In the summer of 1977 two escaped convicts set off a multistate crime spree that ended in multiple murders and left Franklinton, Louisiana grieving. Ray Jones, 65, and his companion Alton Wilson, 66, were reported missing on June 28, 1977 after the pair vanished during the period Ruiz and Van Denton were on the run. The escapees, Paul Ruiz and Earl Van Denton, had broken out of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on June 23, 1977 and were linked to kidnappings and killings across Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

Jones and Wilson’s fate remained unknown until April 29, 1978, when their bodies were found inside a pickup truck submerged in a gravel pit near Franklinton. The truck belonged to Gerald Tiffee, believed to have been an earlier victim of the same escaping pair. Ruiz and Van Denton were captured on July 8, 1977 in Portland, Oregon; they were later convicted in Arkansas for the murders of two law enforcement officers and received death sentences. Were there people in Franklinton who knew Ray Jones or remember the days after the escape who can add details about his last known movements?