the smartest guys in the room bethany mclean

It’s as if “they’re calling us child molesters,” he complained. In phone calls and visits with friends, he railed for hours about the scandal’s taint. Then there was the media, pestering him at home a dozen or more times a day: Did he know what had gone wrong? How could America’s seventh-biggest company just blow up? Where had the billions gone? No one, at this early stage, viewed Baxter as a major player in the company’s crash. Baxter was convinced they were having him tailed-and rummaging through his family’s trash. Would he have to testify against his friends? The plaintiffs’ lawyers had named him as a defendant in a huge securities-fraud suit. A congressional committee had already called the FBI and SEC would surely be next. Always given to mood swings, he had become deeply depressed in recent days, consumed by the spectacular scandal that had engulfed his old company.Įveryone seemed to be after him. But as he cruised the empty streets of Sugar Land, Texas, Baxter was drowning in dark thoughts.

Baxter was rich, too-thanks to a generous helping of stock options, a millionaire many times over. Before quitting his job eight months earlier, he had served as vice chairman of a great American corporation, capping a decade-long career as the company’s top deal maker. Then, dressed in blue jogging slacks, a blue T-shirt, and moccasin slippers, he climbed into his new black Mercedes-Benz S500 and drove out into the night.Īt 43, John Clifford Baxter, the son of a Long Island policeman, had made it big in Texas. The door alarm didn’t make a sound as he entered the garage he’d disabled the security system before turning in. Then he stepped quietly through his large suburban Houston home, taking care not to awaken his two children. He stuffed pillows under the covers so his sleeping wife wouldn’t notice he was gone. On a cool Texas night in late January, Cliff Baxter slipped out of bed.

The smartest guys in the room bethany mclean