Old newspaper  articles on the internet? I had a great uncle that was murdered in Memphis leaving work one night. This was probably over thirty years ago. I would like to learn more about what happened.

His name was Melvin Layer and he was robbed by 3 young black men. I think only 2 were caught. That is about all I know.

If you go to the paper it would have appeared in they might have an archive online for a fee, otherwise you'd have to look through microfiche at a library etc.
If it was a MAJOR paper like the NYT, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune etc, it might appear in an online database such as ProQuest, but those are also fee based unless you are at a university that has a subscription.

ETA: I almost forgot, go to Google News and search for your terms, then on the left, you can set a date, and search whats available from the 70's etc. You might have to pay to see the archived material, but you should be able to tell if it's correct from what you can see. It's probably a long shot, but you may get lucky.

This is harder than you think; since the newspaper records weren't computerized, you might have to go in person to their main archive. The trouble there is that so many papers have been sold to big international corporate new owners, so who knows what they keep.

State archives

When I was in high school, I had to do a history project that required researching a lot of old newspapers.  The local library had newspapers on microfiche going back to about the 1940s.  That'd probably be worth a shot, check your local libraries.

Go to the local library or the local univeristy library.  They should have your old local newspaper archived on microfiche.

Quoted: When I was in high school, I had to do a history project that required researching a lot of old newspapers.  The local library had newspapers on microfiche going back to about the 1940s.  That'd probably be worth a shot, check your local libraries.

+1  used to be common practice for small towns

And library's seldom thow stuff away (mine had an original Warren Commission report).  You can hire researcher to look into old paper archives -  usually for geneology research if you aren't local or the story didn't make the wire,

How do I look up...

Tilt your head to the rear.

http://www.shelby-sheriff.org/divisions/ri.asp

http://memphispolice.org/

http://www.publicrecordsinfo.com/court_records/tennessee_court_records.htm

http://www.commercialappeal.com/

http://tennessee.gov/tsla/history/newspapers/tn-obits.htm

Might find info. through these links.  The last link mentions newspapers and obituaries, but iirc you'd have to contact the library and ask for help.

Thanks for your help. I might try to go to the local library and do some research.