July 7, 2025 • 44 mins
In this gripping episode of The Guilty Files: Uncovered, Brian unpacks the chilling story of Jeremy Bryan Jones—a charismatic drifter who used charm, stolen identities, and the cracks in the system to hide in plain sight across the American South. For over a decade, Jones drifted from state to state under the name John Paul Chapman, manipulating those around him, passing background checks, and leaving behind a trail of violence that went undetected for far too long.
But in September 2004, a natural disaster set in motion a series of events that would finally expose the predator beneath the persona.As Hurricane Ivan barreled into Alabama, Jeremy Jones found shelter with the Bentley family—strangers who offered him a place to stay during the storm. Just days later, in the quiet rural community of Turnerville, 45-year-old Lisa Marie Nichols was dead. A beloved mother and community member, Lisa had no idea the man knocking on her door that day was a killer. What followed was a tragic encounter that shocked the community and led to Jones’s arrest—but that was just the beginning.
The story takes a bizarre turn when Jones, just days after the murder, called police himself. Casually chatting about the weather, he confessed to killing a woman, leading investigators to keep him on the line long enough to locate and arrest him at a Mobile bus station. Once in custody, Jones began confessing to a staggering number of crimes—twenty-one murders across five states, including the infamous Freeman family killings in Oklahoma and the murder of Tina Mayberry in Georgia. But the shocking wave of admissions soon gave way to confusion and frustration, as Jones began recanting his claims one by one.
He would later admit to fabricating many of the stories to earn better food and phone privileges in jail, leaving behind a tangled mess for investigators and desperate families trying to find the truth.The case revealed just how vulnerable systems were at the time. Jones had managed to use a stolen identity for years, slipping through the cracks of disconnected databases and outdated protocols. A fingerprint on a beer can at the crime scene, DNA evidence linking him to Lisa’s murder, and bloodstains on his clothing painted a clear picture.
But the ease with which he moved through communities—passing background checks and gaining people’s trust—was a wake-up call for law enforcement nationwide.The courtroom saw swift justice. In October 2005, Jones was tried and found guilty on all counts, including capital murder, rape, burglary, sexual abuse, and kidnapping. The jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty, and he was sentenced to die by lethal injection. His appeals have been denied, and he remains on death row at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama.
For Lisa’s family, the trial brought some measure of closure, but for the loved ones of other victims Jones claimed responsibility for, the aftermath was far murkier. Many were left in limbo, unsure if their grief had been exploited by a man who treated life and death like a game.
The Bentley family, who had welcomed Jones into their home during the hurricane, struggled with the deep betrayal of having unknowingly harbored a killer. And the small town of Turnerville would never be the same again.This case isn’t just about one murder—it’s about the broader dangers posed by predators who exploit trust, the phenomenon of false confessions in serial crime cases, and how the systems we rely on can fail in devastating ways. It also highlights how moments of chaos, like natural disasters, can create openings for the most dangerous individuals to do the most harm.
In this episode, Brian unravels the layers of deception, examines the legal and investigative missteps, and reflects on the long shadow Jones cast over the victims, their families, and the communities left reeling in his wake.
Listener discretion is advised, as the episode includes explicit details of sexual violence, homicide, and disturbing crime scenes. This is a story that forces us to look closely at the dark corners of human behavior—and the systems we trust to keep us safe.
Tune in to The Guilty Files: Uncovered for the full story.
But in September 2004, a natural disaster set in motion a series of events that would finally expose the predator beneath the persona.As Hurricane Ivan barreled into Alabama, Jeremy Jones found shelter with the Bentley family—strangers who offered him a place to stay during the storm. Just days later, in the quiet rural community of Turnerville, 45-year-old Lisa Marie Nichols was dead. A beloved mother and community member, Lisa had no idea the man knocking on her door that day was a killer. What followed was a tragic encounter that shocked the community and led to Jones’s arrest—but that was just the beginning.
The story takes a bizarre turn when Jones, just days after the murder, called police himself. Casually chatting about the weather, he confessed to killing a woman, leading investigators to keep him on the line long enough to locate and arrest him at a Mobile bus station. Once in custody, Jones began confessing to a staggering number of crimes—twenty-one murders across five states, including the infamous Freeman family killings in Oklahoma and the murder of Tina Mayberry in Georgia. But the shocking wave of admissions soon gave way to confusion and frustration, as Jones began recanting his claims one by one.
He would later admit to fabricating many of the stories to earn better food and phone privileges in jail, leaving behind a tangled mess for investigators and desperate families trying to find the truth.The case revealed just how vulnerable systems were at the time. Jones had managed to use a stolen identity for years, slipping through the cracks of disconnected databases and outdated protocols. A fingerprint on a beer can at the crime scene, DNA evidence linking him to Lisa’s murder, and bloodstains on his clothing painted a clear picture.
But the ease with which he moved through communities—passing background checks and gaining people’s trust—was a wake-up call for law enforcement nationwide.The courtroom saw swift justice. In October 2005, Jones was tried and found guilty on all counts, including capital murder, rape, burglary, sexual abuse, and kidnapping. The jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty, and he was sentenced to die by lethal injection. His appeals have been denied, and he remains on death row at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama.
For Lisa’s family, the trial brought some measure of closure, but for the loved ones of other victims Jones claimed responsibility for, the aftermath was far murkier. Many were left in limbo, unsure if their grief had been exploited by a man who treated life and death like a game.
The Bentley family, who had welcomed Jones into their home during the hurricane, struggled with the deep betrayal of having unknowingly harbored a killer. And the small town of Turnerville would never be the same again.This case isn’t just about one murder—it’s about the broader dangers posed by predators who exploit trust, the phenomenon of false confessions in serial crime cases, and how the systems we rely on can fail in devastating ways. It also highlights how moments of chaos, like natural disasters, can create openings for the most dangerous individuals to do the most harm.
In this episode, Brian unravels the layers of deception, examines the legal and investigative missteps, and reflects on the long shadow Jones cast over the victims, their families, and the communities left reeling in his wake.
Listener discretion is advised, as the episode includes explicit details of sexual violence, homicide, and disturbing crime scenes. This is a story that forces us to look closely at the dark corners of human behavior—and the systems we trust to keep us safe.
Tune in to The Guilty Files: Uncovered for the full story.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thank you, bog In. Welcome back to The Guilty Files,
the podcast where every case gets a second look, a
deeper dive, and two distinct takes that keep you coming
back for more. I'm your host, Brian, and I'm here
to bring you the unfiltered, no nonsense breakdown of this
week's crime. A little about me, I've spent sixteen years
(00:28):
in law enforcement, with ten of those years pounding the
pavement as a beat cop in the streets of Atlanta.
I've seen crime up close, the chaos, the aftermath, and
the cold, hard truths that never make the headlines. That's
why my focus is simple. I'll take you through the
facts of the case step by step with nothing left
(00:49):
to speculation. But that's only half of what we do here.
My co host Danny is your guide to the other
side of the story. He dives into the untold possibility,
uncovers hidden motives, and imagines the what ifs that make
you question everything you thought you knew. Together, we bring
you two unique perspectives on every case, because in true crime,
(01:11):
the truth is rarely as simple as it seems. Every
week we promise you this two cops, one crime, two
stories told. If you're a fan of the details, the drama,
and the darker side of human nature. You're in for
a ride, So grab your headphones, lock the door, and
let's get into the Guilty Files, where every case comes
(01:32):
with a twist and the truth is just the beginning.
The phone rang at three forty seven am in the
Mobile County Sheriff's Department. On the other end, a man's voice,
calm and casual, began describing the weather. Hurricane Ivan had
(01:52):
just torn through Alabama, leaving destruction in its wake, and
this stranger wanted to chat about the aftermath, like he
was calling an old friend. Yeah, it's pretty bad down here,
the voice said. Trees down everywhere, powers out. Detective Paul
Birch kept him talking. Something wasn't right. This wasn't a
social call. As minutes ticked by, the man's tone shifted,
(02:16):
the casual chatter gave way to something darker. You know.
The voice said, I did something I can't take back.
What followed was a confession that would chill investigators to
the bone. The man on the phone admitted to rape, murder,
and burning a woman's body to cover his tracks. He
was calling from a bus station, waiting to flee town,
(02:36):
just like he'd done dozens of times before, but this
time would be different. This time, Jeremy Bryan Jones, though
he wouldn't give his real name for days, had finally
reached the end of the road. What authorities didn't know
yet was that they had just captured one of America's
most prolific suspected serial killers. A charismatic drifter who had
(02:57):
been leaving a trail of bodies across the South for
over a decade. A man who claimed he could talk
the panties off a nun and use that charm to
lure victims to their deaths. This is the story of
Jeremy Brian Jones, known to some as the Oklahoma Drifter
and to others as the low rent Ted Bundy. It's
a tale of violence, deception, and a flawed justice system
(03:20):
that allowed a monster to roam free for far too long.
Jeremy Brian Jones entered the world on April twelfth, nineteen
seventy three, in Miami, Oklahoma, a small town where everyone
knew everyone else's business. He was the elder of two boys,
born into what appeared to be a stable, middle class family.
His mother worked as a florist, his stepfather was a
(03:41):
skilled carpenter and woodshop supervisor. By all external appearances, the
Jones family was doing well, but appearances, as Jeremy would
prove throughout his life, could be devastatingly deceiving. From his
earliest years, something was wrong with Jeremy. While his parents
divorce and his mother's remarriage created a loving, relatively well
(04:02):
off household thanks to his stepfather's carpentry work, Jeremy himself
showed signs of anti social and aggressive behavior from an
early age, due to which neighbors avoided interacting with him.
One of Jones's high school schoolmates was Justin Judd, and
Jones eventually lived next door to Judd for a while.
Jones was a problem neighbor. According to jud we called
(04:24):
the police on him several times. Jud said you could
hear his wife or girlfriend screaming all of the time.
The police would show up and she would say, nothing's wrong.
School was a battleground for Jeremy. He also did not
care about his academic achievements and was frequently disciplined for
his truancy and low grades. His teachers noticed something unsettling
(04:46):
about the boy, a coldness, a lack of empathy that
set him apart from his peers. Jeremy Jones's first run
in with the law was in January of nineteen ninety
when he was sixteen years old. He was charged with
assaulting boy, and when his mother came to his defense,
Jones assaulted her as well. The incident was a chilling
(05:06):
preview of the violence that would define his adult life.
In the late nineteen eighties, he developed an addiction to
alcohol and began using drugs, and by the end of
nineteen eighty nine, he was expelled from Miami High School.
Desperate to give their troubled son another chance, his parents
enrolled him at nearby Quapau High School, but Jeremy's problems
(05:26):
followed him there. He briefly attended the new high school,
but as he preferred to spend his time on the streets,
Jones was eventually expelled in nineteen ninety one, shortly before
the end of the twelfth grade. The pattern was set.
Jeremy Jones would charm his way into situations, exploit the
trust and kindness of others, then leave destruction in his wake.
(05:48):
As one person who knew him would later recall quote
talking with several people about Jeremy. There was only one
conclusion I came to, and that was that he was
a man who couldn't be trusted. He would try and
befriend you if he knew he could get in your
house and steal something. He was a meth addict, and
his world revolved around drugs and alcohol. At nineteen years old,
(06:10):
Jeremy Bryan Jones was already a high school dropout with
a criminal record and a drug problem. Most people who
knew him assumed he'd end up dead or in prison
before he turned thirty. They were half right. He would
end up in prison, but not before leaving a trail
of death and devastation that would span multiple states and
claim the lives of more than twenty people. In early
(06:32):
nineteen ninety two, Jones left Miami with one of his
girlfriends and moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas, where he lived
with a high school friend named Justin Judd. It seemed
like a fresh start for Jeremy, a chance to leave
his troubled pass behind and build something resembling a normal life.
Justin Judd was one of the few people from high
school who still believed Jeremy could change, despite the violence
(06:55):
and the drug use. Despite the constant run ends with
the law, one saw something in his old friend worth saving.
As he had no formal education, he resorted to working
in low skilled labor, causing him and his girlfriend to
experience financial hardship. But Jeremy's demons followed him to Kansas.
The pair frequently argued, during which Jones physically assaulted his girlfriend.
(07:18):
Jud frequently called the police, but no case was initiated
because the girlfriend refused to file charges. The violence was escalating,
and Justin found himself repeatedly calling law enforcement to intervene
in Jeremy's domestic disputes. On May ninth, nineteen ninety two,
Justin Judd married his longtime girlfriend, Jennifer, a woman he'd
(07:39):
known since high school. It should have been one of
the happiest days of his life. Two days after their wedding,
an intruder broke into their home while Justin was away,
bound Jennifer and proceeded to stab her multiple times. Jennifer
Jud's murder was savage and personal. The killer had taken
his time binding the young woman before stabbing her repeatedly.
(08:02):
When Justin returned home, he found a scene that would
haunt him for the rest of his life. His new
bride dead in their home, the victim of an attack
so vicious it suggested the killer knew her personally. Upon
walking in, Justin saw his packed lunch sitting on the
counter with her car keys. Then he found Jennifer's body.
(08:22):
During the investigation, Jones was named as a suspect based
on the testimony of Justin, who claimed that he was
interested in her. Jones insisted that he was innocent, and
since there was no credible evidence to charge him, he
was released. The investigation focused on Jeremy from the beginning. Justin,
devastated by his wife's murder, told police about Jeremy's obsession
(08:44):
with Jennifer. He described how Jeremy would make inappropriate comments
about her, how he seemed to watch her when he
thought no one was looking. But in nineteen ninety two,
DNA evidence was still in its infancy, and without physical
evidence linking Jeremy to the crime, prosecutors couldn't build a case.
Jeremy played the part of the grieving friend perfectly. He
(09:06):
attended Jennifer's funeral, offered his condolences to Justin, and maintained
his innocence. With such conviction, that some people began to
doubt he was involved. It was a performance that would
become Jeremy's trademark, the ability to look people in the
eye and lie with such sincerity that even experienced investigators
began to question their instincts. But Jeremy knew what he
(09:28):
had done. After the murder of Jennifer Judd, Jones broke
up with his girlfriend, left Baxter Springs, and began to
live a criminal lifestyle. He had crossed a line that
could never be uncrossed. The rape and murder of Jennifer
Judd had awakened something in Jeremy that he found intoxicating.
The absolute power over another human being, the rush of violence,
(09:51):
the thrill of getting away with the ultimate crime. Years later,
Jeremy finally confessed to Jennifer's murder, but by then the
damage was done. Jennifer Judd was just the first victim
in what would become a decade long killing spree that
would terrorize communities across the American South. After fleeing Kansas,
Jeremy Brian Jones entered what could only be described as
(10:13):
his apprenticeship in evil. During this period, he changed several
places of residence, earned a living as a day laborer
and occasional committed petty thefts. He was learning to be
a predator, moving constantly to avoid detection, using his natural
charm to gain people's trust before exploiting them. On November fifth,
nineteen ninety five, Jones was arrested for rape, but was
(10:36):
released after posting bail and fled. Between November nineteen ninety
five and January nineteen ninety six, he committed two additional crimes.
On January tenth, nineteen ninety six, he was arrested in
Oklahoma on charges of rape and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.
The pattern was becoming clear. Jeremy would target vulnerable women,
(10:58):
use violence to control them, then disappear before authorities could
build a case. During the investigation, police were contacted by
a woman who claimed that Jones had assaulted her at gunpoint.
This wasn't random violence. It was calculated predatory behavior from
someone who was learning to perfect his methods. He was
subsequently convicted of the drug possession charge and sentenced to
(11:21):
two years imprisonment, which he served at the Dick Connor
Correctional Center in Hominy. He was granted parole and released
in early nineteen ninety seven, but was soon taken into
custody over the rapes. Prison should have been a wake
up call for Jeremy, but instead it became another learning experience.
During his time in prison, he sobered up and seemed
(11:42):
to exhibit remorse for his drug fueled crimes. This apparent
remorse was another mask, another performance designed to convince authorities
and parole boards that he was capable of change. On
March third, nineteen seventy seven, he pleaded guilty to three
charges of sexual battle and received a five year sentence
of probation. The two girlfriends he raped were afraid to testify.
(12:06):
His court mandated sex offender counseling sessions didn't go well,
and he was ultimately kicked out. He flat out ignored
the two court ordered requests for DNA samples. The justice
system was failing its most basic function, protecting innocent people
from dangerous predators. Jeremy was gaming the system, using his
charm and apparent cooperation to minimize his sentences while continuing
(12:30):
to escalate his crimes. Finally, on October nineteenth, two thousand,
Jones's probation was revoked and a warrant was issued for
his arrest, Jones left Oklahoma searching for a way to
get away from his past, but Jeremy had a plan.
Jeremy convinced a woman to sell him her incarcerated son's
social Security number and personal information. John Paul Chapman was
(12:53):
serving time in a Missouri prison, making him the perfect
identity for someone looking to disappear. Under the name of Chapman,
Jones moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he lived for two
years before financial difficulties caused him to move to Georgia.
As John Paul Chapman. Jeremy was essentially reborn, a man
with no criminal history, no outstanding warrants, no red flags
(13:17):
in the system. It was the perfect disguise for a
predator looking to hunt in New Territory. On May first,
two thousand and three, he was at the Gypsuons Restaurant
and lounge bar in Douglasville when he met Vicky Freeman,
who was thirteen years older than him. The two soon
became roommates, frequently changing places of residence and jobs over
(13:37):
the following two years. Vicky Freeman would later become one
of the most important witnesses in understanding Jeremy's true nature.
She saw him as John Paul Chapman, charming, troubled, but
ultimately redeemable. She had no idea she was living with
one of America's most dangerous serial killers. In October two
(13:58):
thousand and three, Jones was arrested for disorderly conduct and
taken to a police station where his fingerprints were run
through the national database. However, due to a glitch in
the system, his true identity was not revealed, and when
his fingerprints were entered a second time, he was falsely
identified as John Paul Chapman. This FBI database error would
(14:19):
prove fatal for Jeremy's future victims. The system that was
supposed to protect society from dangerous criminals had failed in
the most spectacular way possible. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joe
Paris said that quote, the system makes fifty thousand fingerprint
comparisons a day with a ninety five percent accuracy rate.
(14:39):
Nobody did anything wrong. We can't make systems work one
hundred percent of the time. There was no lapse, there
was no inattention. It's just that the system missed it.
During his time in Georgia, Jeremy's violence continued to escalate,
Amanda Anne Greenwell went missing on March twelfth, two thousand
and four, and her body was found on Mark twenty first.
(15:01):
She had been strangled and stabbed several times with a knife.
Sixteen year old Amanda was found in a wooded area,
her body bearing the hallmarks of Jeremy's increasingly sophisticated methods
of killing. But Amanda Greenwell was just one victim, and
what investigators would later discover was a much larger pattern
of violence. Stay tuned for more of the guilty files.
(15:22):
Will be right back after these messages. Jones also claimed
that in early January two thousand and four, he met
forty six year old prostitute Catherine Collins in New Orleans, Louisiana,
after which he raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned her with a
tire iron. Collins was reported missing on January tenth, but
(15:43):
her body was found on February fourteenth on a lawn
about a block away from the Port of New Orleans.
Jeremy was becoming more confident, more brazen in his attacks.
He was also becoming more skilled at covering his tracks
and manipulating the people around him. Vicki Freeman, who lived
with him during this period would later provide him with
alibis for multiple murders. Never suspecting that the man she
(16:06):
cared about was capable of such violence, Freeman gave Jones
an alibi for at least two of the murders. She
claimed that he was with her in Douglasville the night
Catherine Collins was murdered in New Orleans, and that he
was working near Douglasville when patrese Andre vanished. The ability
to maintain a double life, to be a loving partner
by day and a ruthless killer by night, was perhaps
(16:29):
Jeremy's most chilling characteristic. Those closest to him had no
idea what he was capable of, which made him all
the more dangerous. September two thousand and four brought Hurricane
Ivan to the Gulf Coast, a Category three storm that
would provide Jeremy Brian Jones with the perfect cover for
his most documented crime. On Wednesday, September fifteenth, two thousand
(16:53):
and four, the same day Hurricane Ivan struck in the
Mobile area, Jeremy Jones arrived at the doorstep of Mark
and Kim Bentley, a Turnerville couple. The Bentleys knew Jeremy
as John Paul Chapman, the helpful handyman who had worked
for them years earlier. The Bentleys previously employed Jones in
nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and had provided housing
(17:14):
for him. To them, he was a reliable worker who
could help with storm cleanup. They had no idea they
were inviting a serial killer into their home. Continuing to
hold himself out to be John Chapman, Jones informed the
Bentleys that he needed work and a place to live. Accordingly,
the couple allowed Jones to stay in their mobile home
with their cousin, Scooter Coleman, while they fled the approaching
(17:37):
hurricane with their children to relatives in Chickasaw, Alabama. The
storm created chaos throughout the region. Power lines were down,
communications were spotty, and emergency services were overwhelmed. For a
predator like Jeremy, it was the perfect hunting ground. Early
the next morning on Thursday, while Hurricane Ivan was bearing
(17:59):
down on mobil Jones contacted Kim Bentley through the use
of two way phones in an effort to locate a
radio in batteries. What Jeremy was really looking for was
Kim Bentley's twenty five caliber handgun, which she kept hidden
in her bedroom closet. She told Jones to tell Scooter Coleman,
whom she trusted, to look in her room instead. Jones
(18:21):
personally scoured through her closet, where he found the pistol
hidden under some clothing and other items on the shelf.
When the Bentleys returned home on Thursday afternoon, Jeremy had
already identified his next victim. It was during this time
that the Bentley's neighbor, forty three year old Lisa Marie Nichols,
returned home after riding out the storm elsewhere. Jones knew
(18:42):
that she was a single female living alone. Lisa was
exactly the type of victim Jeremy preferred, a woman living alone,
isolated by the hurricane's aftermath, with no immediate neighbors who
might hear her screams. Throughout the early morning of Friday,
September seventeenth, two thousand and four, until approximately four thirty am,
(19:04):
Jones and another neighbor, Chris Hill, ingested illegal narcotics. Jeremy
spent Friday getting high and planning his attack. When Lisa
left for work at the local grocery store that morning,
he watched her go noting her routine her vulnerabilities. Around
five am the same morning, Lisa went to work at
her job at a local grocery store. That evening, Jeremy
(19:26):
asked him to buy him a six pack of bud
Light beer, evidence that would later prove crucial to his conviction.
After buying his six pack, Kim left the house with
her children. The stage was set for murder. All Jeremy
needed was an opportunity, and Mark Bentley was about to
give him one. Around six that evening, Mark offered to
(19:47):
go get Hamburgers for both him and Jones. The only
restaurant still open was a Heartise and Citronelle, about a
thirty minute drive from the Bentley house. Since it was
the only place serving food, Mark said he had to
wait in line for about a hour once he got there.
That trip to get dinner would give Jeremy nearly two
hours alone, and that was all the time he needed.
(20:08):
Once Jones was left by himself, he grabbed Kim's twenty
five caliber pistol and his bud Light and walked next
door to Lisa's house. What happened next was so brutal
that even seasoned investigators were shocked by the violence. Based
on the evidence presented at trial, Jones broke into Lisa's home,
raped her while threatening her with the gun, and then
(20:28):
shot her three times in the head, killing her instantly.
Jeremy wasn't done yet. What he did next would mark
him as one of the most heartless killers anyone could imagine.
After committing his horrific crime, he tried to destroy the
evidence in the most callous way possible. After his arrest,
Jones confessed to burning her body to cover up what
(20:49):
he'd done. The fire Jeremy sat wasn't just about destroying evidence.
It showed a level of cruelty that went way beyond
just trying to get away with murder. Lisa was all
already dead when he burned her body. This was pure evil,
an attempt to deny her family even the chance to
bury her properly. On Saturday morning, September eighteenth, two thousand
(21:11):
and four, Lisa didn't show up for work. She wasn't
answering her phone either, which worried her family. That Saturday evening,
her two daughters, Jennifer Murphy and Amber Nichols, along with
her son in law Todd mccurchey, decided to drive over
and check on her at her home in Turnerville. What
they found was beyond anyone's worst nightmare. They got to
(21:32):
Lisa's house just before midnight and were surprised to find
the back door hanging open. Since the power was still
out from the hurricane, they had to use flashlights to
search the house. They went straight to her bedroom, and
that's when Todd looked into the bathroom and discovered Lisa's
charred remains on the floor. Jennifer, Amber and Todd ran
from the house screaming for help. They rushed to Mark
(21:54):
Bentley's place, where Mark and Scooter Coleman immediately ran back
to Lisa's house to see for themselves. During all this chaos,
people noticed something strange about Jeremy's behavior. While everyone else
was shocked and horrified, he showed absolutely no emotion when
he heard about the body being discovered. He refused to
cooperate with the Mobile County Sheriff's department during their interviews.
(22:17):
It was like he was watching a movie instead of
dealing with the brutal murder of a neighbor. The morning
after they found Lisa's body, Jones fled Turnerville. Jeremy had
always been good at disappearing, moving from place to place
before authorities could catch up with him. But this time
would be different. This time he'd make the mistake that
would finally end his killing Spurrey. On September twenty first,
(22:41):
two thousand and four, Jeremy called the police himself. He
told them what he'd done and even chatted about the weather.
The police kept him on the line long enough to
track the call, and when they arrived at the bus station,
he was still talking to them on the phone, waiting
to leave town again. It was early morning, and Jeremy
had made his way to a bus station, ready to
(23:01):
vanish into the crowd of travelers, just like he'd done
so many times before. But something was different this time.
Maybe it was the drugs, maybe guilt, or maybe Jeremy
had finally reached the point where even he couldn't handle
what he'd done anymore. For whatever reason, he picked up
the phone and called the Mobile County Sheriff's Department. The
conversation started casually. Jeremy talked about Hurricane Ivan's aftermath, the damage,
(23:26):
the power outages. Detective Paul Birch later said the call
was surreal, like this stranger was calling in the middle
of the night, just to chat about storm damage, but
then Jeremy's tone changed. The small talk gave way to
something much darker. Starting from the day he was arrested
and continuing for months afterward, Jones made several statements to
(23:47):
deputies admitting he committed the murder. Gary Carti, the local
fire marshal, testified that Jones told him he couldn't rewind
Lisa's murder, and that he put a light to it
and burned it all away. The phone call gave investigators
just enough time to trace it to the bus station.
When deputies arrived, they found Jeremy still on the phone,
(24:07):
still talking to Detective Birch. He didn't try to run
or resist arrest. After more than a decade of running,
it seemed like he was finally ready to stop. Jeremy
was arrested in the early morning hours of September twenty first,
two thousand and four, in Mobil. While searching for him,
the Mobile County Sheriff's Department shared their information with neighboring states.
(24:30):
That's when the Missouri Attorney General's office told them their
suspect had the same birth date and social Security number
as someone serving time in a Missouri prison. This revelation
hit investigators like a bomb. They went to interview the
real John Paul Chapman, and afterward, his mother revealed that
she had sold her son's identity to a man named
(24:50):
Jeremy Brian Jones. Fingerprints from the Miami Police Department in
Oklahoma confirmed that the man they'd arrested for Lisa's murder
wasn't John Paul Chapman at all. He was Jeremy Bryan Jones.
Learning their suspects real identity sent shockwaves through law enforcement
agencies across multiple states. Jeremy wasn't just wanted for Lisa's murder,
(25:13):
he was a suspect in multiple unsolved cases spanning more
than a decade. At first, he insisted he was innocent,
but after forensic tests confirmed that Lisa was killed with
the Bentley's handgun and that his fingerprints were on the
beer can, he changed his story and admitted responsibility. But
Jeremy's confession to Lisa's murder was just the beginning. What
(25:34):
came next shocked even experienced investigators who thought they'd seen everything.
Jones didn't admit to a man to Greenwell's murder, but
he unexpectedly confessed to committing twenty additional murders across five
states over twelve years. Once Jeremy started talking, it seemed
like he couldn't stop. What began as a confession to
(25:54):
Lisa's murder quickly expanded into something much more horrifying, detailed
admissions from a man who claimed to have killed more
than twenty people across multiple states. In eight of these cases,
he couldn't remember the names of his victims or where
exactly he dumped their bodies. He claimed five of them
were prostitutes from Atlanta, and the others were also prostitutes
(26:15):
from mobil whose bodies he dumped in swamps. Jeremy's confessions
painted a picture of a predator who had been methodically
hunting vulnerable women for over a decade. He described targeting
sex workers and transients women's society often overlooked, whose disappearances
might not be immediately noticed or thoroughly investigated. While in custody,
(26:37):
Jones confessed to killing at least eight women in Atlanta.
Eventually the number rose to twenty one people in five states.
He drew maps showing locations where he said he'd committed crimes,
but some of Jeremy's confessions contained details that only the
killer could know. One of these was the murder of
Jennifer Judd, his high school friend's wife, whose murder he'd
(26:58):
been suspected of committing back in early nineteen ninety two.
One of Jeremy's most detailed confessions involved a crime that
had haunted investigators for years, the Freeman family murders. On
December twenty ninth, nineteen ninety nine, according to investigators, Jones
committed a quadruple murder in Welch. He admitted to entering
the home of forty year old Danny Freeman, who lived
(27:21):
with his wife Kathy, and their sixteen year old daughter, Ashley.
Ashley's friend, sixteen year old Lauria Bible, was visiting to
celebrate Ashley's birthday party. Jeremy's description of the Freeman murders
was chillingly detailed. He claimed that after entering the house,
he shot both parents in the head at close range,
set fire to the house, and then forced the teenagers
(27:43):
into his car at gunpoint. He said he drove them
to a forested area near the Kansas border, where he
raped and shot them, then dumped their bodies in an
abandoned mine. When asked for a motive, he claimed he
was an acquaintance of Danny Freeman and wanted to kill
him because Danny hadn't paid him on time for a
methamphetamine deal. Jones described the layout of the Freeman house
(28:04):
in detail, including the exact location of the mailbox. Jeremy
also confessed to other brutal murders that had stumped investigators.
He confessed to the murder of Tina Mayberry, thirty eight,
who was attacked after leaving a Halloween party on October
thirty first, two thousand and two, at a bar in Douglasville, Georgia.
He claimed to have met a woman at a bar
(28:26):
who was dressed as Betty Boop. After convincing her to
leave the bar, he assaulted her, then stabbed her several
times in the chest and stomach. She was taken to
the hospital, where she died from blood loss. Police couldn't
locate any witnesses or identify the killer. Since Mayberry couldn't
provide a description of her attacker before she died, the
(28:46):
confessions kept coming. Jeremy claimed responsibility for murders in Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama, Georgia,
and Louisiana. He drew maps showing investigators where he disposed
of bodies. He provided details about victim's clothing, their final words,
the weapons he'd used. But there was something unsettling about
(29:07):
Jeremy's confessions. He later confessed to murdering twenty additional people
in four other states before taking it all back. He's
never been charged in any other murders, and investigators consider
some of his confessions questionable at best. Knowing they had
a hot potato, investigators were anxious to find evidence that
would hold up in court, linking Jones to the confessed murders.
(29:31):
The problem investigators faced was figuring out which confessions were
real and which were fantasy. Jeremy seemed to enjoy the
attention his confessions brought him, and some law enforcement officials
began to suspect he was making up crimes to gain
notoriety or better treatment in jail. Months later, however, Jones
took back that confession in an interview with the Joplin Globe,
(29:52):
claiming that he had nothing to do with the murders
in Georgia. Jones told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he
made up his involving the disappearance of a hair stylist.
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. One by one, Jeremy began
taking back his confessions, claiming he'd lied to investigators for
(30:16):
various reasons. He later claimed that he'd lied to authorities
to get better food and extra phone privileges in prison,
but some people who knew Jeremy believed there was a
different reason for his recantations. Loreen Bible believes he took
them back to ease the burden on his sick mother.
He was known as a mama's boy and would later
tell police that he would confess, but just didn't want
(30:36):
his mother to know. The recantations created a nightmare for
investigators and prosecutors. How do you build cases on confessions
that the defendant later claims were lies. How do you
determine which details were real and which were made up.
During his interrogation, he pointed out on a map where
he dumped Ashley, Freeman and Bible's remains, but their bodies
(30:58):
were never found. Doubt on his testimony, investigators didn't rule
out the possibility that he might have learned details about
the case by watching television since a story about the
murders and the missing girls had been shown on an
episode of America's Most Wanted. The Freeman case highlighted the
challenges investigators faced. Several relatives of the victims questioned whether
(31:21):
his admissions were true. Ashley Freeman's grandmother, Celeste Chandler, and
Loreen Bible had their doubts that Jones was the killer.
While they believed he was at the Freeman house that night,
they thought whoever he was with kicked him out of
the vehicle being used to transport the girls. DNA evidence
also raised questions about some of Jeremy's confessions. Test results
(31:43):
showed discrepancies between Jones's DNA and that of the killer.
In case after case, the physical evidence didn't match Jeremy's confessions.
This got even more complicated when Tommy lynn Sells, another
murderer who claimed to be a serial killer, also confessed
to some of the same crimes Jones supposedly committed. The
false confession phenomenon is well documented in criminal psychology, but
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Jeremy's case was unusual because of the sheer number of
crimes he claimed responsibility for. Some experts believed he was
a pathological liar who craved attention and notoriety. Others thought
he was genuinely trying to help families find closure, but
was confused about which crimes he'd actually committed. Due to
his extensive drug use. Jones was officially ruled out as
(32:30):
a suspect in twenty eighteen when sixty six year old
Ronnie Dean Busick was arrested. He, along with Warren Welch
and David Pennington, who were dead, were determined to be
the true perpetrators of the Freeman murders. The Freeman case
wasn't the only one where Jeremy was eventually ruled out.
As DNA technology improved and other suspects were identified. It
(32:52):
became clear that many of Jeremy's confessions were false, but
the question remained. If Jeremy didn't commit all the murders
he confessed to, how many had he actually committed. Jones's
trial was scheduled to begin on August fifteenth, two thousand
and five, but it was postponed because his attorneys requested
a mental evaluation first. The examination concluded that although he
(33:14):
had mental impairments, he was still sane and able to
stand trial. The trial for the murder of Lisa Nichols
began on October nineteenth, two thousand and five. Shortly before
the trial began, FBI representatives issued a formal apology to
the relatives of Lisa and other potential victims for the
computer glitch that had allowed his release. The trial lasted
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a week. The main evidence for the prosecution was Jeremy's confession,
the fingerprints found on the beer can, Scooter Coleman's testimony,
the handgun, and DNA results that determined bloodstains found on
Jeremy's clothes belonged to Lisa. The prosecution painted Jeremy as
a cold blooded predator who had taken advantage of the
Bentley family's kindness to commit murder. Sabama Attorney General Troy
(34:01):
King said Jones targeted his prey like any predator and
never showed even an ounce of remorse. Scott Milroy, a
tool Mark's expert from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences,
testified that the bullets recovered from Lisa's head and bathroom
floor matched the twenty five caliber handgun Jones admitted taking
(34:21):
from Kim Bentley's closet. Moreover, Donna Gibbons, a DNA expert
from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences testified that a
fluid stain tested from Jeremy's shirt was consistent with both
his DNA and the victim's DNA. The physical evidence was overwhelming.
Jeremy's fingerprints were on the beer can found at the scene.
(34:42):
The murder weapon, belonged to the Bentleys and had been
in their home where Jeremy was staying. DNA evidence linked
him to the victim, and most damning of all, he
had confessed to the crime in detail. Jeremy also confessed
on at least two other occasions in addition to his
taped confessions to Deputy Gary Carti. The local fire marshal
(35:03):
testified that Jones told him he couldn't rewind Lisa's murder
and that he put a light to it and burned
it all away. Even more telling was a voluntary phone
called Jones maid to his friend Mark Bentley while in jail.
Bentley confronted Jones with the reality of his actions, and
Jones confessed to Bentley that he had killed Lisa while
high on methamphetamines. But Jones's behavior during the trial was
(35:27):
perhaps the most telling evidence of his true nature. Lead
prosecutor Assistant Alabama Attorney General William Dill called Jones a
classic sociopath. He said Jones testified at length and talked
about Lisa and her family, but never shed one tear. However,
when he spoke about his own mother, he broke down crying.
(35:48):
At the trial, Jones took back all of his confessions,
but was still found guilty by the jury for murdering Lisa.
Defense attorney Greg Hughes sought a life sentence without parole,
saying Jones suffered from extreme mental and emotional problems, including
long term drug addiction, but the prosecution argued that Jeremy
was a dangerous predator who would kill again if given
(36:10):
the opportunity. The jury didn't take long to reach their decision.
After a sentencing hearing, by a vote of ten to two,
the jury recommended that he be sentenced to death. Jones
was convicted on October twenty sixth, two thousand and five
of rape, burglary, sexual abuse, and kidnapping during capital murder
in the slaying of Lisa Nichols. The conviction was based
(36:33):
on four separate capital murder charges. The murder was considered
capital because he committed it during the course of a rape,
sexual abuse, burglary, and kidnapping. The court found that the
mitigating factors were insufficient, and on December first, two thousand
and five, Jones was sentenced to death. Circuit Judge Charles
(36:53):
Graddock had seen many criminals in his courtroom, but Jeremy
Brian Jones represented something particularly evil. He called Jeremy a
danger to civilized society as he sentenced him to die
by lethal injection. Even facing the death sentence, Jeremy remained
defiant and manipulative to the end. He told the court
(37:14):
God will have the final say before Gradik sentenced him.
The victim's families were present for the sentencing, finally seeing
justice for their loved one. This is what we wanted,
said Lisa's daughter, Jennifer Murphy. We're going to be there.
We're going to make sure it's followed through. During the
sentencing phased testimony, it became clear that Jones grew up
(37:35):
in a family that loved and cared for him, and
that his stepfather provided at least some fatherly guidance in
his life. The defense had tried to use Jeremy's troubled
childhood as a mitigating factor, but the court found it
insufficient given the heinous nature of his crimes. In fact,
the court noted that Jeremy's family loved him enough to
travel from Oklahoma to support their son during the trial.
(37:59):
Even his family, despite their love for him, couldn't deny
the overwhelming evidence of his guilt. After independently weighing the
aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the court found that the death
sentence was appropriate. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later
upheld Jeremy's death sentence, finding that the trial court had
properly weighed the evidence and that the sentence was proportionate
(38:22):
to the crime. The appeals court found that Jeremy's crimes
were consistent with other cases that had received the death penalty.
The brutal nature of Lisa's murder, combined with the rape, burglary,
and kidnapping, clearly warranted the ultimate punishment under Alabama law. Today,
Jeremy Brian Jones sits on death row at the Holman
(38:42):
Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Since he's on death row,
there's no possibility of a parole hearing. Currently, his execution
date hasn't been set, so he'll remain in the prison
facility until it is Jeremy has been on death row
for nearly twenty years now, filing appeals in legal emotions
while maintaining his innocence in most of the crimes he
(39:03):
once confessed to. His sentence was upheld in twenty ten
by the Alabama Appeals Court. Despite multiple appeals, the courts
have consistently found that Jeremy received a fair trial and
that his death sentence was appropriate given the evidence and
the severity of his crimes. The true extent of Jones'
crimes may never be fully known. He is believed to
(39:24):
have killed anywhere between four and eleven women aged sixteen
to forty four years. Investigators believe the actual number of
victims is likely higher than what can be proven in court.
What's certain is that Jeremy Bryan Jones represents one of
the most dangerous types of criminals, a charming predator who
can blend into any community while secretly hunting for victims.
(39:47):
Those who knew Jones, either as Jones or Chapman, saw
that he had a real problem with women. He believed
he could charm any woman and get exactly what he
wanted at the same time, he was constantly making derogatory
comments about women, strongly believing that they should be submissive
to men. In a later interview, Jones referred to himself
(40:08):
as a likable guy. I'm the guy next door. This
ability to present himself as harmless and trustworthy while harboring
such violent impulses made Jeremy particularly dangerous to the communities
where he lived. The FBI's database error that allowed Jeremy
to avoid detection for years has been addressed, but it
(40:28):
came too late for his victims. Though it provided an explanation,
it provided no comfort to the families and loved ones
of the people whom Jones had murdered or confessed to
having murdered. The case of Jeremy Brian Jones forces us
to confront some uncomfortable truths about the nature of evil
and the limitations of our justice system. For more than
(40:49):
a decade, a serial killer moved freely through American communities,
charming his way into people's homes and lives while secretly
planning their deaths. Jeremy's ability to maintain more multiple identities,
to charm and manipulate those around him, and to evade
detection for so long reveal significant gaps in our law
enforcement systems. A reasonably handsome man, Jones used his good
(41:12):
looks to lure his victims into a false sense of security,
bragging once that he could charm the panties off a nun.
The comparison to Ted Bundy is fitting in many ways.
Like Bundy, Jeremy was charming and manipulative. Like Bundy, he
prayed on vulnerable women. But unlike Bundy, Jeremy's crimes were
(41:32):
often more brutal and less sophisticated. Where Bundy was calculating
and methodical, Jeremy was often impulsive and drug fueled. Jeremy's
victims weren't limited to those he murdered. The people who
had taken him in felt incredibly betrayed. The Bentleys who
housed Jones in Alabama when he murdered Lisa said they'd
never trust anyone the same way again. The betrayal felt
(41:55):
by those who knew Jeremy, as Chapman, reveals another dimension
of his crimes. He didn't just murder his victims, he
shattered the trust and faith of everyone who tried to
help him. Another person who'd provided Jones with housing said
he couldn't believe who he really was, calling him a monster.
Perhaps most disturbing is the question of how many victims
(42:16):
Jeremy actually claimed. Some experts theorized that Jones enjoyed making confessions,
whether they were false or true. They believed it made
him feel powerful. The false confessions may have been another
form of psychological manipulation, a way for Jeremy to maintain
control and attention even from his prison cell. The families
(42:37):
of unsolved murder cases across the South are still grappling
with the question of whether Jeremy was responsible for their
loved one's deaths. Some, like the families in the Freeman case,
have found closure through other arrests. Others may never know
the truth. What we do know is that Jeremy Brian
Jones represents the worst kind of predator, one who can
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blend seamlessly into societ society while harboring the darkest of intentions.
His case serves as a reminder that evil often comes
wearing a friendly face, offering help with a smile, asking
for nothing more than trust. For Lisa Marie Nichols, that
trust cost her everything. For the families of Jeremy's other
(43:18):
suspected victims, the questions linger, and for Jeremy Brian Jones,
sitting on death row in Alabama, the final chapter of
his story remains unwritten. God will have the final say.
He said it his sentencing. Perhaps he was right. But
until that final judgment comes, Jeremy Brian Jones remains what
Judge Graddock called him, a danger to civilized society, contained
(43:42):
only by the walls of his prison cell. The monster
among us has been caged, but the scars he left
on his victims, families, and communities will last forever. And
somewhere out there, other Jeremy Joneses may be walking among
us right now, waiting for their moment to strike. That's
the most chilling lesson of all from the Jeremy Bryan
(44:03):
Jones case. Evil doesn't announce itself with fanfare. It knocks
on your door during a hurricane, offers to help with
storm clean up, and asks for nothing more than a
place to stay for the night. Sometimes the most dangerous
monsters are the ones who look just like the guy
next door.
Thank you, bog In. Welcome back to The Guilty Files,
the podcast where every case gets a second look, a
deeper dive, and two distinct takes that keep you coming
back for more. I'm your host, Brian, and I'm here
to bring you the unfiltered, no nonsense breakdown of this
week's crime. A little about me, I've spent sixteen years
(00:28):
in law enforcement, with ten of those years pounding the
pavement as a beat cop in the streets of Atlanta.
I've seen crime up close, the chaos, the aftermath, and
the cold, hard truths that never make the headlines. That's
why my focus is simple. I'll take you through the
facts of the case step by step with nothing left
(00:49):
to speculation. But that's only half of what we do here.
My co host Danny is your guide to the other
side of the story. He dives into the untold possibility,
uncovers hidden motives, and imagines the what ifs that make
you question everything you thought you knew. Together, we bring
you two unique perspectives on every case, because in true crime,
(01:11):
the truth is rarely as simple as it seems. Every
week we promise you this two cops, one crime, two
stories told. If you're a fan of the details, the drama,
and the darker side of human nature. You're in for
a ride, So grab your headphones, lock the door, and
let's get into the Guilty Files, where every case comes
(01:32):
with a twist and the truth is just the beginning.
The phone rang at three forty seven am in the
Mobile County Sheriff's Department. On the other end, a man's voice,
calm and casual, began describing the weather. Hurricane Ivan had
(01:52):
just torn through Alabama, leaving destruction in its wake, and
this stranger wanted to chat about the aftermath, like he
was calling an old friend. Yeah, it's pretty bad down here,
the voice said. Trees down everywhere, powers out. Detective Paul
Birch kept him talking. Something wasn't right. This wasn't a
social call. As minutes ticked by, the man's tone shifted,
(02:16):
the casual chatter gave way to something darker. You know.
The voice said, I did something I can't take back.
What followed was a confession that would chill investigators to
the bone. The man on the phone admitted to rape, murder,
and burning a woman's body to cover his tracks. He
was calling from a bus station, waiting to flee town,
(02:36):
just like he'd done dozens of times before, but this
time would be different. This time, Jeremy Bryan Jones, though
he wouldn't give his real name for days, had finally
reached the end of the road. What authorities didn't know
yet was that they had just captured one of America's
most prolific suspected serial killers. A charismatic drifter who had
(02:57):
been leaving a trail of bodies across the South for
over a decade. A man who claimed he could talk
the panties off a nun and use that charm to
lure victims to their deaths. This is the story of
Jeremy Brian Jones, known to some as the Oklahoma Drifter
and to others as the low rent Ted Bundy. It's
a tale of violence, deception, and a flawed justice system
(03:20):
that allowed a monster to roam free for far too long.
Jeremy Brian Jones entered the world on April twelfth, nineteen
seventy three, in Miami, Oklahoma, a small town where everyone
knew everyone else's business. He was the elder of two boys,
born into what appeared to be a stable, middle class family.
His mother worked as a florist, his stepfather was a
(03:41):
skilled carpenter and woodshop supervisor. By all external appearances, the
Jones family was doing well, but appearances, as Jeremy would
prove throughout his life, could be devastatingly deceiving. From his
earliest years, something was wrong with Jeremy. While his parents
divorce and his mother's remarriage created a loving, relatively well
(04:02):
off household thanks to his stepfather's carpentry work, Jeremy himself
showed signs of anti social and aggressive behavior from an
early age, due to which neighbors avoided interacting with him.
One of Jones's high school schoolmates was Justin Judd, and
Jones eventually lived next door to Judd for a while.
Jones was a problem neighbor. According to jud we called
(04:24):
the police on him several times. Jud said you could
hear his wife or girlfriend screaming all of the time.
The police would show up and she would say, nothing's wrong.
School was a battleground for Jeremy. He also did not
care about his academic achievements and was frequently disciplined for
his truancy and low grades. His teachers noticed something unsettling
(04:46):
about the boy, a coldness, a lack of empathy that
set him apart from his peers. Jeremy Jones's first run
in with the law was in January of nineteen ninety
when he was sixteen years old. He was charged with
assaulting boy, and when his mother came to his defense,
Jones assaulted her as well. The incident was a chilling
(05:06):
preview of the violence that would define his adult life.
In the late nineteen eighties, he developed an addiction to
alcohol and began using drugs, and by the end of
nineteen eighty nine, he was expelled from Miami High School.
Desperate to give their troubled son another chance, his parents
enrolled him at nearby Quapau High School, but Jeremy's problems
(05:26):
followed him there. He briefly attended the new high school,
but as he preferred to spend his time on the streets,
Jones was eventually expelled in nineteen ninety one, shortly before
the end of the twelfth grade. The pattern was set.
Jeremy Jones would charm his way into situations, exploit the
trust and kindness of others, then leave destruction in his wake.
(05:48):
As one person who knew him would later recall quote
talking with several people about Jeremy. There was only one
conclusion I came to, and that was that he was
a man who couldn't be trusted. He would try and
befriend you if he knew he could get in your
house and steal something. He was a meth addict, and
his world revolved around drugs and alcohol. At nineteen years old,
(06:10):
Jeremy Bryan Jones was already a high school dropout with
a criminal record and a drug problem. Most people who
knew him assumed he'd end up dead or in prison
before he turned thirty. They were half right. He would
end up in prison, but not before leaving a trail
of death and devastation that would span multiple states and
claim the lives of more than twenty people. In early
(06:32):
nineteen ninety two, Jones left Miami with one of his
girlfriends and moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas, where he lived
with a high school friend named Justin Judd. It seemed
like a fresh start for Jeremy, a chance to leave
his troubled pass behind and build something resembling a normal life.
Justin Judd was one of the few people from high
school who still believed Jeremy could change, despite the violence
(06:55):
and the drug use. Despite the constant run ends with
the law, one saw something in his old friend worth saving.
As he had no formal education, he resorted to working
in low skilled labor, causing him and his girlfriend to
experience financial hardship. But Jeremy's demons followed him to Kansas.
The pair frequently argued, during which Jones physically assaulted his girlfriend.
(07:18):
Jud frequently called the police, but no case was initiated
because the girlfriend refused to file charges. The violence was escalating,
and Justin found himself repeatedly calling law enforcement to intervene
in Jeremy's domestic disputes. On May ninth, nineteen ninety two,
Justin Judd married his longtime girlfriend, Jennifer, a woman he'd
(07:39):
known since high school. It should have been one of
the happiest days of his life. Two days after their wedding,
an intruder broke into their home while Justin was away,
bound Jennifer and proceeded to stab her multiple times. Jennifer
Jud's murder was savage and personal. The killer had taken
his time binding the young woman before stabbing her repeatedly.
(08:02):
When Justin returned home, he found a scene that would
haunt him for the rest of his life. His new
bride dead in their home, the victim of an attack
so vicious it suggested the killer knew her personally. Upon
walking in, Justin saw his packed lunch sitting on the
counter with her car keys. Then he found Jennifer's body.
(08:22):
During the investigation, Jones was named as a suspect based
on the testimony of Justin, who claimed that he was
interested in her. Jones insisted that he was innocent, and
since there was no credible evidence to charge him, he
was released. The investigation focused on Jeremy from the beginning. Justin,
devastated by his wife's murder, told police about Jeremy's obsession
(08:44):
with Jennifer. He described how Jeremy would make inappropriate comments
about her, how he seemed to watch her when he
thought no one was looking. But in nineteen ninety two,
DNA evidence was still in its infancy, and without physical
evidence linking Jeremy to the crime, prosecutors couldn't build a case.
Jeremy played the part of the grieving friend perfectly. He
(09:06):
attended Jennifer's funeral, offered his condolences to Justin, and maintained
his innocence. With such conviction, that some people began to
doubt he was involved. It was a performance that would
become Jeremy's trademark, the ability to look people in the
eye and lie with such sincerity that even experienced investigators
began to question their instincts. But Jeremy knew what he
(09:28):
had done. After the murder of Jennifer Judd, Jones broke
up with his girlfriend, left Baxter Springs, and began to
live a criminal lifestyle. He had crossed a line that
could never be uncrossed. The rape and murder of Jennifer
Judd had awakened something in Jeremy that he found intoxicating.
The absolute power over another human being, the rush of violence,
(09:51):
the thrill of getting away with the ultimate crime. Years later,
Jeremy finally confessed to Jennifer's murder, but by then the
damage was done. Jennifer Judd was just the first victim
in what would become a decade long killing spree that
would terrorize communities across the American South. After fleeing Kansas,
Jeremy Brian Jones entered what could only be described as
(10:13):
his apprenticeship in evil. During this period, he changed several
places of residence, earned a living as a day laborer
and occasional committed petty thefts. He was learning to be
a predator, moving constantly to avoid detection, using his natural
charm to gain people's trust before exploiting them. On November fifth,
nineteen ninety five, Jones was arrested for rape, but was
(10:36):
released after posting bail and fled. Between November nineteen ninety
five and January nineteen ninety six, he committed two additional crimes.
On January tenth, nineteen ninety six, he was arrested in
Oklahoma on charges of rape and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.
The pattern was becoming clear. Jeremy would target vulnerable women,
(10:58):
use violence to control them, then disappear before authorities could
build a case. During the investigation, police were contacted by
a woman who claimed that Jones had assaulted her at gunpoint.
This wasn't random violence. It was calculated predatory behavior from
someone who was learning to perfect his methods. He was
subsequently convicted of the drug possession charge and sentenced to
(11:21):
two years imprisonment, which he served at the Dick Connor
Correctional Center in Hominy. He was granted parole and released
in early nineteen ninety seven, but was soon taken into
custody over the rapes. Prison should have been a wake
up call for Jeremy, but instead it became another learning experience.
During his time in prison, he sobered up and seemed
(11:42):
to exhibit remorse for his drug fueled crimes. This apparent
remorse was another mask, another performance designed to convince authorities
and parole boards that he was capable of change. On
March third, nineteen seventy seven, he pleaded guilty to three
charges of sexual battle and received a five year sentence
of probation. The two girlfriends he raped were afraid to testify.
(12:06):
His court mandated sex offender counseling sessions didn't go well,
and he was ultimately kicked out. He flat out ignored
the two court ordered requests for DNA samples. The justice
system was failing its most basic function, protecting innocent people
from dangerous predators. Jeremy was gaming the system, using his
charm and apparent cooperation to minimize his sentences while continuing
(12:30):
to escalate his crimes. Finally, on October nineteenth, two thousand,
Jones's probation was revoked and a warrant was issued for
his arrest, Jones left Oklahoma searching for a way to
get away from his past, but Jeremy had a plan.
Jeremy convinced a woman to sell him her incarcerated son's
social Security number and personal information. John Paul Chapman was
(12:53):
serving time in a Missouri prison, making him the perfect
identity for someone looking to disappear. Under the name of Chapman,
Jones moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he lived for two
years before financial difficulties caused him to move to Georgia.
As John Paul Chapman. Jeremy was essentially reborn, a man
with no criminal history, no outstanding warrants, no red flags
(13:17):
in the system. It was the perfect disguise for a
predator looking to hunt in New Territory. On May first,
two thousand and three, he was at the Gypsuons Restaurant
and lounge bar in Douglasville when he met Vicky Freeman,
who was thirteen years older than him. The two soon
became roommates, frequently changing places of residence and jobs over
(13:37):
the following two years. Vicky Freeman would later become one
of the most important witnesses in understanding Jeremy's true nature.
She saw him as John Paul Chapman, charming, troubled, but
ultimately redeemable. She had no idea she was living with
one of America's most dangerous serial killers. In October two
(13:58):
thousand and three, Jones was arrested for disorderly conduct and
taken to a police station where his fingerprints were run
through the national database. However, due to a glitch in
the system, his true identity was not revealed, and when
his fingerprints were entered a second time, he was falsely
identified as John Paul Chapman. This FBI database error would
(14:19):
prove fatal for Jeremy's future victims. The system that was
supposed to protect society from dangerous criminals had failed in
the most spectacular way possible. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joe
Paris said that quote, the system makes fifty thousand fingerprint
comparisons a day with a ninety five percent accuracy rate.
(14:39):
Nobody did anything wrong. We can't make systems work one
hundred percent of the time. There was no lapse, there
was no inattention. It's just that the system missed it.
During his time in Georgia, Jeremy's violence continued to escalate,
Amanda Anne Greenwell went missing on March twelfth, two thousand
and four, and her body was found on Mark twenty first.
(15:01):
She had been strangled and stabbed several times with a knife.
Sixteen year old Amanda was found in a wooded area,
her body bearing the hallmarks of Jeremy's increasingly sophisticated methods
of killing. But Amanda Greenwell was just one victim, and
what investigators would later discover was a much larger pattern
of violence. Stay tuned for more of the guilty files.
(15:22):
Will be right back after these messages. Jones also claimed
that in early January two thousand and four, he met
forty six year old prostitute Catherine Collins in New Orleans, Louisiana,
after which he raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned her with a
tire iron. Collins was reported missing on January tenth, but
(15:43):
her body was found on February fourteenth on a lawn
about a block away from the Port of New Orleans.
Jeremy was becoming more confident, more brazen in his attacks.
He was also becoming more skilled at covering his tracks
and manipulating the people around him. Vicki Freeman, who lived
with him during this period would later provide him with
alibis for multiple murders. Never suspecting that the man she
(16:06):
cared about was capable of such violence, Freeman gave Jones
an alibi for at least two of the murders. She
claimed that he was with her in Douglasville the night
Catherine Collins was murdered in New Orleans, and that he
was working near Douglasville when patrese Andre vanished. The ability
to maintain a double life, to be a loving partner
by day and a ruthless killer by night, was perhaps
(16:29):
Jeremy's most chilling characteristic. Those closest to him had no
idea what he was capable of, which made him all
the more dangerous. September two thousand and four brought Hurricane
Ivan to the Gulf Coast, a Category three storm that
would provide Jeremy Brian Jones with the perfect cover for
his most documented crime. On Wednesday, September fifteenth, two thousand
(16:53):
and four, the same day Hurricane Ivan struck in the
Mobile area, Jeremy Jones arrived at the doorstep of Mark
and Kim Bentley, a Turnerville couple. The Bentleys knew Jeremy
as John Paul Chapman, the helpful handyman who had worked
for them years earlier. The Bentleys previously employed Jones in
nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and had provided housing
(17:14):
for him. To them, he was a reliable worker who
could help with storm cleanup. They had no idea they
were inviting a serial killer into their home. Continuing to
hold himself out to be John Chapman, Jones informed the
Bentleys that he needed work and a place to live. Accordingly,
the couple allowed Jones to stay in their mobile home
with their cousin, Scooter Coleman, while they fled the approaching
(17:37):
hurricane with their children to relatives in Chickasaw, Alabama. The
storm created chaos throughout the region. Power lines were down,
communications were spotty, and emergency services were overwhelmed. For a
predator like Jeremy, it was the perfect hunting ground. Early
the next morning on Thursday, while Hurricane Ivan was bearing
(17:59):
down on mobil Jones contacted Kim Bentley through the use
of two way phones in an effort to locate a
radio in batteries. What Jeremy was really looking for was
Kim Bentley's twenty five caliber handgun, which she kept hidden
in her bedroom closet. She told Jones to tell Scooter Coleman,
whom she trusted, to look in her room instead. Jones
(18:21):
personally scoured through her closet, where he found the pistol
hidden under some clothing and other items on the shelf.
When the Bentleys returned home on Thursday afternoon, Jeremy had
already identified his next victim. It was during this time
that the Bentley's neighbor, forty three year old Lisa Marie Nichols,
returned home after riding out the storm elsewhere. Jones knew
(18:42):
that she was a single female living alone. Lisa was
exactly the type of victim Jeremy preferred, a woman living alone,
isolated by the hurricane's aftermath, with no immediate neighbors who
might hear her screams. Throughout the early morning of Friday,
September seventeenth, two thousand and four, until approximately four thirty am,
(19:04):
Jones and another neighbor, Chris Hill, ingested illegal narcotics. Jeremy
spent Friday getting high and planning his attack. When Lisa
left for work at the local grocery store that morning,
he watched her go noting her routine her vulnerabilities. Around
five am the same morning, Lisa went to work at
her job at a local grocery store. That evening, Jeremy
(19:26):
asked him to buy him a six pack of bud
Light beer, evidence that would later prove crucial to his conviction.
After buying his six pack, Kim left the house with
her children. The stage was set for murder. All Jeremy
needed was an opportunity, and Mark Bentley was about to
give him one. Around six that evening, Mark offered to
(19:47):
go get Hamburgers for both him and Jones. The only
restaurant still open was a Heartise and Citronelle, about a
thirty minute drive from the Bentley house. Since it was
the only place serving food, Mark said he had to
wait in line for about a hour once he got there.
That trip to get dinner would give Jeremy nearly two
hours alone, and that was all the time he needed.
(20:08):
Once Jones was left by himself, he grabbed Kim's twenty
five caliber pistol and his bud Light and walked next
door to Lisa's house. What happened next was so brutal
that even seasoned investigators were shocked by the violence. Based
on the evidence presented at trial, Jones broke into Lisa's home,
raped her while threatening her with the gun, and then
(20:28):
shot her three times in the head, killing her instantly.
Jeremy wasn't done yet. What he did next would mark
him as one of the most heartless killers anyone could imagine.
After committing his horrific crime, he tried to destroy the
evidence in the most callous way possible. After his arrest,
Jones confessed to burning her body to cover up what
(20:49):
he'd done. The fire Jeremy sat wasn't just about destroying evidence.
It showed a level of cruelty that went way beyond
just trying to get away with murder. Lisa was all
already dead when he burned her body. This was pure evil,
an attempt to deny her family even the chance to
bury her properly. On Saturday morning, September eighteenth, two thousand
(21:11):
and four, Lisa didn't show up for work. She wasn't
answering her phone either, which worried her family. That Saturday evening,
her two daughters, Jennifer Murphy and Amber Nichols, along with
her son in law Todd mccurchey, decided to drive over
and check on her at her home in Turnerville. What
they found was beyond anyone's worst nightmare. They got to
(21:32):
Lisa's house just before midnight and were surprised to find
the back door hanging open. Since the power was still
out from the hurricane, they had to use flashlights to
search the house. They went straight to her bedroom, and
that's when Todd looked into the bathroom and discovered Lisa's
charred remains on the floor. Jennifer, Amber and Todd ran
from the house screaming for help. They rushed to Mark
(21:54):
Bentley's place, where Mark and Scooter Coleman immediately ran back
to Lisa's house to see for themselves. During all this chaos,
people noticed something strange about Jeremy's behavior. While everyone else
was shocked and horrified, he showed absolutely no emotion when
he heard about the body being discovered. He refused to
cooperate with the Mobile County Sheriff's department during their interviews.
(22:17):
It was like he was watching a movie instead of
dealing with the brutal murder of a neighbor. The morning
after they found Lisa's body, Jones fled Turnerville. Jeremy had
always been good at disappearing, moving from place to place
before authorities could catch up with him. But this time
would be different. This time he'd make the mistake that
would finally end his killing Spurrey. On September twenty first,
(22:41):
two thousand and four, Jeremy called the police himself. He
told them what he'd done and even chatted about the weather.
The police kept him on the line long enough to
track the call, and when they arrived at the bus station,
he was still talking to them on the phone, waiting
to leave town again. It was early morning, and Jeremy
had made his way to a bus station, ready to
(23:01):
vanish into the crowd of travelers, just like he'd done
so many times before. But something was different this time.
Maybe it was the drugs, maybe guilt, or maybe Jeremy
had finally reached the point where even he couldn't handle
what he'd done anymore. For whatever reason, he picked up
the phone and called the Mobile County Sheriff's Department. The
conversation started casually. Jeremy talked about Hurricane Ivan's aftermath, the damage,
(23:26):
the power outages. Detective Paul Birch later said the call
was surreal, like this stranger was calling in the middle
of the night, just to chat about storm damage, but
then Jeremy's tone changed. The small talk gave way to
something much darker. Starting from the day he was arrested
and continuing for months afterward, Jones made several statements to
(23:47):
deputies admitting he committed the murder. Gary Carti, the local
fire marshal, testified that Jones told him he couldn't rewind
Lisa's murder, and that he put a light to it
and burned it all away. The phone call gave investigators
just enough time to trace it to the bus station.
When deputies arrived, they found Jeremy still on the phone,
(24:07):
still talking to Detective Birch. He didn't try to run
or resist arrest. After more than a decade of running,
it seemed like he was finally ready to stop. Jeremy
was arrested in the early morning hours of September twenty first,
two thousand and four, in Mobil. While searching for him,
the Mobile County Sheriff's Department shared their information with neighboring states.
(24:30):
That's when the Missouri Attorney General's office told them their
suspect had the same birth date and social Security number
as someone serving time in a Missouri prison. This revelation
hit investigators like a bomb. They went to interview the
real John Paul Chapman, and afterward, his mother revealed that
she had sold her son's identity to a man named
(24:50):
Jeremy Brian Jones. Fingerprints from the Miami Police Department in
Oklahoma confirmed that the man they'd arrested for Lisa's murder
wasn't John Paul Chapman at all. He was Jeremy Bryan Jones.
Learning their suspects real identity sent shockwaves through law enforcement
agencies across multiple states. Jeremy wasn't just wanted for Lisa's murder,
(25:13):
he was a suspect in multiple unsolved cases spanning more
than a decade. At first, he insisted he was innocent,
but after forensic tests confirmed that Lisa was killed with
the Bentley's handgun and that his fingerprints were on the
beer can, he changed his story and admitted responsibility. But
Jeremy's confession to Lisa's murder was just the beginning. What
(25:34):
came next shocked even experienced investigators who thought they'd seen everything.
Jones didn't admit to a man to Greenwell's murder, but
he unexpectedly confessed to committing twenty additional murders across five
states over twelve years. Once Jeremy started talking, it seemed
like he couldn't stop. What began as a confession to
(25:54):
Lisa's murder quickly expanded into something much more horrifying, detailed
admissions from a man who claimed to have killed more
than twenty people across multiple states. In eight of these cases,
he couldn't remember the names of his victims or where
exactly he dumped their bodies. He claimed five of them
were prostitutes from Atlanta, and the others were also prostitutes
(26:15):
from mobil whose bodies he dumped in swamps. Jeremy's confessions
painted a picture of a predator who had been methodically
hunting vulnerable women for over a decade. He described targeting
sex workers and transients women's society often overlooked, whose disappearances
might not be immediately noticed or thoroughly investigated. While in custody,
(26:37):
Jones confessed to killing at least eight women in Atlanta.
Eventually the number rose to twenty one people in five states.
He drew maps showing locations where he said he'd committed crimes,
but some of Jeremy's confessions contained details that only the
killer could know. One of these was the murder of
Jennifer Judd, his high school friend's wife, whose murder he'd
(26:58):
been suspected of committing back in early nineteen ninety two.
One of Jeremy's most detailed confessions involved a crime that
had haunted investigators for years, the Freeman family murders. On
December twenty ninth, nineteen ninety nine, according to investigators, Jones
committed a quadruple murder in Welch. He admitted to entering
the home of forty year old Danny Freeman, who lived
(27:21):
with his wife Kathy, and their sixteen year old daughter, Ashley.
Ashley's friend, sixteen year old Lauria Bible, was visiting to
celebrate Ashley's birthday party. Jeremy's description of the Freeman murders
was chillingly detailed. He claimed that after entering the house,
he shot both parents in the head at close range,
set fire to the house, and then forced the teenagers
(27:43):
into his car at gunpoint. He said he drove them
to a forested area near the Kansas border, where he
raped and shot them, then dumped their bodies in an
abandoned mine. When asked for a motive, he claimed he
was an acquaintance of Danny Freeman and wanted to kill
him because Danny hadn't paid him on time for a
methamphetamine deal. Jones described the layout of the Freeman house
(28:04):
in detail, including the exact location of the mailbox. Jeremy
also confessed to other brutal murders that had stumped investigators.
He confessed to the murder of Tina Mayberry, thirty eight,
who was attacked after leaving a Halloween party on October
thirty first, two thousand and two, at a bar in Douglasville, Georgia.
He claimed to have met a woman at a bar
(28:26):
who was dressed as Betty Boop. After convincing her to
leave the bar, he assaulted her, then stabbed her several
times in the chest and stomach. She was taken to
the hospital, where she died from blood loss. Police couldn't
locate any witnesses or identify the killer. Since Mayberry couldn't
provide a description of her attacker before she died, the
(28:46):
confessions kept coming. Jeremy claimed responsibility for murders in Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama, Georgia,
and Louisiana. He drew maps showing investigators where he disposed
of bodies. He provided details about victim's clothing, their final words,
the weapons he'd used. But there was something unsettling about
(29:07):
Jeremy's confessions. He later confessed to murdering twenty additional people
in four other states before taking it all back. He's
never been charged in any other murders, and investigators consider
some of his confessions questionable at best. Knowing they had
a hot potato, investigators were anxious to find evidence that
would hold up in court, linking Jones to the confessed murders.
(29:31):
The problem investigators faced was figuring out which confessions were
real and which were fantasy. Jeremy seemed to enjoy the
attention his confessions brought him, and some law enforcement officials
began to suspect he was making up crimes to gain
notoriety or better treatment in jail. Months later, however, Jones
took back that confession in an interview with the Joplin Globe,
(29:52):
claiming that he had nothing to do with the murders
in Georgia. Jones told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he
made up his involving the disappearance of a hair stylist.
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. One by one, Jeremy began
taking back his confessions, claiming he'd lied to investigators for
(30:16):
various reasons. He later claimed that he'd lied to authorities
to get better food and extra phone privileges in prison,
but some people who knew Jeremy believed there was a
different reason for his recantations. Loreen Bible believes he took
them back to ease the burden on his sick mother.
He was known as a mama's boy and would later
tell police that he would confess, but just didn't want
(30:36):
his mother to know. The recantations created a nightmare for
investigators and prosecutors. How do you build cases on confessions
that the defendant later claims were lies. How do you
determine which details were real and which were made up.
During his interrogation, he pointed out on a map where
he dumped Ashley, Freeman and Bible's remains, but their bodies
(30:58):
were never found. Doubt on his testimony, investigators didn't rule
out the possibility that he might have learned details about
the case by watching television since a story about the
murders and the missing girls had been shown on an
episode of America's Most Wanted. The Freeman case highlighted the
challenges investigators faced. Several relatives of the victims questioned whether
(31:21):
his admissions were true. Ashley Freeman's grandmother, Celeste Chandler, and
Loreen Bible had their doubts that Jones was the killer.
While they believed he was at the Freeman house that night,
they thought whoever he was with kicked him out of
the vehicle being used to transport the girls. DNA evidence
also raised questions about some of Jeremy's confessions. Test results
(31:43):
showed discrepancies between Jones's DNA and that of the killer.
In case after case, the physical evidence didn't match Jeremy's confessions.
This got even more complicated when Tommy lynn Sells, another
murderer who claimed to be a serial killer, also confessed
to some of the same crimes Jones supposedly committed. The
false confession phenomenon is well documented in criminal psychology, but
(32:07):
Jeremy's case was unusual because of the sheer number of
crimes he claimed responsibility for. Some experts believed he was
a pathological liar who craved attention and notoriety. Others thought
he was genuinely trying to help families find closure, but
was confused about which crimes he'd actually committed. Due to
his extensive drug use. Jones was officially ruled out as
(32:30):
a suspect in twenty eighteen when sixty six year old
Ronnie Dean Busick was arrested. He, along with Warren Welch
and David Pennington, who were dead, were determined to be
the true perpetrators of the Freeman murders. The Freeman case
wasn't the only one where Jeremy was eventually ruled out.
As DNA technology improved and other suspects were identified. It
(32:52):
became clear that many of Jeremy's confessions were false, but
the question remained. If Jeremy didn't commit all the murders
he confessed to, how many had he actually committed. Jones's
trial was scheduled to begin on August fifteenth, two thousand
and five, but it was postponed because his attorneys requested
a mental evaluation first. The examination concluded that although he
(33:14):
had mental impairments, he was still sane and able to
stand trial. The trial for the murder of Lisa Nichols
began on October nineteenth, two thousand and five. Shortly before
the trial began, FBI representatives issued a formal apology to
the relatives of Lisa and other potential victims for the
computer glitch that had allowed his release. The trial lasted
(33:36):
a week. The main evidence for the prosecution was Jeremy's confession,
the fingerprints found on the beer can, Scooter Coleman's testimony,
the handgun, and DNA results that determined bloodstains found on
Jeremy's clothes belonged to Lisa. The prosecution painted Jeremy as
a cold blooded predator who had taken advantage of the
Bentley family's kindness to commit murder. Sabama Attorney General Troy
(34:01):
King said Jones targeted his prey like any predator and
never showed even an ounce of remorse. Scott Milroy, a
tool Mark's expert from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences,
testified that the bullets recovered from Lisa's head and bathroom
floor matched the twenty five caliber handgun Jones admitted taking
(34:21):
from Kim Bentley's closet. Moreover, Donna Gibbons, a DNA expert
from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences testified that a
fluid stain tested from Jeremy's shirt was consistent with both
his DNA and the victim's DNA. The physical evidence was overwhelming.
Jeremy's fingerprints were on the beer can found at the scene.
(34:42):
The murder weapon, belonged to the Bentleys and had been
in their home where Jeremy was staying. DNA evidence linked
him to the victim, and most damning of all, he
had confessed to the crime in detail. Jeremy also confessed
on at least two other occasions in addition to his
taped confessions to Deputy Gary Carti. The local fire marshal
(35:03):
testified that Jones told him he couldn't rewind Lisa's murder
and that he put a light to it and burned
it all away. Even more telling was a voluntary phone
called Jones maid to his friend Mark Bentley while in jail.
Bentley confronted Jones with the reality of his actions, and
Jones confessed to Bentley that he had killed Lisa while
high on methamphetamines. But Jones's behavior during the trial was
(35:27):
perhaps the most telling evidence of his true nature. Lead
prosecutor Assistant Alabama Attorney General William Dill called Jones a
classic sociopath. He said Jones testified at length and talked
about Lisa and her family, but never shed one tear. However,
when he spoke about his own mother, he broke down crying.
(35:48):
At the trial, Jones took back all of his confessions,
but was still found guilty by the jury for murdering Lisa.
Defense attorney Greg Hughes sought a life sentence without parole,
saying Jones suffered from extreme mental and emotional problems, including
long term drug addiction, but the prosecution argued that Jeremy
was a dangerous predator who would kill again if given
(36:10):
the opportunity. The jury didn't take long to reach their decision.
After a sentencing hearing, by a vote of ten to two,
the jury recommended that he be sentenced to death. Jones
was convicted on October twenty sixth, two thousand and five
of rape, burglary, sexual abuse, and kidnapping during capital murder
in the slaying of Lisa Nichols. The conviction was based
(36:33):
on four separate capital murder charges. The murder was considered
capital because he committed it during the course of a rape,
sexual abuse, burglary, and kidnapping. The court found that the
mitigating factors were insufficient, and on December first, two thousand
and five, Jones was sentenced to death. Circuit Judge Charles
(36:53):
Graddock had seen many criminals in his courtroom, but Jeremy
Brian Jones represented something particularly evil. He called Jeremy a
danger to civilized society as he sentenced him to die
by lethal injection. Even facing the death sentence, Jeremy remained
defiant and manipulative to the end. He told the court
(37:14):
God will have the final say before Gradik sentenced him.
The victim's families were present for the sentencing, finally seeing
justice for their loved one. This is what we wanted,
said Lisa's daughter, Jennifer Murphy. We're going to be there.
We're going to make sure it's followed through. During the
sentencing phased testimony, it became clear that Jones grew up
(37:35):
in a family that loved and cared for him, and
that his stepfather provided at least some fatherly guidance in
his life. The defense had tried to use Jeremy's troubled
childhood as a mitigating factor, but the court found it
insufficient given the heinous nature of his crimes. In fact,
the court noted that Jeremy's family loved him enough to
travel from Oklahoma to support their son during the trial.
(37:59):
Even his family, despite their love for him, couldn't deny
the overwhelming evidence of his guilt. After independently weighing the
aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the court found that the death
sentence was appropriate. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later
upheld Jeremy's death sentence, finding that the trial court had
properly weighed the evidence and that the sentence was proportionate
(38:22):
to the crime. The appeals court found that Jeremy's crimes
were consistent with other cases that had received the death penalty.
The brutal nature of Lisa's murder, combined with the rape, burglary,
and kidnapping, clearly warranted the ultimate punishment under Alabama law. Today,
Jeremy Brian Jones sits on death row at the Holman
(38:42):
Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Since he's on death row,
there's no possibility of a parole hearing. Currently, his execution
date hasn't been set, so he'll remain in the prison
facility until it is Jeremy has been on death row
for nearly twenty years now, filing appeals in legal emotions
while maintaining his innocence in most of the crimes he
(39:03):
once confessed to. His sentence was upheld in twenty ten
by the Alabama Appeals Court. Despite multiple appeals, the courts
have consistently found that Jeremy received a fair trial and
that his death sentence was appropriate given the evidence and
the severity of his crimes. The true extent of Jones'
crimes may never be fully known. He is believed to
(39:24):
have killed anywhere between four and eleven women aged sixteen
to forty four years. Investigators believe the actual number of
victims is likely higher than what can be proven in court.
What's certain is that Jeremy Bryan Jones represents one of
the most dangerous types of criminals, a charming predator who
can blend into any community while secretly hunting for victims.
(39:47):
Those who knew Jones, either as Jones or Chapman, saw
that he had a real problem with women. He believed
he could charm any woman and get exactly what he
wanted at the same time, he was constantly making derogatory
comments about women, strongly believing that they should be submissive
to men. In a later interview, Jones referred to himself
(40:08):
as a likable guy. I'm the guy next door. This
ability to present himself as harmless and trustworthy while harboring
such violent impulses made Jeremy particularly dangerous to the communities
where he lived. The FBI's database error that allowed Jeremy
to avoid detection for years has been addressed, but it
(40:28):
came too late for his victims. Though it provided an explanation,
it provided no comfort to the families and loved ones
of the people whom Jones had murdered or confessed to
having murdered. The case of Jeremy Brian Jones forces us
to confront some uncomfortable truths about the nature of evil
and the limitations of our justice system. For more than
(40:49):
a decade, a serial killer moved freely through American communities,
charming his way into people's homes and lives while secretly
planning their deaths. Jeremy's ability to maintain more multiple identities,
to charm and manipulate those around him, and to evade
detection for so long reveal significant gaps in our law
enforcement systems. A reasonably handsome man, Jones used his good
(41:12):
looks to lure his victims into a false sense of security,
bragging once that he could charm the panties off a nun.
The comparison to Ted Bundy is fitting in many ways.
Like Bundy, Jeremy was charming and manipulative. Like Bundy, he
prayed on vulnerable women. But unlike Bundy, Jeremy's crimes were
(41:32):
often more brutal and less sophisticated. Where Bundy was calculating
and methodical, Jeremy was often impulsive and drug fueled. Jeremy's
victims weren't limited to those he murdered. The people who
had taken him in felt incredibly betrayed. The Bentleys who
housed Jones in Alabama when he murdered Lisa said they'd
never trust anyone the same way again. The betrayal felt
(41:55):
by those who knew Jeremy, as Chapman, reveals another dimension
of his crimes. He didn't just murder his victims, he
shattered the trust and faith of everyone who tried to
help him. Another person who'd provided Jones with housing said
he couldn't believe who he really was, calling him a monster.
Perhaps most disturbing is the question of how many victims
(42:16):
Jeremy actually claimed. Some experts theorized that Jones enjoyed making confessions,
whether they were false or true. They believed it made
him feel powerful. The false confessions may have been another
form of psychological manipulation, a way for Jeremy to maintain
control and attention even from his prison cell. The families
(42:37):
of unsolved murder cases across the South are still grappling
with the question of whether Jeremy was responsible for their
loved one's deaths. Some, like the families in the Freeman case,
have found closure through other arrests. Others may never know
the truth. What we do know is that Jeremy Brian
Jones represents the worst kind of predator, one who can
(42:58):
blend seamlessly into societ society while harboring the darkest of intentions.
His case serves as a reminder that evil often comes
wearing a friendly face, offering help with a smile, asking
for nothing more than trust. For Lisa Marie Nichols, that
trust cost her everything. For the families of Jeremy's other
(43:18):
suspected victims, the questions linger, and for Jeremy Brian Jones,
sitting on death row in Alabama, the final chapter of
his story remains unwritten. God will have the final say.
He said it his sentencing. Perhaps he was right. But
until that final judgment comes, Jeremy Brian Jones remains what
Judge Graddock called him, a danger to civilized society, contained
(43:42):
only by the walls of his prison cell. The monster
among us has been caged, but the scars he left
on his victims, families, and communities will last forever. And
somewhere out there, other Jeremy Joneses may be walking among
us right now, waiting for their moment to strike. That's
the most chilling lesson of all from the Jeremy Bryan
(44:03):
Jones case. Evil doesn't announce itself with fanfare. It knocks
on your door during a hurricane, offers to help with
storm clean up, and asks for nothing more than a
place to stay for the night. Sometimes the most dangerous
monsters are the ones who look just like the guy
next door.
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