Clinton Phones Alleged Kin, Has Friendly Chat

WASHINGTON — President Clinton finally caught up by phone Friday with the man who contends that he is the President’s long lost half brother. They had a “warm conversation” and agreed to get together some time, the White House said.

Clinton reached 55-year-old Henry Leon Ritzenthaler at his home in Paradise, Calif., and they talked for about 15 minutes. It was the first time the two had spoken.

“They had a warm conversation and agreed to get together at some point in the future,” Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said.

Ritzenthaler told CBS he felt “very honored and very pleased he called me. I really do.”

While Clinton didn’t say he believes the two are half brothers, “I think he does” believe that, Ritzenthaler said.

Ritzenthaler, who has heart problems, said the two talked about a family history of heart trouble. He said Clinton told him “he has heart tests taken every year, and jogs and keeps his weight down.”

Ritzenthaler emerged Sunday as a long lost half brother, saying he believed he and Clinton share the same father, William Jefferson Blythe. Blythe divorced Ritzenthaler’s mother and later married Virginia Cassidy, Clinton’s mother, who says she never knew her husband had been previously married or had fathered another son.