Rumor mills were abuzz in the nation’s capital over the White House’s 24-hour news blackout regarding the Cheney “hunting accident.” Not since Richard Nixon’s infamous 17 and a half minute tape gap has Washington engaged in such fevered speculation over a span of lost time at the highest levels of our government.
Adding to the mystery was the assertion by one unnamed Secret Service agent that he heard a second shot emanating from a location to the left of the Cheney hunting party. Was Dick Cheney the lone gunman? Ballistic experts are skeptical. Former ATF expert Shel Casing said, “The injured man’s face was a patchwork quilt of lacerations. No single burst of buckshot could account for the extent of those injuries.”
At the time this story was filed, various Mafioso crime figures with a potential axe to grind had not be reached for comment because they were either dead or in jail.