From: Mark Keesee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/10/29/94119 The Boys on the Tracks: NewsMax.com Interviews Mara Leveritt Wes Phelan October 29, 1999 In the early morning of August 23, 1987, two teenage boys died on the railroad tracks in northern Saline County in central Arkansas. Close observers of Arkansas politics quickly became aware that the official ruling — that the boys passed out from marijuana intoxication and were run over by a train — was highly questionable. Over the years Linda Ives, the mother of one of the boys, fought valiantly to expose the official cover-up and find the truth about what happened to her son Kevin and his friend, Don Henry. The story of the boys on the tracks has received little attention from journalists outside Arkansas. The major exception has been Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a reporter for the London Telegraph. One section of his book, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, touched on the story and its implications for Arkansas and the nation. That was, until recently, the most detailed account of the story by a professional journalist. Last week St. Martin's Press released a new book, The Boys on the Tracks, by Mara Leveritt. Leveritt, a contributing editor and columnist for the Arkansas Times, has won many awards for her investigative reporting. In the following interview with NewsMax.com, Leveritt discusses some of the new information she uncovered in the process of writing the book. NewsMax.com: Why did you first become interested in the story of the boys on the tracks? Leveritt: It was a bizarre story from the very first. It remains bizarre to this day. I learned a long time ago that criminal investigations are supposed to follow certain procedures. If those procedures are followed the investigation moves along in an orderly and logical fashion. The more I learned about this investigation, the less logic in it I saw. It followed a crooked path that led in many strange directions. The further I looked at this case the more curious I became. So I devoted several years looking as far down that crooked path as I could. NewsMax.com: Do you believe that at this point you know what happened to the boys? Leveritt: No. I do concur with the conclusion that the Saline County grand jury came to in 1988, that their deaths were associated with drug activity. NewsMax.com: What is the biggest revelation in your book, in your opinion? Leveritt: I'd say there are three. One concerns the FBI's highly unusual position in this case. Another relates to what the U.S. Justice Department knew as far back as 1983 about the drug smuggler Barry Seal. And the third concerns some information about Bill Clinton, his mother Virginia Kelley, and Arkansas State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak. It was Malak, of course, who declared that Don Henry and Kevin Ives had smoked themselves into a marijuana-induced stupor, and were then run over by the train. Virginia Kelley was a nurse anesthetist in a Hot Springs hospital. There were two cases in which patients died while she was administering anesthesia during an operation. While the family of the first patient was preparing to sue her, the second death occurred. The body of the second patient, Susie Deer, was sent to Dr. Malak for autopsy. Malak declared that Kelley was not responsible for the death. Kelley lost her job at the hospital after this and brought suit against several of the administrators. In the course of my research I uncovered a heretofore unknown deposition she'd given in that case. In the deposition Kelley was asked: "Have you ever consulted Bill Clinton as an attorney regarding the subject matter of the autopsy in the Deer case?" She said, "Yes, I have." "Did you do that before or after the report was filed?" She said, "I don't recall." Throughout the deposition she repeatedly denied any recollection of the timing of her discussions with Clinton concerning the Deer case. At other times she refused to answer questions, claiming attorney-client privilege. Eight years after that deposition, Bill Clinton was running for President. Reporters for the Los Angeles Times asked him about the Deer case, and whether he had intervened with Malak on his mother's behalf. Clinton responded, "There has never been any connection between my mother's professional experiences and actions I have taken or not taken as Governor of Arkansas, and I resent any implications otherwise." Clinton lost the 1980 election to Frank White, and did not serve as Governor again until he took office in 1983. Malak's autopsy of Susie Deer took place while Clinton was out of the Governor's office. No one picked up on this at the time, but essentially he had parsed words the same way he did during his troubles in Washington. NewsMax.com: What is the significance of this to the boys on the tracks? Leveritt: Linda Ives and others have always wondered why Clinton supported Malak so resolutely. After the boys were killed, there was a huge outcry against Malak in Arkansas over his ruling that the boys had fallen asleep on the tracks due to marijuana intoxication. The ruling was widely ridiculed, and the families were appalled by it. They had the bodies exhumed and brought in a well-respected medical examiner and pathologist from Atlanta, Georgia, for a second round of autopsies. That pathologist pointed out evidence that was later corroborated by employees in the Arkansas Medical Examiner's office. The evidence showed that both boys had wounds indicating they'd been murdered. That evidence persuaded the Saline County grand jury to overturn Malak's ruling about the cause and manner of death. That drew a lot of attention to other Malak rulings. As Linda Ives campaigned to have him removed from office, other people began to come forward and bring to light other, equally questionable rulings he had made. The public distrust of Malak became intense. Yet Bill Clinton steadfastly, resolutely refused to do anything to remove him from office. Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the head of the State Health Department at the time. She had authority regarding Malak's employment, but instead of removing him she was vocal in her support. So Malak stayed until just weeks before Bill Clinton announced he was going to run for President. At that point the landscape shifted dramatically. After protesting that he would not resign, Malak suddenly did resign and was offered a job at the State Health Department, under Dr. Elders. I should add that Malak received a couple of raises between the time of his ruling on the boys' deaths and his subsequent removal as Medical Examiner. The significance of Virginia Kelley's deposition is that it sheds new light on the relationship between Bill Clinton and Malak. Although the Los Angeles Times questioned Clinton about the link between the Deer case, his mother, and Malak, Clinton denied any involvement and that was the end of the story at that time. Kelley's deposition suggests, however, that Clinton's involvement in that case was greater than he acknowledged. NewsMax.com: Do you believe there was a connection between what happened to the boys and the activities at Mena, Arkansas? Leveritt: One cannot overlook the fact that at roughly the same time that the boys were murdered, Barry Seal, a major cocaine importer, was operating at Mena airport. NewsMax.com: Is there any hard evidence that the CIA was in fact sponsoring Barry Seal's activities? Leveritt: A few weeks ago I got a box of records, a portion of the FBI files on Barry Seal. Much of it was redacted. Several hundred pages were withheld. In a cover letter sent with the portion I did receive, the FBI explained the reasons for blacking out several parts and for not sending the other pages. The exemptions claimed were based on the CIA Act of 1949 and the National Security Act of 1947. NewsMax.com: What conclusions do you draw from that? Leveritt: It certainly raises some serious questions. First, what is the national security interest at this point in keeping from the American public what was going on with this documented cocaine smuggler who has been dead now for 13 years? Second, how did his activities trigger the CIA Act of 1949? NewsMax.com: You had previously contacted members of Congress to aid in your request for documents. [1] Were the documents you just received the ones you had been seeking when you contacted the members of Congress? Leveritt: Yes. I never speak of this without acknowledging the help of Congressman Vic Snyder (D-Ark.). He was diligent in trying to get these documents released, simply in the interest of freedom of information. I doubt I would ever have gotten them without his help. NewsMax.com: You wrote a story early this year in which you mentioned Representative Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) and his role in investigating Mena. You reported that you had asked for his help in obtaining the documents. What sort of help did you get from his office? Leveritt: They sent to me a copy of a federal publication written to help people who were trying to submit a freedom of information request. NewsMax.com: Did his office contact the FBI on your behalf? Leveritt: They said they would, but I have no way of knowing if they did or not. NewsMax.com: There are accounts that Mena-related air drops were taking place on the railroad tracks near Bryant, Arkansas, and that a drop had come up missing. According to this account, the boys' deaths were related to this missing drop. In your research, did you find information to substantiate this? Leveritt: In this book I tried to tell what we know to be true and to avoid the fuzzy areas. There has been a lot of misinformation spread about the activities at Mena and the boys' deaths. I have probably done more work on these two subjects than anyone else has. My interest was to get on the record what we know for sure. I have done that, and that story alone is amazing. As for the fuzzy areas, I refer to questions that Linda Ives had to consider — questions that face us all. One of the things I say is that if we have a pattern of A, B and D, we might speculate that the missing letter is C, and we might have good reasons for concluding that. But I tried to avoid speculation in the book. So, the answer to your question is I did not pin down definitive information about a missing drug or money drop and I did not report speculation as fact. This story deserves serious mainstream interest. And I am a serious journalist. So I tried to be cautious in this book and not get into things about which we do not have definitive information. NewsMax.com: What has researching and writing this book meant to you personally? Leveritt: I was dismayed to run into some of the same walls that have blocked others seeking information on these matters. The Department of Justice has erected these walls to hide what should be public information. At the same time, I am proud of what I was able to discover and report about these dark affairs. Notes [1] Mara Leveritt, "A selective passion for truth," Arkansas Times, February 12, 1999. Available at: Arktimes.com All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com Get The Boys on the Tracks at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312198418/o/qid%3D940581952/sr%3D8-1/002-6851388-3893032/thetraindeaths/002-0924810-2469858 --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Was the salesman clueless? 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