Prescription For Depression

About This Snippet

Ambrose Evans Pritchard once asked a gathering of thirty Washington journalists what they considered to be the most compelling evidence that Vincent Foster committed suicide. Pritchard described the response this way:
 

There was a brief silence, then somebody said: "Well, he was depressed."

It was a very good answer.  The depression is all they have, and by "they" I mean Fiske, Starr, the Justice Department, the White House, The Washington Post, the governing class.  Take that away, and there is nothing left to sustain the ruling of suicide.  Nothing.

This page deals with a small, but telling part of the "Vince Foster committed suicide because he was depressed" story.

It deals with the FBI interview of Lisa Foster conducted May 9, 1994.  In this interview Lisa is supposed to have said that Vince Foster was "fighting depression". 

In fact, Lisa Foster told the FBI interviewer that Foster was fighting a prescription, not depression.  

The FBI seems to have falsified the typwritten version of the interview to bolster the story that Foster was depressed.

Background: Methodology of FBI Interviews

The methodology the FBI uses to interview people is this:
  1. Prior to the interview, a set of questions are typed up.  Space is left between the questions.
  2. During the interview, the interviewing agent asks the interviewee the questions, and makes handwritten notes regarding the responses.
  3. No other form of recording the interview is used.
  4. Following the interview, the handwritten notes are used to construct a typed version of the interview.  This typed version is called an FD-302a form, or 302 for short (you can see the FD-302a designation in the top left corner of the scan below)

The Typed Version of Lisa Foster's Interview

Here is what the FBI 302 claims Lisa Foster was told by Dr. Watkins that about Foster's depression (emphasis added):
In speaking with DR. Watkins, LISA FOSTER learned that FOSTER had called DR. Watkins and told him that he thought he was fighting depression.
Here is a scan of the typed interview:

The Handwritten Notes  of Lisa Foster's Interview

Here is a scan of the portion of the handwritten notes of Lisa Foster's interview of May 9, 1994. 

It seems that Mrs. Foster said that Vince Foster was fighting a prescription, not fighting depression.

This is a significant alteration, especially in light of the fact that Lisa Foster told the FBI that Foster did not like taking sleeping pills:

There are several other instances where the handwritten notes of interviews are not consistent with the typed version (interested readers are referred to the report by John Clarke, Patrick Knowlton and Hugh Turley for other instances; a link to this report may be found on the home page of this site).

In addition, several witnesses have claimed that the FBI altered their statements given in interviews.  These witnesses include:

  • Patrick Knowlton (at Fort Marcy Park 80 minutes before Foster's body was found; saw a car other than Foster's in the parking space where Foster's car would later be found; saw a man "acting as a lookout" in the parking lot)
  • Dale Kyle (the person who found the body)
  • A couple in the parking lot prior to the discovery of the body (saw a car other than Foster's in the parking space where Foster's car would later be found; saw a blond haired man fooling around with the car -- by the way, the FBI Lab reported that blond hair was found on Foster's clothes, yet neither Fiske nor Starr looked into this).

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jc huntington
 10/98
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