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

[kline]

Amazing Case.. took me close to allmost all weekend reading and investigating this case..

What is so great is how good and wonderfull every one of you worked together and now we got a good solid case to work with.

My hat is off to every one of you for such a wonderfull job.

The dump site is strange to myself. I live around Logging Operations and understand all the dead end road's and isolated places and roads due to logging..

Even if Lonnie was not raped I still feel this is a sexual base case.

Thats been one of the things that has struck all of us I think,the dumpsite.
Even in 1951 at night choosing to execute Lonnie by the side of the main through Highway in the area,driving him to that spot and getting him out of the car and marching him to the side of the road and killing him there in such a savage and bloody manner...
Your right.There are literally millions of isolated logging roads and places even now close by where he could have shot Lonnie out of a cannon to the accompaniment of a 20 piece brass band where no one would have heard or seen it and it would have been extremely easy to conceal his body where he would never have been found...it would have been far easier (and safer) to do that. But he didnt.Why?
Thank You, by the way for being interested enough to read through all of our posts!

 

[kline]

I know what you mean...but he was found fully clothed. I wonder if there were any semen traces on him or his clothing ? It could have been that his killer could not rape him ( maybe too drunk to do it,or for some other reason ).

I wonder if the logger actually knew Lonnie ? I cannot figure the level of savagery here...

I couldnt agree more.
Now granted in 1951 folks hadnt seen as much of this kind of thing as we have in 2012 but if this isnt a sexually motivated crime ill eat my boot.
I dont know how much 'trauma' to put it delicately the second examiner needed to qualify what happened to Lonnie as rape but just how much 'fight' could a 12 year old give a full grown man holding a knife to his throat?
And yes maybe Lonnie's killer was unable to do what he wanted to(ive always felt in my gut that Lonnie's killer closed one of the bars before heading back up the hill and encountering Lonnie.
Might that explain the savagery of Lonnie's death?
And yes I would think in Weippe the odds of Wood knowing Lonnie at least by sight would be pretty high.

 

[Robin Hood]

I guess you may be right about the files and clothes, but you never know.

We have a case here in UK with a similar time frame, look here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...rival-TV-thriller-identified-killers-DNA.html

 

[Robin Hood]

Thats been one of the things that has struck all of us I think,the dumpsite.
Even in 1951 at night choosing to execute Lonnie by the side of the main through Highway in the area,driving him to that spot and getting him out of the car and marching him to the side of the road and killing him there in such a savage and bloody manner...
Your right.There are literally millions of isolated logging roads and places even now close by where he could have shot Lonnie out of a cannon to the accompaniment of a 20 piece brass band where no one would have heard or seen it and it would have been extremely easy to conceal his body where he would never have been found...it would have been far easier (and safer) to do that. But he didnt.Why?
Thank You, by the way for being interested enough to read through all of our posts!

Unless you KNEW his mother and G.parents would want to bury him.

 

[kline]

I guess you may be right about the files and clothes, but you never know.

We have a case here in UK with a similar time frame, look here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...rival-TV-thriller-identified-killers-DNA.html

Facinating!!!
My Great Grandfather on my moms side immigrated from Cardiff Wales in 1899.
Its so cool that technology has reached the point where DNA that old can still give us clues and tell us something about a case as old as that one and Lonnie's' .
I hope they get somewhere with her case.
It would be nice if they kept Lonnie's cloths.
And your right I think one thing we can be certain of is for whatever reason Lonnie's killer wanted his body found.

 

[Ausgirl]

Then again it is very much part and parcel with an 'execution' scenario and marching someone to the edge of the road and cutting their throat from ear to ear definitly qualifies as a cold blooded execution.

I wind up reading so many interesting (and awful) things, while researching these cases. Prisoners of war, executed on their knees, blindfolded. The way Lonnie's body lay, his knees under him, has an odd parallel with those stories.

Then there's the guy who bound, blindfolded and murdered a woman who would have given birth two days later. He'd been stalking her for days and made direct contact with her, but was a total stranger. Her clothes were torn off, but there was no rape. Why'd he do it? He was nuts is why.

Robin, Muriel's story just wrenched my heart. I hope they find her killer.

Kline, he did want Lonnie found. Good call on the possible reason, Robin. This is some food for thought, for sure.

 

[Ausgirl]

Kline, forgive me, but your Aunt made me chuckle. She sounds like a character.

Gossip can be cruel, and is often very wrong. But as often it can be right on the ball, too.

In small towns, it's really hard to keep things secret. But then, it's hard to get the truth out of anyone, also - people know, but they don't want to talk about it. That seems to be how it is, no matter where in the world you are.

Reading that article Robin linked has given me another perspective on why it's so important to try to get to the bottom of these cases -- that poor man, only Lonnie's age back then, just a boy who saw Muriel as she went home, and all those years he suffered suspicion and gossip... his reaction really got to me.

The dead aren't the only victims of these crimes.

Their families suffer of course, but so do all the people who for years are never looked at the same way, and never can have peace of mind knowing what people are thinking, though they are innocent. They have families, too.

These crimes ripple out to hurt so many people. So even if the perp is long dead, knowing who they are must help to heal some of that.

 

[liz b.]

Maybe the level of rage was because the killer was unable to rape Lonnie ?

 

[kline]

Kline, forgive me, but your Aunt made me chuckle. She sounds like a character.

Gossip can be cruel, and is often very wrong. But as often it can be right on the ball, too.

In small towns, it's really hard to keep things secret. But then, it's hard to get the truth out of anyone, also - people know, but they don't want to talk about it. That seems to be how it is, no matter where in the world you are.

Reading that article Robin linked has given me another perspective on why it's so important to try to get to the bottom of these cases -- that poor man, only Lonnie's age back then, just a boy who saw Muriel as she went home, and all those years he suffered suspicion and gossip... his reaction really got to me.

The dead aren't the only victims of these crimes.

Their families suffer of course, but so do all the people who for years are never looked at the same way, and never can have peace of mind knowing what people are thinking, though they are innocent. They have families, too.

These crimes ripple out to hurt so many people. So even if the perp is long dead, knowing who they are must help to heal some of that.

Oh boy,she was a character Ausgirl!
And you are absolutely right about the effect crimes like this have on a community,a whole ripple effect.
With this one and the nature of it...I cant imagine having a small community in 1951 having to come to grips with something like this.
And the kids...There no way to calculate what it did to the way they viewed the world ever after .
Im sure Lonnie's killer is dead but your right its not too late to put a name and a face on him.

 

[kline]

Maybe the level of rage was because the killer was unable to rape Lonnie ?

If its absolutely true that penetration of that type did not occur (which im far from convinced of) you may very well be right.
That had occured to me as well.

 

[scriptgirl]

Kline, updates?

 

[Robin Hood]

I was researching another murder when I came across another person having been charged under the heading of a 'morals charge' I followed it through the news of the day and the guy had been charged under the 'sodomy' act on a minor. I still keep being drawn to Orrin C wood and his 'morals charge'

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...e+murder&hl=en

 

[kline]

I was researching another murder when I came across another person having been charged under the heading of a 'morals charge' I followed it through the news of the day and the guy had been charged under the 'sodomy' act on a minor. I still keep being drawn to Orrin C wood and his 'morals charge'

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...e+murder&hl=en

Yeah Wood's Morals Charge was an eye opener for me as well ...
and the idea of him being cleared on the premise of a 1951 Sodium Penathol test administered here in Clearwater County by God knows who with God knows what credentials under who knows what conditions to someone who is possibly a sociopathic child murderer.....lets say im not quite as convinced as the authorities back then seem to have been.
That apparently the man who just happened upon the body of a raped and butchered child gets arrested for a morals charge against a minor not three weeks later...that somehow just a non-related Non Sequiter??
I have a problem featuring that..."Truth Serum" not withstanding...

 

[scriptgirl]

Yeah, I smell a rat. Kline, what's going on with those police files?

 

[Robin Hood]

''But are these truth serums effective? Do they produce any useful results?

The short answer is, no. The long answer is “Noooooooooooo!” while running in slow-motion''

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-truth-about-truth-serum/

 

[kline]

Yeah, I smell a rat. Kline, what's going on with those police files?

Oh typical.My guy is on vacation in Reno Neveda.

 

[kline]

''But are these truth serums effective? Do they produce any useful results?

The short answer is, no. The long answer is “Noooooooooooo!” while running in slow-motion''

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-truth-about-truth-serum/

From years of working in Corrections and the Mental Health Service Ive met scores of borderlines and Psychopaths who could take a polygraph test while sipping a Sodium Penathol Smoothie through a straw and pass with flying colors.
I mean its not impossible Wood's legal troubles could be coincidence but coincidence of that magnitude makes me very suspicious.
And in 1951 folks probably had alot more faith in things like 'Truth Serum'.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

" Fingers skinned almost to the bone " might well indicate defensive wounds, from using the hands to deflect a knife attack. MOO in this case,it sounds savage and somewhat prolonged MOO Where would this attack have taken place ?

The no recent sexual assault comment could mean that this child had been penetrated previously, but not at the time that he was killed. ( Graphic,sorry). MOO

Looks like a tiny bit of the picture is being filled in...MOO

Fingers scraped to the bone, imagine a kid getting the truck or car door opened and trying to bail out while it was moving and some guy holding on to his leg. Guy gets the truck stopped, slides over and drags the kid off the edge of the road and cuts his throat.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

When I read the very first post I thought the trucker who found him did it.

 

[katydid23]

My main two POI's would have to be the stepfather and the logger who 'found' Lonnie's body.

But if it was the logger that committed the crime, WHY would he come back later and 'discover' the body? Was it just for the thrill of doing so? It seems kind of dangerous for him to insert himself into the investigation like that. But then again it was a dangerous place to leave the body as well, so maybe he liked the thrill of being so close to being caught.

As for the stepfather, there are some things that make me suspicious too. His occupation seems to tie-in, but I wonder about the timeline. Where was he later that night. I wonder what time he arrived back at his home. It is weird that they saw each other at 4:30 and they didn't make any plans for Lonnie to get back home that evening.

And the stepdad would have a zillion opportunities to kill the boy and hide him somewhere. Why do it that night and leave him so out in the open? All I can think of is that maybe the boy saw his stepfather doing something the stepfather didnt want out in the open. Like being with another woman or a man or something. And maybe the stepfather thought that he could stage it making it look like a random crazy killer did the crime.