Jack Harold Jones
Jack Harold Jones, Jr. (August 10, 1964 – April 24, 2017)[1] was an American serial killer who murdered at least three women in Florida and Arkansas between 1983 and 1995. Convicted of two murders during his lifetime and executed in 2017,[2] he was posthumously linked via DNA to the third murder, for which another man was imprisoned.[3]
Jack Harold Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jack Harold Jones, Jr. August 10, 1964 Toledo, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | April 24, 2017 (aged 52) |
| Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
| Conviction(s) | Murder x2 |
| Criminal penalty | Death (Arkansas) Life imprisonment (Florida) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 3+ (two convictions) |
Span of crimes | 1983–1995 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Florida, Arkansas |
Date apprehended | June 6, 1995 |
Murders
Regina Harrison
On May 2, 1983, Harrison, a 20-year-old college student studying at the Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, left her parents' home for a nightly bike ride in Hollywood's North Beach neighborhood, but failed to return home.[4] Panicked, her friends and family went out and search for her, with the party eventually finding her nude body in the woods in West Lake Park.[3] She had been strangled to death and her body discarded at the scene. During the subsequent investigation, witnesses reported that they had seen the woman riding along a popular path in Hollywood Beach, accompanied by a skinny, long-haired man on a black bike.[4]
Initially, there were no leads on the case for five months, until a detective from Fort Lauderdale, John Curcio, saw a program airing the case on TV. Shortly before that, he had been a member of an investigative unit which had captured Ronald Henry Stewart, a serial rapist who had terrorized women in Broward County and Harrison County, Mississippi during the late 1980s,[5] and took notice that Stewart resembled the suspect sketch, in addition to being in possession of a black bike at the time of his arrest.[4] Later, during a photo lineup, one of the witnesses who had seen Regina and her alleged killer on the beach pointed to Ronald as the man she had seen, and he was soon charged with Harrison's murder. In order to avoid the likely possibility of the death penalty, Stewart entered a plea of contest, and was given 50 years imprisonment in January 1985, concurrent with his other sentences for the sexual offences.[3] Although several factors pointed towards his innocence in the case, including the fact that his fingerprints did not match those found on the crime scene, Stewart nonetheless confessed to the crime even while jailed in Mississippi.[4] Convinced that he was the true culprit, the conviction went undisputed, and Stewart would later die behind bars from cancer in 2007.[5]
Lori Barrett
Lorraine "Lori" Anne Barrett, a 32-year-old Bridgeville, Pennsylvania tourist, had gone on vacation to Fort Lauderdale and was last seen at the Elbo Room, a bar located at the corner of Las Olas Boulevard and A1A State Road.[3] According to patrons, she was accompanied by a heavily tattooed man to her motel room at the Days Inn Lauderdale Surf Motel on Seabreeze Boulevard. At about noon on June 1, 1991, her body was found by a cleaning lady, with signs of being raped and subsequently strangled.[6]
Immediately following the body's discovery, police created a facial composite, complete with descriptions of the suspect's tattoos (barbed wire and hearts etched with names), and distributed it around Broward County. However, it was to no avail, and the case quickly went cold.[6]
Mary Phillips
Phillips, a 34-year-old mother of three who worked at an accounting office in Bald Knob, Arkansas, was spotted by Jones while at work, accompanied by her 11-year-old daughter, Lacy.[7] On June 6, 1995, Jones, equipped with latex gloves, a wire and a BB gun, broke into the office and attacked both Mary and Lacy.[8] He beat, raped and murdered Mary, and brutally beat Lacy, so much so that she barely clinged onto life.[9] He put her in a closet, tying the child to a chair, and eventually left the scene.
Arrest, trial and imprisonment
The crime was quickly reported to authorities, and the local sheriff's department dispatched three officers to the scene. Upon arrival, they found Mary's dead body, as well as Lacy, whom they thought was also deceased due to her severe injuries. While taking pictures of the crime scene with the flash on, the officer noticed that Lacy was looking up with one of her eyes - miraculously, she had survived.[9] She was rushed to the nearby hospital for treatment, and when brought to a stable condition, she managed to give a description of her assailant - a man with a tattoo around his eye. Other officers present during her testimony immediately recognized that description: the man was Jack Harold Jones, an Ohio native who was known to police. He was quickly brought in for interrogation, whereupon he confessed to the crime. He was brought to trial, found guilty and sentenced to death for killing Mary Phillips.[9]
While awaiting execution at the Arkansas Death Row, Jones' DNA was entered into CODIS, where several years later, in 2003, it was matched to the murder scene of the Barrett case. A second test was conducted at the state crime lab in Arkansas, which conclusively proved that, indeed, Jack Jones was the culprit. The Florida authorities issued an extradition warrant for the killer, who by this time was appealing his death sentence in Arkansas for the third time.[6] He was eventually brought to trial for the Barrett murder, found guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment, and returned to await his execution back in Arkansas.
Over the years, Jones' execution was stayed several times, due to illnesses such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which resulted in one of his legs being amputated.[4] According to his sister, Lynn, Jack had suffered sexual and physical abuse as a child, which, coupled with alcohol and drug dependency, made his lose control over his impulses.[3] However, Jones himself expressed regret over his actions and agreed with his penalty, explaining that he was haunted by the ghosts of his victims and was incapable of forgiving himself for what he did.[8]
Execution and posthumous confession
On April 24, 2017, Jones was executed at the Cummins Unit, along with fellow rapist-murderer Marcel Williams, marking the first double execution in the country in 17 years.[2] Shortly before his execution, he gave his sister a letter he had penned way back in 2006, with instructions to open it a year after his execution date. When the time came, Jones' sister opened the letter, in which he confessed in detail to the murder of Regina Harrison, providing details only the killer would know.[3] This revelation led to his body being exhumed and his DNA tested, and in February 2019, the Broward County Attorney's Office officially announced that Jones was the real killer, not Ronald Stewart. A spokeswoman for the attorney's office, Paula McMahon, said in a press release that they would work to vacate Stewart's conviction, and would further investigate Jones' past in order to determine if he had killed other victims in Florida, or elsewhere around the country.[3]
See also
References
- "Arkansas Department of Corrections Death Row". adc.arkansas.gov. Archived from the original on December 15, 2016.
- "Arkansas executes murderers Jack Jones and Marcel Williams". BBC. April 25, 2017.
- Rafael Olmeda (March 21, 2019). "A serial rapist took the blame for South Florida woman's murder. A serial killer was really the culprit". Sun-Sentinel.
- "Prosecutors: Executed Arkansas inmate claims 1983 Florida murder after death". WREG-TV. March 22, 2019.
- "Jack Jones left a letter behind before he was executed. Now, we know he's a serial killer". KTHV. March 21, 2019.
- Mike Bucsko (March 26, 2003). "Suspect found in 1991 killing". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- "Victim's family on Arkansas execution: 'Ready for it to be done'". CNN. April 24, 2017.
- Lisa Hammerly (April 25, 2017). "Jack Jones ready for his execution; now he pays, says daughter of victim, survivor of attack". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
- Rolly Hoyt (2017). "Lawmen recall Jack Jones' chilling murder, rape of Mary Phillips". KTHV.