Redallnite
04-11-02, 07:43PM
SUGAR LAND, Texas (Reuters) - A former Enron Corp. executive who killed himself three months ago wrote in suicide note released on Thursday he had lost his pride, but never pinpointed the company's ruin as the source of his pain.
The note by former Enron Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter to his wife, Carol, illuminates little about what motivated the wealthy early retiree to shoot himself.
Early speculation was that Baxter, 43, despaired over the financial scandal that led once-giant Enron into a record bankruptcy and triggered investigations sure to envelop former colleagues.
"I am so sorry for this. I feel I just can't go on. I've always tried to do the right thing, but where there was once great pride now it's gone," Baxter wrote in crisp, block letters on stationery imprinted with "J. Clifford Baxter."
"I love you and the children so much. I just can't be any good to you or myself. The pain is overwhelming. Please try to forgive me," read the note, signed "Cliff."
The Sugar Land Police Department released the note after the Texas Attorney General's office ruled state public information laws required its disclosure. Baxter's family had tried to keep the note secret, citing their right to privacy.
Police said Baxter shot himself once in the head early on the morning of Jan. 25, while parked in his black Mercedes in the affluent Houston suburb where he lived with his wife and two children.
The Harris County Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide, but Fort Bend County Justice of the Peace Jim Richard said he has not signed the death certificate because he is awaiting final test results from police investigators.
Baxter's suicide came a day after congressional hearings into the Enron scandal began in Washington, giving rise to speculation the two were related. Congressional investigators had sought to interview Baxter the previous week while they were in Houston looking into the scandal surrounding the once-giant energy trader.
FEAR OF DISGRACE
Former Enron Chief Executive Jeff Skilling told a Congressional panel in February that Baxter, whom he described as his best friend, was shattered by the damage Enron's fall had done to his and others' reputations. Baxter likened it to being called a "child molester" in front of neighbors and feared the taint "will never wash off," Skilling said in the one emotional moment of his Feb. 7 testimony.
Baxter resigned from Enron in May, just seven months after his promotion to vice chairman, because of what the company said was his desire to spend more time with his family.
But an Aug. 14 memo from Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins to Chairman and Chief Executive Ken Lay indicated Baxter had "complained mightily" to Skilling about off-balance sheet deals the company used to hide billions of dollars in debt and to inflate profits.
Both Lay and Skilling have since resigned from Enron, once the nation's seventh-largest corporation.
Disclosures about the deals sparked Enron's spectacular collapse, which wiped out billions in shareholder equity and led it to file the largest U.S. bankruptcy on Dec. 2.
When he died, Baxter was a defendant in lawsuits targeting Enron's top executives, accusing them of cashing in on insider information. Court records and securities filings showed he sold at least half a million Enron shares for $35 million between October 1998 and early 2001.
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The note by former Enron Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter to his wife, Carol, illuminates little about what motivated the wealthy early retiree to shoot himself.
Early speculation was that Baxter, 43, despaired over the financial scandal that led once-giant Enron into a record bankruptcy and triggered investigations sure to envelop former colleagues.
"I am so sorry for this. I feel I just can't go on. I've always tried to do the right thing, but where there was once great pride now it's gone," Baxter wrote in crisp, block letters on stationery imprinted with "J. Clifford Baxter."
"I love you and the children so much. I just can't be any good to you or myself. The pain is overwhelming. Please try to forgive me," read the note, signed "Cliff."
The Sugar Land Police Department released the note after the Texas Attorney General's office ruled state public information laws required its disclosure. Baxter's family had tried to keep the note secret, citing their right to privacy.
Police said Baxter shot himself once in the head early on the morning of Jan. 25, while parked in his black Mercedes in the affluent Houston suburb where he lived with his wife and two children.
The Harris County Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide, but Fort Bend County Justice of the Peace Jim Richard said he has not signed the death certificate because he is awaiting final test results from police investigators.
Baxter's suicide came a day after congressional hearings into the Enron scandal began in Washington, giving rise to speculation the two were related. Congressional investigators had sought to interview Baxter the previous week while they were in Houston looking into the scandal surrounding the once-giant energy trader.
FEAR OF DISGRACE
Former Enron Chief Executive Jeff Skilling told a Congressional panel in February that Baxter, whom he described as his best friend, was shattered by the damage Enron's fall had done to his and others' reputations. Baxter likened it to being called a "child molester" in front of neighbors and feared the taint "will never wash off," Skilling said in the one emotional moment of his Feb. 7 testimony.
Baxter resigned from Enron in May, just seven months after his promotion to vice chairman, because of what the company said was his desire to spend more time with his family.
But an Aug. 14 memo from Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins to Chairman and Chief Executive Ken Lay indicated Baxter had "complained mightily" to Skilling about off-balance sheet deals the company used to hide billions of dollars in debt and to inflate profits.
Both Lay and Skilling have since resigned from Enron, once the nation's seventh-largest corporation.
Disclosures about the deals sparked Enron's spectacular collapse, which wiped out billions in shareholder equity and led it to file the largest U.S. bankruptcy on Dec. 2.
When he died, Baxter was a defendant in lawsuits targeting Enron's top executives, accusing them of cashing in on insider information. Court records and securities filings showed he sold at least half a million Enron shares for $35 million between October 1998 and early 2001.
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