King Conspiracy Theory #4

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

A Memphis bar owner named Lloyd Jowers did it

Memphis bar owner Lloyd Jowers, who in 1968 ran Jim's Grill, located across the street from the Lorraine Motel, claimed in 1993 that a Memphis produce dealer, Frank Liberto (now dead), gave him $100,000 to hire a hit man to murder King—and the killer he hired wasn't Ray.

After a 7-month investigation, Memphis District Attorney General Bill Gibbons reported that he could find no evidence Jowers had any involvement in the murder. ABC's Primetime Live broke Jowers's story in 1993; in 1998 the same show denounced Jowers as a fraud.