Earl Clark (died 1987) was an American policeman and lieutenant in the Memphis Police Department who, according to restaurant owner Loyd Jowers, was the assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4 April 1968. According to Jowers, Clark, Marcello crime family associate Frank Liberto, and undercover policeman Marrell McCollough had met at Jowers' restaurant to plot King's assassination, and that Clark - supposedly a skilled marksman - had been hired to kill King. While James Earl Ray was convicted of killing King, Jowers and unspecified governmental agencies would later be found to be responsible for King's assassination in a later civil case. It was also theorized that Clark had merely served as spotter to Frank Strausser, the best shot in the Memphis police.