found unconscious outside his shower. Other reports indicated he had a heart attack.

The London Guardian reported:

Ruff’s initial involvement with the Clinton White House came from defending one of Hillary Clinton’s principal assistants, Ira Magaziner, who helped to prepare her ill-fated healthcare plan. Magaziner was accused of perjury, but in a complex presentation to the US attorney’s office in Washington, Ruff managed to shift the blame to some unspecified White House officials and Magaziner was never charged.

It was against this background that Ruff became President Clinton’s fifth White House counsel within four years. As the ripples of the Whitewater affair widened and allegations about the president’s sexual behaviour proliferated, insiders joked that Clinton needed a lawyer smart enough to do the job and dumb enough to take it. Ruff defended his recruitment with the comment: “When the president of the United States asks you to do something, you don’t say, ‘Let me think about it.’ You say, ‘How can I help you, Mr President?’”

Carlos Ghigliotti – April 28, 2000

Carlos Ghigliotti, a key figure in the Waco congressional investigation, was found mysteriously dead in his home outside Washington, D.C. His badly decomposed body was found sitting at his desk in his office in Laurel, Maryland. Police said there was no evidence of forced entry into his office.

Ghigliotti, 42, a respected expert in the field of thermal imaging, had been retained by the House Government Reform Committee to analyze surveillance film footage taken by means of Forward-Looking Infrared, or FLIR, during the siege and final inferno of Mt. Carmel, the Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas. The FLIR footage, which was filmed by FBI aircraft circling two miles above the site, was critical to the case. For years, debate had raged over claims that on April 19, 1993, government agents fired automatic weapons upon Davidians trying to escape as flames engulfed their home. Seventeen children and 62 adults were killed. Ghigliotti had reportedly uncovered additional evidence contradicting government protests of innocence.

Ghigliotti’s friend, attorney David T. Hardy, told WND, “I think he may have known too much. Carlos told me he had discovered things that were much, much worse than anything that had come out yet.”

More details on Ghigliotti’s findings are available here.

Charles Wilbourne Miller – Nov. 17, 1999

Charles Wilbourne Miller was vice president and board member for Alltel, the company that created the White House’s “Big Brother” computer system.

As WND reported, an Arkansas medical examiner concluded “suicide” after Wilbourne Miller, 63, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in a shallow pit about 300 yards from his ranch house near Little Rock. Police found a .410 gauge shotgun near Miller’s body and a Ruger .357-caliber revolver submerged in water. Investigators concluded the Ruger was the weapon used by Miller to kill himself. Yet, two rounds in the handgun’s cylinder had been spent. How could a suicide victim use two weapons or even fire two shots to kill himself?

Miller was no ordinary citizen of Arkansas. He had long served as executive vice president and member of the board of directors for Alltel and was deeply involved in his own software engineering company until the day he died. Alltel was the successor to Jackson Stephens’ Systematics, that company that provided the software for the White House’s “Big Brother” database behind the Clinton administration’s plan to develop the secret computer “Clipper” chip to bug every phone, fax and email transmission in America. There was at least one other high-profile “suicide” among the inner circle involved with the project – Vince Foster (more details below).

Daniel Dutko – July 27, 1999

Daniel Dutko, 54, the co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee fundraising effort, Leadership 2000, reportedly died from head injuries in a mountain biking accident in Aspen. Authorities said Dutko was not wearing a helmet and hit his head on the pavement twice. He was in Aspen for a fundraiser attended by President Clinton. Dutko had also been vice chairman of finance for the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1995.

Dutko served as vice chairman of finance for the DNC in 1996, when thousands of dollars were reportedly funneled from a Chinese military officer to Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign. In that same year, the Clinton administration reversed a State Department policy that categorized satellites as “munitions,” making it easier for China to launch American satellites and even acquire sensitive technology.

Lt. Gen. David J. McCloud – July 26, 1998

Lt. Gen. David McCloud served as Clinton’s director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Force Structure, Resources and Assessment Directorate, or J-8, from May 1996 to December 1997. He later became the commander of Alaskan Command and 11th Air Force.

McCloud was killed while he piloted his personal YAK-54, a Russian-built, single-engine acrobatic aircraft. The cause of the crash was reportedly unknown.

Several blogs have printed unsubstantiated claims that McCloud had been part of a group of 24 flag officers that sought to arrest Clinton for treason under the Uniform Code of Military Justice while Clinton was president.

Johnny Lawhorn Jr. – March 29, 1998

Johnny Lawhorn Jr., a mechanic, reportedly discovered a large check from Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan made out to Bill Clinton. The check was said to have been found in a car at his repair shop. He was later killed in a car accident.

James McDougal – March 8, 1998

James McDougal, a former business partner of the Clintons and the “brains behind the Whitewater Development Corp.,” reportedly died of cardiac arrest in a federal prison hospital at the age of 58. He had been cooperating with independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the Whitewater investigation. “His death appears to reduce the legal risks to President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and was a clear setback to Starr and his prosecutors, who huddled in their offices last night after McDougal’s death was announced,” the Baltimore Sun reported the day after McDougal died.

The Whitewater investigation began in 1994 with accusations of impropriety against the Clintons and others concerning improper campaign contributions, political and financial favors, and tax benefits. Its initial subject was a failed Arkansas real-estate venture involving the Clintons in the 1980s that was linked to the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, a Little Rock savings bank run by McDougal and his wife, Susan. James and Susan McDougal went to prison for fraud (James died while serving his sentence), as did former Arkansas Gov. Jim Tucker and municipal judges David Hale and Eugene Fitzhugh.

Hale had claimed Bill Clinton insisted that he acquire a fraudulent $300,000 government-backed loan in 1986.

After McDougal was convicted in 1996, he was prepared to testify that Clinton was lying and Hale was telling the truth.

“I just got sick and tired of lying for the fellow,” he said in a 1997 TV interview. “Yes, I was trying to protect him.”

The Sun reported, “McDougal told prosecutors that he steered Madison legal business to Hillary Clinton’s Rose Law Firm at the Clintons’ request. Mrs. Clinton has denied that assertion. In an interview on ‘Larry King Live,’ McDougal said that if the first lady told the grand jury the same story she told the public, ‘then she has perjured herself.’”

Eric Butera – Dec. 4, 1997

Eric Butera was an informant who had information about the murder of Mahoney (See “Mary Caitrin Mahoney” entry below). He was told to help police with an undercover drug buy, during which he was beaten to death.

Ron Miller – Oct. 12, 1997

As WND reported, in a little-publicized, little-noticed state government regulatory hearing in Oklahoma, Hillary Clinton, former White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. “Mac” McLarty III, the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown (see “Ron Brown” entry) and a convicted Clinton fundraiser were linked by witnesses to a scandal involving massive overcharges in natural gas prices, money laundering and more.

Nolanda Butler Hill, a former business partner of Brown, testified before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission that Clinton, Brown and McLarty were all up to their eyeballs in a scam designed to bilk consumers out of $35 million to $65 million in overcharges. The commission suspected at least one supplier, Dynamic Energy Resources, charged far more than market prices.

Dynamic Energy Resources was started by Nora and Gene Kung Ho Lum, who had no prior experience in the oil and gas business. But they were politically connected. The Lums, associates of John Huang and James Riady, would later be sentenced to prison and fined for illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton as well as tax evasion.

To get their feet wet in the gas business, however, the Lums called on Stuart Price, a Democrat congressional candidate for Oklahoma’s first district and himself a Clinton fundraiser. Price, too, was well connected. His wife’s uncle was Sen. George Mitchell, then majority leader of the U.S. Senate. But to cover all the bases, the Lums also cut in Michael Brown, son of the Democratic National Committee president and later Commerce secretary, for 5 percent of the deal.

Helen Yee was placed on the board. Her daughter, Melinda Yee, was Ron Brown’s personal assistant at Commerce. The younger Yee had handled arrangements for foreign-trade missions involving Democratic Party contributors. Yee had also worked for the Lums during the 1992 presidential campaign. The Lums’ daughter, Trisha, had worked for Ron Brown at Commerce.

“In other words,” as WND CEO and Editor Joseph Farah explained in 2001, “this was a real inside job. It wasn’t so much a matter of what you knew at Dynamic Energy Resources, but who you knew.”

On Oct. 2, 1992, Commissioner Bob Anthony announced that he had been assisting the FBI in uncovering corruption inside the regulatory agency. ARKLA (Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co.) lobbyist William Anderson and Commissioner Bob Hopkins were later convicted in a bribery case. There were allegations against other utility executives, but the Clinton Justice Department reportedly passed on prosecution. Anthony said he received covert payments from top executives at ARKLA when it had multimillion-dollar rate cases before the commission. The chairman of ARKLA was none other than Mac McLarty.

And that’s where Hill’s January testimony comes in.

“I learned several years ago, through my association with the late Ronald H. Brown, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and secretary of Commerce, about the involvement of a highly placed Clinton administration official, Mac McLarty, in what became an egregious financial transaction centered around the supplying of gas to ONG,” she said.

Hill recalled a spring 1993 meeting with Brown and first lady Hillary Clinton in which she “acknowledged his efforts toward resolution of Mac McLarty’s problem in Oklahoma.” Hill said she warned Brown off any involvement. But Brown told her “it was critically important for him to help Mr. McLarty in any way he could, as he, Secretary Brown, remained an outsider as regarded what he called the ‘Arkansas Mafia.’”

Brown later died in a plane crash in Croatia. A cylindrical hole in his head, the size of a .45-caliber round, was never explained. No autopsy was performed.

Ron Miller, a principal in GAGE Corp., another utility, began cooperating with the FBI shortly after Anthony announced his role with the agency, vowing, according to sources, to “vigorously pursue those who directed the conduct of Mr. Anderson.” After selling his company, Miller also helped news reporters and other government authorities – including investigators with the Government Reform and Oversight Committee – to nail the Lums.

Miller turned over to the FBI on Aug. 5, 1997, 165 tape-recordings of conversations he had with the Lums and their associates. He was interviewed by the congressional committee staff Aug. 12. On Sept. 2, the committee subpoenaed documents from Miller concerning Brown, the Lums and Dynamic Energy Resources.

Three days later, the committee deposed McLarty. He denied knowing the Lums, and questions about ARKLA and its convicted lobbyist were largely diverted by his attorneys. Seven days later, PBS “Frontline” broadcast interviews with Miller and Anthony. The congressional committee was set to begin formal proceedings Oct. 8.

But on Oct. 3, Miller, 58, was admitted to the hospital with an unknown illness. He died nine days later. The cause is still unknown.

Before his death, Miller told a few people he feared for his life. In a police report in January 1997, he identified Don Sweatman as the man who told him: “You hadn’t been shot at yet.” And who was Sweatman? He was associated with the Lums, often dropped Ron Brown’s name and, according to others, sometimes identified himself as “Bill Clinton’s personal representative.”

Miller’s death is still a mystery.

Mary Caitrin Mahoney – July 6, 1997

Mary Caitrin Mahoney was a former White House intern up until 1995. She then became a night manager of a Starbucks and became friends with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who frequented the cafe.

Mahoney was killed at the coffee store during a shooting that was described as a robbery, though nothing was taken. Mahoney’s co-workers, Emory Allen Evans and Aaron David Goodrich. A man named Carl Derek Havord Cooper was arrested and charged with their murders in March 1999. Cooper pleaded guilty and said he went to Starbucks to rob the store after it had closed. He said he ordered Mahoney, Evans and Goodrich to the back of the store, but he claimed Mahoney attempted to grab his gun. Cooper said that’s when he shot her and the other two employees and then made his escape, fearing the gunfire would alert authorities. Goodrich made the confession after a 54-hour interrogation. He later recanted, but was found guilty.

Mahoney was shot five times, once in the back of the head, with the key to the safe in her hand. The safe, which held $10,000, wasn’t touched. Despite the Starbucks’ location in a densely populated neighborhood, no one reported hearing gunfire, sparking speculation that the gunman used a silencer.

The murders took place during pre-trail media coverage of Paula Jones’ lawsuit against Bill Clinton for sexual harassment.

During his trial, the Washington Post reported Cooper told FBI agents, “I swear on my father’s grave and my son’s life that I didn’t do Starbucks.”

John Hillyer – Nov. 29, 1996

NBC cameraman John Hillyer had been working on an investigation of a drug-smuggling operation in Mena, Arkansas, while Clinton was governor. He also helped with a 30-minute video called “Circle of Power” and “The Clinton Chronicles.”

As WND reported, video journalist Pat Matrisciana (producer of “The Clinton Chronicles”) began working on the film project in the early 1990s, he didn’t realize what he and his cameraman were getting into.

“I had been contacted by a man named John Hillyer, an NBC cameraman who wanted to tell the real story about what was happening in Arkansas,” he said.

When Matrisciana and Hillyer arrived in Arkansas and began interviewing people for the video, the criminality and intrigue were far worse than they had imagined.

“It was like going into some sort of banana republic that was run by a dictatorship,” he said. “We were followed on a regular basis.”

Matrisciana set up a “safe house” in an apartment complex in Little Rock where he and other journalists and investigators would meet to discuss stories of drug trafficking in Mena, the murder of two teenage boys there and whether or not Bill Clinton was involved in any of those activities.

Hillyer and Matrisciana developed a friendship with Gary Parks, the son of Jerry Luther Parks, a former security chief of Clinton’s presidential campaign (See “Jerry Luther Parks” entry). According to Matrisciana, Jerry Parks had been hired several years earlier by Vince Foster on behalf of Hillary Clinton to put Bill Clinton under constant surveillance. Gary would go on surveillance stakeouts with his father as Jerry gathered photographic evidence of Clinton visiting with prostitutes, Gennifer Flowers and other women.

When Vince Foster’s body was found in Fort Marcy Park (see “Vince Foster” entry), Jerry became paranoid that he might also be targeted for murder. He was right. When Jerry was assassinated in his car in September 1993, Gary and Jerry’s widow believed it was related to his surveillance of Clinton.

Gary Parks regularly stayed at the safe house, but was awakened one night when the door was kicked open by would-be assassins. When he quickly loaded his M-1 carbine, the sound of the bullet being chambered scared off the killers and they fled into the parking lot. Gary went to the window and thought he recognized one of the men as a member of the Gov. Clinton’s security staff.

On another occasion, when Matrisciana and others were preparing for a radio talk show at the safe house, an investigator scanned the apartment for “bugs” and discovered eight of them.

During the course of their investigation, Matrisciana and Hillyer discovered a trail of unsolved murders of people who knew details about the teens’ deaths. Others who died mysteriously had inside information on drug ties to the political establishment in Arkansas. On one occasion, Hillyer was planning to conduct an interview with a former official of the Democratic National Committee, but the man never showed up for the interview. Hillyer learned the next day that the man, C. Victor Raiser II, and his son, Montgomery Raiser, had died in a plane crash. (See “C. Victor Raiser II and Montgomery Raiser” entry.)

Matrisciana and Hillyer were also going to interview a hermit who lived in the mountains near where the teens had been killed. Two days before the scheduled interview, the hermit died.

Hillyer started to fear for his own life, telling Matrisciana that he thought they would kill him by making it look like he had a heart attack. After the film was completed, Hillyer went on to other projects and ended up living in Atlanta. In 1996, Matrisciana received a phone call from Hillyer. John told him he had uncovered new information that needed to be put on video, but that they couldn’t talk on an unsecured phone. They planned on meeting to discuss the new information, but Hillyer died of a heart attack three days later.

Did someone get to Hillyer? Matrisciana doesn’t know. Were the hermit and DNC official killed for what they knew? Or were these simply coincidences? Again, Matriciana said he doesn’t know, but he did think the deaths were unusual, considering the number of other people who have died under mysterious circumstances in Arkansas.

Barbara Wise – Nov. 29, 1996

Barbara Wise, 48, was a 14-year Commerce Department staff member who worked with Ron Brown (see “Ron Brown” entry below, killed in a plane crash) and John Huang, who worked at the Worthen Bank in Little Rock, where he met then-Gov. Bill Clinton. Huang, who was born in China, was also a former executive of the Lippo Group in Indonesia. Huang met with Clinton at the White House 10 times between June 21 and June 27, 1994. As WND reported in 2000, “Right after that, Webster Hubbell … received $100,000 from the Lippo Group. Shortly after the money was given to Mr. Hubbell, Huang obtained a secret clearance and an executive position as assistant secretary of the Commerce Department. While at the Commerce Department, Huang obtained secret materials on trade deals with Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East. Huang also obtained information on U.S. Patriot missile deals with South Korea and mobile artillery for Kuwait.” Asked if he was a spy for Beijing, Huang reportedly took pleaded the Fifth Amendment nearly 2,000 times.

Wise’s body was found partially nude and bruised in her office. Her death was attributed to natural causes, as Wise had reportedly received several blood transfusions for a liver ailment.

Ron Brown – April 3, 1996

Ron Brown, who had served as U.S. secretary of commerce, was killed in a plane crash after Hillary Clinton dispatched him on a dubious mission to a war-torn corner of the world, as WND reported. Brown and 34 others died when their Air Force plane crashed into a Croatian mountainside. Brown’s flight left the Tuzla airport in Bosnia, a Muslim country where some were hostile to the American presence there.

“To protect his son Michael from prison, Ron Brown threatened to expose the White House’s yet unrevealed Asian fundraising scheme, in which Brown had played a major role,” wrote WND contributor and investigative writer Jack Cashill. “Just weeks before his death, Brown started going to church for the first time in ages. He was scared for his life and that of his confidante, Nolanda Hill.”

Cashill noted that the Croatian government suddenly insisted on a Dubrovnik stop, a two-mile deviation from the flight path that the Air Force said was “inexplicable.”

“For the first time ever on friendly soil, the White House ordered the Air Force to skip the ‘safety’ phase of the investigation and move directly to the ‘accident’ phase,” Cashill wrote. “There would be no consideration other than accident, even though the airport was near the Bosnian border and in a potential hot fire zone.

“Three days after the crash and two days before his scheduled interview by the Air Force, the Croatian responsible for the airport’s navigation system was found dead with a bullet hole in his chest,” Cashill continued. “A day later, every pathologist who viewed Brown’s body back in America concluded that his head wound, at the very least, looked like a bullet hole.”

There would be no autopsy. No forensic testing. No search for an exit wound. Head X-rays were destroyed, or “lost.”

“The three Armed Forces pathologists and the forensic photographer who blew the whistle on this case had their careers destroyed,” Cashill wrote. “… [T]he Armed Forces Institute of Pathology brass assured the public that Brown dies of ‘multiple blunt force injuries to the head.’ He was the only one of the 35 victims to have a reported head wound.”

Charles Meissner – April 3, 1996

Charles Meissner, the assistant secretary of commerce, had issued John Huang a security clearance. (See “Ron Miller” and “Barbara Wise” entries.) He and Ron Brown were killed in a plane crash. (See “Ron Brown” entry.)

Stanley Huggins – June 23, 1994

Stanley Huggins reportedly had been investigating the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan collapse (see “James McDougal” entry). Reports indicate he died of viral pneumonia before his 300 pages of findings could be released.

Bill Shelton – June 12, 1994

Bill Shelton was the fiance of Kathy Ferguson (see “Kathy Ferguson” entry below), and he questioned whether Ferguson had actually committed suicide.

Shelton, too, was reported to have committed suicide with a gun at Ferguson’s grave site.

Kathy Ferguson – May 10, 1994

Kathy Ferguson was reported to have died from a suicide in which she shot herself in the head, though her packed bags were found next to her body, possibly indicating she planned to leave her home.

Ferguson was the ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, who had been a co-defendant, along with Clinton, in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Danny Ferguson had escorted Paula Jones to Clinton’s hotel room. Kathy Ferguson was a corroborating witness for Paula Jones.

James Bunch – Feb. 11, 1994

James Bunch, 46, a Texas state employee in Austin who ran a prostitution ring from his office, reportedly died from a suicide involving a gun. Bunch was said to have owned a “little black book” of influential people, including at least one “state legislator,” from Texas and Arkansas who visited prostitutes. Bunch’s files contained descriptions of his high-profile clients, their sexual preferences, the amount of money they were willing to spend, and whether they were “good” or “bad” clients who might hurt the escorts. According to a report in the Telegraph, “There [was] a possibility that juveniles were involved in his business. Police told the Associated Press Bunch was arrested and interrogated, but he hadn’t appeared distraught or suicidal.

Gandy Baugh – Jan. 8, 1994

Gandy Baugh, who had been an attorney for Clinton pal and drug convict Dan Lasater, reportedly killed himself by leaping from a window of a tall building. Lasater, a figure in the Whitewater controversy, had been convicted of dealing cocaine and served six months in jail. But Clinton later pardoned him.

In 1984, Lasater had purchased Angel Fire Resort, a ski resort near Taos, New Mexico, and promoted it using Clinton’s name. A U.S. Customs investigative report revealed the resort was used for drug operations and money laundering.