Man who died at JKF site killed himself, officials say

DALLAS — A postal worker found shot to death in Dealey Plaza, where President Kennedy was assassinated 40 years ago, committed suicide, authorities said Saturday.

Richard Clem, 50, shot himself in the mouth before daylight Friday on the "X" in Dealey Plaza that is the unofficial marker of where Kennedy was fatally shot on Nov. 22, 1963, the Dallas County Medical Examiner said.

Clem was from Dallas and had worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 27 years.

"He was always real intrigued with the Kennedy thing," co-worker Pat Lindley said. "He always took a great interest in reading books about it."

Witnesses said they saw Clem wearing a camouflage jacket and holding a gun on his chest early Friday. Police found him with a gunshot wound to the head. The gun was in his hand.

The X memorial is maintained by the publisher of a local conspiracy theory publication and is not sanctioned by the Sixth Floor museum or the city of Dallas.

Dawn Quiett of the Sixth Floor Museum said Clem wasn’t among the local conspiracy theorists known to workers at the museum.

"He’s not somebody who had come to do research here or anything like that," she said. "We don’t really know what happened. … Of course, it’s incredibly sad."

Copyright ©2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.