FL Pensacola, Escambia County- White Male, 84- Poss. name, James Ellsworth Jones, nickname Jason McCann- UP151281- Jan 29, 2019

[PatLaurel]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Circumstances of Recovery: An 84-year-old white male was pronounced in hospice care under a suspected false identity.

 

[PayrollNerd]

But was he at a facility or in a residence? If he was in a facility, hospital or nursing home, wouldnt Medicare be billed under his SSN??

 

[PatLaurel]

But was he at a facility or in a residence? If he was in a facility, hospital or nursing home, wouldnt Medicare be billed under his SSN??

Maybe he was using a fake SSN?

I couldn't find anything under both names except for this: 324. James Ellsworth Jones | Federal Bureau of Investigation

 

[PayrollNerd]

So he was wanted. Changed his “known by name” to avoid detection. Guess he didn’t want to die in prison.

 

[PatLaurel]

So he was wanted. Changed his “known by name” to avoid detection. Guess he didn’t want to die in prison.

The FBI one was apprehended in 1974 and sentenced to life in prison. I don't know if he was released at some point. My guess is that our John Doe was using the fugitive's name?

 

[PatLaurel]

Just noticed that the “United States Marshals Service – Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force” is also listed in the case contacts. Could our John Doe actually be James Ellsworth Jones, living under the alias “Jason McCann”? But if that were the case, wouldn’t LE have his fingerprints and DNA on file?

Since NamUs doesn’t list eye or hair color, or any distinguishing features, even though the face is listed as recognizable, I emailed the ME to ask if the John Doe had any tattoos. According to newspaper articles from 1972, James Ellsworth Jones had a tattoo.

 

[PatLaurel]

I couldn't find any info on JEJ and there is only a person on Ancestry with the same name and age but died in 2005.
Based on newspaper articles, I was able to put together a rough timeline of his whereabouts and legal history:

Born: 1934/1935

1971​

• Last known address: George Street, New Milford, PA.

1972​

May

• Described as "transient hippie-type", ex- convict who served a sentence for bank robbery.

June

• Wanted by the FBI for an armed robbery charge in Pennsylvania.
• Also charged with robbing two policemen in Orange County, NY.
• Charged with murder in West Virginia.
• Charged with kidnapping in Virginia.
• Listed as having no fixed address.

August

• Arrested in Milford after falling out of a tree he was hiding in and knocking himself out.
• Taken to St. Francis Hospital in Port Jervis, NY.

1973​

April

• Held in jail in Roanoke, VA.

June

• Indicted in federal court for assaulting a U.S. marshal.

October

• Escaped from the county jail in Staunton, VA.

1974​

April

• Added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives. Considered armed and extremely dangerous.
• Description: 5'8"–5'10", blue eyes, brown hair, scar on left wrist, tattoo of a heart with “Carol” on his upper left arm.
• Had been using SSN 199-26-9923 for jobs like assembly worker, electrician, roofer, salesman, and truck driver.

June

• Arrested in Coral Gables, Florida, by an off duty police officer.

July

• Held at the federal detention center in Atlanta, GA.

October

• Appealed his life sentence.

After October 1974, there’s no further mention of him that I can find.

It would be helpful if NamUs updated the case, since the John Doe had a recognizable face.

MOO JMO

 

[PatLaurel]

JEJ's name is misspelled and that's why I couldn't find him.

BOP: Federal Inmates By Name

Name: JAMES ELLSWORT JONES
Register Number: 97036-131
Age: 91
Race: White
Sex: Male
Not in BOP Custody as of: 10/04/2001

 

[bluefantastic]

Tbh I kind of have mixed feelings when someone dies of natural causes (particularly old age) in their own home or a hospital and it gets uploaded to Doe services because they weren’t using their birth name. It feels like a waste of resources when there’s so many people who are genuinely unidentified after a murder or accidental death. And I would think that in many of these cases, the reason they were using an assumed name is because they didn’t *want* their blood family to come looking for them.

 

[PatLaurel]

the reason they were using an assumed name is because they didn’t *want* their blood family to come looking for them.

Or, they were trying to start over after repenting for something they’d done in the past... People repent. I don’t condone any kind of crime, but I do believe some criminals are capable of remorse.


I don't have mixed feelings. Dignity isn’t selective, and to me, every Doe deserves their name back. BBM and MOO JMO

 

[bluefantastic]

I think people also have the right to use whatever name they want. It’s not undignified to go by a chosen name rather than the one you were born by. Many people, including transgender people and domestic violence victims, face institutional roadblocks to legally changing their names. For many people, having their legal name associated with them in public would be more humiliating than having their privacy respected. And I don’t think it’s the government’s business to sleuth out every single person who uses a chosen name either.

 

[PatLaurel]

And I don’t think it’s the government’s business to sleuth out every single person who uses a chosen name either.

But it is the "government business" to give Does their names back. That's the focus here, not general name choice for whatever reason. MOO JMO

 

[The4TierBridge]

Tbh I kind of have mixed feelings when someone dies of natural causes (particularly old age) in their own home or a hospital and it gets uploaded to Doe services because they weren’t using their birth name. It feels like a waste of resources when there’s so many people who are genuinely unidentified after a murder or accidental death. And I would think that in many of these cases, the reason they were using an assumed name is because they didn’t *want* their blood family to come looking for them.

Then it's a very good thing you're nobody important then!

That mindset is entirely antithetical and irrelevant to the facts at hand (a body which can not be positively identified; the circumstances under which this may occur don't really matter to whomever has to hold them in the morgue or in an evidence locker).

 

[PatLaurel]

Another bit of information about JEJ: in the summer of 1969, his three year old son wandered away from home and drowned in the Delaware River. This tragedy may have influenced the path his life took. At some point during his trial, JEJ experienced amnesia. If it wasn’t a legal defense strategy, it could very well have been caused by the trauma he went through.

All this is to say that there was a Mrs. James E. Jones in 1969. She may no longer be alive, but I wonder whether they had any descendants who could identify JEJ from a photo or from specific physical characteristics, like his scar or tattoo, or who may have kept in contact with him while he was serving his sentence.

MOO JMO

 

[PatLaurel]

And another one with a different photo: James Ellsworth Jones- FBI