ID ID - Lonnie Jones, 13, Orofino, September 1951

Bumping....

Has any new information been found by Kline on the trips to the small town where this crime occurred?

Curious if anything has been found out on this case yet. Hopefully kline will post something new soon. I am waiting on pins and needles!!

GypsyPrincess said:

Curious if anything has been found out on this case yet. Hopefully kline will post something new soon. I am waiting on pins and needles!!

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Thanks for your interest in this one guys its haunted me for years.
Unfortunately ive run into a bit of a brick wall with this one...all the records LE has on this case were supposedly "Sent off to a State archive in Boise"
They were a little vague and confused as to how one might access said archive but I shall continue.
Ive also havent gotten anywhere with locating any of Lonnie's relatives in the Weippe area its possible none are left.
I was hoping seeing some investigative documents would shed light on who was looked at and to what extent such as the students who gave him a ride though one wouldnt think High School kids in the early '50's would be capable of homosexual rape and murder but who know's?
Ive also been kind of involved in another local cold case quite abit as of late in nearby Lewiston 'The Civic Theater Murder' case which has kind of diverted my attention a bit as well.There is an up coming documentary being worked on involving that one .My friend 'CrecentCrow and I were both interviewed on camera for it last summer.(She is a Cousin of one of the victims and I was in a theater production with the principal suspect) Its tentatively titled 'Confluence' and is to be released in 2011.
I havent forgotten Lonnie though and anything I turn up will be posted here immediatly.

kline said:

I was hoping seeing some investigative documents would shed light on who was looked at and to what extent such as the students who gave him a ride though one wouldnt think High School kids in the early '50's would be capable of homosexual rape and murder but who know's?

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Such murders have always occurred, what's changed is media coverage of violent crime including sex crimes. Following the butchery of WW2 it was as if the media had opted to paint a rosy picture of reality by avoiding to focus on violence and that is probably the reason why that decade -the 1950's- is still being perceived as a safe and quiet era. But statistics tell a different story. Perverts, including teenage ones, have always existed but society's perception of the problem varies with the times.

KarlK said:

Such murders have always occurred, what's changed is media coverage of violent crime including sex crimes. Following the butchery of WW2 it was as if the media had opted to paint a rosy picture of reality by avoiding to focus on violence and that is probably the reason why that decade -the 1950's- is still being perceived as a safe and quiet era. But statistics tell a different story. Perverts, including teenage ones, have always existed but society's perception of the problem varies with the times.

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Absolutely.our perceptions are certainly shaped by how movies and media choose to portray them.
Many people have a 'Happy Days' perception of the 1950's.
Certainly people back then werent bombarded with the rapacious type of information from every source like in 2010 but one doesnt have to dig any further then some of the forums right here on this site such as the 'Cold Case' Forum and the 'Missing' and 'Unidentified' forums to see there were attrocities being visited on innocent victims by the Sick and Evil that would rival the worst ones of today....Lonnie Jones 1951 murder being a prime example.

kline said:

Absolutely.our perceptions are certainly shaped by how movies and media choose to portray them.
Many people have a 'Happy Days' perception of the 1950's.
Certainly people back then werent bombarded with the rapacious type of information from every source like in 2010 but one doesnt have to dig any further then some of the forums right here on this site such as the 'Cold Case' Forum and the 'Missing' and 'Unidentified' forums to see there were attrocities being visited on innocent victims by the Sick and Evil that would rival the worst ones of today....Lonnie Jones 1951 murder being a prime example.

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Exactly. And even in later decades one's perception of violent crime would depend a lot on where one lived, back when local media was the main source of information. Up to my early teens I was raised in a small New England town (pop 12,000) where violent crime was very rare, perhaps one or two homicides per decade. Kids were allowed to wander about the neighborhood unsupervised even after dark, our parents knowing we'd be reasonably safe.

That was the early 1970's. Nowadays in the same town parents keep a much closer eye on their children but not because violent crime is on the rise locally (it's not), it's just that expanded exposure to crime-oriented media such as specialty channels has created a different atmosphere. It's not always easy to tell the actual level of threat at one's location.

With regards to the case in point I have no doubt that such a crime was unusual in small-town Idaho, and hopefully still is. I sympathize with those who hope it will be solved. In my small town my great-grandfather was the victim of a murder in the 1930's which was never solved and even though I never knew him it's been bugging me for years. I hope this boy's death will be explained one day to those seeking closure.

KarlK said:

Exactly. And even in later decades one's perception of violent crime would depend a lot on where one lived, back when local media was the main source of information. Up to my early teens I was raised in a small New England town (pop 12,000) where violent crime was very rare, perhaps one or two homicides per decade. Kids were allowed to wander about the neighborhood unsupervised even after dark, our parents knowing we'd be reasonably safe.

That was the early 1970's. Nowadays in the same town parents keep a much closer eye on their children but not because violent crime is on the rise locally (it's not), it's just that expanded exposure to crime-oriented media such as specialty channels has created a different atmosphere. It's not always easy to tell the actual level of threat at one's location.

With regards to the case in point I have no doubt that such a crime was unusual in small-town Idaho, and hopefully still is. I sympathize with those who hope it will be solved. In my small town my great-grandfather was the victim of a murder in the 1930's which was never solved and even though I never knew him it's been bugging me for years. I hope this boy's death will be explained one day to those seeking closure.

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Me too Karlk.
I wish I could print the contemporary news articles that reside in the morgue of our small local paper from 1951.
Its amazing how quickly the general consensus from locals and investigators formed that Lonnie's murder had to be the work of a 'transistory deviant'.
They could not concieve that it could be a local who was responsible.
(Its my firmly held opinion that it was.)
Their perception no doubt shaped the course of the investigation and of course contributed to it being an unsolved all these years.
The Lewiston Tribune just did an interesting article on an Orofino cold case dating from 1945 7 years before Lonnie Jones ( A man was killed in his rural home in front of his family by someone shooting him through the front window of his living room with a 22. caliber rifle.the murder remains unsolved.)
So rather bizzare crime certainly wasnt unheard of here but as you point out people werent so desensitized by the sheer volume of news about this kind of mayhem back then.
Ive kicked around the idea of writing about Lonnie's case for years and one of the things I wanted to explore was the impact on a small town of such people being confronted with such a horrific and savage crime.
It had already reached spooky urban legend status by the time I was a small child.
What kind of surprised me was that when I actually got around to investigating the facts of the case was how close the legend and spooky stories about it id heard passed on decades later stayed to what actually happened.
I wasnt expecting that.I guess that might also speak to the impact it had on this town.

kline said:

Me too Karlk.
I wish I could print the contemporary news articles that reside in the morgue of our small local paper from 1951.
Its amazing how quickly the general consensus from locals and investigators formed that Lonnie's murder had to be the work of a 'transistory deviant'.
They could not concieve that it could be a local who was responsible.
(Its my firmly held opinion that it was.)

Their perception no doubt shaped the course of the investigation and of course contributed to it being an unsolved all these years.

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Without being familiar with case I would nevertheless tend to agree with you that the killer was more likely than not a local, and that outright denial of that possibility certainly hampered the investigation to a great extent. Blaming a vague transient made it difficult to investigate from the start and practically earmarked the case for shelving.

The Lewiston Tribune just did an interesting article on an Orofino cold case dating from 1945 7 years before Lonnie Jones ( A man was killed in his rural home in front of his family by someone shooting him through the front window of his living room with a 22. caliber rifle.the murder remains unsolved.)

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A .22? That is a little unusual if killing the victim was the intent, with such a small caliber one has to know what they're doing. I presume a professional hit was ruled out? I mention it because that caliber is sometimes used by hit men, although it requires considerable talent. But it mostly happens in urban settings where suppression is desirable. That being said, back in 1945 there would have been no shortage of newly discharged skilled snipers but a military type would likely not have used a .22

Another possibility, was the stray bullet hypothesis considered? Depending on the weapon used and wind conditions a high-velocity 22 LR can travel quite a bit, was the distance from which the shot was fired determined at the time? Did the witnesses actually hear the shot?

Ive kicked around the idea of writing about Lonnie's case for years and one of the things I wanted to explore was the impact on a small town of such people being confronted with such a horrific and savage crime.
It had already reached spooky urban legend status by the time I was a small child.

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Sounds like an excellent idea. I, for one, would be greatly interested in such a story.

What kind of surprised me was that when I actually got around to investigating the facts of the case was how close the legend and spooky stories about it id heard passed on decades later stayed to what actually happened.
I wasnt expecting that.I guess that might also speak to the impact it had on this town.

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I'm a little surprised as well, in my own experience with my g-grandfather's case I found that legend and fact often did not match. Even those family member I've spoken with who were alive at the time -all gone now- did not all have the same recollection of the event. But this may simply be because that murder was not as heinous as that of that boy in Idaho.

Yeah I really expected that a lot of dramatic licence would have occurred over the years by the time I heard the story (probably the late 60's my mother and my aunts knew Lonnie and saw him that day at the fair.)
I know how skewed stories can become,The other case Im involved in The Civic Theater Murders in Lewiston has also somewhat acheived local urban legend status alot of which divurges wildly from the facts depending on which person is telling it.
In the 1945 case it was determined that the killer used a post on the fence surrounding the Bonner's rural home to steady the rifle due to some foot prints left in a light dusting of snow.
The prints led up the hill (upper Ford's Creek is located on very steep hillside) but dissappeared according to contemporary reports.
and I agree a .22 is an unlikely weapon unless in that very rural enviroment that was the only rifle available.
Its hard to say.

kline said:

Yeah I really expected that a lot of dramatic licence would have occurred over the years by the time I heard the story (probably the late 60's my mother and my aunts knew Lonnie and saw him that day at the fair.)
I know how skewed stories can become,The other case Im involved in The Civic Theater Murders in Lewiston has also somewhat acheived local urban legend status alot of which divurges wildly from the facts depending on which person is telling it.

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Yeah, it's a natural tendency we have to insert our own opinions into unsolved cases and then we forget what we have put into it and recall it like fact. I'm not immune to it myself

In the 1945 case it was determined that the killer used a post on the fence surrounding the Bonner's rural home to steady the rifle due to some foot prints left in a light dusting of snow.
The prints led up the hill (upper Ford's Creek is located on very steep hillside) but dissappeared according to contemporary reports.
and I agree a .22 is an unlikely weapon unless in that very rural enviroment that was the only rifle available.
Its hard to say.

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My first thought was indeed the squirrel rifle as a weapon of opportunity but one would think that if such had been the case it would have been solved eventually. From what you describe it appears to me that the shooter did not care about leaving tracks. Either he/she was careless, lucky or perhaps an outsider with no direct link to the victim.

At first I had pictured the event taking place on farmland but from what I gather Orofino is a logging town not unlike those we have upstate here. Such places do get pretty rough at times and many transients employed as casual labor pass through them. If a local had wanted to get at Mr Bonner I suppose it is possible he/she hired a transient to do the job for them. This would make it the more difficult to solve. Pure speculation on my part since I am not familiar with the details. I only read a snippet on the Lewiston Tribune's website but without a subscription I had no access to the article itself.

KarlK said:

Yeah, it's a natural tendency we have to insert our own opinions into unsolved cases and then we forget what we have put into it and recall it like fact. I'm not immune to it myself



My first thought was indeed the squirrel rifle as a weapon of opportunity but one would think that if such had been the case it would have been solved eventually. From what you describe it appears to me that the shooter did not care about leaving tracks. Either he/she was careless, lucky or perhaps an outsider with no direct link to the victim.

At first I had pictured the event taking place on farmland but from what I gather Orofino is a logging town not unlike those we have upstate here. Such places do get pretty rough at times and many transients employed as casual labor pass through them. If a local had wanted to get at Mr Bonner I suppose it is possible he/she hired a transient to do the job for them. This would make it the more difficult to solve. Pure speculation on my part since I am not familiar with the details. I only read a snippet on the Lewiston Tribune's website but without a subscription I had no access to the article itself.

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Yeah that area of upper Ford's Creek is rough terrain,seriously most of it sits on a 45 degree slope with a few level areas that stick out before plunging downhill again toward the Clearwater River at the bottom of the canyon,much of it heavily forested with Ponderosa Pine.
I guess Mr. Bonner worked as a mechanic in town and certainly wasnt wealthy.
there are still quite a few members of the Bonner family here in Orofino,I played music with Jake Bonner for almost seven years at a local church and the family sponsors a Gospel/Bluegrass festival every July that draws musicians from all over the Northwest called the "Bonner Mountain Music Festival"
Next time I speak with Jake Ill ask him what he knows about the case.
I had heard the story for years but didnt know it was a Bonner who was murdered until that Lewiston Tribune article you mentioned came out.

Kline, have there been any new developments on this case?

His hands were bound by a handerchief ? Belonging to him,or the killer(s) ? Any DNA on that handkerchief ? Or anywhere else on his body,I wonder ?

The use of the handkerchief sounds like this was an opportunistic murder ; the killer had to improvise, bind his hands with whatever was immediately available...He didn't set out to kill anyone...MOO

I would hope that the 2 teenagers were questioned very,very closely...MOO

Interesting case - wonder if there is any physical evidence preserved?

I honestly believe in my heart that a carney did this and not a local. Someone need to track the trail of that particular carnival and see if there were similar crimes or just crimes period committed wherever that carnival set up shop

What was the explanation the teenagers gave for dropping Lonnie off at that particular site? What did he tell them when he was in their car?

Look on page 1-I think you will find more about the teens there

This case is a long way from where I am, but surfing through unsolved cold cases, I read the background, and thought I'd add my two cents. Poor kid was probably very trusting back in those days, and coming from a rural area where people rely on their neighbors, he most likely never imagined what was in store for him until it was way too late. Very sad.

I think the teens could easily have been telling the truth. Just as easily though, they could have been lying, and Lonnie could have left the carnival with them a lot earlier than the time they claim they gave him a lift. I'm guessing they'd also been to the carnival and were returning home to Kamiah. If they were telling the truth, they probably had a deadline to be home by so dropped Johnny as far as they could take him, Greer.

I looked at the 4 locations on the map, Orofino, Greer, Wieppe, and Kamiah. This is a very rural area with few people. Even looking at Google Maps, there was not a single shot of a vehicle on Hwy 12 between Orofino and Kamiah.

Why on such a lightly traveled road, would a trucker have to leave the side of the highway to travel down a deeply rutted road to look for a place to relieve himself? I'm guessing we're talking about someone in a pick-up? 18 wheelers don't take to rutted roads easily nor do other, smaller, but still large trucks. Was the man in a pick-up, and his occupation was that of a truck driver or was he simply referred to as a truck driver because he was driving a pick-up? Was he on the job at the time, and if he was driving a truck larger than a pick-up was he the owner or did the truck actually belong to the company he worked for? Would he risk getting his employer's truck stuck just to take a pee?

I was a child back in the fifties, and I remember people even stopping by the sides of freeways to relieve themselves or to let junior out to pee. It was not all that uncommon a sight to see back then. Men didn't think anything of doing this, IMO, back in the day. You could see a guy standing out by his vehicle, his back to the road, and you pretty much could guess he was watering the plants.

Wish someone up that way could track down the name of the person who discovered Johnny's body, via an old newspaper account perhaps. I think that person is very much of interest in this case.

Lonnie O'Dell Jones b. Nov. 1, 1938 d. Sept. 23, 1951. He is buried in the Weippe Cemetery, and is the only person with the sir name of Jones interred there.

scriptgirl said:

I honestly believe in my heart that a carney did this and not a local. Someone need to track the trail of that particular carnival and see if there were similar crimes or just crimes period committed wherever that carnival set up shop

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Sometimes I just HATE my last name! (And no, I was not alive in 1951)