NEW ORLEANS -- Government prosecutors vowed to uncover the financial backers of a failed mercenary plot to overthrow the government of a tiny Caribbean nation, and a Memphis attorney linked to the scheme killed himself.
The body of J.W. Kirkpatrick, 61, was found Sunday slumped in the driver's seat of his car on a rural Arkansas road about 10 miles from Twist, where officials said he owned a house.
He apparently shot himself in the mouth and the county coroner ruled the death a suicide.
His death came one day after two mercenaries -- members of a rag-tag team of ten soldiers of fortune with links to the Ku Klux Klan -- were convicted in the plot to invade the nation of Dominica. Seven other mercenaries have pleaded guilty in the coup and another alleged soldier of fortune was acquitted.
'We'll keep investigating until we find out who was involved in it, where all the money came from, and we are satisfied that everyone has been brought to justice,' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Larson, who helped prosecute the case.
He said a grand jury probing the case wanted to know 'the people behind this plot ... and anyone else who financed or gave any money in any way' to the 10 heavily armed mercenaries arrested April 27 on a remote stretch of Louisiana coastline as they prepared to embark on the 2,000-mile voyage.
Ku Klux Klan leader Stephen Don Black and Klan member Joe Daniel Hawkins, convicted Saturday, and fellow Klansman Michael Norris, who was acquitted, were handed subpoenas to appear before the grand jury July 2 as they left federal court after the verdict.
Kirkpatrick was named in testimony last week in their trial by Michael Perdue, the mercenary leader who has pleaded guilty in the plot.
Perdue testified he received $10,000 from Kirkpatrick and another unidentified man in Memphis. He said he got the lawyer's name from David Duke, the former leader of a Ku Klux Klan faction in Metairie, La.
Perdue testified he used $70,000 collected from businessmen to purchase weapons, dynamite and other military equipment and to pay for reconnaissance trips to Dominica.
After the verdict, Black, 27, of Birmingham, Ala., claimed he, Hawkins, 37, of Jackson, Miss., and Norris, 21, of Northport, Ala., were offered immunity from prosecution on other charges in exchange for information that could result in more indictments.
'I don't know what they expect me to testify to that I didn't testify to in court,' Black said,
However, Larson denied any deal had been struck.
'They have no immunity now and we have not promised any,' he said. 'We haven't made a determination about that yet.'
Attorneys for Black vowed to appeal his case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He and Hawkins were found guilty of conspiracy and violating the Neutrality Act by engaging in the planned invasion and coup.
Sentencing by U.S. District Judge Lansing Mitchell was set for July 22. They face up to eight years in prison and $13,000 in fines.
Black had testified the mercenaries were duped into thinking the Dominica plot had the U.S. government's backing.
The 10 men were hired to topple the government of Prime Minister Mary Eugenia Charles and replace her with jailed former Prime Minister Patrick John.
Seven of the 10 -- including Perdue of Houston -- changed their pleas to guilty in return for leniency.
