Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Medium
The newspaper identified the witness as Frank Chiuchiolo. The identity was confirmed by Dennis Payne, a Los Angeles police detective, the Examiner said.
Chiuchiolo claimed in an interview with the Examiner a year ago that he could clear Mafia boss John Gotti. Chiuchiolo said he, not Gotti, had murdered mob boss ``Big Paul'' Castellano in 1985. Gotti was convicted of the murder.
Chiuchiolo, whose last address was in Happy Camp, a tiny community near the Oregon state line, also contacted the police in the case of Polly Klaas, the girl who was abducted from her bedroom in Petaluma, Calif., and murdered last year.
Files at the Polly Klaas Foundation indicate he reported he had seen the youngster about a month after she was slain.
He also approached authorities in Siskiyou County several years ago with information about a murder case there.
``He had people up here digging in an area looking for bodies, but none were ever found,'' an unidentified law enforcement source told the Examiner. ``He apparently is just a nut. He's a con man.''
He has served time in prison for forgery, grand theft, escape, auto theft and burglary, the newspaper said.
Simpson is charged with murdering his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and a friend of hers, Ronald Lyle Goldman, 25.
The existence of a mystery witness whose story could clear Simpson was disclosed during a court hearing Friday by Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the man identified himself as a burglar and told defense investigators that he was casing homes in the neighborhood the night of the slayings when he heard a woman scream and saw two white men running from the crime scene.
He further claimed that the men said something about slicing or slashing a victim.
by CNB