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DOCTOR LEE WANTS NEW FOSTER PROBE
By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid
The supermarket tabloid Globe reported in its March 27 issue that Doctor Henry Lee, the forensic expert hired by Independent Counsel Ken Starr to analyze the evidence in the Vincent Foster case, would now like to see that case reopened. Lee, the best known of Starr's three outside consultants, is famous for his work on several high profile cases, including that of O. J. Simpson. Globe reporter Dawna Kaufmann recently interviewed Lee at a convention of forensics experts in Seattle. She had read his new book, "Famous Crimes Revisited," which reveals that Lee has some doubts about Starr's finding of suicide in the Foster case. Catching Lee at a reception, she got him to autograph his book. She told him that she had written two articles about him and cases his book covered. One was on Foster, but it had not yet been published. She asked him how he felt about reopening the Foster case. She says he responded: "As a scientist I can only give a recommendation. But I would like to see the case reopened, but I don't think it will happen." She thanked him, sent the quote to Globe, which made it the lead of their story on Foster's death. Ken Starr's report on Foster's death cites Lee's report fifty-three times, making it the main pillar supporting the suicide theory. But Lee's report is less supportive of that theory than Starr's reliance on it suggests. Its summary begins with a list of six flaws in the investigation that Lee says "make a complete reconstruction" of Foster's death impossible. Lee said that the evidence he examined was "consistent with suicide," but the evidence he lists in his new book is more consistent with murder. He says Foster is supposed to have shot himself in the mouth with a .38 revolver, but there were no powder burns in his mouth and no teeth were broken from the recoil. Very little blood was found at the scene, either on his body or on the ground. The body was found in a highly unusual position for a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the mouth. It was too neat with his arms at his sides. The fatal bullet could not be found. Lee mentioned but didn't fully explain this additional evidence. Foster owned two handguns but not the one found at the scene. A paramedic reported seeing a small caliber wound on Foster's neck under the jaw, which would explain the blood on his right shoulder. The doctor who did the autopsy said there was an exit wound in the back of Foster's head that no one else saw. At first he said he had taken x-rays, but later he said he hadn't because the machine was broken, but the FBI got records showing that no call for service was made until three months later. Even though his list omits some of the strongest evidence pointing to murder, it shows that he knows the case for murder is strong. When I first asked him about the Globe story, he denied it, saying he didn't even remember being interviewed. But when we found that Dawna Kaufmann's question was based on what Lee said in his book, there was no reason to doubt that she had quoted him correctly. We have left several messages asking Lee to comment on this, but he has not as yet returned those calls.
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