Don't even get started on this "Bush's fault" crap . . . Howard himself told us no one is to blame!
Posted on 10/20/2005 1:23:00 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Wife slain despite order of protection
October 19, 2005
BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter Advertisement
Even though he was ordered to stay away from his wife, Howard Jones apparently sneaked up to her car and scrawled "whore" and her telephone number on the windshield Saturday.
The next day, he returned and fatally stabbed his 65-year-old wife, Bonnie Jones, as witnesses tried to save her.
Neighbors of Bonnie Jones, a Clemente High School administrator, question if the criminal justice system did enough to protect her from her murderous husband.
But authorities urged battered women to continue to seek orders of protection as Bonnie Jones had against her husband.
"An order of protection is not a shield," said Chicago Police Sgt. Kathleen Argentino. "In a great number of cases, though, it does serve as a deterrent."
'Disgruntled, dour man'
Howard Jones was a doctor whose license was revoked in Iowa in 1993 for improperly administering anesthetics. Sharon Danhoff, who lives in the same Rogers Park apartment building near Lake Michigan, said he was a bully.
"If someone moved his bike, he would accuse you of stealing it," she said. "He was a very disgruntled, dour man."
Another neighbor said Howard Jones grew angry over residents' complaints that he regularly used two spaces to park his car.
"He said, 'If they have a problem with me, I'll shoot them,' " said the neighbor, who asked that his name not be used. "He was the angriest man I've ever met."
Bonnie Jones, the athletic daughter of Chicago Public Schools gym teachers, had planned to run the Chicago Marathon this year until she injured a leg. She still was going to run the New York Marathon, which she ran last year, friends said.
She also played the banjo and was involved in Chicago's folk-music scene with her husband and their son, Rhys Jones, an accomplished old-time fiddler who moved to New York. Rhys came back to Chicago to help his mother after she was hit in the face by Howard Jones on Oct. 10 and signed an arrest complaint against him.
Howard Jones was charged with domestic battery, as well as gun offenses because police found an unregistered pistol in the couple's apartment. On Oct. 11, he pleaded guilty to domestic battery and was released after paying a small fine. The gun charges were dropped and he was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Residents said they could not believe Howard Jones did not receive a stiffer penalty, but several officials familiar with the domestic violence system said his punishment was consistent with the crime and his lack of a record.
On Saturday, neighbors spotted the graffiti on Bonnie Jones' car and later saw her and her son clean it up. They suspected her husband was responsible, but they did not see him do it, Danhoff said.
Rhys Jones and his mother had changed the locks on her apartment and warned residents that Howard Jones was barred from the building. Bonnie Jones spent Saturday night with a friend. She and her son returned to the apartment Sunday and were ambushed by Howard Jones.
Danhoff watched from her apartment as Howard Jones chased his wife and son into the courtyard, wielding two knives. Male residents picked up burglar bars that had not yet been installed on Bonnie Jones' windows and struck Howard Jones with them to fend him off.
"He was flailing at them while all of us were screaming 'Put the knife down, the police are coming,'" Danhoff said.
Howard Jones fatally stabbed his wife and wounded his son before returning to the apartment, where a police sergeant shot him to death after Jones refused to drop a knife.
Police escorts
"I don't think, frankly, he was going to give up after seeing him Sunday," Danhoff said. "I think this was one determined individual. I give enormous credit to four men in this building who at enormous risk tried to help her."
One of them, Dr. Doug Stoltzfus, took off his pants and used them as a tourniquet for Rhys Jones' wounded arm, Danhoff said.
Jennifer Greene of Family Rescue Inc. said it sounds as if Bonnie Jones did everything she could to protect herself from her husband. Still, she stressed that victims with protection orders can obtain police escorts to their homes.
"I recommend it," she said. "It's also very important to conduct extensive safety planning. They can be one page long or 20 pages long . . ."
Greene said victims can call her agency's 24-hour crisis line at (773) 375-8400. If they're in immediate peril, they should call 911, she said.
The supposedly impenetrable defense provided by a restraining order has, not surprisingly, been breeched. Moral: If you're life is in danger, carry/use a weapon. A legal document will not stop the bullets and knives.
Order of protections never work for wives if they have been abused. Usless things. Most of them end up dead in the end unless they carry a weapon or have a 24 hour guard protecting them.
The authorities are doing very little to protect Americans from crime.
It's a too frequent mistake to bring burglar bars to a gunfight.
What this unfortunate lady needed was the Florida law on imminent threat and a .44 Magnum. Bully husband wouldn't be a burden on the legal system and all it would have cost was the cleanup of his brains from the street.
"The next day, he returned and fatally stabbed his 65-year-old wife, Bonnie Jones..."
Too bad she wasn't a Chicago alderwoman, then she could have carried a gun, instead of a worthless piece of paper.
Looks like Howie's pride finally caught up with him.
"The authorities" have no responsibility to "protect Americans from harm". They are there to arrest and try the perps AFTER the perps "do the deed". If you want PROTECTION, you either have to hire it, or "do it yourself".
A sad story, indeed, but one bright, shining point.
"Wife slain despite order of protection"
The headline was so absurd that I went to the link to check it, and sure enough, it's 100% accurate. Incredible to imageine that the naive liberal editor who wrote it must actually believe that a piece of paper will protect someone!
I consider putting the perps in jail to be "protecting us from crime."
Unfortunately, they are not even doing that.
Chicago only perps have guns.
Oh I forgot, she lived in Chicago where that's against the law. Well, then maybe she should have called 911 as Chicago residents are instructed to do if they believe they're in danger. The cops might have arrived before the body began to decompose, which would at least have made the pathologist's job a bit easier.
re: if the criminal justice system did enough to protect her from her murderous husband
Duh.... She's dead, doesn't that answer this question?
I disagree. Arresting the perp "after the fact" in no way protects the original victim--it's a "second order effect", not a "first order effect". REAL "protection" would be a bodyguard, and cops are NOT responsible for guarding folks---even ones under protection orders.
In Reading gaol by Reading town
There is a pit of shame,
And in it lies a wretched man
Eaten by teeth of flame,
In a burning winding-sheet he lies,
And his grave has got no name.
And there, till Christ call forth the dead,
In silence let him lie:
No need to waste the foolish tear,
Or heave the windy sigh:
The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die.
Too bad. If it happened in my neighborhood, while I was home, the woman would still be alive. Nobody attacks anyone with knives if I'm around. My 12 ga. is pretty suitable as a deterrent, and I'd use in in a situation like this in a heartbeat.
They should issue a gun with those orders of protection.
Execute him now.
Better to be judged by twelve . . .
What an absolutely horrifying story. Her fear must have been intense.
I'm glad he's dead.
What a strange story!
Soon it will be a made for T.V. movie.
Sounds like Fat Ted or Crazy Howie Dean.
I read a book by a security expert who advised women against getting restraining orders against their spouses or ex spouses. His rationale was that they offer no protection and in some cases send the husbands over the edge. Sad but true.
"I recommend it," she said. "It's also very important to conduct extensive safety planning. They can be one page long or 20 pages long .
Should have maybe purchase a gun... oh that's right.. guns kill people...
I'd recommend the "20" page planning ... fold it up and use it as body armor...
You can't make up a bigger pile of cr#p if you tried. If you file a restraining order on somebody, that only p#sses them off more. It does worse than nothing.... You still have to dial 911, you still get your @ss beat, and unless you kill the abuser, you're still in danger.
Poor deluded victim... she did everything right... the problem is that she really didn't do anything that would have truly protected her. Like move, have your son or friends break his arms and legs with crow bars, then tell him to stay away...If and when the second he shows up anywhere near her within eyesight shoot him dead between the nipples... 2-3 times.
of course that's only my opinion.... and I could be wrong.
But, but, it says --To Protect and Serve.....Whoops..sarcasm/offf
mark
...They're called criminals because they don't obey the law...
A restraining order?
Dont make me laugh
I agree wholeheartedly. And in Chicago, the pretzel-logic of the left continues unabated around the pretzel.
Gun-ownership is nearly outlawed, and the ability to defend one's own life with a gun is nearly outlawed, putting dependency for protection with the government. And when that government fails to protect this woman, and her attacker is charged with violating the gun laws mistakenly meant to protect her, what does the government do? Yes - they dropped the gun charges against her attacker. This is dizzying enough to make me puke.
The authorities in Illinois (and other places) are doing their best to pass laws which hinder America's citizens from exercisizing their right to self-defense.
What gunfight? Other than the police shooting the husband dead for failure to disarm.
A perp in jail does not commit crime. It may not protect the original victim, but most of these guys are repeaters, and certainly protects the next intended victim. If they simply put all the perps in jail and thru away the key, crime would be a nonissue.
Don't forget that this took place in Chicago, home to gun grabbin' Richie Daley, Dick Durbinladin and Barack Osama. Liberals all, gun grabbers all, and they are able to carry and/or given armed bodyguards.
Wives regularly use them in divorce proceedings to make the husband look bad.
It only works against somebody who it isn't needed for
By coincidence, I attended a talk tonight at Cornell University given by Bay Buchanan [yes, they let her on campus!] on the topic of . . . gun control.
Bay offered a number of other tragic examples of women with useless restraining orders who were murdered by their ex-boyfriends or husbands.
She also made a good case to the effect the GOP is in big trouble in Washington because it has ceased to stand for its principles.
I thought violent crimes were at 40 year lows right now.
2nd Amendment - wish she would have availed herself of it. Poor woman.
Some people must think a protective order can be used like a crucifix against a vampire: hold it up to his face and he will retreat.
I'd rather protect myself with a Winchester Model 12 Trench Gun.
May God rest her soul.
Too bad one of those folks in the apartment complex didn't have a gun.
Look at it this way....Things can only get better
My blood boils every time I read about such preventable deaths.
In other news, a house was burglarized despite a locked screen door.
What gets me is how many of these women go back to these guys putting themselves in danger. A former "friend", beat the heck out of his wife, broke her nose, knocked out several teeth, tried to strangle her... and she's now back with him.
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