By Dan McCue

CHARLESTON -- Three guitars purchased by Al Parish may have once belonged to late rock icon Jimi Hendrix, according to an attorney working with the court-appointed receiver in the economist’s investment fraud case.

“We’re still trying to confirm whether they are in fact Jimi Hendrix’s guitars, and hope to know within a week,” said attorney J. David Dantzler, who is working to sort out Parish’s tangled investments with receiver Hays Financial Consulting of Atlanta. “Right now, anecdotally at least, it appears that they are.”

The guitars are currently in the hands of a Charlotte, N.C., musical instrument dealer.

To date, the receiver has recovered little in terms of liquid assets, and it now appears it could be years before investors in Parish’s various investment pools recover any of their money, Dantzler said.

In the meantime, Yolanda Parish, wife and business partner of the former Charleston Southern University economist, has hired the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond’s son, Paul R. Thurmond, to represent her in the event any criminal charges are filed against her. She also has hired Michael Timbes, Thurmond’s partner at the Charleston law firm of Thurmond, Kirchner & Timbes, to represent her in any and all civil suits filed in relation to the case.

“So far, Mrs. Parish has not been charged with any crimes and has been as straightforward and helpful as she can be with the receiver and federal investigators,” Thurmond said Tuesday afternoon.

“Hopefully, the prosecutor will ultimately decide she has not committed any crime, but there’s a long way to go in the investigation, so at this point, it’s still very much a possibility.”

Al Parish’s attorney, Andrew Savage, told the Charleston Regional Business Journal that his client suffered a significant health setback last week related to his history of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems.

“He’s doing OK now with a new regime of medication,” he said.

Savage or a member of his law firm visits Parish in the Charleston County Detention Center every other day.

“In terms of his responses to questions about how he’s doing and so forth, his responses seem fine, but I still haven’t asked about anything related to the case, given his continuing amnesia,” Savage said.

Savage is still waiting on a federal district court judge to decide whether Parish will be allowed to undergo further psychological treatment, he said.

“Until we can get that analysis done and a determination is made as to the cause of his amnesia, it’s going to be really difficult to get to the bottom of what happened and wage an appropriate defense,” Savage said. “If this amnesia is stress-related, the last thing I want to do is make it worse by asking a lot of specific questions about the case.”

If Parish has access to television in the evenings, his stress may get worse in any event. A producer and cameraman from CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” program have been in Charleston the past several days shooting footage on the case for a segment scheduled to air nationally next week.