Dona Jones: An Enigmatic Dark Beauty
By Dr. Edgar V. Epperly, author of Fiend Incarnate: Villisca Axe Murders of 1912
D. H. Meyerhoff, a Corning, Iowa attorney found himself on a passenger train between Red Oak and Villisca, Iowa at mid-morning June 10. 1912. Since news of a mass murder had already reached Red Oak, he found the car jammed with curiosity seekers headed for the crime scene. From the excited babble it was obvious that his fellow passengers suspected Frank Fernando Jones was mixed up in the murder. Minutes after Meyerhoff left the train, he, by chance, met his friend F. F. on the street and jokingly said, “I see you’re still running at large.”
Dona Jones, F. F.’s daughter-in-law, was the reason that Jones was an immediate suspect in the minds of many local citizens. She had arrived in Villisca some four years earlier accepting a position as a country school teacher. It was not long before her dark beauty and vivacious manner attracted Albert Jones' attention. Its not so clear what made the slow, portly, ineffectual son of F. F. Jones attractive to her. Still he was the only son and heir of a wealthy and powerful man. Whatever the reason, Dona and Albert were married in February of 1910 at her home in Hawleyville, a tiny village southeast of Villisca.
The two and one-half years between Dona’s marriage and the 1912 Villisca axe murders proved to be a strange interlude in her life. She moved quickly into Villisca’s upper social class, sponsoring parties and entertainment in her home. She was social and popular but set some tongues wagging by her flirtations and joshing with men. In the parlance of the time, she was thought to be a “high stepper”, “snappy,” and indifferent to public opinion.
By 1911 her behavior was a scandal in Villisca. Had it not been for her social position, she would have experienced public censure. Thanks to the young telephone operators, it was common knowledge that she was frequently receiving calls from at least two Villisca gentlemen. Albert Davies, a young insurance agent called most often, but Josiah B. Moore ran a close second. In fact, judged by the frequency that Dona said, “it is all right to come over now,” Joe was the clear front runner. His last visit was just a few days before his untimely murder.
Most people might have difficulty believing Albert or F. F. would have hired a killer over their business conflicts with Joe Moore, but to punish Joe for besmirching the family name seemed more reasonable. Some speculated that Albert hatched the plot, but being ineffectual as usual, turned to his father to pull his "chestnuts" out of the fire. Most doubted dull Albert would even know he was being cuckolded. Consequently, they suspected the moving force behind the murders was Frank Fernando Jones. This is why Dona was a central figure in Detective Wilkerson’s case against F. F. Jones. She, with her flippant and disreputable behavior provided a motive for the Villisca ax murders.
No one knows what actually transpired between Dona and her swains during their tête-à-têtes, but just receiving private telephone calls from men other than her husband was a breach of community mores. To invite them to her home when people knew Albert was out of town was scandalous. To practice such outlandish behavior with at least two men (Wilkerson, never one to soft peddle a good thing suggested six different men had called her) was incomprehensible and, in the minds of many, put her beyond redemption.
Public gossip regarding Dona’s reckless behavior reached a climax some four months after the murder. Again it was the telephone operators who spread the tale. It seems a night operator saw the switchboard light for Albert Jones’ telephone flash. When she connected the line, she found no one waiting to make a call, but instead the phone had been knocked from it’s cradle and she overheard a fight.
Albert had apparently come home unexpectedly and caught Dona and Albert Davies in a compromising situation. The telephone operator’s ringside seat allowed her to identify the participants by their voices. The fight between the two Alberts ended abruptly when a pistol shot rang out. The next morning Davies sported a bandaged thumb which the local newspaper attributed to an errant harness ring and a “fractious horse,” but the whole town twittered because everyone had heard what really happened from the telephone girls.
Dona Jones to this day remains an enigma. It is hard to understand or explain her wanton behavior as a youth which seems an incongruous interlude in a rather conventional life. She was born in 1890 in Hawleyville, Iowa, a tiny village, to John and Minnie Bentley. As the name suggests, they were English through and through. In fact, Dona’s somewhat unusual given name comes directly from Queen Victoria’s extended family. Dona took normal training, became an elementary school teacher, and married well as befitted her good looks and sprightly manner.
Then, after two years of outrageous behavior culminating with a tenuous connection to the Villisca axe murders, she slipped back into a conventional life. She remained married to Albert until his death in 1935. He, not she, carried on an affair in later life. Unless she had learned sufficient discretion to avoid prying eyes and ears. She and Albert remained childless, but she served as a surrogate mother for at least two young girls. After Albert’s death, she managed the family farm and finally sold out in 1943. A year later she married for a second time.
Wilbur T. Kelley, a retired contractor, married Dona shortly after his invalid wife died. Apparently they had lived together discreetly for some time while awaiting her demise. Wilbur and Dona remained married without public incident until Wilbur died in 1961. She lived on until 1984 when she died in a Clarinda, Iowa nursing home. Her final years were marred by Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dona’s unusual behavior and unique relationship to the Villisca murders of the six-member Moore family and two Stillinger girls cries out for the vision of a novelist. The historian with his dependence on documents and verifiable information is inadequate to the task of explaining her scandalous behavior. The flamboyant detective Wilkerson and the mentally unbalanced Reverend Kelly might also lend themselves to novelistic treatment, but it is the enigmatic Dona who sits dark and alluring in Villisca’s tangled web, who beckons the creative writer.
Dona Jones, 1890-1984
Dona Jones is buried in Clarinda, Iowa with her second husband, and not, as intended, to the right of her first husband's grave in the Villisca cemetery. The space next to Albert remains empty.
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I definately think the injury done to Sarah indicates a lust for revenge which makes me think of Dona Jones wanting Josiah all to herself. The kerosene was used to knock them out probably. I heard an evp that seems to indicate three of the children got in the closet and called to Paul to join him but he wouldn't.
Posted by: Sheri O'Connell | February 13, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Hi Sheri. Thanks for reading the blog. Forensic experts disagree with you on the motive. They say it was a sexual motive and not a conventional motive like revenge. Had kerosene been used to disable the victims (I've never heard of such a thing!), residue or a stain would likely have been present on the bodies or their clothing. Additionally, no strange odors were noted by the first to enter the house. Although often suggested, there is not one shred of evidence to support the notion that ANY of the victims left their bed. Quite the opposite. The closets were too full of storage items to accomodate adults or children, and not empty, as they now appear during tours of the axe murder house. Some have even suggested that one of the girls was out of bed, murdered, and then placed back in her bed. That would have created what criminologist call a secondary crime scene. There is no such feature in the Villisca crime scene. Finally, Dona Jones was never considered a suspect, and there is no evidence beyond pure speculation to support that theory. There is some evidence to support the notion that Josiah may have been her favorite Casanova, but she was also seeing other men when her husband Albert Jones wasn't around. In fact, Albert caught her with Albert Davie AFTER the axe murder. Reading the 400-500 pages of eye-witness grand jury testimony describing the crime scene would give you a better idea of what is known from a factual standpoint.
Posted by: Admin | February 13, 2009 at 07:18 PM