Penn Jones, Jr.

Who was Penn Jones, Jr.?

William Penn Jones, Jr. was an editor of the Midlothian Mirror and one of the earliest John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists.

Jones was born in Annona, Texas, the son of sharecroppers. He was reported to have "rode the rails" with hobos during the Great Depression and to have washed dishes and picked black-eyed peas to work his way through the University of Texas at Austin. Jones was in the United States Army Reserve at the onset of World War II. He served in the European theater of World War II and rose to the rank of captain. In 1946, Jones purchased the Midlothian Mirror for $4,000; he eventually sold the newspaper in 1974. In 1963, Penn received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism. Hugh Aynesworth was among those who nominated him for the award.

Jones was known for being an early critic of the Warren Commission's report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy and for alleging that 150 people connected to the assassination may have died under mysterious circumstances. In the 1980s, Jones co-edited The Continuing Inquiry newsletter with Gary Mack of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. He also self-published Forgive My Grief, a four-volume work on the assassination of Kennedy.