Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murder of Auvord Jones Part 2: Criminal Element

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The Murder of Auvord Jones Part 2: Criminal Element · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is
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advised. Auvard Bevins Braithwaite Jones was buried on Friday, February first, nineteen
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sixty three, at Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas. His funeral, held
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earlier in the day, drew a crowd of around thirty people. Auvard's only
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real ken, his brother Barton, could not make the trip to Texas from
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Indiana because he was suffering health problems and could not travel. It was an
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unfortunate absence to add to the already somber occasion, but dozens of Auverd's people
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Parisians showed up in droves, wearing their Sunday best. They had great respect
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for him, as did the modest city's children, who had grown to befriend
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the man because of the kindness he showed them, and no doubt the mystery
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and eccentricity that surrounded his character. Oh and for the occasional good fortune predictions.
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The funeral was open casket. Locals had pitched in to buy Auverred Jones
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a brand new suit, something he hadn't worn for at least the forty two
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years he'd been in Lamar County. His beard and hair were neatly brushed.
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Baptist pastor the Reverend J. L. Widman gave the internment as he asserted,
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it's not a man's outward appearance that counts. God looks inside the heart.
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Tears fell from the modest crowd. Women, men and children either nodded
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in agreement or softly said amen as they remembered the man's charitable character, his
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friendly and attentive conversation style, and his honesty. After the funeral, Paris
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News reporter Bill Jackson wrote to Auverd, you might have felt better about your
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ragged, dirty clothes if he'd heard the preacher speak words. The newspaperman's piece,
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meant to be a tribute, failed in its objective. It was condescending
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and trivialized the man's few possessions, speaking only of the scattered newspapers and junk
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strewn about in his sleeping shack. Auverd had other important possessions the article left
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out anyway. Jackson didn't get it. A Jones didn't give a damn about
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material things like fine clothes and expensive furniture. Reporter Jackson did get one thing
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right However, AUVERD Jones contradicted what John Dunn wrote, No man is an
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island unto himself. The newspaperman didn't quote the line correctly, and he mistakenly
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called the source a poem. But the sentiment was felt. The man seemed
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perfectly content and able to live a life mostly in solitude. But he didn't
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entirely fit the line. He took pleasure in meaningful conversation and at times even
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sought it out. When Aubred was buried, undoubtedly a piece of Paris,
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Texas was buried with him. His grave is marked by a plain gray headstone
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that reads only A. Jones eighteen eighty three to nineteen sixty three. The
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eulogy and the people of Paris paying their respects to a man they endeared,
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if not envied, and eccentric. Living on his own terms was impressive for
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a sort of familiar stranger. They knew more about after death than they did
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in life, in stark contrast to their tribute to him. Some morally conflicted
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folks couldn't help but let their curiosity grab them by the ear and drag them
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like scolded children, to investigate rumors of the Paris hermits hidden fortune themselves.
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Dallas County medical examiner James Campbell had traveled to Paris to perform an autopsy on
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the body of Auverd Jones early on January thirty first, nineteen sixty three,
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with an assistant pathologist in tow. When the two eminent doctors were finished,
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it had been determined that seventy nine year old Auverd Bevins Braithwaite Jones received a
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blow on the head with a blunt instrument of some kind, but it wasn't
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what killed him. The changes observed, which might be referable to direct injury,
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are not considered to be of sufficient magnitude to have caused death directly or
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immediately, the report continued, but they are evaluated as being sufficiently severe to
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have produced unconsciousness. The probability is the subject of rose to death during the
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state of unconsciousness. Auverd died, the Dallas pathologists determined during a forty eight
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hour period beginning Thursday evening, January twenty fourth and ending sometime Saturday evening,
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January twenty sixth, days before his body was discovered. Doctor Campbell also saw
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something he'd never seen before. Auvard's heart and circulatory system had absolutely no arteriosclerotic
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build up. None Remarking how fit the victim was, Doctor Campbell said that
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he was in the physical shape of a thirty year old, and his organs
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resembled the excellent condition he'd expect to find in a twenty year old, but
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of course the man was almost eighty. Auvard Jones's death, unsurprisingly was ruled
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a homicide. News of Auverd's brutal murder had spread around town fast. Everyone
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in Lamar County, Texas was talking about it. In fact, local newspaper,
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The Paris News reported that the case the mystery had stirred more interest than
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the town has seen in many years. The last purchase the man known as
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the Paris Hermit made was at a grocery store. He bought a few items
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there. The clerk said it looked like he put about sixty dollars back in
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his hat. Within hours, likely he'd be murdered, bludgeoned in the head
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and left to freeze to death. That amount would be worth about six hundred
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bucks in twenty twenty four, but still it was a maddening amount of money
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to be killed for. Or were the rumors true? Was the man hiding
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a secret fortune somewhere in a series of five shacks. It was unlikely,
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but also the talk of the coffee shop circuit. It always came up in
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conversations when friends are business acquaintances bumped into each other on the downtown streets or
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the pharmacy. The public was keeping their eyes peeled and their ears to the
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ground, hoping to catch word of who was responsible. Folks talked about catching
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the low life, two bit criminal who did it, and balancing the scale
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of justice themselves. But they had faith in Lamar County Attorney Jim Thompson and
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Sheriff Lonnie Player. If anyone was going to solve this thing and bring the
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killer or killers to justice, townsfolk believed it was them. Neighbors, farmers,
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and ranchers leaned against the respective sides of their fences, smoking lucky strikes,
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and going over every publicly known detail of Auvred's murder, with rumors and
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exaggerations mixed in between facts. They didn't mean any harm and didn't necessarily cause
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any, but the man had become such a fixture in Paris, Texas he
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was one of them. Still, the rumors of hidden cash kept to rearing
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their ugly head. Some folks were making it more difficult to find Auvert's killer.
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A few days after his body was found on Sunday, February third,
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nineteen sixty three, morbidly curious or just plain greedy, sightseers poked around the
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murdered man's property, the sign warning folks to steer clear of the scene by
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order of the sheriff. Be damned. These people were going in. Any
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remaining evidence on the property, one deputy said, was compromised, if not
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wiped out. As the result, it was reported, in fact, that
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hundreds of cars jammed Loop two eighty six near Auvd's home, and police were
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forced to swarm the tourists of the macabre in order to break up their intrusion.
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Lamar County Attorney Jim Thompson was scrambling for leads. He was taking the
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lead on this one as the chief criminal investigator for the district attorney, the
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chief criminal investigator for himself, that is, Sheriff lawne Player didn't waste any
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time phoning the area's Texas Ranger, Frank Kemp. At the time. Kemp
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was a little wet under the ears as a ranger, but he'd go on
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to help solve some of the area's toughest crimes, and anyway, a certain
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amount of experience was necessary to even become a Texas ranger. The evidence collected
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at the scene consisted of the following, a pair of rubber boots, five
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bibles, and a glass bottle found near the victim's body. It contained Auverred's
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yeast tablets. Ranger Kemp collected the evidence in Auverd's case and drove it to
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Austin for testing at Texas Department of Public Safety laboratories. When word came back
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that no latent fingerprints belonging to anyone other than the victim were found, authorities
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in Paris were baffled. Sheriff Player ordered his men to do a sweep of
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the known criminal element about the County Attorney Thompson liked this idea. He firmly
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believed the person responsible was local and not just some tramp who hopped off the
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train near Auverd's home. Next up was trying to identify the killer using the
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pen left in the outside hasp at Auverd's sleep shack, or at least find
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out if it was even his. The bluish metal mechanical pencil didn't go to
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Austin. Like the other evidence. The two men who found Auverd had handled
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it, and the pencil was covered in their prints. The pencil was common
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to scribe as being sold at virtually any store that carried mechanical pencils for it's
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reported less than a dollar. County Attorney Jim Thompson visited every relevant store in
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Lamar County trying to find out who bought that pencil. It was a long
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shot, but worth a try with little else to go on. None of
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the clerks, of course, could remember a specific person they sold the pencil
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to. There were hundreds sold in the area. When shown to folks who
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spoke with Auverd often, some say they remembered seeing him with such a pencil,
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and others insisted he didn't have one like it. The blue mechanical pencil
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was another dead end. Because of the lack of evidence, the Sheriff's office
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had little clue about how to proceed looking for Auverd's murderer. Tips were coming
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in, but none were panning out. Investigators were fairly certain of the motive,
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of course, but still robbing a man who drew only a sixty two
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dollars check every month hardly seemed worth the trouble, and certainly not worth murder,
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unless perhaps it was done out of desperation. While normal folk believe no
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amount of money is worth performing violence, a depraved individual might be drawn to
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fairy tales of hidden hermit wealth, rumors of Averred Jones possessing a hidden fortune
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in his shacks, or somehow in the hat he was famous for wearing,
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or what the cops believed led the perpetrator to him, As one newspaper woman
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pointed out, Urban legends of hermit's hiding bundles of cash or jewels or gold
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have been around a long time, perhaps since Anthony the Great or Anthony the
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Hermit in the Three Hundreds. Stories of the devil trying to tempt the monk
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and veer him from righteousness, included a plate of silk and gold in the
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middle of the desert. He didn't take it, as the story goes,
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but in reality anyway, Saint Anthony was born to wealthy landowners. In nineteen
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sixty three, when Auverd was murdered, you'd be hard pressed to find someone
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who didn't know all about billionaire Howard Hughes's complete reclusion. Nobody was touching that
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guy, and all other stories of recluses being roughed up or killed for some
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supposed fortune ended with a realization that there wasn't one. But in the case
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of the Paris hermit, the rumor was likely based on a truth, the
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fact that once the city tried to pay him a large sum of money for
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the corner of his land they used when they built Loop to eighty six,
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Auverd Jones refused that money. However, it seems possible there were folks who
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believed otherwise. What was crystal clear was that Thompson was dead set unsolving the
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murder of Auverd Jones. The Lamar County Attorney was a true public servant.
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He refused to be provided an official government vehicle for his work as the District
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Attorney and District Attorney Investigator. Instead, Thompson opted to drive his Beater,
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an early model sedan that looked like it had been in more than one collision
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in its time. He paid fifty bucks for it with the intention of using
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it as his fishing car. Thompson continually pleaded for someone to come forward with
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information about Auverd's case and spent damn near every waking hour investigating. He learned
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a lot about the man and about possible whose to go along with the why
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they were already relatively sure of, since Auverd often shared his food with winos
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and others down on their luck or passing through. Police theorized a scenario where
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such an individual committed the homicide after being invited into the hermit's home, something
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he rarely did. A theory that a hitchhiker killed Auvred materialized during the investigation,
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since he lived more or less directly off the highway loop, but neither
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of those theories had any evidence that pointed their way. Perhaps the best lead
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sheriff player and county attorney Thompson got was when a delivery boy told them he'd
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seen three brothers near Auverred's shacks the day before or the very day he was
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last seen. These boys were known troublemakers with long rap sheets, but when
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they were brought in for questioning, they insisted that if they were near the
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hermit's place around that time, it was because they were looking for stray golf
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balls to sell to the thrifty golfers who'd hit them in the first place,
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there was a golf course nearby. The brothers volunteered to take a polygraph test,
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brought it up themselves. In fact, Thompson knew that those boys knew
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there was no polygraph machine in town, nearest one being in Dallas County.
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He thought they were bluffing, and he called it. He called a company
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B ranger in Dallas County who called in the big guns from Austin. They
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got there that night. The rangers set up shop a polygraph machine at a
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room in the local Ember's motel. The boys weren't bluffing, though. Each
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one was more than happy to clear their names, and apparently, at least
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for a while, they did. Even after the polygraph Thompson still wasn't so
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sure with these with these three boys, but it was a wash. Nonetheless,
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since the machine was there, the lawmen figured they'd run several other known
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area criminals through. One man even confessed to the murder, but after he
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sobered up, he quickly recanted and was cleared. Perhaps Averred Jones was onto
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something by refusing to drink the tap water. In Paris, a man named
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Jimmy Dean Sasser was from the small city and later confessed to a crime he
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didn't commit in fort Worth, the murder of seventeen year old Carla Walker.
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He had confessed to many others before in a drunken blur some in Paris.
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Maybe it was something in the liquor up there. Two ex convicts had left
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town on January twenty seventh, three days after Auverd was last seen, and
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the same day his neighbors, Bruce Ray and Reuben Burnett, first went to
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check up on him. They seemed nervous, it was reported, and had
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left in a big hurry. The two young men were rounded up in Fort
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Worth and brought back to Paris. They vehemently having anything to do with Auverd's
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death and readily agreed to get hooked up to the machine to prove it,
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but there was a condition they were not to be asked about any other crimes
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in the area. Thompson and Sheriff Player reluctantly agreed, and the ex convicts
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both passed with flying colors. When all was said and done, over one
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hundred persons of interest were questioned, twenty or so of which were given a
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polygraph test. The results all negative. Investigators even crossed the Red River into
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Hugo, Oklahoma, to a place called Little Dixie. The caverns and gravel
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mines were favorite hiding spots for undesirables. The strip of gambling dens, brothels,
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taverns, and juke joints. There was the perfect place for Auvard's killer
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to have spent his loot like a big shot while bragging about his depraved act
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of murder. The cops wanted to know if he did. Fact was,
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though, there wasn't a soul on that strip who'd give up anything to a
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cop, not even if they got roughed up. As days turned to weeks,
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weeks to months, and then months to years, the leads fizzled out
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and the case went cold. Years after the murders, some retired lawmen offered
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the press their theories on the most viable suspects. One mentioned the Three Brothers,
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the guys whose idea was to bring a polygraph to town in the first
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place. Another was a man who told a former police officer how the murder
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took place. Sheriff's deputies were particularly interested in this story since it involved a
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man who was once considered a person of interest and who was later killed in
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a robbery in Oklahoma, but no arrests were ever made, no charges filed.
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Virtually everyone in town believed Auverred Slayer to be someone local, a murderous
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thief who sought the riches that most believed the hermit hid. There are plenty
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of folks who choose to live life exiled from society, and these days,
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at least in the world of true crime, cowards like Ted Kaczinski the Unibomber,
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are often the type thought of. But that guy couldn't hack it.
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He went crazy and hypocritically decided folks should conform to his beliefs and that the
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modern world had to pay because he was right and they were wrong. Auvred
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Jones, on the other hand, lived the life of solitude he wished to
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live, spending most of his time in the quiet, secluded woods or watching
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the Johnson grass sway in the wind while sit in a remote field, almost
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hidden. But he didn't expect anyone else to Auverd didn't even expect anyone else
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to understand he was living as purely and righteously as he thought he could,
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without any expectation that the world should conform to him. Kazinski was an asshole,
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Auverd Bevins Braithwait Jones was anything but. Not long after the murder of
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Auverd Jones, local artist Anthony Pannis created a likeness of the hermit out of
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a mannikin It stayed until nineteen seventy six in the window of his art shop
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on the west side of North Main Street in downtown Paris. The face was
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wax and impressively sculpted to the Paris hermit's likeness, including his distinct nose and
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long gray beard. When it was nighttime, a light illuminated the mannikin a
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reminder to the killer, who likely passed by it plenty. Penis recalled that
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Auverd was a good man. He'd bought rooms from him on a few occasions.
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He told the Paris News that once, after he'd been studying and practicing
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electroplating for about six months, Auverard entered his shop to sell him a broom,
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and after watching him work, quickly corrected his method. Panis was shocked
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at his unexpended knowledge. He was intelligent. The artist said, maybe the
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killer will come by my place and look in and see mister Jones again,
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and maybe they'll realize what they've done. The mannequin was a touching tribute,
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but there was one thing that also made it a huge mistake. The clothing
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on the likeness was clothing that actually belonged to Auverd Jones, including the rubber
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boots and hat that were once considered evidence. The police had donated the items
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to Penis for his tribute. Anthony Pennis also created a painting of Auverd,
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maybe the only picture of the blue eyed recluse that exists. The spot where
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Auverred Jones's makeshift home of individual though connected shacks once sat has seen many different
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faces since his murder, an animal clinic, an insurance company, and a
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flea market, to name a few. The hermit's eight point eight acre plot
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of land was given to his brother shortly after his death, but Barton Jones
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was too ill to do anything with it. When the land came up for
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auction, the locals bidded up to one thousand dollars an acre, it was
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appraised at only seven point fifty. Barton refused to take the money for his
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brother's land. At first, my own pride forbids me to accept any of
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this money, he was reported as saying, in true Jones fashion, but
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County Attorney Jim Thompson insisted, and the money ultimately went to him. After
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only six months, Auverd's land was sold and as shacks were destroyed in a
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controlled burn, The ash and whatever else was left was disposed of. Many
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in the community felt it was done too quickly and coldly, but none more
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than County Attorney Jim Thompson. Generally a jovial type, his eyebrows furled and
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smile turned down every time he passed the land or even thought about it.
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If Auverard had somehow lived until nineteen seventy seven, he'd have witnessed the property
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around his secluded and private home invaded by suburbs and convenience stores. But he
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probably would have gone about his business as usual, realizing the world changes and
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there's little he could do about it. The November nineteen sixty four issue of
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True Detective magazine ran a story on Auverd Jones's slang, calling it Texas' number
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one murder mystery. In an article in a nineteen ninety six edition of The
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Paris News, the True Detective piece is described as an overly dramatic take on
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the events surrounding both Averred and his killing. Truth is, it's one of
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the least sensationalized stories to grace the pages of any detective rag at any given
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time, and it's especially accurate. According to a newer Paris News article,
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the photos of the crime scene accompanying the true detective story are the only scraps
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of evidence that remain. The newspaper called Avd's file well worn. It claimed
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that investigators know the case by heart, and made further claim that Auvard's case
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will live on the police file. The story says was lost decades ago.
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No county or city records exist. It claims I never heard back when I
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requested records, so I don't know either way. It will also probably never
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be known or understood unfortunately what led this gentleman to Paris, Texas. But
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for many decades the people there didn't forget Auverd Bevins, Breithwait Jones and his
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legacy. It's unlikely the newer generations know a thing about it. If you
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have any information about the nineteen sixty three murder of Auverd Jones, please contact
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the Paris, Texas Police Department at nine zero three seven eight four sixt' six
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eight eight. If you like Gone Cold's mission to renew the public's interest in
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You can also find a link in bio in the episode's description. Thanks
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for listening, y'all.