Thomas Bracken, the fifth U.S. citizen to be killed in El Salvador was in this country to help the National Police fight what they consider foreign-inspired communism aimed at El Salvador's peasants. His job reportedly was to advise on investigation techniques.

There are conflicting and different versions of his death. According to the most reliable of many confused versions of his death, Bracken was killed in an accidental shootout with the personal bodyguards of Antonio Morales Erlich, one of four members of the ruling government junta. The bodyguards had nothing against Bracken, officials said. -- they were just driving by when a gunfight erupted. They joined it, and they shot Bracken "under accidental circumstances." Thomas is buried in San Salvador's La Bermeja Cemetery.

Source of information: www.washingtonpost.com