The Strange Deaths of Bertha Champagne and (now) Nancy Hamilton (from Wayne Madsen Reports)

[James H. Fetzer]

August 14-15, 2012 -- Wife of 9/11 Commission co-chair killed by her own car

On August 11, a month from the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks,Nancy Hamilton, the 82-year old wife of former U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton, the former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the co-chair of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the attacks, was killed when her own vehicle ran her over in the parking lot of a veterinarian's office.

Mrs. Hamilton, according to Bloomington Police, did not have her vehicle's transmission in park when she exited the car around 4:15 pm to retrieve her pet from the back. When Hamilton went behind the vehicle, a later model Toyota Camry, the car backed up and ran her over. The Monroe County medical examiner reported that Mrs. Hamilton died from massive blunt force to her chest and head. The police said the car knocked over Mrs. Hamilton and then proceeded to roll over her. Mrs. Hamilton was transported from the incident scene on the 4500 block of East Third Street and she died hours later at IU Health-Bloomington Hospital.

It is unusual that the police waited two days to report the seemingly bizarre incident involving Mrs. Hamilton and her death, which was ultimately ruled an accident. The Associated Press, NBC News, and local Indiana newspapers and radio and television stations did not report the death of Mrs. Hamilton for almost two full days. The police also made it known that Mrs. Hamilton was alone at the time of the accident.

Although for over a decade, drivers have not been able to remove the key from the ignition unless the transmission was in park, Mrs. Hamilton exited the vehicle, walked behind it to retrieve her pet from the back, and the vehicle went into reverse and ran her over. The Bloomington police have made it clear that they consider the case closed.

Newspaper and television network web site blogs became inundated not with messages of remorse but a spate of postings that criticized states for allowing the elderly to drive and that Mrs. Hamilton deserved what she got under "Obamacare." Many of the postings appeared to be automatically-generated from government "sock puppet" software used heavily by the intelligence services and military.

Friends of Mrs. Hamilton revealed that despite her 82 years of age, she maintained all her mental faculties, with one stating Mrs. Hamilton was "sharp as a tack."

The method in which Mrs. Hamilton died was not the first such bizarre death involving a driver-less vehicle and someone close to the 9/11 investigation. This editor reported the following on October 10, 2003: 

October 10 , 2003, 1200 PDT, -- WASHINGTON, At around 9 PM on September 29, Fairfax County, Virginia police responded to a 911 call describing an accident. However, they soon discovered they were not dealing with a routine emergency but the mysterious death of an employee of the 47-year old brother of President George W. Bush, venture capitalist Marvin Bush. Sixty-two year old Bertha Champagne, described as a long time "baby sitter" for Marvin and Margaret Bush's two children, son Walker, 13, and daughter Marshall, 17, was found crushed to death by her own vehicle in a driveway in front of the Bush family home in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County. Champagne reportedly lived at the Bush family home.

Champagne had left the residence to retrieve something from her car, which police say had somehow been "left in gear."

On October 21, 2005, WMR was the first to report on the contents of... a copy of which we were able to obtain from the Fairfax County Police Department. The police never officially released the report. The report, written by Pfc C. E. Beech, stated: "September 09-29-03 at approximately 2130 hours I was contacted by the on duty PSCC supervisor to respond to 6202 Ft. Hunt Rd. for a single vehicle fatality. While on scene I discovered a black Olds Bravada in the tree line and two small blood pools in the drive way. There was also blood and glass debris in the driveway. The operator of the vehicle was transported by ground to Mt. Vernon Memorial Hospital and identified as Bertha Champagne. Bertha was a maid for Marvin Bush who resides at 6202 Ft. Hunt Rd. By the time I arrived on scene the body was already transported to Mt. Vernon Hospital by ground. During the course of my investigation I interviewed Marvin Bush. Marvin stated that he arrived home at approximately 2045 hours. He advised me that he had a brief conversation with with Bertha in the kitchen. Bertha then tells Marvin that she wants to show him a video tape of her and President Bush. She then leaves the residence to take out the family dogs and retrieve the video tape. There are no witnesses to the crash. There were no signs of any other type of crime involved with this event. The victim had all her money in her wallet and all her personal belongings such as jewelry and a watch in her possession. According to the Medical Examiner, Bertha's injuries were related to this crash. There were no blunt injuries or injuries related to a robbery or a carjacking."

The official police announcement of Champagne's death made no mention of Marvin Bush or a video tape: "A 62-year-old Alexandria area woman died after being pinned between a rolling car and a building.  The crash happened on Monday, around 9 pm, near the intersection of Fort Hunt Road and Edgehill Drive.  Bertha Champagne had gone outside to get something from a car in a driveway.  The car, which was left in gear, began to roll forward.  Champagne was pinned between the car and a small building next to the driveway.  The car continued to roll down the driveway, crossed Fort Hunt Road, and came to rest in a wooded area.  Champagne was taken to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital where she was pronounced dead."

As in the case of Nancy Hamilton's Toyota Camry, Champagne's 2000 Olds Bravada could not have easily slipped out of gear with the keys removed from the ignition. For at least 15 years, most cars' ignitions lock if the car's transmission is not placed in park.

As WMR reported on October 21, 2005: "The police report refers to Marvin Bush's occupation as 'sales.' In fact, Marvin Bush served on the board of Securacom (renamed Stratesec). Just a few weeks prior to Champagne's death, Securacom (which provided security for Dulles International Airport and the World Trade Center on 9-11) filed for bankruptcy. Bush also served on the board of HCC Insurance Holdings, inc. (formerly Houston Casualty Company), one of the re-insurers for the World Trade Center. Marvin Bush is also a co-founder of Winston Partners Group, a financial investment firm, along with A. Scott Andrews, a former chief financial officer (until 1994) for Worldcom. Bush had also served on the board of Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc., a Palestinian-owned firm with headquarters in the Cayman Islands and a U.S. office in Coral Gables, Florida. In 2002, Bush left the board after it became the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation."

Bertha Champagne, as now reported from Bloomington, Indiana, was not the only person with a link to the events of 9/11 to die in a similar manner. Nancy Hamilton's husband, Lee Hamilton, widely criticized for not fully investigating 9/11, later revealed that the commission had been lied to by the CIA, among others. In December 2007, Hamilton said, "Did they [the CIA] obstruct our inquiry? The answer is clearly yes." Hamilton also said senior military officers, including those from the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), "misrepresented the facts" to the Commission, and the Commission considered "recommending criminal charges for such false statement."

In their book, Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, Hamilton and fellow 9/11 chair and former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean,wrote that the 9/11 Commission was "set up to fail," reiterating that Pentagon and Federal Aviation Aviation (FAA) officials repeatedly lied and that the commission considered launching a separate investigation into obstruction of justice by the the Bush administration." Lee Hamilton remains a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, a part of the Department of Homeland Security.

With the chairmen of the 9/11 Commission maintaining that the commission was "set up to fail," it is not a leap to consider that two women who were only once removed from two key players in the investigation of 9/11 -- Lee Hamilton and Marvin Bush -- were "set up" to die.

[Jeannon Kralj]

On Killtown's old forum, I had started a thread documenting all the suspicious deaths of persons directly related to 9-11.  I really wish we had somewhere an ongoing complete record of these deaths. The forum is now defunct.

Col Craig Roberts wrote a book documenting the deaths associated with JFK assassination, The Dead Witnesses.

Also there are lists, or used to be for similar suspicious deaths connected with Clinton and G.W.Bush, which used to be findable by search terms such as "the clinton body count" and "the bush body count."

There needs to be a record of this for 9-11.