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Hermit almost forgottenPARIS, Tex. (A) - There was a time when Lamar • County residents whispered ’ tales of great wealth hidden in the crude cluster of scrap lumber shacks on the northeastern f ringe of paris.But 14 years later, only Paris police detectives occasionally discuss who lived •• — and was brutally slain — in those shacks.' The battered, bound and frozen body of Auvord Be vans Breathwaite Jones was discovered Jan. 29,1963, lying amid rags and foreign newspapers inside on of the five shabby buildings.His hands were tied behind him with binder twine. His ikull was crushed. Rats had gnawed his hands and face., Nearby was the hat in which rumor said the 79* ‘year-old recluse kept large sums of money. It was .ripped — and empty.- Paris Police Chief, Lloyd -Matthews said the “murder-robbery” has since stymied Texas Rangers and city and county law enforcement officials. He admitted, “I can t recall a new lead in the last four or five years.”It is difficult to find anyone in this bustling Northeast Texas city that remembers- jV J ones, as the hermit chose to sign his name. But nearly every Lamar Countian has heard the tale.- His little plot of land wasMilitarysold and the shacks were razed within six months after his death — coldly, quickly.Paris has spilled over the area to which A. Jones retreated in his search for anonymity. A new animal hospital stands where the ill-clothed little man used to plod as he sold peanuts and homemade brooms.But Matthews said Paris police, who inherited the case when the city annexed the area, have not forgotten.Our detectives stili talk about the Jones case whenever they hear about a similar murder-robbery,” said Matthews. “It is very much an active case.“But I don’t think this case won’t be solved by physical evidence. It’s been so long, that someone, maybe a person arrested for another crime, will probably have to confess for us to solve it. ”Paris artist Anthony Paness, who kept a memorial to the slain hermit in the window of his art studio until last spring, remembered:“I met him three times and bought brooms from him. He was a good man. He spoke Polish, German French and some Spanish and was very intelligent. I had to study electroplating for six months before I could learn it, but Mr. Jones cameby one day and pointed out something I was doing wrong.”Stories about the odd hermit are near legend.The few who knew him said he could discuss foreign relations and history with equal ease. He read and subscribed to German and French newspapers and sometimes was vexed that others couldn’t read.He was amazingly honest. Once when he was paid a few cents too much for picking cotton, he walked a mile that night to return it.When the county paid him $105 for a small portion of his land on which to build a highway loop around Paris, he refused to pick up the money, saying they didn’t owe him anything for improving his properly.Records showed that A. Jones barely subsisted on a welfare payments that never exceeded $62 per month, but he more than once contributed $5 or $10 to local charities.Storekeepers said the hermit bought only health foods and was afraid of city water, drinking from a small pool. And though he was 79 when he died, the pathologist’s report said his body was that of a 30-year-old.A. Jones trusted and talked with few. One grocer said the recluse boasted of a college degree and had been an oil-seeking geologist.Troop 1776 holds Courton HonorHe was his owu doctor, believed in the power of the stars, read palms and told fortunes. He made his own clothes from white ducking material.On the door of one of his shacks, the words, “Stay Out” were crudely scrawled.No one knows why A. Jones turned his back on civilizations, although he once told a neighbor that he left Indiana and started living his strange life because of trouble with a girl.Officers knew of the rumors of A. Jones’ wealth and questioned more than 100 suspects, submitting more than a dozen to polygraph exams. But each lead produced nothing.A. Jones’ funeral drew a solemn crowd of 30 persons. Some were small children he had befriended, but most knew him only as the bearded, harmless little man who minded his own business.The hermit’s body was shipped back to Henry County, Ind., from whence welfare records indicated A. Jones had come in 1922. His meager estate was bequeathed to an invalid brother there.Paness said he believes it was a local person who killed A. Jones.“1 left that memorial up hoping that the murderer would see it and confess,” said the diminutive 74-year-old artist. “I don’t know if they'll ever find out who did it, but I hope I live to see the murderer brought to justice.I still get sick to my stomach when 1 think aboutWPSwf*‘.a'y*..•• ’ .0 . — .*f• SV■ x-..... •Sfc \y- ’ • X ■ ■ IfiVK .— • - ft- *' —MURDERED — A painting of Auvord Bevans Breathwaite, or A. Jones as the peddler of years ago signed his name, carrying brooms he used to sell in Paris, Texas. Murdered fourteen years ago, police maintain it’s still an active case but there has been no new leads in the pastfour or five years. Painting is by Paris artist A. J. Paness.Get a head \it:Bov Scout Troon 1776 heldGet lots of slt;JCPen307 MAIN STREET, DOWNTOWf
Newspaper Details
Big Spring Herald
Big Spring, Texas, US
Sun, Jan 30, 1977
Page 43
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
TX, 21 Mar 2019
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