Editing Loyd Jowers

{{Short description|American restaurateur and alleged conspirator (1926–2000)}}
{{Infobox person
| image = LoydJowers.JPG
| caption = Jowers at the 1999 trial
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|11|20}}
| birth_place = [[Lexington, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2000|5|20|1926|11|20}}
| death_place = [[Union City, Tennessee]], U.S.
| occupation = Restaurateur
| known_for = Alleged conspirator in the [[assassination of Martin Luther King&nbsp;Jr.]]
}}
'''Loyd Jowers''' (November 20, 1926<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/|title=RootsWeb.com Home Page|website=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com}}</ref>{{spaced ndash}}May 20, 2000) was an American restaurateur and the owner of Jim's Grill, a restaurant near the [[National Civil Rights Museum|Lorraine Motel]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], where [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King&nbsp;Jr. was assassinated]] in 1968. For the first 25 years after the assassination of King, Jowers testified that he was in the restaurant at the time of the assassination, a fact supported by the other witnesses in the restaurant.<ref>{{cite web |title=Department of Justice, Jower's Allegations |url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/iv-jowers-allegations |website=Department of Justice |date=6 August 2015 |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> 

In 1993, Jowers appeared on the [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] program ''[[Prime Time Live]]'' and claimed to be part of an [[Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories|alleged conspiracy]] involving the [[American Mafia|Mafia]] and the [[U.S. government]] to kill King. According to Jowers, the alleged assassin, [[James Earl Ray]], was a [[Scapegoating|scapegoat]], and was not the only person responsible for assassinating King. Jowers named a number of different people as the alleged assassins, including a black man who was in the area, a man named Raoul named by Ray to have been involved, and someone he could not identify before finally settling on the story that he hired [[Memphis police]] Lieutenant Earl Clark to fire the fatal shot. A Memphis [[Loyd Jowers trial|civil trial]] in 1999 supported this claim, while not having been shown existing evidence of Jowers' contradictions. In 2000, the [[United States Department of Justice]] released a 150-page report denying allegations that there was a conspiracy to assassinate King.<ref name="The Hour; June 10, 2000"/>

==Martin Luther King Jr. assassination==
In a 1993 episode of [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[Primetime Live]]'', Jowers told reporter [[Sam Donaldson]] that he hired someone to kill King as a favor to a friend in the [[mafia]], produce merchant Frank Liberto.<ref name="Los Angeles Times; May 24, 2000">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Loyd Jowers; Jury Found He Played a Role in King's Slaying |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-24-me-33485-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=May 24, 2000 |access-date=August 24, 2015}}</ref><ref name="The New York Times; May 23, 2000">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/23/us/loyd-jowers-73-who-claimed-a-role-in-the-killing-of-dr-king.html |work=The New York Times |title=Loyd Jowers, 73, Who Claimed A Role in the Killing of Dr. King |date=May 23, 2000}}</ref> Jowers said Liberto, who had died prior to the ABC interview, had paid him $100,000 to arrange the assassination.<ref name="The New York Times; May 23, 2000"/> He did not name the person he claimed to have hired, but said it was not Ray.<ref name="The New York Times; May 23, 2000"/>

===''Coretta Scott King v. Loyd Jowers''===
{{See also|Loyd Jowers trial}}

In 1998, the King family filed a [[wrongful death]] lawsuit against Jowers and "other unknown co-conspirators" for the murder of King. The King family was represented by attorney [[William Francis Pepper|William Pepper]], who had previously served as the attorney of James Earl Ray, King's formerly accused assassin, in a televised, mock trial.<ref name="The Washington Post; May 23, 2000">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Lloyd Jowers Dies |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/05/23/loyd-jowers-dies/ae1b4416-eac8-4823-9879-5ced6fb3a709/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, D.C. |date=May 23, 2000 |access-date=September 12, 2017}}</ref> According to The ''Washington Post'', Pepper had "for years claimed the assassination was the result of a vast conspiracy involving the FBI, CIA and the Army, organized crime and various state and local officials."<ref name="The Washington Post; May 23, 2000"/> After four weeks of testimony which involved over 70 witnesses and thousands of pages of new evidence, a Memphis jury unanimously found, on December 8, 1999, that Jowers was part of a conspiracy to kill King, and that the assassination plot also involved "others, including governmental agencies."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/civil-case-king-family-versus-jowers|title=Civil Case: King Family versus Jowers - The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change|website=www.thekingcenter.org}}</ref>

At a press conference following the [[Coretta Scott King v. Loyd Jowers|verdict]], [[Coretta Scott King]] stated that "there is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr... the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame."<ref name=KingCenter>{{cite news | url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/assassination-conspiracy-trial | work=The King Center | title=Assassination Conspiracy Trial | date=December 9, 1999 | access-date=January 20, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331040137/http://www.thekingcenter.org/assassination-conspiracy-trial | archive-date=March 31, 2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Following statements by [[Dexter King]] and other family members, Dexter was subsequently asked by a reporter, "there are many people out there who feel that as long as these conspirators remain nameless and faceless there is no true closure, and no justice." He replied:

<blockquote>No, he [Mr. Lloyd Jowers] named the shooter. The shooter was the Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark who he named as the killer. Once again, beyond that you had [[credible witness]]es that named members of a Special Forces team who didn't have to act because the contract killer succeeded, with plausible denial, a Mafia contracted killer.<ref name=KingCenter/></blockquote>

The Memphis county prosecutor said on several occasions that Mr. Jowers' claims were without merit and that he was motivated to sell his story for a book or a movie. Ray's lawyer claimed two sisters who worked at Jowers' restaurant would corroborate Jowers' claim, but both recanted their stories. One sister said that Jowers had fabricated the story so he could make $300,000 from selling the story; she in turn corroborated his story in order to get money to pay taxes. In a telephone conversation taped by authorities, Jowers' main witness stated that his story was false.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/mlk/memphis/memphis2.htm | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Washingtonpost.com: Martin Luther King Jr.: The Legacy | date=January 30, 1999}}</ref><ref name="The New York Times; May 23, 2000"/>

According to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', "The trial relied heavily on second- and third-hand accounts, and the judge and jurors were often seen dozing off during testimony."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-24-me-33485-story.html | work=The Los Angeles Times | title=Loyd Jowers; Jury Found He Played a Role in King's Slaying | date=May 24, 2000}}</ref> John Campbell, an assistant district attorney in Memphis who was part of the criminal trial against James Earl Ray, said: "I'm not surprised by the verdict. This case overlooked so much contradictory evidence that never was presented, what other option did the jury have but to accept Mr. Pepper's version?"<ref name=times>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html|title=Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing|first=Emily|last=Yellin|date=December 9, 1999|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

[[Gerald Posner]], an investigative journalist who wrote the book ''Killing the Dream'' in which he makes the case that Ray was the killer, said after the verdict: "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it."<ref name=times/>

===Justice Department investigation===
Prompted by the King family's acceptance of some of the conspiracy theories, [[United States Attorney General]] [[Janet Reno]] ordered a new investigation on August 26, 1998.<ref name="The Hour; June 10, 2000">{{cite news |last=Sniffin |first=Michael J. |date=June 10, 2000 |title=Justice Dept. finds no conspiracy in King assassination |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1916&dat=20000609&id=umctAAAAIBAJ&pg=1277,1382770&hl=en |newspaper=The Hour |volume=129 |issue=159 |location=Norwalk, Connecticut |agency=AP |page=A4 |access-date=October 22, 2015}}</ref> On June 9, 2000, the [[United States Department of Justice]] released a 150-page report rejecting allegations that there was a conspiracy to assassinate King, including the findings of the Memphis civil court jury.<ref name="The Hour; June 10, 2000"/> The DOJ considered suggestions by the [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations|U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations]] in 1979 and the district attorney of [[Shelby County, Tennessee]] in 1998 that Ray's brothers may have been co-conspirators and stated that they "found insufficient evidentiary leads remaining after 30 years to justify further investigation."<ref name="The Hour; June 10, 2000"/>

==Death==
On May 20, 2000, Jowers died of a [[heart attack]] at Baptist Memorial Hospital in [[Union City, Tennessee]].<ref name="Los Angeles Times; May 24, 2000"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/mlk/part1.php|title=List Of Attachments - CRT - Department of Justice|website=www.justice.gov|date=6 August 2015 }}</ref> He was reported to have suffered from [[lung cancer]] at the time of his death.<ref name="Los Angeles Times; May 24, 2000"/>

==See also==
* [[Loyd Jowers trial]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101105144840/http://www.thekingcenter.org/kingcenter/Transcript_trial_info.aspx King v. Jowers transcript]
* [http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/usdojgov/www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/mlk/part1.htm Department of Justice investigation]

{{Martin Luther King |expanded=Assassination}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jowers, Loyd}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Memphis, Tennessee]]
[[Category:American restaurateurs]]
[[Category:People from Lexington, Tennessee]]