Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 19, 1993 TAG: 9312190009
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEMPHIS, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
"We can either corroborate what they're saying, or we can disprove it, maybe," John Pierotti, the chief state prosecutor, said Friday.
The claims, which have fueled news reports for the past week, were repeated Thursday on ABC News "PrimeTime Live" by Loyd Jowers, 67, a former Memphis businessman who says he hired a killer to murder the civil rights leader.
Jowers, who owned a restaurant, Jim's Grill, near the murder scene, said the killer was not James Earl Ray, who confessed to shooting King in Memphis in 1968 and is serving a 99-year prison term.
Jowers said he was asked by a friend, former Memphis produce dealer Frank Liberto, to find someone to kill King. Liberto is now deceased. His widow has discounted Jowers' story.
Pierotti said his staff and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will look into Jowers' claims.
Pierotti said he had no idea why Jowers, who appeared on TV with his Memphis attorney, Lewis Garrison, is coming forward now.
"I don't know what their reason is. I really don't have to know why. I just have to know either it can be substantiated or it cannot be substantiated," he said.
Garrison said Jowers is willing to talk with authorities, if given immunity from prosecution.
Pierotti said he will not grant immunity to anyone claiming to have taken part in a murder. He said he does not plan to interview Jowers unless his investigation indicates that is warranted.
Ray, a drifter and small-time criminal, was arrested in London two months after the murder and brought to Memphis where he entered the guilty plea in 1969.
He has tried often over the years to take back his guilty plea, contending he was set up by a man he knew only as "Raoul."
by CNB