JANUARY 18, 2013 4:53 PM
RICK: I was looking at, they interviewed Larry Jordan
DON: Larry who?
RICK: Larry Jordan, James Jordan’s son.
DON: “Yeah.
RICK: “And, did he call you to set up some sort of a meeting?
DON: With his mother?
RICK: With his mother, yes.
DON: After his father was missing. Larry called me and asked me if I would meet with his mother, his mother wanted to meet me. So I went down about 2:30 in the afternoon and she proceeded to tell me that he had called her and asked her to sell the business. And as I explained to you what he did.
RICK: Right, he was missing during that time?
DON: They had already cremated him…Down in Bishopville.
RICK: So this was after he had already been cremated on the 15th that this conversation…
DON: I’ll put it this way to you. Larry called me. I don’t remember the exact date. He called me and told me his mother wanted to meet with me that afternoon. I got down there and talked with her. She told me that she had talked to, she referred to him as J.R. And a he had called her. And I said ‘where is he?’ And she said, ‘Well, he’s at a motel and she said to me and well you know he’s got a lot of things in the fire and a he’s thinking them over and he wanted me to sell the business.‘ She wanted to know if I would lease the building to these people they wanted to sell the business to. And as I told you before they had nothing to sell.
RICK: Right.
DON: Because the equipment was all raised and they was only getting contracts. So the very next day is when they announced that they had…
RICK: That they had found him?
DON: That they had found him. When she talked to me, I didn’t know that he was already dead, see.
RICK: Right. So this was a couple days before it was announced that he was dead?
DON: I think probably a day before.
RICK: Yeah.
DON: Either a day or two. I don’t recall it exactly.
RICK: But, it was Larry who set up the phone call?
DON: Larry had called me and asked me to meet with his mother.
RICK: Right.
DON: And I met his mother and his mother told me that she wanted to know if I would lease the, if they sold the business that I would lease the building to somebody else and I said ‘Yes, I would.’ And then I asked her where he was? She told me he was at a motel and he had a lot of things on the fire and he was thinking them over. And he had asked her to sell the business. That’s what she told me.
RICK: And you met her at JVL Enterprises with Larry?
DON: I met her, with Larry at the plant
RICK: And that was a day or two before it was announced?
DON: Before he died. Before they announced that he was dead. Before they discovered that they had cremated him. That was down in Bishopsville if I recall.
RICK: That wasn’t in Rock Hill?
DON: No, no. the plant was in Rock Hill. But, the body was cremated in Bishopsville near Atlanta.
RICK: I gotcha.
RICK: You were talking to me about school children. And that you were trying to get in touch with James Jordan.
DON: I was trying to get in touch with him a week or two before, see. He’s been missing for about two weeks and I was working for the state and we were teaching entrepreneurship in the state and my job was to, I was working with the children and if they came up with a business I would go to the state and get the money for them so. They were from Beaufort because I had told the teacher, see I facilitated the teachers and the students on, if the students came up with a business I would tell them how to do it. I was their business consultant see. And I told them that Michael Jordan’s father had my plant and they wanted to meet him. So I had arranged with Michael Jordan’s father to meet these kids and would go in and check if they had heard from him and they hadn’t heard from him see. And so, they came down anyway and Larry met with them. Met with the children at the plant .
RICK: Larry did.
DON: Yeah. Larry met with the children at the plant. The teacher, her name was Jackie Parker. From Beaufort, North Carolina.
RICK: When Larry led them through the plant, was that before you met with Mrs. Jordan?
DON: Before Larry’s mother had called me. Before Larry had called me to say his mother wanted to speak with me.
RICK: So Larry led the children through the plant and…
DON: I wasn’t there. I didn’t go in with them. They, I went to the plant but I let Larry take care of things so then they came back, so then those kids and the teacher came by my house so it was during the ??? time July or August I forgot when it was but I had, I brought the kids here, the teachers brought them here, Jackie brought them here and we had hot dogs and hamburgers here with my wife.
RICK: At your house.
DON: Yeah, at my house.
RICK: Right, and that was, but it was during that time because you were trying to get in touch with James Jordan and they said he wasn’t around.
DON: I was trying to get in touch with Mr. Jordan not to forget that he had, that he was supposed to meet with those children.
RICK: And the reason why Larry gave the tour was because James Jordan couldn’t be found.
DON: Right, the reason why Larry. I called Larry and I said ‘I’ve got these kids coming down here. They wanted to meet you.’ So I told them I didn’t know where James was so was it alright if they met his brother. So they did. And they met them at the plant as I remember.
RICK: So that was the two key questions that I wanted to ask because I’m reading the transcripts. He was, he testified in the case against Daniel Green, one of the two alleged killers, and they asked him…
DON: Are you talking about Larry?
RICK: Yeah, I’m talking about Larry. And they asked Larry if he had led a tour of school children at the JVL Enterprises plant. What would you say if he told the attorneys in that case and testified by saying no?
DON: (EMPHASIS) He said ‘No, he didn’t take care of children?’
RICK: Yeah.
DON: Well he’s lying like his mother.
RICK: And what would you say if he said he didn’t call you to set up a meeting with his mother?
DON: (EMPHASIS) He didn’t call me?
RICK: That’s what he said.
DON: Well he’s lying too like his mother.
RICK: And you said you had a case against the Jordan family?
DON: Did I have anything? No. When they buried him I heard that he had only left $4,000 something like that and he owed the government, the government took it and the rest of the money the wife buried him with. And I never got anything. And people would ask me, ‘Why didn’t I go after Michael?’ (EMPHASIS) I said, ‘Why would I go after Michael for?’ I said, ‘Michael didn’t have anything to do with this?’
RICK: Now you did an interview with a newspaper in 1996 during the trial.
DON: Well I only had the interview on the telephone, just like I’m having with you.
RICK: Right.
DON: The only interview that I had face to face was the FBI.
RICK: And that was how soon after James Jordan’s disappearance or when they said he was dead?
DON: I don’t remember. It was after he died that the FBI wanted to talk to me, see. As I told you before it was at the time that Michael had lost $25,000 on the golf course. And they had tried to tie it in that you know maybe the gamble was a big enough debt to have anything to do with it. But, I told them I never knew anything about, I did know, I read about that Michael had lost $25,000 on the golf course , but I didn’t know anything, Michael’s father never mentioned anything to me about Michael gambling or anything of that nature.
RICK: Right.
DON: But, they did ask me if I knew anything about it because they were trying to tie it in with that. See, at the time they didn’t know who killed him.
RICK: Oh, when they interviewed you they didn’t know who killed him?
DON: No they didn’t know killed him. At that time they didn’t know who killed him.
RICK: So that was the last time that anybody spoke with you was with the FBI and that one reporter?
DON: Larry spoke to me a couple, Larry called me first and then the FBI called me and then he had leased the building with someone down in Georgetown, he leased the equipment down in Georgetown I think it was. And they came up to get the equipment , but after that I never heard word or talked to anybody else about it.
RICK: You didn’t talk to the Prosecuting attorney?
DON: I had an attorney.
RICK: No, no but you didn’t talk to a prosecuting attorney who was handling the case against Daniel Green?
DON: No.
RICK: And you didn’t…
DON: No one called me. I wasn’t a witness to anything. No. I was not involved with the case with that Green boy, the two boys that killed him.
RICK: Right
DON: No, I was not involved.
RICK: So…
DON: I didn’t testify for anything.
RICK: Right. And they didn’t call you and ask you any questions?
DON: No, and I guess the only reason the newspapers called me from different parts of the east coast was because they found out I was the owner of the plant that he was in. I guess that’s the only reason they called me to see if I knew anything about what had happened.
RICK: Well, now you’re looking at this and when you were reading about the story you realized that the time didn’t match up.
DON: Yeah.
RICK: That the fact that you were getting…
DON: When you say ‘match up’ you mean…his wife was talking to me and he’s already been dead and she doesn’t know anything and she never ever let anybody know that he was missing.
RICK: Right. That’s what I meant by putting the time together. It didn’t make any…
DON: She never knew, when she was talking to me she was telling me he was alive and he was already dead.
RICK: Right.
DON: Now as far as times, the day before, I don’t remember, but I can’t remember that, but when she talked to me she told me he was alive and he was already dead.\
RICK: And you really don’t understand what her motivation for saying that would be do you?
DON: I have no idea what her motivation was. All I know is that she tried to get me, she asked me if she sold the business would I lease the business to somebody else. He had a 5-year lease and he had an option to buy it. To buy my building, offered me to buy the building.
RICK: And you had never spoken with Mrs. Jordan about the business prior to that had you?
DON: No. It was the first time I met her and the last time I met her.
RICK: (Laughs) So all your business was with James and Larry?
DON: I was what?
RICK: All your business dealings were with James and Larry?
DON: Yeah, that’s all. The only business I had with her was when Larry called me to come down to meet his mother. That she wanted to speak to me. And that was the only time I met her. And I did talk to her one other time on the phone a couple of times to try and get some money from her. They moved out in September and they beat me out of that money too.
RICK: Yeah, because I can read you the transcript right here. The attorney said, ‘Did you set up any business meetings with any member of the Jordan family and Mr. Chiofolo?’ And Larry Jordan said, ‘To the best of my knowledge, no.’
DON: Well, he’s lying. Just like his mother lies.
RICK: And it said, ‘Did you not attend any during that time period?’ And he said, ‘Let me say that I’ve been down there when Mr. Chiofolo came in, and I’ve talked to him on the phone, but as far as setting up meetings or anything as far as bringing my family members together and bringing him together, me coordinating the meeting, no.’
DON: The only one I met in his family was his mother. I knew he had another brother and another sister but that’s it. I never met them.
RICK: Okay.
DON: All I can tell you is what I’m telling you. He called me to ask me to meet his mother. And his mother told me that she had talked, she calls him J.R., and he wanted her to arrange to sell the business. And I asked her ‘Where is he?’ And she said that he’s in a motel and ‘Mr. Chiofolo,’ he says, ‘you gotta understand he’s got a lot of irons in the fire and he’s trying to work them out.’ And that’s when I told her he has nothing to sell. I said, ‘The equipment is all leased.’ They didn’t have a product. All they had was contracts. She had nothing to lease.
RICK: And to the best of your knowledge that conversation, or that meeting took place a day or two before it was announced that he was missing or that he was dead?
DON: Right. (Laughs) So I, you know I never knew what the transcript was. I never knew that, no one ever called me from the prosecution or anything. I, no one talked to me at all about when those two boys were tried, I was not involved in it at all.
RICK: Yeah.
DON: No one got in touch with me or anything. I mean, they could have called me and asked me if Larry had contacted me I would tell them the same thing that I’ve told you.
RICK: That’s why I’m confused. I don’t understand why the attorneys.
DON: Why he had lied.
RICK: Or why the attorneys if they were trying to prove that he was lying why they wouldn’t have called you and say ‘Hey can you come in and testify.’ You would have gone in if they had asked you correct?
DON: I would have testified if they had called me.
RICK: Yeah.
DON: I mean, there’s no reason for me to say that he a (laughs) arranged a meeting with his mother.
RICK: Yeah, I mean…
DON: What’s that got to do with the death though? I don’t understand this? Why would they ask him if his mother had met me or if he had arranged anything? Why would he say that? How would the attorneys know anyways?
RICK: The attorneys, I guess, they found out about it through the newspaper reports. Can you hear me?
DON: Hello?
RICK: Hey can you hear me?
DON: I can’t hear you.
RICK: Can you hear me now? OK OK
(RECORDING ENDS JANUARY 18, 2013 5:09 PM)
(RECORDING BEGINS 5:09 PM)
RICK: When they asked you about Larry Jordan and they said that you said he was a liar just like his mother. What…
DON: If he told you he didn’t call me he must lie like his mother. I never knew, see I never have caught him in a lie before. This is the first time that I’ve known that he ever lied to me.
RICK: But, my question was going to be what was it that Mrs. Jordan lied to you about?
DON: Well, Mrs. Jordan lied to me, she lied to me telling me that he was alive and in the motel.
RICK: Hmm, when he was, when we knew he was dead.
DON: He was dead, he had been dead.
RICK: Yep.
DON: She had never talked to him.
RICK: Exactly.
DON: So that’s what I’m saying when she lied, that she lied to me. That she had talked to him the night before. She told me he called her and she talked to him. This is what she said, ‘I talked to him last night.’ And I said (EMPHASIS), ‘You talked to him last night?’ I said, ‘Where is he?’ ‘Well he’s in a motel and he’s got a lot of things in the fire going and he’s thinking about it, but he wants to sell the business.’ And she asked me to see if I would lease the building to somebody else, to find someone to sell the business to. And as I told you, her son called me to arrange it. I had never met or even spoken to his mother.
RICK: And you knew nothing about the fact that Mr. Jordan and she were living in separate places?
DON: No, I didn’t know that.
RICK: Yeah, well this has been really most helpful. I know you don’t think so but it’s been most helpful and like I said I’ll definitely keep in touch and you know when this story comes out I’ll make sure that you are aware of it and that you get a copy.
DON: Okay, thank you so much.
RICK: Thanks, Don. We’ll talk to you soon.
DON: Alright.
RICK: Have a good day.
(END OF RECORDING JANUARY 18, 2013 5:12 PM)