{"id":548,"date":"2019-12-12T10:40:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T14:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bratenahlhistorical.org\/?page_id=548"},"modified":"2020-11-12T14:50:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T18:50:50","slug":"murder-on-kelleys-island","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bratenahlhistorical.org\/index.php\/murder-on-kelleys-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder On Kelley’s Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\tHistory\n\t<\/h1>\n

\n\t\tTragic Happenings\n\t<\/h2>\n

\n\t\tThomas Hoyt Jones Jr. – A Murder on Kelley’s Island\n\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\"Jones\n\t\tJones Preserve Sign\n\t

Around 7 p.m. on Monday, November 5, 1984, the phone rang at the Kelley\u2019s Island Police Station.\u00a0 Located in Lake Erie’s western basin about four miles north of the Ohio mainland at the Marblehead peninsula, Kelley\u2019s Island is home to about 150 residents year-round and about 1,500 residents during the summer.\u00a0 The island is dotted with homes, summer cottages, and a few restaurants and bars that cater to a large contingent of summer visitors, many of whom visit the state park and campground on the island.\u00a0 Access to the island is limited to boat or airplane.<\/p>\n

As a result of the phone call, Kelley\u2019s Island Police Chief Charles Moore learned that employees at a Cleveland business owned by Thomas Hoyt Jones, Jr. were concerned because they could not reach their employer.\u00a0 Jones should have returned to his home at Bratenahl Place from a visit to his cottage on Kelley\u2019s Island and should have been at work that Monday.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t show up or contact his office.<\/p>\n\t

Police Chief Moore was familiar with the Jones family.\u00a0 Thomas Hoyt Jones, Sr. <\/a>had purchased 50 to 60 acres of land on the northeast point of Kelley\u2019s Island in 1940, and the family had been regular visitors to the island through the years.\u00a0 Recently, Thomas Jr. and his brother Brooks Jones had donated about 21 acres of the family\u2019s island land to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to be used as a bird sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Jones was a member of a prominent Cleveland family.\u00a0 His grandfather, Thomas A. Jones, served on the Ohio Supreme Court.\u00a0 His father, Thomas Hoyt Jones, Sr., made a name early in life as an all-Ohio quarterback at Ohio State University.\u00a0 A distinguished lawyer, Thomas Sr. had many notable clients, including Cleveland financier Cyrus S. Eaton and the Shaker Heights developers O.P and M.J Van Sweringen.\u00a0 In 1939, he became senior partner of the newly merged law firm Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis.\u00a0 Today, the law firm has more than 40 offices worldwide, is known simply as Jones Day, and continues to carry Thomas Sr.\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Thomas Hoyt Jones Sr. had two sons.\u00a0 Brooks Jones followed his father’s lead, becoming first a lawyer, then a partner at Jones Day.\u00a0 Thomas Hoyt Jones, Jr. was repeatedly described in the newspapers at the time as a \u201cmillionaire Bratenahl financier.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0He founded T.H. Jones & Co., a bond investment business in the 1940s, and Scurry-Rainbow Oil Ltd. in Calgary, Alberta, in 1950. He headed a syndicate that owned and developed large parcels of Canadian land.\u00a0 He married Virginia Hosferd \u201cHossie\u201d Van Dozer in 1954, and they had two children. The couple divorced in 1982, and Hossie Jones died suddenly in her sleep in a Munich hotel in May 1984, only five months before the phone call to the Kelley\u2019s Island Police Department.<\/p>\n

Members of the Jones family lived at various times in Bratenahl.\u00a0 Jones\u2019 parents, Thomas and Katharine Brooks Jones lived at 304 Corning Drive in the late 1940s. \u00a0\u00a0They lived on Corning Drive at the time of Thomas Sr.\u2019s death from a heart attack on April 14, 1948.\u00a0 Katharine Jones traveled extensively after her husband\u2019s death.\u00a0 Late in life, Katharine returned to Bratenahl, living at Bratenahl Place.\u00a0 She regularly traveled between Bratenahl and an apartment in Delray Beach, Florida.\u00a0 She died in Florida in 1979.\u00a0 Following his mother\u2019s death and his divorce, Thomas Jr. divided his time between his residence at Bratenahl Place and the cottage on Kelley\u2019s Island.<\/p>\n

Chief Moore arrived at the Jones cottage at about 7:20 p.m.\u00a0 He found Jones\u2019s golden retriever, Shagg, unattended on the property.\u00a0\u00a0 There was no sign of forcible entry to the cottage.\u00a0 A search of the premises soon revealed Thomas Hoyt Jones, Jr.’s naked body in the bathroom.\u00a0 He had been strangled.<\/p>\n

Investigators on Kelley\u2019s Island soon learned that Jones had arrived on the island on the weekend to close the cottage for the winter.\u00a0 He was accompanied by Angelo Darnell Vaughn, identified later as Jones\u2019 houseman, cook, and chauffeur.\u00a0 Vaughn was missing, as were Jones\u2019 1983 Dodge Aries station wagon, two televisions, his watch, ring, and two credit cards.\u00a0 Vaughn was last seen leaving Kelley\u2019s Island that morning on the 9 a.m. ferry to Marblehead. He quickly became the chief suspect in Jones\u2019 murder.\u00a0 A warrant was issued for his arrest.<\/p>\n

Learning that he was the subject of an intense search, Vaughn telephoned Cleveland police on November 11, 1984, to arrange his surrender.\u00a0 He was arrested inside Jones\u2019 station wagon at the Brookpark Rapid Transit station parking lot.\u00a0 In Vaughn\u2019s possession was Jones\u2019 watch.\u00a0\u00a0 The watch was easily recognizable since its face bore the initials THOMAS H JONES in place of numerals.<\/p>\n

While in custody, Vaughn admitted that he had placed Jones in a chokehold and held him for 8 to 10 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 At trial, Vaughn asserted that he had acted in self-defense.\u00a0\u00a0 He testified that Jones had attacked him in the cottage’s bedroom and that he was defending himself.\u00a0 At the time of his death, Jones was 70 years old.\u00a0 Vaughn was 19.\u00a0 Vaughn\u2019s defense did not explain the bruising on Jones\u2019 face, the fact that the body was subsequently dragged from the bedroom into the bathroom, or the theft of Jones\u2019 vehicle and possessions.\u00a0 A jury of eight men and four women convicted Vaughn of first-degree murder.\u00a0 Vaughn was sentenced to 15 years to life for Jones\u2019 murder, plus an additional two years for stealing Jones\u2019 car.<\/p>\n

Vaughn served 20 years in prison for Jones\u2019 murder.\u00a0 After his release from prison, Vaughn was befriended by and allowed to reside with an acquaintance in the Slavic Village area of Cleveland.\u00a0 Within a week, Vaughn attacked the acquaintance with a hammer while sleeping and took $400 and his car.\u00a0 While the victim survived, his injuries were extensive and permanently disabling.\u00a0 He spent 28 days in intensive care and wore a helmet to court covering a hole the size of a pop-can top in his skull.\u00a0 At trial, he testified that he hoped to walk again someday.\u00a0 In 2007, Vaughn received a 40-year prison term for the attack.<\/p>\n

The long-term legacy of Thomas Hoyt Jones Jr. is not diminished by the tragic events on Kelley\u2019s Island in November 1984.\u00a0 The land donated by Thomas and Brooks Jones to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History remains today a vital stopover for migratory birds crossing Lake Erie, allowing birds time to rest and find nourishment before continuing their annual flight south.\u00a0 The site has become a key research area for the study of bird habitats and migration.\u00a0 In 2006, Long Point was renamed to the Jones Preserve in memory of the two brothers.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to History\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTragic Happenings List\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History Tragic Happenings Thomas Hoyt Jones Jr. – A Murder on Kelley’s Island Jones Preserve Sign Around 7 p.m. on Monday, November 5, 1984, the phone rang at the Kelley\u2019s Island Police Station.\u00a0 Located in Lake Erie’s western basin about four miles north of the Ohio mainland at the Marblehead peninsula, Kelley\u2019s Island is home…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-548","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nMurder On Kelley's Island - Bratenahl Historical Society - Bratenahl, Ohio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Murder On Kelley's Island - The Bratenahl Historical Society serves as a repository of historical documents, photos and other information pertinent to the Village of Bratenahl, Ohio and its residents.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bratenahlhistorical.org\/index.php\/murder-on-kelleys-island\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Murder On Kelley's Island - 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