Wife slain despite order of protection

October 19, 2005

BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter

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Howard Jones was a doctor whose license was revoked in Iowa in 1993 for improperly administering anesthetics.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.

Chicago Sun-Times, October 19, 2005