Penn Jones Jr.
William Penn Jones Jr. was an American journalist, author, and longtime owner and editor of the weekly Texas newspaper, Midlothian Mirror. He was an early JFK assassination conspiracy theorist. He focused his research on the deaths of assassination witnesses. His best-known work was the four-volume series, Forgive My Grief.
Early life and education
Jones was born in Lane's Chapel, Texas, in 1914. He was one of eight children of William Penn Jones, a sharecropper, and Gussie Earline Jones. Three of his siblings died in infancy. The family moved to Annona, Texas after purchasing a farm. Jones graduated from Clarksville High School in 1932, and then attended Magnolia A&M Junior College.In 1935 he enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. It was there he met an economics professor whom he credited with shaping his liberal political views. While at UT, Jones took law classes with fellow students Henry Wade and John Connally—Wade would become the Dallas District Attorney, and Connolly the 39th Governor of Texas; both men figured significantly in the JFK assassination. In 1940, Jones dropped out of UT, later admitting that the coursework was too difficult.
Career
Military service
In 1933, Jones joined the Texas National Guard. After the outbreak of World War II, he was called to active duty as a lieutenant in the 36th Infantry Division. Initially stationed in Austin, he was sent overseas in 1943 and fought in Italy, North Africa, France and Germany. He earned a Bronze Star Medal while attaining the rank of captain. Jones retired from the Guard in 1963, at which time Texas Governor John Connally promoted him to Brevet Brigadier General.Publishing
In 1946, Jones bought the Midlothian Mirror newspaper for $4,000. In the paper he expressed his liberal views on racial equality, which antagonized many of the residents of the small town of Midlothian, Texas. In 1956 he and his friend John Howard Griffin attempted to desegregate public schools in nearby Mansfield, Texas, but were thwarted by a KKK-led mob.Jones frequently editorialized against the Midlothian school board and its conservative leadership. In April 1962, when Midlothian High School invited a guest speaker from the right-wing John Birch Society, Jones stormed into the school board president's office and demanded equal time. A fistfight ensued that had to be broken up by the police. Three days later, in the early morning hours of April 30, the office of the Midlothian Mirror was firebombed. The incident made national news, and contributed to Jones receiving the 1963 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism. Numerous congratulatory messages were sent to Jones, including one from President Kennedy.
JFK assassination research
On November 22, 1963, Jones was among the group of reporters at the Dallas Trade Mart awaiting JFK's arrival to give a speech at a luncheon event. When Jones learned of the shooting in Dealey Plaza, he drove to Parkland Hospital and took photographs of members of the motorcade as well as of the presidential limousine. He said he tearfully saluted his dead commander-in-chief when the coffin was brought out of the hospital.Jones became known as one of the first prominent critics of the Warren Commission, and for alleging that people connected to the assassination were dying under mysterious circumstances. In May 1966 he self-published Forgive My Grief, printing 7,500 copies at his own expense. The book anthologized his Midlothian Mirror editorials on the assassination. The title came from a passage in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1850 poem, In Memoriam A.H.H.:
The book offers a critical analysis of the 26-volume Warren Commission Hearings & Exhibits. In each chapter, Jones prints excerpts from a different witness's testimony, interspersed with his own commentary where he lists what he considers obvious follow-up questions that should have been asked. He also cites testimony that he believes suggested an assassination conspiracy, but was downplayed or ignored by the Commission's lawyers. Forgive My Grief would eventually grow into a four-volume work published over a ten-year span.
While conducting his own inquiry into JFK's death, Robert F. Kennedy invited Jones to Washington, D.C., to present his research. When they greeted in Kennedy's Senate office, he reportedly told Jones, "Look, I'll listen to what you have to say. I won't necessarily agree or disagree, but I'll listen."
With his close proximity to Dallas, Jones was able to interview many assassination witnesses and provide on-the-scene reporting. For instance, he was the first to investigate the August 1966 fatal car crash involving Lee Bowers. In Volume I of Forgive My Grief, Jones identified thirteen assassination witnesses who were "missing, murdered, or met with death strangely". On the cover page of Forgive My Grief, Volume II, he wrote: "This book gives names and details of THE STRANGE DEATHS OF 24 PEOPLE who knew something, learned something or saw something that was supposed to have remained secret." He then noted in Chapter One: "With the mounting list of these deaths, the likelihood grows that these people have been systematically and skillfully eliminated." By 1973 he was claiming there had been at least 70 "strange deaths". As of 1984, he calculated over 100 witnesses had died by murder, suicide, or other unnatural causes.
Media appearances
After the 1966 publication of Forgive My Grief, Jones was invited on radio and television programs. He was briefly interviewed on the CBS Evening News. He had a more extended discussion on a local Los Angeles TV show, hosted by Louis Lomax.In the 1967 Emile de Antonio-directed documentary film Rush to Judgment, based on the bestseller by Mark Lane, Jones is quoted as saying: Jones also appears in Lane's 1976 documentary, Two Men in Dallas, where he introduces viewers to the subject of the film: Roger Craig, a former Dallas deputy sheriff and assassination witness. Jones was credited as a researcher for the 1973 film Executive Action, and made his final documentary appearance in The Assassination of JFK.
Later years
After selling the Midlothian Mirror in 1974, Jones founded The Continuing Inquiry newsletter, where he wrote more assassination-related articles. His co-editor Gary Mack subsequently became curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. As Mack recalled, Penn was "a crusty, no-nonsense guy. He was direct. His language was very colorful in a typical Texas way. He seemed fearless."By the early 1980s, Jones stated his belief that nine assassins had been flown into Dallas from Oklahoma, and that each fired one bullet at the president. Jones said the fatal headshot to Kennedy was fired from a manhole on Elm Street.
In one of his last public appearances, a frail-looking Jones spoke at a JFK remembrance ceremony held in Dealey Plaza in November 1993. He began: "I'm an old man now, but years ago I wrote four books on the assassination of John Kennedy. I think there were nine guns firing right in this areatwo of them from the top of the jail. And it was well-arranged and well-organized, so that there was no chance for the president to escape. I hope someday we'll overcome this, but it will be a long time before we overcome it."