Who killed Michael Jordan's father? The complicated facts you never knew

Nearly 30 years after Michael Jordan’s father was shot to death in his son's car, one of the two convicted killers is set to be released on parole in 2023. But do you know the whole story of the case? 

Officially, James Jordan was shot and killed while sleeping in his son’s red Lexus at a highway stop in Robeson County, North Carolina, and his body was found 11 days later after being dumped off a bridge. But ever since the incident, questions have swirled about several of the case's unanswered facts. 

But what if James Jordan's murderer wasn’t random at all? What if Micheal Jordan's father was killed by someone other than his two convicted murderers? Join us for a look at some little-known facts about Jordan's case and a possible killer that got away. 

Michael Jordan’s father was initially found by a fisherman in a South Carolina swap. The body was draped over a tree and badly decomposed. So decomposed in fact, that police couldn’t match the man to any missing person report and initially labeled Jordan as an unidentified John Doe before cremating his body. 

Two days after James Jordan’s body was discovered, police found a stripped-down Lexus sports car in the woods sixty miles from the location of Jordan’s body. That car would later turn out to be Michael Jordan’s and that’s how police were able to initially identify James Jordan’s body. 

Few people remember this fact, but James Jordan was actually officially identified post-cremation through his dental records. The corner who worked on Jordan’s body had kept the man's jaw and hands to verify the identity. 

One of the more suspicious facts of the Jordan case was that James Jordan’s family didn't file a missing person report until three weeks after he had gone missing. 

The reason given by the family was that Michael’s security team had started its own investigation into his father’s disappearance. It wasn’t until the family learned about their vandalized car that they filed a missing person report with the police. 

Some conspiracy-minded critics have pointed to the delayed missing person report as circumstantial evidence that proves organized crime and gambling debts may have played a factor in James Jordan's murder. 

Shortly after the trial of James Jordan’s accused killers finished, 22 officers from the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, the police force that investigated James Jordan's murder, were charged with various crimes of corruption. Did this have any bearing on the Jordan case and its outcome?

One of the most bizarre moments in the investigation into Jordan’s murder came when suspect Daniel Greene pointed police to his great-grandmother's house where they dug up Michael Jordan’s NBA ring, which his father had in his possession at the time of his murder. 

One of the most damaging pieces of evidence that emerged during the case was a rap music video that showcased Greene wearing James Jordan’s watch and Michael Jordan’s NBA ring. 

During the murder trial, Michael Jordan’s brother Larry identified the jewelry as gifts from Michael to his father but the judge wouldn’t allow the jury to view the music video for fear that it might prejudice them against the alleged killer. 

Larry Demery and Daniel Greene were accused and later convicted of murdering James Jordan. But long before they murdered together they played in school together. The two grew up together in Robeson County.

Fortunately for the Jordan family, a gun was discovered hidden in Greene’s home and Larry Demery turned on his best friend, providing the eyewitness testimony against Greene that would put him away for life — a sentence Demery would also serve.

In his testimony, Demery said the two planned to rob a sleeping Jordan but accused Greene of shooting Jordan in the chest when he noticed him waking up. The pair then dumped Jordan’s body over a bridge. 

During the night Jordan was murdered, Greene claims to have been at a cookout with a girlfriend named Bobbie Jo Murillo. Multiple witnesses had corroborated this story, however, none were called to testify by the defense, not even Bobbie Jo. This has left people wondering if Greene was set up as the fall guy for a mob hit. 

At Demery and Greene’s trial, the 38. snub nose revolver presented by prosecutors as the murder weapon was not actually proven to be the gun that killed James Jordan. 

The weapon was found in a Shop-vac at Greene’s home but the ballistics tests on the bullets proved to be inconclusive when compared to the bullet taken from James Jordan’s body. 

The case actually hinged on very little evidence outside of Demery’s eyewitness testimony. The primary narrative is that James Jordan was killed in his car and then moved but blood analysis tests from the vehicle were also inconclusive. 

During the trial, a blood analyst was brought in to testify but she believed that there was blood in the vehicle despite there being no confirmed evidence. 

One of the first calls made from James Jordan’s phone on the day that he was murdered was to Hubert Larry Deese, a convicted drug dealer and the biological son of Robeson County Sheriff Hubert Stone, one of the many officers later convicted of corruption…

Deese also worked with Larry Demery at Crestline Mobile Homes, which was less than a mile from the place where Jordan’s body was dumped after his murder. 

Crestline Mobile Home also had a different name at this time, Cocaine Alley. The business was known to be part of a larger drug trafficking trade that helped move “product” along the East Coast.

Judge Gregory Weeks ruled that the phone call and connection between Sheriff Stone, Hubert Deese, and Larry Demery could not be presented as evidence and the jury never learned any of the connections between the three men. 

In an interview with a local reporter, an acquaintance of Larry Demery admitted that Demery was the one to shoot Jordan, and nearly two decades later Christine Mumma, Daniel Greene’s current lawyer, visited Larry Demery in prison during which Demery confessed to her that he had lied during the trial. 

Greene has filed several appeals to have his conviction overturned, claiming he wasn’t there when Michael Jordan’s dad was killed. 

In 2020, co-defendant Larry Demery was granted parole and after having his release delayed in 2021, he is set to be released in 2023. 

James "Slim" Bouler could be considered a prime suspect by some conspiracy theorists. Michael Jordan had written a $57,000 cheque to cover gambling losses and it was endorsed by Bouler, a well-known drug trafficker and money launderer.

Mark Whicker, a writer for the Orange County Register sparked the controversial theory in 1993 and made an allegation in one of his stories that there was a possible connection between Jordan's death and his son's gambling losses. 

"For now, we just know that there is evidence of the son's gambling problem, and there is suspicion of a son's paying problem," Whicker wrote in his story, "The father of that son has been murdered. Coincidence, anyone?" 

Unfortunately, we may never know the whole truth of James Jordan's final moments. But we do know that there is more to the story than we've been told...