The Mythical Clinton Body Count
Urban Legends...The Mythical Clinton Body Count
The Clinton Body Count Rumors, Updated May 24, 2019
Rumors dating to the mid-1990s claim that dozens of people connected to Bill and Hillary Clinton have died under mysterious circumstances, provoking outlandish conspiracy theories about the former president's supposed involvement in their deaths. The idea of the "Clinton Body Count," which began during Bill's presidency, reared its head again during Hillary Clinton's 2008 and 2016 p**********l campaigns.
A typical chain email promoting the conspiracy theory lists over two dozen individuals who supposedly "had dirt on the Clintons," including former White House counselor Vince Foster, businessman James McDougal, and Susan Coleman, a law school student who allegedly had an affair with Bill Clinton. The email describes the circumstances of each person's death and advises the reader to "Pass this on. Let the public become aware of what happens to anyone who might damage the Clinton machine!"
The widely-circulated "Clinton Body Count" text insinuates that several dozen "friends" of the Clintons, some of whom conceivably possessed incriminating information about the former First Couple, died under "mysterious" circumstances—i.e., were secretly done away with.
In more ways than one, it's reminiscent of a similarly paranoid conspiracy theory floated during the Bush-hating 2000s, namely the notion that forces within the Bush administration secretly orchestrated the 9/11 terror attacks. Both theories rest on absurd assumptions:
That a U.S. president could secretly order the murders of dozens (or, in Bush's case on 9/11, thousands) of American citizens without being found out, ratted on, prosecuted, impeached, or even so much as accused of such crimes by members of Congress, including staunch political opponents.
That a U.S. president could flawlessly carry out such crimes while demonstrating complete and utter fallibility (if not gross ineptitude) in the face of other, more mundane challenges (e.g., Clinton's inability to squelch accusations of sexual improprieties and avoid impeachment).
Why is it, we must also ask, that special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars attempting to dig up dirt of any kind on the Clintons, never handed down a single indictment pertaining to these alleged murders? The answer is plain—because the accusations have no merit.
The earliest version of the "Clinton Body Count" was authored by Indianapolis attorney Linda Thompson, founder of the right-wing group American Justice Federation. The list originally contained the names of 26 alleged victims, though it has grown, and shrunk, and grown again since then, with some variants boasting over 100 names.
Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, experts and investigators have looked into these "mysterious" deaths—and they haven't found any evidence of foul play.