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acute stressor” similar to the type of stressor that would cause an individual to drop dead “during an electrical blackout or in the midst of a stampede at a football game.” Here, the facts all pointed toward a single “acute stressor”—namely, “an interaction between Mr. McDougal and the officer or guards in segregation.” On the night before McDougal’s death, not only had he been subjected to humiliation during another six-hour ordeal involving the demand for urine samples, but he had also been thrown into the hole and separated from his meds, all of which would have caused him to make a ruckus when the guard came to his cell for “stand-up count” between 10:00 and 11:00 P.M. During this time, McDougal undoubtedly acted up and complained that the guards were retaliating against him because he was blowing the whistle on Bill and Hillary Clinton—a theme he had repeatedly sounded during his final weeks.

Clark was convinced that some “interaction between Mr. McDougal and the officer in segregation … would have been enough of an agitation within Mr. McDougal’s system to trigger sudden cardiac death.”

The young psychologist, in the weeks after McDougal’s death, continued to gather information. While snooping around the hole, Clark checked the green-bound SHU visitors log that listed all individuals—including prison staff—who had entered and exited the unit. When he checked the book for the dates in question, the visitors’ log through March 9, 1998, was “missing.” It had been replaced with a brand-new logbook, beginning with the date of March 10—just after McDougal’s death. Clark said, “So the visitors log [for the key date] was taken.”

What thoroughly convinced Clark that the prison was hiding relevant facts, however, was a strange episode that the psychologist was reluctant to share until years later, in 2003, after he had left the employ of the prison. Shortly after McDougal’s funeral, Clark revealed, he had received a phone call from one of his supervisors indicating that “there is an investigator who’s going to come down to the Psychology Department” to discuss McDougal’s death. The moment Clark raised concerns about doctor-patient confidentiality, his supervisor cut him off: “Confidentiality no longer applies,…” he explained. “They’ve already confiscated the entire psychology file for Mr. McDougal.” The chief psychiatrist added hesitantly, “This is an official investigation; answer all of their questions.”

As Clark headed down the corridor toward his office, he was followed by a tall man dressed in a dark suit. The man said that he needed to speak with Clark in private, so the young doctor led him into his cramped office, with room only for one chair beside his desk. The man sat down and closed the door. According to Clark’s account, the serious-looking man got right to the point: “You know why I’m here. The information you have is of interest to the White House, the Office of Independent Counsel, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” he said. The man disclosed that he worked with the bureau’s legal staff, and that he had been appointed as special agent in charge of investigating James B. McDougal’s death.

For three hours, the light-haired agent with a stern face questioned Clark in areas that made the young doctor feel extremely uncomfortable. The man probed into Clark’s credentials, challenging “the appropriateness of conducting the evaluation” that had led to a recommendation of dry-cell status for McDougal. Increasingly, the man’s tone became “adversarial.” The agent suggested that McDougal had been “faking” his inability to produce a urine sample, to which Clark rejoined that this was highly unlikely, because McDougal had “offered to have blood drawn as a way of testing for substances.” He had even “volunteered to be catheterized so that the sample could be provided.” All of this, noted the young psychologist, indicated “this was not a case of malingering. Someone who would go to the extent of volunteering to be catheterized.” The man, however, did not seem appeased.

He returned to the subject of the “ill-advised nature