Foster Saw Self as a Failure, Widow Is Quoted as Saying

Vincent Foster’s widow told investigators that before her husband committed suicide he felt “he had personally failed” and talked about quitting as deputy White House counsel, it was reported Friday.

Lisa Foster, in an interview with Park Police nine days after Foster’s death, said her husband “took it all personally” and she recalled his saying, “How did I get myself into this?” the New York Daily News reported, quoting what it said were secret police files.

At the time of his death, friends said Foster had been upset by critical editorials in the Wall Street Journal and felt that he was at fault for some failed nominations by President Clinton. The Park Service ruled his July 20 death a suicide, and a Virginia medical examiner said it was consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“He felt he had personally failed and talked to Lisa about quitting, however (he) would not return to Arkansas (because of the personal humiliation he felt),” the police notes record Mrs. Foster as saying, the newspaper reported.

“Lisa Foster felt that something physical came over (him) very quickly,” the newspaper quoted from the police report. She said he was unable to sleep, “was not feeling well and was experiencing high blood pressure.”

Foster, 48, was a boyhood friend of Bill Clinton’s and was a partner in the Rose Law Firm with Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The newspaper said the police files did not mention the controversy over the Clintons’ investment in a failed Arkansas real estate development company. The files are being reviewed by special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. as part of his investigation into the Whitewater Development Corp. The autopsy report will not be released until Fiske has examined the police and medical files, authorities say.