July 11, 2025 • 49 mins
When charm turns lethal and lies wear a thousand faces, how do you stop a killer hiding in plain sight?In this co-hosted episode of The Guilty Files: Revisited, Brian and Dani peel back the layers of one of the most disturbing cases to hit the American South: the case of Jeremy Bryan Jones. A drifter with a gift for manipulation and a trail of stolen identities, Jones moved through states like a ghost—leaving behind a path of devastation, shattered families, and unanswered questions.
Brian brings the procedural heat, diving into the investigative missteps, multi-jurisdictional chaos, and red flags that went ignored.
Dani zeroes in on the psychological rot beneath the surface—how Jones weaponized charm, targeted vulnerable women, and evaded justice with nothing but a fake name and a crooked smile.Together, they challenge the narrative, question the system, and ask the hard questions no one else wants to: How many victims did he really leave behind?
Could he have been stopped sooner? And what happens when the justice system confuses confidence for credibility? This is not just a breakdown of the known facts—it’s a postmortem on every chance the system had to stop a predator and failed.
Stay with us through the episode for revealing insights, sharp banter, and one of the most haunting cases we've ever revisited.
Press play. Reopen the case. And don't forget—evil doesn't always look like a monster. Sometimes, it smiles like your next-door neighbor.
Brian brings the procedural heat, diving into the investigative missteps, multi-jurisdictional chaos, and red flags that went ignored.
Dani zeroes in on the psychological rot beneath the surface—how Jones weaponized charm, targeted vulnerable women, and evaded justice with nothing but a fake name and a crooked smile.Together, they challenge the narrative, question the system, and ask the hard questions no one else wants to: How many victims did he really leave behind?
Could he have been stopped sooner? And what happens when the justice system confuses confidence for credibility? This is not just a breakdown of the known facts—it’s a postmortem on every chance the system had to stop a predator and failed.
Stay with us through the episode for revealing insights, sharp banter, and one of the most haunting cases we've ever revisited.
Press play. Reopen the case. And don't forget—evil doesn't always look like a monster. Sometimes, it smiles like your next-door neighbor.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome to The Guilty Files, a podcast that rips the
story open, one crime, two hosts and truths that don't
fit neatly into the box. It's messy, it's real, and
it's all on the table. Now let's open this week's file.
(00:50):
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Guilty Files. Revisit. I'm Brian,
and if you've been writing with us this week, thank
you for catching Monday's episode of Uncovered. That's where I
laid out the cold, hard facts of this week's case.
And let me tell you, this one is a freaking
dumpster fire.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And I'm Danny, and a huge thank you to all
of you who showed up on Wednesday for Rewired, where
I cracked into the psychological, emotional, and sociological wreckage that
men like Jeremy Brian Jones leave behind. You guys showed
up ready to go deep and I felt that.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And if you're new here and you haven't had a
chance to catch those episodes yet, no worries. You're not
too late, but trust us, you're going to want the
full ride.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
This show is part of a three part true crime
anthology that unpacks one case three different ways. Every single
week on Monday, Brian hits you with Uncovered, a full
case file, clean and forensic. Wednesday's I dive into Rewired,
the psychological guts of it all, and then here we
are on Friday for re Visited.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Where we bring it all together two Mike's two background,
absolutely no filter. I'm the policy guy, history buff law
enforcement lifer, and I've worked everything from traffic to juvenile detention.
I like facts, I like timelines, and I like systems
that work.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And I like breaking those systems open. I've got a
beat cops grit, a double degree in psychology and sociology,
and just enough spiritual curiosity to annoy a courtroom. You'll
catch me calling out what's really broken, especially when the
system pretends that everything is just fine.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And between the two of us, we don't always agree.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But that's the point. It's the friction, the contrast, the
push and the pull that helps us. And you see
these cases from every damn angle emotional, historical, procedural, and personal.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And this week's case deserves all three. So whether you've
listened to the earlier episodes or you're jumping in right now,
know this Revisited isn't just the wrap up. It's the
showdown the synthesis, the soul of the story.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So let's make a deal. If you haven't yet, hit
pause after this and go check out Uncovered and Rewired.
We built them to work together, a complete, no holds
barred anthology that unpacks the who, what, why, and the
how the hell did this happen?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Because at the Guilty Files, we don't just chase killers.
We chase answers.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And maybe a little justice along the way. All right, Brian,
before we get deep in the dirt with this one,
it's time for our dark humor debate segment. It's the
only place where it's safe to argue over the absolute
worst things.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Safe is generous, but okay, go on.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
This week's prompt is inspired by the one and only
Jeremy Brian Jones, also known as the Drifter, the Deceiver,
the Walking Red Flag. So here it is what's more
dangerous a serial killer with charisma or a justice system
with amnesia?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Oh that's easy. The justice system with amnesia. You can
slap handcuffs on charm, but institutional blind spots those get
people killed and then forgotten.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Spoken like a man who's written policy memos and lived
to tell the tale.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I've watched people like Jones walk right through the cracks
because three departments couldn't agree on how to spell his name.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
All right, I'm gonna go with the charismatic killer, because
charm disarms. You think you're talking to a misunderstood bad boy.
Meanwhile he's picking out your obituary font.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You're not wrong. The band literally weaponized eye contact and
frickin hair.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Jew and let's not forget he talked his way into
people's homes, into their lives, their trust. That smile was
basically a trojan horse with teeth.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Still, the systems should be to catch charmers. We're not
in the medieval era where someone just rides into town
and then becomes the mayor because he has good teeth
and a horse.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Speak for yourself. I've met modern day mayors who aren't
far off from that. All right, listeners, well throwing this
one to you. What's more dangerous the charmer or the
system that keeps hitting snooze on red flax?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Send us your votes on socials or drop it in
the comments if you're tuning in on Patreon. Bonus points
if you can out snark Danny and good luck without it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Now that our moral compass has been sufficiently tested. Let's
shift gears. Because Jeremy Bryan Jones wasn't just charming. He
was mobile, manipulative, and nearly invisible to the system meant
to stop him.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
And that brings us to segment two, the predator next door.
Let's crack into how a man like Jones could move
from state to state, murder to murder, all while staying
one step ahead of literally everyone. So let's bring this
back to center. Jeremy Bryan Jones a man who didn't
just commit murder. He navigated murder like a road map Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma,
(06:14):
no fingerprints, no fixed identity, just a trail of violence
and charms so slippery it almost rewrote the rules of manhunting.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And the people who got erased along the way, women,
poor women, sex workers, survivors, addicts, and single mothers, people
who already had one foot outside of society's circle of protection.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
This case first broke wide in two thousand and four
when Jones was arrested in Alabama for the brutal rape
and murder of Lisa Nichols, but it didn't stop there.
Once he was in custody. The confessions started murders across
the South, thirteen victims. He claimed, names, locations, chilling details,
and then a retraction.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Of course, classic narcissist move. Lure you in, oh with
the big reveal, then pull the rug out from underneath
you for attention, for control, for the performance of it, and.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
That performance drag law enforcement through a swamp of logistical nightmares.
We're talking multiple jurisdictions, mismatched databases, aliases that spanned four years.
His identity was a ghost story, half legend, half procedural headache.
If anything, he was an early case study in the
importance of national level intel sharing.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
But here's the kicker. Those confessions. They weren't just false flags.
They were bait. He knew how to drop just enough
detail to sound credible, to feel useful, to stay relevant,
And in doing so, he stole time, stole energy, and
in a very real way, he stole more justice.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He exploited every week. Link Jones wasn't some criminal mastermind.
He was just smart enough to know the system was
overwhelmed and overcomplicated.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
And let's be honest, he knew who to target. These
weren't random victims. They were women whose society had already dismissed.
He bet on the fact that no one would come
looking too hard.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And too often. He was right. What makes Jones terrifying
isn't just what he did, it's how long he got
away with it. He drifted across state lines for years,
assuming new identities, manipulating women, charming his way into homes,
and vanishing before anyone knew they should be looking.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And that, right there, that's what gets me. We treat
serial killers like they're these rare anomalies, but Jones, he's
the template for how our blind spots get weaponized.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Law enforcement has certainly evolved a lot since then, tech wise,
coordination wise, But the truth is the holes that Jones
slipped through they're not sealed, they're just harder to see.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And this week we're going to walk through those holes,
every one of them. The charming predator persona, the felt systems,
the women who paid the price, and the bigger question,
are we really safer?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Now, we've got a full dock of ahead, pattern analysis,
red flags, procedural breakdowns, and a few debates that'll test
both of our worldviews.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Spoiler alert, I'm right.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Okay, We'll let our audience decide that.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Strap in because of what Jeremy Brian Jones represents isn't
just a man, It's a mirror one that reflects who
we as society listen to, who we ignore, and what
happens when we mistake charisma for character.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Up next, how a man with a fake name, a
bad haircut, and a talent for small talk outmaneuvered the
very institutions designed to catch him. We're calling it charm, deception,
and danger.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Because when evil smiles at you, you better know who's
watching the door.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You know, when people think of serial killers, they imagine shadows, alleyways,
the hunched figure in the rain with the dead eyes
and a bloody knife. But Jeremy Bryan Jones, he flipped
that on its head. He wasn't hiding in the shadows.
He was out in the open, drinking beer on porches,
borrowing tools, flirting at gas stations. He was the kind
(10:25):
of man you'd see and think harmless, maybe even charming,
but charm that was his camouflage. What makes him chilling
is that he was weaponizing normalcy.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And not just normalcy, but need. He was the guy
who made himself useful. He offered to fix your car paint,
your porch, watch your kids while you ran to the store.
He knew exactly how to identify what people lacked, things
like connection, validation, safety, and then he became those very
(10:58):
things just long enough. He didn't force his way in,
he was invited in.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And from a procedural standpoint, that's where this case gets
especially complex, because when someone like Jones embeds himself in
a community, especially in a rule or transient context, there's
no ciren going off. He had no fixed address, no
active warrants, and a half a dozen working aliases. He
slipped through the standard cracks because they didn't flag.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Because nothing was built to flag people like him. He
was messy, sure, but not in ways that triggered institutional alarm.
He was likable, helpful, smiling a few speeding tickets, some
petty theft, a domestic call here or there. Maybe she
dropped the charges and we look at that and we shrug.
(11:50):
But from a psychological standpoint, that's a man auditioning for access.
He's stress testing boundaries, seeing how close he can get
to the line without ever crossing it in a way
that gets him locked up.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
And that's a pattern we see in a lot of
offenders who escalate early signs that were brushed off because
they seemed isolated. A little erratic behavior, sure, but who
doesn't have a rough patch, right? The reality is those
early signs aren't isolated.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Their rehearsal exactly. And here's the part I think we miss.
As a culture. We teach people to avoid scary strangers.
But Jones wasn't scary. He was attentive, charismatic, even attractive
in a rugged, dangerous kind of way. And in communities
where trust is currency, especially for women living on the margins,
(12:44):
someone like Jones feels like stability until it's too late.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And once you understand that, once you understand how he
got close to so many people without raising red flags,
it becomes a lot harder to pretend this was an
outlier case. He didn't trick some elite task force. He
bypassed under resource departments, disconnected jurisdictions, and overworked officers doing
(13:10):
their best with limited tools.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And overworked women doing their best just to simply survive.
Let's not forget that these weren't clueless victims. Many of
them had been through trauma before. They were strong, intuitive, smart,
but they were also tired, unheard, and in many cases isolated.
(13:33):
You don't just fall for someone like Jones. You fall
into him because he knows how to play the part
of the only one who sees you.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And to be honest, that part still bothers me because
we always ask how did no one catch him sooner?
But maybe the better question is how many people saw
the signs and didn't have the power to act.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Or weren't believed when they tried.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And look, I'll own this from a system's perspective, he
should have been stopped earlier, full stop. And we'll talk
more about those breakdowns in a bit. But I also
think we have to start confronting the uncomfortable truth that
people like Jeremy Bryan Jones don't just survive because they're cunning.
They survive because they understand our blind spots better than
(14:21):
we do.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, they survive because they know that if they dress
their monstrosity and charm, helpfulness and a nice handshake and
a smirk, most people will hand them the keys, even
if it costs someone else their life.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
So let's talk about that charm. Let's really break it down,
because in the next segment we're going to explore how
charisma becomes a con and how someone with no credentials,
no stable identity, and no moral compass can still walk
into your life and convince you that he's the safest
man in the room.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And spoiler alert, he was not. He was a mirror,
reflecting back everything that you wanted to see while hiding
everything he intended to do.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. That's the first trip, so
let's move on to the next one.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Let me say this, Jones was not a genius, but
he was socially smart, and that's different.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
He knew how to read.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
People's wounds and de mirror them. That's what narcissists do best.
They become the very thing you need them to be,
but just long enough to get what they want.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
And meanwhile, investigators are trying to verify even the basic facts.
We're talking about a guy who could recite intimate details
about crimes and still pass a polygraph on a lie
because he believed his own performance.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Or he just didn't care. That's the other side of narcissism.
It's not always delusion. Sometimes it's cold and different. No guilt,
no shame, just the thrill of getting away with it, And.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
What blows my mind is how many people mistook his
smoothness for sincerity. We still have a problem with that today.
Confident talkers get grace, quiet victims get ignored. Look think
about someone like Larry Nasser, trusted, calm, soft spoken. He
used his professional demeanor and fake concern to mask decades
(16:28):
of abuse. Judges trusted him, parents trusted him. Victims were
told they were overreacting. Jones may not have had the
white coat, but he had the same performance. He just
wore it in the form of southern charm, handyman fixes
and maam on his lips.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, you'll absolutely right. And that's the psychological side. We
often underestimate. When someone it sounds emotionally regulated, people assume
they are emotionally safe. But regulation can be rehearsed, empathy
can be mimicked, and when someone like Jones uses that
mimicry to get close to people, especially people who have
(17:09):
been told they're too sensitive or too dramatic, it creates
this dangerous feedback loop where the predator looks calm and
the victim is the one who looks unstable. And guess
who gets believed.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Exactly, And it's not just charm. It's social engineering, and
we keep falling for it because systems are built to
prioritize presentation over.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Pattern, and when systems are too disconnected to track that pattern,
that's when people like Jones thrive.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Which brings us to the real infrastructure failure, in this case, jurisdiction.
You want to talk about how a man like this
goes from Oklahoma to Georgia to Alabama, leaving destruction behind.
It's not just because he's clever. It's because law enforcement
communication in the early two thousands was fragmented, delayed, and
often politicized.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
One bad boyfriend, multiple state lines, and no working system
to catch him in between. Yeah, that's what we're going
to talk about next.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
All right, let's pull the curtain back on one of
the biggest enablers in this entire case, the jurisdictional breakdown.
Jones didn't just travel from state to state. He exploited
the fact that those states weren't talking to each other,
at least not in the way that meant anything. He
slipped through the databases like water through fingers. Why, because
(18:32):
there was no unified offender tracking system in place at
that time, I mean, in two thousand and four, most
departments were still using fax machines and inner office mail.
If you think that sounds outdated, it was. And for
someone like Jones, no fixed address, multiple aliases, no active fella,
any warrants, it was basically an invitation. And here's the kicker.
(18:55):
He wasn't a ghost. He was stopped multiple times, he
was questioned, interviewed, detained, but the dots never connected fast
enough and no one had the full picture.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
You know, it's wild. I've been that very beat cop
stopping that kind of guy. No id, shady story, stolen plates, maybe,
But if nothing pings, if nothing screams, hold him, you
move on to the next call, and the next and
the next, Because when you're juggling overdoses, domestic assaults and
screaming neighbors with a damn stapler in their hand, you
(19:30):
don't have time to chase down every gut filling exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
The field is flooded with noise and the system isn't
built to amplify the right signals. You've got departments that
can't even access their neighbor's database, let alone cross state flags.
Jones exploited that fragmentation. He was like malware slipping between
the firewalls.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And let's talk about who gets lost in those very gaps.
It's not guys like him. It's the women who in
that friend who said he makes me uncomfortable, or the
woman who told a local cop he threatened to kill
me if I left. If nobody connects those statements across counties,
(20:13):
that fear becomes nothing more than a footnote, a forgotten plea,
until there's a body.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It's a delay with a body count. That's the reality,
not because officers weren't doing their jobs, but because they
weren't given the infrastructure to share what they knew. It's
not that no one saw them, it's that they all
saw a different version and no one realized that they
were looking at the same monster.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And if we're going to be honest, that's still happening.
We've gotten better, sure, shared databases, more tech, better alert systems,
but the fragmentation, it is most certainly still there, especially
in rural departments with five people, one desktop and a
phone that rings off the hook.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And those departments they're the front lines, the ones pulling
over the drifter, responding to the gas station call, taking
that late night domestic report. That's where Jones passed through,
and that's where he should have been stopped.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But let's say he was stopped, say someone it did
connect the dots earlier, would it have mattered if no
one believed the victims? Because the system isn't just broken
at the top, it's brittle at the ground level. So
let's dig into that next. The women who were waving
red flags long before the news cameras showed up. Let's
(21:33):
talk about the woman who saw Jones clearly before anyone
else did. The ones who tried to leave, tried to
warn a friend, the ones who went to police and said,
something's off with this guy. And here's where we have
to go beyond the obvious. Because yeah, we know certain
victims are dismissed, sex workers, addicts, unhoused women. That part's
(21:57):
not new. But let's ask a better quest question what
actually makes a person believable? Because credibility that's not just
about what someone says, it's about how well trained to
hear them. And a woman with shaking hands, a cracked voice,
or trauma in her eyes, she's often seen as hysterical, dramatic,
(22:19):
or not reliable, while a calm, articulate abuser, well he
just seems reasonable.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
And that is the systemic flaw because law enforcement training
even today is wired to look for consistency and clarity.
That makes sense in a statement, but trauma isn't consistent
or clear. It's jagged, fragmented. It shows up confused, messy,
and afraid. And the cruel irony is that's what real
(22:48):
trauma often looks like, but we're taught to read it
as a red flag for dishonesty.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Exactly, we pathologize the survivor and normalize the predator because
he speaks well, he maintains eye contact, he appears stable,
and while still letting polished predators write their own credibility scripts.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And here's the procedural reality. The women Jones targeted often
had police contact themselves, sometimes for drugs, sometimes for warrants,
sometimes for survival based crimes like theft or trespassing, and
that created a bias, whether anyone wants to admit it
or not. Their criminal history reduced their perceived value as
(23:30):
witnesses or even as victims.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Which is insane because if you're looking for patterns and
serial offenders, your most credible witnesses are the very women
who have lived through predators before they've already built that radar.
They know what's off, they know before we do.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I think that's one of the toughest lessons in this
case is realizing that the earliest red flags weren't missed
because they were invisible. They were simply dismissed. There's a
big difference. And it wasn't one officer or one report.
It was a cultural pattern playing out across dozens of
desks over.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Years, and it's still happening. But here's the twist I
think is worth naming. We can't fix it just by
believing all women. That's important, but it's infrastructure that matters.
Trauma informed interviewing skills or civilian advocacy, embedded in response teams,
pre incident databases that log patterns and not just arrests.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
You're talking about a total rebuild of how we evaluate credibility.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, and we'll already halfway there. Domestic violence response teams,
mobile crisis units, integrated social workers. These models do exist,
but they're underfunded, they're politically controversial, and they're often siloed
into progressive cities. Jones didn't hunt in those types of places.
(25:00):
He hunted where systems were threadbare, where a woman's fear
was just another note on a clipboard.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
And then when she didn't show up for her next shift,
it was already too late.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
So no, we're not going to rehash the idea that
victims were ignored because of their lifestyle. We're going to
ask why that still excuses the silence, and more importantly,
what we're willing to do differently when the next charming
handyman starts showing up where nobody's watching, Because.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It's not just about who we believe, it's about who's
allowed to raise the alarm and who the system's ready
to hear. And that leads us into something even more
maddening when people do raise the alarm but it gets
buried under jurisdiction or red tape. It's time to talk
about what happens when confessions go unchecked, retracted, and manipulated,
(25:51):
and how the justice system becomes the next victim. So
here's where it gets even messier. Jones starts confessing one
murder than five, then thirteen specifics, names locations, law enforcement
gets moving, opens cold cases, and then he takes it
all back.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, textbook narcissist control tactic. Confession gave him power and
retracting it gave him even more power. It made him valuable.
He wasn't confessing for closure, he was performing.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And let's be honest, he wasted time. He derailed cases.
He got attention, and it worked. The manipulation cost people closure.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And every moment law enforcement spent chasing faults leads from Jones,
well that was time stolen from real victims families. Next up,
let's discuss public trust and law enforcement pressure.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Cases like this damage trust not just in the system,
but in people's willingness to speak up. When Jones got
away with so much for so long, it confirmed every
fear victims already had no one's coming.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
And that mistrust it cuts both ways. Victims don't report,
witnesses disappear, officers burn out, communities stop engaging. The whole
machine grinds to a halt.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I've seen it firsthand. A good cop with no tools
is just a person watching it all fall apart.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And a bad cop with tools, well that's a different episode.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
One of the most unsettling threads in cases like Jeremy
Bryan Jones is the number of people, often women, who
stood by him. Some swore he could have never done it.
Some blamed the victims others. They fell in love with
the idea of the misunderstood outlaw, the wrongly accused bad boy.
We've seen it in Bundy's courtroom, in Manson's following. Even
(27:49):
now on TikTok, people are romanticizing convicted murderers with fan
edits and letters to my jail crush content. So we
wanted to do something different, not just ask why people
attached to killers, but explore what the attachment feels like
from the inside. And Danny, you've got a story for this, Yeah,
(28:11):
I do so.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Back when I was in my twenties, still figuring out
the balance between justice, empathy, and curiosity, I signed up
for a prison pen pal program. It was specifically for
incarcerated folks who identified as queer, and the idea was
to provide community support, connection, and dignity to people often
isolated or targeted behind bars. I was matched with a
(28:35):
man named William. Within two letters. He signed his name
as sweet William with a little hand drawn heart next
to it. He was serving multiple life sentences for several murders.
I didn't know the exact details back then, it wasn't
the point at the time. The letters weren't about the crime.
They were about him, his childhood, his search for identity,
(28:57):
the feeling of being different, unwarned, invisible, and then finally seen.
He wrote in loops of cursives so tight they felt
like secrets, like he was whispering to the page. Every
envelope came with something, a sketch, a candy wrapper, He
liked the design of a poem he scribbled on a napkin.
It was intimate, specific, tender in ways I hadn't expected
(29:21):
from a man locked in a maximum security unit.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Did you ever feel manipulated?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Honestly, I didn't feel manipulated. I felt unsettled because he
wasn't trying to con me. He wasn't asking for money,
he wasn't love bombing. He was just sharing. But the
content of those letters, that's where things got complicated. One week,
I'd get a two page rumination on discovering his sexuality
during a church camp as a teenager. He wrote about
(29:49):
kissing a boy behind the pews and praying every night
for the sin to wash off. And then the very
next week, a ten page graphic breakdown of power dynamics
in prison, and I mean explicit. Sweet William did not
shy away from detail. He'd tell me who was married
to whom on the inside, who traded ram impacts for
(30:09):
oral how one guy wore a ripped T shirt like
a haltertop to keep his man happy. He described love
notes passed in soap bars, how they carved names and
to sell walls with toothbrush shanks, but also how transactional
it all became.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
One sentence might be he kissed me like I mattered,
and the very next was then he traded my pillowcase
for two honey buns and a stick of deodorant. And
that broke me a little, because even inside, even in
the most brutal version of a closed system identity things
like gender, power, intimacy, it was still being negotiated, sold,
(30:55):
and at times sacrificed. And it made me think about
how so many of us on the outside do the
same damn thing, just in subtler ways. We trade pieces
of ourselves for belonging, for protection, for attention, and, in
William's case, sometimes even for survival.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
So what did you take away from that relationship that.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Even monsters have origin stories that loneliness and identity crises
don't appear once someone's convicted, and that charisma, especially when
it comes from pain, it feels real. And that's what
we're talking about when we ask why women love killers
or men, or pinpals or cult leaders, because it's not
(31:39):
always about the killer. It's about who that person becomes
in the mind of someone desperate to just to be seen.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
It's connection as a mythology, the idea that you are
the one who sees what others don't, that you are
the exception, the one who can love the darkness into
light exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And the truth is Jones probably had a dozen women
like that in his life. Women who ignored the gut twinge,
who mistook trauma bonding for chemistry, who believed the lie
because it sounded like hope, and hope is addictive when
you haven't had enough of it.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
And while William gave you drawings and soap bar poetry,
Jeremy Jones gave his women manipulation, gas lighting, and eventually violence.
The difference wasn't the vulnerability, it was the intention, and
that takes us to the next question, how do you
catch someone like that? How do you build a case
when the truth is tangled up in lies, charisma, and
(32:39):
the confession games.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Because when the criminal writes his own script, the courtroom
becomes the next theater.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
In the end, it wasn't some dramatic takedown or perfect
witness that brought Jeremy Jones down. It was DNA collected
after the murder of Lisa Nichols, a routine process, standard
chain of evidence. The thing is, his downfall didn't match
his chaos, and that's something we don't talk about enough.
Most serial killers don't get caught because of a single slip.
(33:10):
They get caught because someone finally refuses to let the
pattern go quiet.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, and pattern recognition is a muscle. You have to
train for it. And the noise, the red herrings, the
emotional fatigue, being able to say, hmm, this looks familiar.
It's what saves lives. And Jones he was counting on
that noise to keep him hidden. He didn't just operate
in chaos, he thrived in it.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
He was like static on the radio. You don't notice
it until you tune it just right, and then suddenly
you realize there's a voice underneath whispering something awful. The
pattern's always there, it's just buried in the noise.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
And the truth is he wasn't special. He was just
allowed the system up, finally tuned in, but not before
the damage was done. So let's talk about what was visible.
Because Jones left trails, stories, girlfriends with black eyes, neighbors
with bad vibes, sketchy job departures, but nothing connected. Not
(34:15):
because no one noticed, but because no one believed their
gut mattered.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
We've seen it before. Red flags don't mean much if
nobody's reading the playbook, especially when those flags are scattered
across time zones and departments. You need structure to connect
instinct with action.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
He threatened her. She stayed quiet. He moved out of
town suddenly, must be a fresh start, she warned her sister.
Probably overreacting. He lied to a cop. No harm, no foul.
And that's how monsters blend in. They make themselves just
believable enough to be ignored, and.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
By the time it gets loud enough to notice, someone's
already gone. We've got better tools now, digital fingerprints, cross
jurisdictional life alerts, trauma informed training, But those improvements don't
guarantee safety. They guarantee possibility, possibility of catching someone before
the next obituary runs.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, safety isn't the same everywhere. It depends on who
you are, where you live, and whether you fit into
the system's idea of what's worth protecting. And for people
like the women Jones targeted, safety still feels like a privilege,
not a RT.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
So picture this on one side of the screen, a
precinct lights, humming, forensics matching a partial print, a detective
making a late night call that finally links the suspect.
On the other side, a woman locking her door three times,
tucking a knife under her mattress, feeling something's off but
(35:49):
knowing no one will listen until it's too late.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Will safer on paper, but will not safer in the dark,
and that's where their work still is.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
May be locked up, but the system he slipped through
still has open doors.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
And until we close them, we'll all still in the
blast zone. Okay, we've been deep in the wreckage, so
let's give the listeners a second to breathe. I need
one too, so welcome to our mid show mental reset
that we'll calling Would you Report It?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Also known as Is This Your Neighbor? Or Future Netflix documentary.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
All right, I'm gonna hit you with five real life
inspired red Flag moments. Some are weird, some shady, and
some just confusing. And you get to tell me i'd
report it, I'd watch it play out, or nope, just
a weirdo?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Got it? Got it, let's go. All right.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Your new neighbor introduces himself with I'm not great with names,
but I never forget a body.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I'd report it. What kind of intro is that? Psychopath?
One oh one? All right?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Next up, a guy at the gas station offers to
pump your gas in exchange for a lock of your hair.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Ooh weirdo, deeply weird, but not a crime yet.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
You date someone for two weeks, They've moved jobs three times,
and every time you ask why, they say people are
always trying to bring me down.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Watch it play out, but I'm keeping notes and my
truck gassed up.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
You do love some trashy love reality show stuff?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
All right?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Next up, someone at work refers to you by your
exact home address unprompted.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh shit, gotta report that. That's a restraining order appetizer
right there, all right.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Last one, a guy shows up to a date with
a polaroid of his ex taped to his wallet.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Oh shit, Nope, just a weirdo, probably still using a Yahoo.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Hey I think I have a Yahoo email.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
I'm guilty.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Unpack that third one. Changing jobs, inconsistent stories, vague, blame shifting,
classic red flag cocktail.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Yeah, big time. And that's what makes guys like Jones
so dangerous because each thing on its own feels explainable,
but together that is a behavioral pattern, and without a
centralized way to track those shifts across locations, it stays
invisible until someone gets hurt.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Exactly. He didn't hide in the shadows, He hid in
the cracks.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
All right, listeners, now it is your turn hit us
up on social media or in the comments. Which red
flag would you report? Which one would you laugh off?
And which one makes you think you've already dated Jeremy Jones.
All right, let's take what we've already learned and look
at it through a modern lens. The Jeremy Jones case
is an ancient history. It's a mirror, and when we
(38:52):
hold it up to today's systems, you start to see
just how many blind spots still exist. Let's start with
the tech thousand and four. We were barely scraping the
surface with interagency communication, no shared digital platforms, no real
time updates. Fax machines and filing cabinets were still running
the show. Today, we've got national fingerprint databases, instant warrant alerts, bodycams,
(39:18):
and even AI supported behavioral profiling tools that can help
flag escalating patterns. Jones wouldn't have lasted two states with
today's tools. But here's the twist.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Tools are only as effective as the people using them.
You can have all the surveillance in the world, but
if we still label victims as unreliable based on stigma
or social class, then the patterns get seen, but they're
still dismissed. Take a woman who's unhoused and reporting abuse.
Even today, she's going to face skepticism that hasn't changed.
(39:53):
And predators they know that they prey on the socially
invisible because they understand the systems filters, and that's where
policy matters.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Since Jones, we've seen the development of multi agency task
forces for violent offenders. We've got regional intel sharing hubs,
better tracking of aliases, and more coordinated case management. These
structures didn't exist then, but they're still under used, underfunded,
and truly undervalued.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Meanwhile, predators, they have evolved too. Back then, Jones relied
on charm and physical presence to disarm people, but today
it's a DM, a dating app, a burner number. Power
and control. Don't need proximity anymore. They just need access,
and access is easier more than ever.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
True crime media has also shifted the public's role in
these cases. We've talked about that multiple times. We're more alert,
more informed, but we're also desensitized. Back then, it took
a national news cycle to sound the alarm. Now one
TikTok explainer goes viral and the suspects address is in
the comments.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
And yet, even with all that exposure, if the victim
doesn't look right, the outrage fades, and it fades fast.
We still center good victim narratives, white, middle class, photogenic,
not too complicated. Everyone else gets a mention, maybe if
they're lucky.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
And that's where behavioral profiling has stepped in. In a
modern context, Jones would have triggered red flags, job hopping,
domestic abuse accusations, geographic displacement, erratic emotional control. But that
only works when departments use that data and more importantly,
trust the people that are reporting it.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And trust that's the root of it. We still live
in a world where manipulation feels safer than transparency, where
predators build their lives on credibility they haven't earned, and
victims are expected to provide proof before we believe that
they're pain. Jones wasn't a mystery. He was a pattern.
(42:04):
And if we don't start listening differently, we're gonna miss
the next one because he won't be named Jeremy. He'll
be charming, stable, normal, He'll fit in. And that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
And if this case teaches us anything it's that we
don't need more monsters to study. We need better mirrors
and a system that's brave enough to see what's staring back.
So here's my final takeaway, and it's something I keep
coming back to in these cases like Jeremy Brian Jones.
We tend to mythologize killers, especially the ones who move
(42:37):
through life smoothly, the ones who blend in. We assign
them intelligence, cunning, even genius. But most of them they're
not masterminds. They're opportunists, thriving in the absence of structure.
What we really need to ask is what systems made
their choices possible. What cracks did we leave wide enough
(42:58):
for them to slip through? Jones wasn't remarkable. What's remarkable
is how many times he was allowed to keep going
because paperwork got filed late, departments didn't talk, and someone
decided a woman's fear just wasn't enough.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
And on the flip side, we need to talk about
the cost of silence, especially when it's internal, because Jones
didn't just deceive the people around him, he was repressing
the hell out of himself. Well, talking about a man
who buried trauma, guilts, and rage so deep that it
came back up like a geyser, and every time it did,
(43:37):
someone else paid the price. He didn't deal with his past. Instead,
he weaponized it.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
He wasn't just hiding bodies, he was hiding himself.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
And let's be honest, most of us know someone just
like that, someone who never talks about their past, who
smiles through everything, who disappears when things get real. And
I'm not saying they're all dangerous, but I am saying repression,
especially in men, especially in a culture that rewards bravado
(44:11):
over vulnerability, that creates pressure, and pressure looks for a
release valve.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
And that's when it becomes everybody's problem exactly.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
So here's my challenge to the audience. Don't just watch
the true crime stories. Watch the people around you. Notice
the charm that doesn't match the eye contact, Notice the
apology that feels too rehearsed. And notice the friend who
laughs off trauma but never actually cracks a real joke.
And to ask yourself, are they hiding from us or
(44:45):
are they hiding from themselves?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
And before we get a flood of emails, no, your
ex who war colone to the gym isn't a serial.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Kill unless he also had a drawer full of burner
phones and bad luck with coworkers. Then maybe into some message.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. But in all seriousness, this
case asks more from us than just outrage. It asks
for attention to systems, to patterns, to the ways we
let charisma cloud accountability. So here's my question to you,
(45:21):
our listeners. What do you think is more dangerous someone
with no conscience or someone with no self awareness?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
And how many people do we ignore just because they
don't look like danger?
Speaker 1 (45:36):
All right, we've said our piece. Now we want to
hear from you.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Drop us a DM, leave a comment, or tag us
in your thoughts. You know, we read everything and sometimes
you all catch what we miss.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
And next time we might just feature your insight on
the show.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You're part of the investigation now, so stay sharp, stay curious,
and stay loud when accounts all right, folks. That wraps
up this week's full trilogy of the Guilty Files. If
you joined us Monday for Uncovered, caught my breakdown on
Wednesday for Rewired, and now made it through today's co
hosted deep dive on Revisited, we seriously thank you. This
(46:16):
show isn't just a podcast, It's an anthology, and the
way you listen, share and engage that's what keeps the
wheels turning.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah. Three episodes, one case a full spectrum autopsy of
motive mistakes and meaning. If you only caught this one,
that's okay, but I'm gonna say it straight, go back
listen to all three. Every episode builds on the next.
The things that Danny rewired on Wednesday changed how I
saw the case today.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Ah, look at you giving me credits. We are growing.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, don't get used to it.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Okay, before we go, I want to leave you with
something to think about. This week's case revolved around one
man's manipulation of systems, people, and perception. So here's my
question for you. What's one belief you hold about danger
that might actually be wrong.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
Wow, that's a really good question, And honestly, for me,
it's the idea that danger looks like something because the
worst ones, they don't stand out, they blend in exactly.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
And maybe that's why we'll so drawn to these stories,
because deep down we'll not just afraid of the monsters,
we'll afraid of not recognizing them.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
And that's why we'll be back next week with another
case that challenges what you think you know.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Well, diving into a story with missing clues, unexpected twists,
and a suspect you may or may not be hiding
in plain sits.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
You know the drill. It won't be pretty, but will
sure make it worth your while.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I'm Danny, I've got a psychology degree, a community policing badge,
and a deep suspicion of charming men with pickup trucks.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
And I'm Brian X traffic cop policy NERD forensic junkie.
Still don't trust anyone who collects teeth recreationally teeth.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
It's one of the few things I just cannot handle,
and that's disturbingly specific.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
It's a very niche community.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
All right, folks, stay curious, stay bold, and remember your
instincts are data, so don't ignore them.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
And when the system fails, your voice doesn't have to
speak up.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Ohen.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
The Guilty Files
Welcome to The Guilty Files, a podcast that rips the
story open, one crime, two hosts and truths that don't
fit neatly into the box. It's messy, it's real, and
it's all on the table. Now let's open this week's file.
(00:50):
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Guilty Files. Revisit. I'm Brian,
and if you've been writing with us this week, thank
you for catching Monday's episode of Uncovered. That's where I
laid out the cold, hard facts of this week's case.
And let me tell you, this one is a freaking
dumpster fire.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And I'm Danny, and a huge thank you to all
of you who showed up on Wednesday for Rewired, where
I cracked into the psychological, emotional, and sociological wreckage that
men like Jeremy Brian Jones leave behind. You guys showed
up ready to go deep and I felt that.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And if you're new here and you haven't had a
chance to catch those episodes yet, no worries. You're not
too late, but trust us, you're going to want the
full ride.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
This show is part of a three part true crime
anthology that unpacks one case three different ways. Every single
week on Monday, Brian hits you with Uncovered, a full
case file, clean and forensic. Wednesday's I dive into Rewired,
the psychological guts of it all, and then here we
are on Friday for re Visited.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Where we bring it all together two Mike's two background,
absolutely no filter. I'm the policy guy, history buff law
enforcement lifer, and I've worked everything from traffic to juvenile detention.
I like facts, I like timelines, and I like systems
that work.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And I like breaking those systems open. I've got a
beat cops grit, a double degree in psychology and sociology,
and just enough spiritual curiosity to annoy a courtroom. You'll
catch me calling out what's really broken, especially when the
system pretends that everything is just fine.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And between the two of us, we don't always agree.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But that's the point. It's the friction, the contrast, the
push and the pull that helps us. And you see
these cases from every damn angle emotional, historical, procedural, and personal.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And this week's case deserves all three. So whether you've
listened to the earlier episodes or you're jumping in right now,
know this Revisited isn't just the wrap up. It's the
showdown the synthesis, the soul of the story.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So let's make a deal. If you haven't yet, hit
pause after this and go check out Uncovered and Rewired.
We built them to work together, a complete, no holds
barred anthology that unpacks the who, what, why, and the
how the hell did this happen?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Because at the Guilty Files, we don't just chase killers.
We chase answers.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And maybe a little justice along the way. All right, Brian,
before we get deep in the dirt with this one,
it's time for our dark humor debate segment. It's the
only place where it's safe to argue over the absolute
worst things.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Safe is generous, but okay, go on.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
This week's prompt is inspired by the one and only
Jeremy Brian Jones, also known as the Drifter, the Deceiver,
the Walking Red Flag. So here it is what's more
dangerous a serial killer with charisma or a justice system
with amnesia?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Oh that's easy. The justice system with amnesia. You can
slap handcuffs on charm, but institutional blind spots those get
people killed and then forgotten.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Spoken like a man who's written policy memos and lived
to tell the tale.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I've watched people like Jones walk right through the cracks
because three departments couldn't agree on how to spell his name.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
All right, I'm gonna go with the charismatic killer, because
charm disarms. You think you're talking to a misunderstood bad boy.
Meanwhile he's picking out your obituary font.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You're not wrong. The band literally weaponized eye contact and
frickin hair.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Jew and let's not forget he talked his way into
people's homes, into their lives, their trust. That smile was
basically a trojan horse with teeth.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Still, the systems should be to catch charmers. We're not
in the medieval era where someone just rides into town
and then becomes the mayor because he has good teeth
and a horse.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Speak for yourself. I've met modern day mayors who aren't
far off from that. All right, listeners, well throwing this
one to you. What's more dangerous the charmer or the
system that keeps hitting snooze on red flax?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Send us your votes on socials or drop it in
the comments if you're tuning in on Patreon. Bonus points
if you can out snark Danny and good luck without it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Now that our moral compass has been sufficiently tested. Let's
shift gears. Because Jeremy Bryan Jones wasn't just charming. He
was mobile, manipulative, and nearly invisible to the system meant
to stop him.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
And that brings us to segment two, the predator next door.
Let's crack into how a man like Jones could move
from state to state, murder to murder, all while staying
one step ahead of literally everyone. So let's bring this
back to center. Jeremy Bryan Jones a man who didn't
just commit murder. He navigated murder like a road map Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma,
(06:14):
no fingerprints, no fixed identity, just a trail of violence
and charms so slippery it almost rewrote the rules of manhunting.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And the people who got erased along the way, women,
poor women, sex workers, survivors, addicts, and single mothers, people
who already had one foot outside of society's circle of protection.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
This case first broke wide in two thousand and four
when Jones was arrested in Alabama for the brutal rape
and murder of Lisa Nichols, but it didn't stop there.
Once he was in custody. The confessions started murders across
the South, thirteen victims. He claimed, names, locations, chilling details,
and then a retraction.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Of course, classic narcissist move. Lure you in, oh with
the big reveal, then pull the rug out from underneath
you for attention, for control, for the performance of it, and.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
That performance drag law enforcement through a swamp of logistical nightmares.
We're talking multiple jurisdictions, mismatched databases, aliases that spanned four years.
His identity was a ghost story, half legend, half procedural headache.
If anything, he was an early case study in the
importance of national level intel sharing.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
But here's the kicker. Those confessions. They weren't just false flags.
They were bait. He knew how to drop just enough
detail to sound credible, to feel useful, to stay relevant,
And in doing so, he stole time, stole energy, and
in a very real way, he stole more justice.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He exploited every week. Link Jones wasn't some criminal mastermind.
He was just smart enough to know the system was
overwhelmed and overcomplicated.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
And let's be honest, he knew who to target. These
weren't random victims. They were women whose society had already dismissed.
He bet on the fact that no one would come
looking too hard.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And too often. He was right. What makes Jones terrifying
isn't just what he did, it's how long he got
away with it. He drifted across state lines for years,
assuming new identities, manipulating women, charming his way into homes,
and vanishing before anyone knew they should be looking.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And that, right there, that's what gets me. We treat
serial killers like they're these rare anomalies, but Jones, he's
the template for how our blind spots get weaponized.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Law enforcement has certainly evolved a lot since then, tech wise,
coordination wise, But the truth is the holes that Jones
slipped through they're not sealed, they're just harder to see.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And this week we're going to walk through those holes,
every one of them. The charming predator persona, the felt systems,
the women who paid the price, and the bigger question,
are we really safer?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Now, we've got a full dock of ahead, pattern analysis,
red flags, procedural breakdowns, and a few debates that'll test
both of our worldviews.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Spoiler alert, I'm right.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Okay, We'll let our audience decide that.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Strap in because of what Jeremy Brian Jones represents isn't
just a man, It's a mirror one that reflects who
we as society listen to, who we ignore, and what
happens when we mistake charisma for character.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Up next, how a man with a fake name, a
bad haircut, and a talent for small talk outmaneuvered the
very institutions designed to catch him. We're calling it charm, deception,
and danger.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Because when evil smiles at you, you better know who's
watching the door.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You know, when people think of serial killers, they imagine shadows, alleyways,
the hunched figure in the rain with the dead eyes
and a bloody knife. But Jeremy Bryan Jones, he flipped
that on its head. He wasn't hiding in the shadows.
He was out in the open, drinking beer on porches,
borrowing tools, flirting at gas stations. He was the kind
(10:25):
of man you'd see and think harmless, maybe even charming,
but charm that was his camouflage. What makes him chilling
is that he was weaponizing normalcy.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And not just normalcy, but need. He was the guy
who made himself useful. He offered to fix your car paint,
your porch, watch your kids while you ran to the store.
He knew exactly how to identify what people lacked, things
like connection, validation, safety, and then he became those very
(10:58):
things just long enough. He didn't force his way in,
he was invited in.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And from a procedural standpoint, that's where this case gets
especially complex, because when someone like Jones embeds himself in
a community, especially in a rule or transient context, there's
no ciren going off. He had no fixed address, no
active warrants, and a half a dozen working aliases. He
slipped through the standard cracks because they didn't flag.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Because nothing was built to flag people like him. He
was messy, sure, but not in ways that triggered institutional alarm.
He was likable, helpful, smiling a few speeding tickets, some
petty theft, a domestic call here or there. Maybe she
dropped the charges and we look at that and we shrug.
(11:50):
But from a psychological standpoint, that's a man auditioning for access.
He's stress testing boundaries, seeing how close he can get
to the line without ever crossing it in a way
that gets him locked up.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
And that's a pattern we see in a lot of
offenders who escalate early signs that were brushed off because
they seemed isolated. A little erratic behavior, sure, but who
doesn't have a rough patch, right? The reality is those
early signs aren't isolated.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Their rehearsal exactly. And here's the part I think we miss.
As a culture. We teach people to avoid scary strangers.
But Jones wasn't scary. He was attentive, charismatic, even attractive
in a rugged, dangerous kind of way. And in communities
where trust is currency, especially for women living on the margins,
(12:44):
someone like Jones feels like stability until it's too late.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And once you understand that, once you understand how he
got close to so many people without raising red flags,
it becomes a lot harder to pretend this was an
outlier case. He didn't trick some elite task force. He
bypassed under resource departments, disconnected jurisdictions, and overworked officers doing
(13:10):
their best with limited tools.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And overworked women doing their best just to simply survive.
Let's not forget that these weren't clueless victims. Many of
them had been through trauma before. They were strong, intuitive, smart,
but they were also tired, unheard, and in many cases isolated.
(13:33):
You don't just fall for someone like Jones. You fall
into him because he knows how to play the part
of the only one who sees you.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And to be honest, that part still bothers me because
we always ask how did no one catch him sooner?
But maybe the better question is how many people saw
the signs and didn't have the power to act.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Or weren't believed when they tried.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And look, I'll own this from a system's perspective, he
should have been stopped earlier, full stop. And we'll talk
more about those breakdowns in a bit. But I also
think we have to start confronting the uncomfortable truth that
people like Jeremy Bryan Jones don't just survive because they're cunning.
They survive because they understand our blind spots better than
(14:21):
we do.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, they survive because they know that if they dress
their monstrosity and charm, helpfulness and a nice handshake and
a smirk, most people will hand them the keys, even
if it costs someone else their life.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
So let's talk about that charm. Let's really break it down,
because in the next segment we're going to explore how
charisma becomes a con and how someone with no credentials,
no stable identity, and no moral compass can still walk
into your life and convince you that he's the safest
man in the room.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And spoiler alert, he was not. He was a mirror,
reflecting back everything that you wanted to see while hiding
everything he intended to do.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. That's the first trip, so
let's move on to the next one.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Let me say this, Jones was not a genius, but
he was socially smart, and that's different.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
He knew how to read.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
People's wounds and de mirror them. That's what narcissists do best.
They become the very thing you need them to be,
but just long enough to get what they want.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
And meanwhile, investigators are trying to verify even the basic facts.
We're talking about a guy who could recite intimate details
about crimes and still pass a polygraph on a lie
because he believed his own performance.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Or he just didn't care. That's the other side of narcissism.
It's not always delusion. Sometimes it's cold and different. No guilt,
no shame, just the thrill of getting away with it, And.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
What blows my mind is how many people mistook his
smoothness for sincerity. We still have a problem with that today.
Confident talkers get grace, quiet victims get ignored. Look think
about someone like Larry Nasser, trusted, calm, soft spoken. He
used his professional demeanor and fake concern to mask decades
(16:28):
of abuse. Judges trusted him, parents trusted him. Victims were
told they were overreacting. Jones may not have had the
white coat, but he had the same performance. He just
wore it in the form of southern charm, handyman fixes
and maam on his lips.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, you'll absolutely right. And that's the psychological side. We
often underestimate. When someone it sounds emotionally regulated, people assume
they are emotionally safe. But regulation can be rehearsed, empathy
can be mimicked, and when someone like Jones uses that
mimicry to get close to people, especially people who have
(17:09):
been told they're too sensitive or too dramatic, it creates
this dangerous feedback loop where the predator looks calm and
the victim is the one who looks unstable. And guess
who gets believed.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Exactly, And it's not just charm. It's social engineering, and
we keep falling for it because systems are built to
prioritize presentation over.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Pattern, and when systems are too disconnected to track that pattern,
that's when people like Jones thrive.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Which brings us to the real infrastructure failure, in this case, jurisdiction.
You want to talk about how a man like this
goes from Oklahoma to Georgia to Alabama, leaving destruction behind.
It's not just because he's clever. It's because law enforcement
communication in the early two thousands was fragmented, delayed, and
often politicized.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
One bad boyfriend, multiple state lines, and no working system
to catch him in between. Yeah, that's what we're going
to talk about next.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
All right, let's pull the curtain back on one of
the biggest enablers in this entire case, the jurisdictional breakdown.
Jones didn't just travel from state to state. He exploited
the fact that those states weren't talking to each other,
at least not in the way that meant anything. He
slipped through the databases like water through fingers. Why, because
(18:32):
there was no unified offender tracking system in place at
that time, I mean, in two thousand and four, most
departments were still using fax machines and inner office mail.
If you think that sounds outdated, it was. And for
someone like Jones, no fixed address, multiple aliases, no active fella,
any warrants, it was basically an invitation. And here's the kicker.
(18:55):
He wasn't a ghost. He was stopped multiple times, he
was questioned, interviewed, detained, but the dots never connected fast
enough and no one had the full picture.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
You know, it's wild. I've been that very beat cop
stopping that kind of guy. No id, shady story, stolen plates, maybe,
But if nothing pings, if nothing screams, hold him, you
move on to the next call, and the next and
the next, Because when you're juggling overdoses, domestic assaults and
screaming neighbors with a damn stapler in their hand, you
(19:30):
don't have time to chase down every gut filling exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
The field is flooded with noise and the system isn't
built to amplify the right signals. You've got departments that
can't even access their neighbor's database, let alone cross state flags.
Jones exploited that fragmentation. He was like malware slipping between
the firewalls.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And let's talk about who gets lost in those very gaps.
It's not guys like him. It's the women who in
that friend who said he makes me uncomfortable, or the
woman who told a local cop he threatened to kill
me if I left. If nobody connects those statements across counties,
(20:13):
that fear becomes nothing more than a footnote, a forgotten plea,
until there's a body.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It's a delay with a body count. That's the reality,
not because officers weren't doing their jobs, but because they
weren't given the infrastructure to share what they knew. It's
not that no one saw them, it's that they all
saw a different version and no one realized that they
were looking at the same monster.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And if we're going to be honest, that's still happening.
We've gotten better, sure, shared databases, more tech, better alert systems,
but the fragmentation, it is most certainly still there, especially
in rural departments with five people, one desktop and a
phone that rings off the hook.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And those departments they're the front lines, the ones pulling
over the drifter, responding to the gas station call, taking
that late night domestic report. That's where Jones passed through,
and that's where he should have been stopped.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But let's say he was stopped, say someone it did
connect the dots earlier, would it have mattered if no
one believed the victims? Because the system isn't just broken
at the top, it's brittle at the ground level. So
let's dig into that next. The women who were waving
red flags long before the news cameras showed up. Let's
(21:33):
talk about the woman who saw Jones clearly before anyone
else did. The ones who tried to leave, tried to
warn a friend, the ones who went to police and said,
something's off with this guy. And here's where we have
to go beyond the obvious. Because yeah, we know certain
victims are dismissed, sex workers, addicts, unhoused women. That part's
(21:57):
not new. But let's ask a better quest question what
actually makes a person believable? Because credibility that's not just
about what someone says, it's about how well trained to
hear them. And a woman with shaking hands, a cracked voice,
or trauma in her eyes, she's often seen as hysterical, dramatic,
(22:19):
or not reliable, while a calm, articulate abuser, well he
just seems reasonable.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
And that is the systemic flaw because law enforcement training
even today is wired to look for consistency and clarity.
That makes sense in a statement, but trauma isn't consistent
or clear. It's jagged, fragmented. It shows up confused, messy,
and afraid. And the cruel irony is that's what real
(22:48):
trauma often looks like, but we're taught to read it
as a red flag for dishonesty.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Exactly, we pathologize the survivor and normalize the predator because
he speaks well, he maintains eye contact, he appears stable,
and while still letting polished predators write their own credibility scripts.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And here's the procedural reality. The women Jones targeted often
had police contact themselves, sometimes for drugs, sometimes for warrants,
sometimes for survival based crimes like theft or trespassing, and
that created a bias, whether anyone wants to admit it
or not. Their criminal history reduced their perceived value as
(23:30):
witnesses or even as victims.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Which is insane because if you're looking for patterns and
serial offenders, your most credible witnesses are the very women
who have lived through predators before they've already built that radar.
They know what's off, they know before we do.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I think that's one of the toughest lessons in this
case is realizing that the earliest red flags weren't missed
because they were invisible. They were simply dismissed. There's a
big difference. And it wasn't one officer or one report.
It was a cultural pattern playing out across dozens of
desks over.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Years, and it's still happening. But here's the twist I
think is worth naming. We can't fix it just by
believing all women. That's important, but it's infrastructure that matters.
Trauma informed interviewing skills or civilian advocacy, embedded in response teams,
pre incident databases that log patterns and not just arrests.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
You're talking about a total rebuild of how we evaluate credibility.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, and we'll already halfway there. Domestic violence response teams,
mobile crisis units, integrated social workers. These models do exist,
but they're underfunded, they're politically controversial, and they're often siloed
into progressive cities. Jones didn't hunt in those types of places.
(25:00):
He hunted where systems were threadbare, where a woman's fear
was just another note on a clipboard.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
And then when she didn't show up for her next shift,
it was already too late.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
So no, we're not going to rehash the idea that
victims were ignored because of their lifestyle. We're going to
ask why that still excuses the silence, and more importantly,
what we're willing to do differently when the next charming
handyman starts showing up where nobody's watching, Because.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It's not just about who we believe, it's about who's
allowed to raise the alarm and who the system's ready
to hear. And that leads us into something even more
maddening when people do raise the alarm but it gets
buried under jurisdiction or red tape. It's time to talk
about what happens when confessions go unchecked, retracted, and manipulated,
(25:51):
and how the justice system becomes the next victim. So
here's where it gets even messier. Jones starts confessing one
murder than five, then thirteen specifics, names locations, law enforcement
gets moving, opens cold cases, and then he takes it
all back.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, textbook narcissist control tactic. Confession gave him power and
retracting it gave him even more power. It made him valuable.
He wasn't confessing for closure, he was performing.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And let's be honest, he wasted time. He derailed cases.
He got attention, and it worked. The manipulation cost people closure.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And every moment law enforcement spent chasing faults leads from Jones,
well that was time stolen from real victims families. Next up,
let's discuss public trust and law enforcement pressure.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Cases like this damage trust not just in the system,
but in people's willingness to speak up. When Jones got
away with so much for so long, it confirmed every
fear victims already had no one's coming.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
And that mistrust it cuts both ways. Victims don't report,
witnesses disappear, officers burn out, communities stop engaging. The whole
machine grinds to a halt.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I've seen it firsthand. A good cop with no tools
is just a person watching it all fall apart.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And a bad cop with tools, well that's a different episode.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
One of the most unsettling threads in cases like Jeremy
Bryan Jones is the number of people, often women, who
stood by him. Some swore he could have never done it.
Some blamed the victims others. They fell in love with
the idea of the misunderstood outlaw, the wrongly accused bad boy.
We've seen it in Bundy's courtroom, in Manson's following. Even
(27:49):
now on TikTok, people are romanticizing convicted murderers with fan
edits and letters to my jail crush content. So we
wanted to do something different, not just ask why people
attached to killers, but explore what the attachment feels like
from the inside. And Danny, you've got a story for this, Yeah,
(28:11):
I do so.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Back when I was in my twenties, still figuring out
the balance between justice, empathy, and curiosity, I signed up
for a prison pen pal program. It was specifically for
incarcerated folks who identified as queer, and the idea was
to provide community support, connection, and dignity to people often
isolated or targeted behind bars. I was matched with a
(28:35):
man named William. Within two letters. He signed his name
as sweet William with a little hand drawn heart next
to it. He was serving multiple life sentences for several murders.
I didn't know the exact details back then, it wasn't
the point at the time. The letters weren't about the crime.
They were about him, his childhood, his search for identity,
(28:57):
the feeling of being different, unwarned, invisible, and then finally seen.
He wrote in loops of cursives so tight they felt
like secrets, like he was whispering to the page. Every
envelope came with something, a sketch, a candy wrapper, He
liked the design of a poem he scribbled on a napkin.
It was intimate, specific, tender in ways I hadn't expected
(29:21):
from a man locked in a maximum security unit.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Did you ever feel manipulated?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Honestly, I didn't feel manipulated. I felt unsettled because he
wasn't trying to con me. He wasn't asking for money,
he wasn't love bombing. He was just sharing. But the
content of those letters, that's where things got complicated. One week,
I'd get a two page rumination on discovering his sexuality
during a church camp as a teenager. He wrote about
(29:49):
kissing a boy behind the pews and praying every night
for the sin to wash off. And then the very
next week, a ten page graphic breakdown of power dynamics
in prison, and I mean explicit. Sweet William did not
shy away from detail. He'd tell me who was married
to whom on the inside, who traded ram impacts for
(30:09):
oral how one guy wore a ripped T shirt like
a haltertop to keep his man happy. He described love
notes passed in soap bars, how they carved names and
to sell walls with toothbrush shanks, but also how transactional
it all became.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
One sentence might be he kissed me like I mattered,
and the very next was then he traded my pillowcase
for two honey buns and a stick of deodorant. And
that broke me a little, because even inside, even in
the most brutal version of a closed system identity things
like gender, power, intimacy, it was still being negotiated, sold,
(30:55):
and at times sacrificed. And it made me think about
how so many of us on the outside do the
same damn thing, just in subtler ways. We trade pieces
of ourselves for belonging, for protection, for attention, and, in
William's case, sometimes even for survival.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
So what did you take away from that relationship that.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Even monsters have origin stories that loneliness and identity crises
don't appear once someone's convicted, and that charisma, especially when
it comes from pain, it feels real. And that's what
we're talking about when we ask why women love killers
or men, or pinpals or cult leaders, because it's not
(31:39):
always about the killer. It's about who that person becomes
in the mind of someone desperate to just to be seen.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
It's connection as a mythology, the idea that you are
the one who sees what others don't, that you are
the exception, the one who can love the darkness into
light exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And the truth is Jones probably had a dozen women
like that in his life. Women who ignored the gut twinge,
who mistook trauma bonding for chemistry, who believed the lie
because it sounded like hope, and hope is addictive when
you haven't had enough of it.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
And while William gave you drawings and soap bar poetry,
Jeremy Jones gave his women manipulation, gas lighting, and eventually violence.
The difference wasn't the vulnerability, it was the intention, and
that takes us to the next question, how do you
catch someone like that? How do you build a case
when the truth is tangled up in lies, charisma, and
(32:39):
the confession games.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Because when the criminal writes his own script, the courtroom
becomes the next theater.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
In the end, it wasn't some dramatic takedown or perfect
witness that brought Jeremy Jones down. It was DNA collected
after the murder of Lisa Nichols, a routine process, standard
chain of evidence. The thing is, his downfall didn't match
his chaos, and that's something we don't talk about enough.
Most serial killers don't get caught because of a single slip.
(33:10):
They get caught because someone finally refuses to let the
pattern go quiet.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, and pattern recognition is a muscle. You have to
train for it. And the noise, the red herrings, the
emotional fatigue, being able to say, hmm, this looks familiar.
It's what saves lives. And Jones he was counting on
that noise to keep him hidden. He didn't just operate
in chaos, he thrived in it.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
He was like static on the radio. You don't notice
it until you tune it just right, and then suddenly
you realize there's a voice underneath whispering something awful. The
pattern's always there, it's just buried in the noise.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
And the truth is he wasn't special. He was just
allowed the system up, finally tuned in, but not before
the damage was done. So let's talk about what was visible.
Because Jones left trails, stories, girlfriends with black eyes, neighbors
with bad vibes, sketchy job departures, but nothing connected. Not
(34:15):
because no one noticed, but because no one believed their
gut mattered.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
We've seen it before. Red flags don't mean much if
nobody's reading the playbook, especially when those flags are scattered
across time zones and departments. You need structure to connect
instinct with action.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
He threatened her. She stayed quiet. He moved out of
town suddenly, must be a fresh start, she warned her sister.
Probably overreacting. He lied to a cop. No harm, no foul.
And that's how monsters blend in. They make themselves just
believable enough to be ignored, and.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
By the time it gets loud enough to notice, someone's
already gone. We've got better tools now, digital fingerprints, cross
jurisdictional life alerts, trauma informed training, But those improvements don't
guarantee safety. They guarantee possibility, possibility of catching someone before
the next obituary runs.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, safety isn't the same everywhere. It depends on who
you are, where you live, and whether you fit into
the system's idea of what's worth protecting. And for people
like the women Jones targeted, safety still feels like a privilege,
not a RT.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
So picture this on one side of the screen, a
precinct lights, humming, forensics matching a partial print, a detective
making a late night call that finally links the suspect.
On the other side, a woman locking her door three times,
tucking a knife under her mattress, feeling something's off but
(35:49):
knowing no one will listen until it's too late.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Will safer on paper, but will not safer in the dark,
and that's where their work still is.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
May be locked up, but the system he slipped through
still has open doors.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
And until we close them, we'll all still in the
blast zone. Okay, we've been deep in the wreckage, so
let's give the listeners a second to breathe. I need
one too, so welcome to our mid show mental reset
that we'll calling Would you Report It?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Also known as Is This Your Neighbor? Or Future Netflix documentary.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
All right, I'm gonna hit you with five real life
inspired red Flag moments. Some are weird, some shady, and
some just confusing. And you get to tell me i'd
report it, I'd watch it play out, or nope, just
a weirdo?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Got it? Got it, let's go. All right.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Your new neighbor introduces himself with I'm not great with names,
but I never forget a body.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I'd report it. What kind of intro is that? Psychopath?
One oh one? All right?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Next up, a guy at the gas station offers to
pump your gas in exchange for a lock of your hair.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Ooh weirdo, deeply weird, but not a crime yet.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
You date someone for two weeks, They've moved jobs three times,
and every time you ask why, they say people are
always trying to bring me down.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Watch it play out, but I'm keeping notes and my
truck gassed up.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
You do love some trashy love reality show stuff?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
All right?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Next up, someone at work refers to you by your
exact home address unprompted.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh shit, gotta report that. That's a restraining order appetizer
right there, all right.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Last one, a guy shows up to a date with
a polaroid of his ex taped to his wallet.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Oh shit, Nope, just a weirdo, probably still using a Yahoo.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Hey I think I have a Yahoo email.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
I'm guilty.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Unpack that third one. Changing jobs, inconsistent stories, vague, blame shifting,
classic red flag cocktail.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Yeah, big time. And that's what makes guys like Jones
so dangerous because each thing on its own feels explainable,
but together that is a behavioral pattern, and without a
centralized way to track those shifts across locations, it stays
invisible until someone gets hurt.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Exactly. He didn't hide in the shadows, He hid in
the cracks.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
All right, listeners, now it is your turn hit us
up on social media or in the comments. Which red
flag would you report? Which one would you laugh off?
And which one makes you think you've already dated Jeremy Jones.
All right, let's take what we've already learned and look
at it through a modern lens. The Jeremy Jones case
is an ancient history. It's a mirror, and when we
(38:52):
hold it up to today's systems, you start to see
just how many blind spots still exist. Let's start with
the tech thousand and four. We were barely scraping the
surface with interagency communication, no shared digital platforms, no real
time updates. Fax machines and filing cabinets were still running
the show. Today, we've got national fingerprint databases, instant warrant alerts, bodycams,
(39:18):
and even AI supported behavioral profiling tools that can help
flag escalating patterns. Jones wouldn't have lasted two states with
today's tools. But here's the twist.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Tools are only as effective as the people using them.
You can have all the surveillance in the world, but
if we still label victims as unreliable based on stigma
or social class, then the patterns get seen, but they're
still dismissed. Take a woman who's unhoused and reporting abuse.
Even today, she's going to face skepticism that hasn't changed.
(39:53):
And predators they know that they prey on the socially
invisible because they understand the systems filters, and that's where
policy matters.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Since Jones, we've seen the development of multi agency task
forces for violent offenders. We've got regional intel sharing hubs,
better tracking of aliases, and more coordinated case management. These
structures didn't exist then, but they're still under used, underfunded,
and truly undervalued.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Meanwhile, predators, they have evolved too. Back then, Jones relied
on charm and physical presence to disarm people, but today
it's a DM, a dating app, a burner number. Power
and control. Don't need proximity anymore. They just need access,
and access is easier more than ever.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
True crime media has also shifted the public's role in
these cases. We've talked about that multiple times. We're more alert,
more informed, but we're also desensitized. Back then, it took
a national news cycle to sound the alarm. Now one
TikTok explainer goes viral and the suspects address is in
the comments.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
And yet, even with all that exposure, if the victim
doesn't look right, the outrage fades, and it fades fast.
We still center good victim narratives, white, middle class, photogenic,
not too complicated. Everyone else gets a mention, maybe if
they're lucky.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
And that's where behavioral profiling has stepped in. In a
modern context, Jones would have triggered red flags, job hopping,
domestic abuse accusations, geographic displacement, erratic emotional control. But that
only works when departments use that data and more importantly,
trust the people that are reporting it.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And trust that's the root of it. We still live
in a world where manipulation feels safer than transparency, where
predators build their lives on credibility they haven't earned, and
victims are expected to provide proof before we believe that
they're pain. Jones wasn't a mystery. He was a pattern.
(42:04):
And if we don't start listening differently, we're gonna miss
the next one because he won't be named Jeremy. He'll
be charming, stable, normal, He'll fit in. And that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
And if this case teaches us anything it's that we
don't need more monsters to study. We need better mirrors
and a system that's brave enough to see what's staring back.
So here's my final takeaway, and it's something I keep
coming back to in these cases like Jeremy Brian Jones.
We tend to mythologize killers, especially the ones who move
(42:37):
through life smoothly, the ones who blend in. We assign
them intelligence, cunning, even genius. But most of them they're
not masterminds. They're opportunists, thriving in the absence of structure.
What we really need to ask is what systems made
their choices possible. What cracks did we leave wide enough
(42:58):
for them to slip through? Jones wasn't remarkable. What's remarkable
is how many times he was allowed to keep going
because paperwork got filed late, departments didn't talk, and someone
decided a woman's fear just wasn't enough.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
And on the flip side, we need to talk about
the cost of silence, especially when it's internal, because Jones
didn't just deceive the people around him, he was repressing
the hell out of himself. Well, talking about a man
who buried trauma, guilts, and rage so deep that it
came back up like a geyser, and every time it did,
(43:37):
someone else paid the price. He didn't deal with his past. Instead,
he weaponized it.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
He wasn't just hiding bodies, he was hiding himself.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
And let's be honest, most of us know someone just
like that, someone who never talks about their past, who
smiles through everything, who disappears when things get real. And
I'm not saying they're all dangerous, but I am saying repression,
especially in men, especially in a culture that rewards bravado
(44:11):
over vulnerability, that creates pressure, and pressure looks for a
release valve.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
And that's when it becomes everybody's problem exactly.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
So here's my challenge to the audience. Don't just watch
the true crime stories. Watch the people around you. Notice
the charm that doesn't match the eye contact, Notice the
apology that feels too rehearsed. And notice the friend who
laughs off trauma but never actually cracks a real joke.
And to ask yourself, are they hiding from us or
(44:45):
are they hiding from themselves?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
And before we get a flood of emails, no, your
ex who war colone to the gym isn't a serial.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Kill unless he also had a drawer full of burner
phones and bad luck with coworkers. Then maybe into some message.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. But in all seriousness, this
case asks more from us than just outrage. It asks
for attention to systems, to patterns, to the ways we
let charisma cloud accountability. So here's my question to you,
(45:21):
our listeners. What do you think is more dangerous someone
with no conscience or someone with no self awareness?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
And how many people do we ignore just because they
don't look like danger?
Speaker 1 (45:36):
All right, we've said our piece. Now we want to
hear from you.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Drop us a DM, leave a comment, or tag us
in your thoughts. You know, we read everything and sometimes
you all catch what we miss.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
And next time we might just feature your insight on
the show.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You're part of the investigation now, so stay sharp, stay curious,
and stay loud when accounts all right, folks. That wraps
up this week's full trilogy of the Guilty Files. If
you joined us Monday for Uncovered, caught my breakdown on
Wednesday for Rewired, and now made it through today's co
hosted deep dive on Revisited, we seriously thank you. This
(46:16):
show isn't just a podcast, It's an anthology, and the
way you listen, share and engage that's what keeps the
wheels turning.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah. Three episodes, one case a full spectrum autopsy of
motive mistakes and meaning. If you only caught this one,
that's okay, but I'm gonna say it straight, go back
listen to all three. Every episode builds on the next.
The things that Danny rewired on Wednesday changed how I
saw the case today.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Ah, look at you giving me credits. We are growing.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, don't get used to it.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Okay, before we go, I want to leave you with
something to think about. This week's case revolved around one
man's manipulation of systems, people, and perception. So here's my
question for you. What's one belief you hold about danger
that might actually be wrong.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
Wow, that's a really good question, And honestly, for me,
it's the idea that danger looks like something because the
worst ones, they don't stand out, they blend in exactly.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
And maybe that's why we'll so drawn to these stories,
because deep down we'll not just afraid of the monsters,
we'll afraid of not recognizing them.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
And that's why we'll be back next week with another
case that challenges what you think you know.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Well, diving into a story with missing clues, unexpected twists,
and a suspect you may or may not be hiding
in plain sits.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
You know the drill. It won't be pretty, but will
sure make it worth your while.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I'm Danny, I've got a psychology degree, a community policing badge,
and a deep suspicion of charming men with pickup trucks.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
And I'm Brian X traffic cop policy NERD forensic junkie.
Still don't trust anyone who collects teeth recreationally teeth.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
It's one of the few things I just cannot handle,
and that's disturbingly specific.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
It's a very niche community.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
All right, folks, stay curious, stay bold, and remember your
instincts are data, so don't ignore them.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
And when the system fails, your voice doesn't have to
speak up.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Ohen.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
The Guilty Files
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