PangAlmost 18 years after he set the Chinatown blaze that killed four Seattle firefighters, Martin Pang is still throwing gas on the fire. He now refutes his own signed confession and claims to have “new evidence” he was in Los Angeles when the Jan. 5, 1995 fire broke out. But as Seattle Weekly reports this week, prosecutors say Pang’s “new” evidence was presented and disproved in the 1990s. Additionally, Pang’s appeal attempt has led to the disclosure of once-secret case documents, obtained by the Weekly , that show an even more violent side to the wife-beating playboy willing to burn down his family’s business for money: he also plotted to kill his wife and his parents.Rise Pang, one of Martin’s four ex-wives, told ATF agents she’d been alerted by two of Pang’s friends that he had approached each of them about murdering her.He wanted them to do the job, or at least help him pull it off. Apparently word leaked back to Pang that she knew of the threat, and he then stayed clear of her. As for killing the wealthy parents who’d adopted and raised him from a baby and paid for his high-rolling lifestyle:”He talked about finding a way of having them die together because of some double-indemnity clause in their insurance,” Rise said. “They were worth more if they died together . . . he discussed maybe having their car blow up.”But rather than killing his parents, he burned down their warehouse, becoming the perpetrator of the most tragic loss of firefighters in Seattle history and earning a 35-year prison term. Prosecutors say he has no chance of winning his new bid for freedom. But we’ve also learned that the killer arsonist who escaped the death penalty as well as a life sentence with a plea deal, could be back on Seattle streets within six years.
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