Jim Guy Tucker, Ex-Arkansas Governor Caught Up in Whitewater, Dies at 81

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Jim Guy Tucker, Ex-Arkansas Governor Caught Up in Whitewater, Dies at 81

He was among those targeted by the investigation that consumed much of Bill Clinton’s presidency. But his conviction was later questioned.


Jim Guy Tucker in Little Rock, Ark., on the day he took over from Bill Clinton as governor of Arkansas in December 1992. Najlah Feanny/Corbis, via Getty Images

By Adam Nossiter
Feb. 13, 2025

Jim Guy Tucker, a former governor of Arkansas who was caught up in the long-running investigation that unsuccessfully targeted his predecessor as governor, Bill Clinton, died on Thursday in Little Rock, Ark. He was 81. ... His death, at a hospital, was caused by complications of ulcerative colitis, said his daughter Anna Ashton.

The Whitewater investigation, which looked into purportedly fraudulent land deals in northwest Arkansas, was led by a Republican special prosecutor and consumed much of the Clinton presidency. But it wound up netting only secondary players on minor charges.

Mr. Tucker was one of them. He had been among the most promising figures in Arkansas politics and a rival to Mr. Clinton in Arkansas’s Democratic Party. But he was forced to resign as governor in July 1996, after serving less than two years of his term.

Two months earlier, he had been convicted in a federal court in Little Rock. He had been prosecuted by independent counsel, a team led by Kenneth W. Starr, for receiving a fraudulent loan from a small business development company, Capital Management Services, in the mid-1980s.

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Mr. Tucker leaving the federal courthouse in Little Rock on May 28 after a jury found him guilty on two counts of fraud and conspiracy. Jeff Mitchell/Reuters

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Steve Barnes contributed reporting from Little Rock.

Adam Nossiter has been bureau chief in Kabul, Paris, West Africa and New Orleans, and is now a Domestic Correspondent on the Obituaries desk. More about Adam Nossiter