MARION, Ark. -- J.W. Kirkpatrick, a Memphis attorney linked in court testimony to a coup attempt in Dominica, left a suicide note addressed to his wife, authorities said Monday.
Crittendon County Deputy Sheriff R.D. Clay refused to speculate if Kirkpatrick's death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound was related to the coup attempt.
'I'm not going to be the one that's going to do that,' Clay said.
Clay said Kirkpatrick apparently shot himself in the mouth Sunday morning while seated in the driver's seat of his car about nine miles north of Earl on Arkansas 149 near his home in the community of Twist.
The deputy confirmed Kirkpatrick, 61, left a note addressed to his wife, but he would not reveal its contents.
Federal authorities in New Orleans were investigating Kirkpatrick's possible ties to the coup attempt but would not comment Monday on specifics.
Michael Perdue of Houston, ringleader of the coup attempt, testified last week during the trial of three men accused as accomplices that he received $10,000 from Kirkpatrick and another unidentified man in Memphis to finance the assault on Dominica.
Perdue said in court he got Kirkpatrick's name from David Duke of Metairie, La., former leader of a Ku Klux Klan faction.
Two of the men were convicted Saturday of conspiring to overthrow Dominica and of violating the federal neutrality act by planning an armed invasion of a friendly nation. The third was acquitted.
Purdue and six others earlier pleaded guilty to the scheme.
Kirkpatrick, the brother-in-law of the late Rep. E.C. 'Took' Gathings, who represented the First Congressional District of Arkansas from 1939 to 1969, worked in the Memphis law firm of Kirkpatrick, Lucas and Kirpatrick in partnership with his son, Scott. The firm represents primarily insurance companies.
Funeral for Kirkpatrick was scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesdayin West Memphis, Ark., with burial in Forrest City, where Kirkpatrick was born.
