By Jeff Dunetz

Funny things always happen to Bill and Hillary Clinton, friends have this nasty habit of turning up dead. We all gotta go sometimes, but the Clinton’s buddies seem to go under weird circumstances (and many by suicide).

My friend Tami Jackson has compiled a list and description of 47 Clinton friends whose deaths seemed a bit odd. We will share them over the next few days. Below are the first ten.

Guest Post by Tami Jackson

1. JAMES MCDOUGAL

McDougal was a convicted Whitewater partner of the Clintons who died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a crucial witness in the investigation of Special Prosecutor Ken Starr.

The Baltimore Sun’s Carl M. Cannon wrote on March 9,1998:

James B. McDougal, a former Clinton business partner who had been cooperating with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr in the Whitewater investigation, died yesterday in a federal prison hospital in Texas. He was 58.

McDougal was serving a 3 1/2 -year sentence after Starr’s office successfully prosecuted him on fraud charges stemming from the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, a McDougal-owned Arkansas thrift that cost taxpayers $60 million when it failed.

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.

McDougal, who suffered from heart disease and blocked arteries, died of cardiac arrest, the Justice Department said. He had often predicted that his health wouldn’t hold out long enough for him ever to be free again.

At the White House, the president issued a statement referring to the early years of his friendship with McDougal.

“I am saddened to learn about Jim McDougal’s death today,” Clinton said. “I have good memories of the years we worked together in Arkansas, and I extend my condolences to his family.”

The key accusation against Clinton in the Whitewater land deal phase of Starr’s investigation centers on a claim by former municipal judge David Hale, who maintains Clinton urged him in 1986 to seek a fraudulent $300,0000 government-backed loan.

The money was never repaid, and prosecutors alleged that some of it was used to prop up the Whitewater Development Corp., a firm co-owned by McDougal, his then-wife, Susan, and the Clintons.

As noted by Star-Telegram staff writer Jack Douglas Jr. and WND:

When Jim McDougal was taken out of solitary, instead of attempting to defibrillate his heart with equipment on hand at the facility, he was driven over to John Peter Smith hospital. Not the closest hospital to the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center, John Peter Smith hospital is a welfare hospital, where (in the words of one local) ,”They let interns practice on deadbeats”.

2. MARY MAHONEY

Mahoney was a former White House intern murdered in July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown, Washington, D. C., just after she was about to go public with her story of sexual harassment by then-president Bill Clinton in the White House.

Reported by the Western Journalism Center:

White House intern Died July 1997 An attractive 25-year-old woman, Mahoney was a former White House intern for Bill Clinton working as the assistant manager at a Starbuck’s Coffee shop in Georgetown.

Gunmen entered the Starbuck’s while the crew was cleaning up after closing. Mahoney’s two associates, Aaron Goodrich, 18 and Emory Evans, 25, were taken to a room and shot.

Mary herself had five bullets in her, from at least two different guns, most likely with silencers. A total of 10 shots were fired; none of them heard by neighbors in the densely populated Georgetown section.

Mahoney was shot in the chest, her face, and in the back of the head.

Even though more than $4,000 remained in the store, the police have categorized the triple murder as a robbery, even as they acknowledge the “execution style” killings.

There was no sign of forced entry. One report said the cafe was still locked when the bodies were found the next morning. George Stephanopoulos, Monica Lewinsky and Chelsea Clinton were all regulars at the Starbuck’s.

3. VINCE FOSTER

Foster was a White House Councilor and colleague of Hillary Clinton at the Little Rock Rose Law Firm where Clinton was a partner. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, which was ruled a suicide. (He was about to testify against Hillary about the records she refused to turn over to Congress.) He was reported to have been having an affair with Hillary.

The Daily Mail’s Sally Bedell Smith reported:

On a Monday night in July 1993, a 48-year-old lawyer called Vince Foster was found dead in a park near Washington DC.

He had died from a gunshot wound to the mouth and his father’s .38-calibre revolver, dating from 1913, was at his side.

It was the same method of suicide used by a Marine officer in the film A Few Good Men – which Foster was known recently to have watched.

In the movie, the officer had killed himself because he was distraught about testifying against his commanding officer.

In real life, Vince Foster was distraught at the prospect of being grilled about the shady affairs of Hillary Clinton.

A clear case of suicide, then. Or was it? As the months passed, wild rumours began to grow that a hitman had murdered him because he knew too much.

Tall and handsome, Vince Foster was one of Hillary’s closest colleagues and best friends.

4. RON BROWN

Brown was the Secretary of Commerce under Clinton and the former DNC Chairman. He was said to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound.

At the time of his death, Brown was being investigated and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later, the Air Traffic controller committed suicide.

Jack Cashill wrote:

When I first heard of the Ron Brown plane crash in 1996, I presumed it was just that – a crash, an accident. It was not until the revelation of the hole in Brown’s head in late 1997 that I began to question the simplicity of the earlier explanation.

In exploring Ron Brown’s life, however, I came to see just how desperate were his circumstances, especially at the end. I also came to see how deeply – and willfully – flawed was the investigation into his death.

What finally convinced me that talk of “murder” was not irresponsible was the official 22-volume Air Force report. To secure it, I had to go through the Freedom of Information Act.

Contained deep within the report are some astonishing revelations, none of which had ever been revealed in the media.

The Air Force report also revealed the Enron connection. Even if the plane crash were accidental, Brown and 34 others died for no higher purpose than to secure a sweetheart deal between a fascist dictator and a notoriously corrupt American company.

This was the “very important challenge of his time” that inspired President Clinton to compare Brown to Martin Luther King. Again, there is much more than can be revealed here.

In the book, the reader can explore the evidence as to who benefited from Brown’s death and, if he were murdered, who might have executed him and how.

5. C. VICTOR RAISER II

Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fundraising organization, died in a private plane crash in July 1992.

As reported in the Chicago Tribune:

C. Victor Raiser II, finance co-chairman of Gov. Bill Clinton`s presidential campaign, was killed Thursday when a small plane carrying him on a fishing vacation crashed in Alaska. He was 52 and lived in Washington.

The aircraft, a De Havilland Beaver floatplane, went down near the town of Dillingham, 300 miles southwest of Anchorage, killing Mr. Raiser and his 22-year-old son, R. Montgomery Raiser, along with three other passengers. A sixth passenger and the pilot were injured.

The New York Times wrote:

C. Victor Raiser 2d, finance co-chairman of Gov. Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign, was killed Thursday when a small plane carrying him on a fishing vacation crashed in Alaska. He was 52 years old and lived in Washington.

The aircraft, a de Havilland Beaver floatplane, went down near the town of Dillingham, 300 miles southwest of Anchorage, killing Mr. Raiser as well as his 22-year-old son, R. Montgomery Raiser, and three other passengers. A sixth passenger and the pilot were injured.

Mr. Raiser (pronounced RAY-zer), a lawyer, business executive and former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was the Clinton campaign’s finance chairman for the Middle Atlantic States and one of its 12 national finance co-chairmen. On learning Friday of his death, the campaign’s press secretary, Dee Dee Myers, described him as “a major player” in the Clinton organization.

Mr. Raiser was born in Indianapolis and earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1962 and a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1965.

6. PAUL TULLEY

Tulley was the Democratic National Committee Political Director who was found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, Ark., on September 1992. He was described by Clinton as a “dear friend and trusted advisor.”

The New York Times wrote:

Paul Tully, the political director of the Democratic National Committee and one of his party’s pre-eminent strategists, was found dead in Little Rock, Ark., today. He was 48 years old.

Coroner Steve Nawojczyk of Pulaski County said Mr. Tully’s body was found about 3 P.M. today by a maid at the hotel where he was living in Little Rock. Pending results of an autopsy, the coroner said Mr. Tully appeared to have died of natural causes.

Mr. Tully was among the most impassioned and intense of a generation of Democratic political professionals who devoted much of their lives to regaining the White House. He worked in every Presidential election since 1968.

He had moved to Little Rock this fall to aid in Gov. Bill Clinton’s drive for the White House. Ronald H. Brown, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement tonight: “There will be only one Paul Tully. Pacing, driven, and full of joy, Paul’s commitment to our party and, more importantly, to making this great nation even greater was a fire that burned bright and long.”

7. ED WILLEY

Willey, a Clinton fundraiser, was found dead in November 1993, deep in the woods of Virginia with a gunshot wound to the head, which was ruled a suicide. Willey’s Kathleen claimed that Bill Clinton groped her in the Oval Office of the White House.

Willey’s wife, Kathleen asserted in an interview:

In a new book alleging a campaign of slander and intimidation orchestrated chiefly by Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Willey points a finger of suspicion at the former first couple for the death of her husband, who was believed to have killed himself.

Willey, who claims she was groped by President Clinton in the White House, acknowledged in an interview with WND today that she stands by the speculation she poses about her husband’s demise in “Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Asked if she suspects her husband Ed, a lawyer and son of a prominent Virginia lawmaker, was murdered, Willey replied, “Most definitely.”

“I’m having someone with a forensics background look at this, and I intend to pursue this further, now that these questions have been raised,” she told WND, pointing to alleged discrepancies in the autopsy report.

Does she believe the Clintons were involved?

“I do have suspicions,” Willey said, “yes.”

8. JERRY PARKS

Parks was the head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock, Ark. He was gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside of Little Rock. Park’s son said his father was compiling a dossier on Clinton and allegedly threatened to reveal the information he found. After he died, the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

KATV Channel 7 reports:

It’s a tragic story with many twists and turns that leaves a Little Rock woman with little information about her father’s murder.

“Shortly before 7:00 Sunday night, police found the bullet-riddled body of a middle-aged Roland man lying outside his car near the intersection of Chenal Parkway and Highway 10 in west Little Rock,” Channel 7’s Geoff Morrell reported in a KATV news broadcast on September 26, 1993.

It was a day that Denise Hickman can recall like it was yesterday.

“I remember getting a phone call from my dad’s widow saying that my father had been hurt. And I asked her what happened and she told me that he was dead. And then I just dropped the phone,” said Hickman.

Someone in a white Chevy pulled up to Jerry Parks car and just started shooting.

“The occupant of the Chevrolet then fired approximately ten shots based upon the evidence we found at the scene,” said Doc Holladay in 1993, back then as a spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department.

Hickman’s dad was a private investigator and owner of a security company. He would have been turning 67 years old July 3. She was 26 when he was murdered.

Read this 1997 account of events by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:

“I’M A DEAD MAN,” whispered Jerry Parks, pale with shock, as he looked up at the television screen. It was a news bulletin on the local station in Little Rock. Vincent Foster, a childhood friend of the President, had been found dead in a park outside Washington. Apparent suicide.

He never explained to his son Gary what he meant by that remark, but for the next two months the beefy 6′ 3″ security executive was in a state of permanent fear. He would pack a pistol to fetch the mail. On the way to his offices at American Contract Services in Little Rock he would double back or take strange routes to “dry-clean” the cars that he thought were following him.

At night he kept tearing anxiously at his eyebrows, and raiding the valium pills of his wife, Jane, who was battling multiple sclerosis. Once he muttered darkly that Bill Clinton’s people were “cleaning house,” and he was “next on the list.”

Two months later, in September 1993, Jerry and Jane went on a Caribbean cruise. He seemed calmer. At one of the islands he went to take care of some business at a bank. She believed it was Grand Cayman. They returned to their home in the rural suburbs of Little Rock on September 25. The next day Jane was in one of her “down” periods, so Jerry went off on his own for the regular Sunday afternoon supper at El Chico Mexican Restaurant.

On the way back, at about 6:30 PM, a white Chevrolet Caprice pulled up beside him on the Chenal Parkway. Before Parks had time to reach for his .38 caliber “detective special” that he kept tucked between the seats, an assassin let off a volley of semi-automatic fire into his hulking 320 pound frame.

Parks skidded to a halt in the intersection of Highway 10. The stocky middle-aged killer jumped out and finished him off with a 9 mm handgun–two more shots into the chest at point blank range. Several witnesses watched with astonishment as the nonchalant gunman joined his accomplice in the waiting car and sped away.

It was another three months before news of the murder of Jerry Luther Parks reached me in Washington. The U.S. national media were largely unaware of the story, which surprised me because Parks had been in charge of security at the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign headquarters in Little Rock.

9. JAMES BUNCH

Bunch was an influential Texan who died from an apparent suicide by gunshot. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people containing the names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.

10. JOHN WILSON

Wilson was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent suicide by hanging. He was reported to have ties to the Clintons’ Whitewater deals.

As written by the Washington City Paper:

On May 19, 1993, the D.C. government lost one of its early Home Rule-era leaders and most accomplished legislators. D.C. Council Chairman John A. Wilson was found dead in the basement laundry room of his Southwest home by his wife, Bonnie, and chauffeur.

His death, ruled a suicide by the Metropolitan Police Department, sent shock waves through the D.C. political scene, of which Wilson was a 20-year veteran. The longtime Ward 2 council member, who assumed the council chairmanship in 1991, was known for his own brand of brazen politics.

Each of these deaths seem to have had a cloud of mystery surrounding the event. In some cases, the victims were shot execution style, with firearms fitted with suppressors.

The public should be asking how common is it that a couple, such as Bill and Hillary, happen to know 47 people who died violent and mystery-shrouded deaths?

Look For Part Two Tomorrow

Besides being my good friend,  Tami Jackson is a life-long Conservative embedded in her once red, native state of Oregon, and is the grand-daughter of (legal) Norwegian immigrants. Tami is an Evangelical Christian, the “mom” of one Persian cat (Omar), a Second Amendment aficionado, and the chief organizer and instigator of trouble among the Hugh Hewitt Tribbles.