Michael Anthony Jones was a man whose life ended violently in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 3, 1976. Available accounts describe Jones as an acquaintance of Edward Lewis Lagrone, a young Fort Worth resident who would later be convicted of several additional murders. Jones’s age and ethnicity have not been reliably established in the available public record.
The confrontation began outside the Lucky Lady Lounge, where Jones and Lagrone became involved in an argument. The dispute escalated into a physical fight, transforming what may have begun as a personal disagreement into a deadly encounter. During the struggle, Lagrone produced a. 38-caliber revolver. He shot Jones in the head and then continued firing into his body, emptying the remaining rounds from the weapon. Jones died as a result of the shooting that day.
Police identified Lagrone as the suspected gunman and arrested him shortly after the killing. He was formally charged with murdering Jones, although he maintained that he was innocent. The case did not remain unresolved, and investigators did not publicly identify any additional gunmen or accomplices. The evidence gathered by authorities was sufficient for prosecutors to take the case to court.
Rather than having a jury determine the verdict, Lagrone waived his right to a jury trial. On April 29, 1977, reporting from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram documented that he received a 20-year prison sentence for the October 3 slaying. The conviction made Lagrone legally responsible for Jones’s death despite his continued denial of guilt.
Although the sentence was substantial, Lagrone served only about seven years before being released from prison in 1984. His release meant that he returned to the Fort Worth area long before the expiration of the original 20-year term. Years later, he committed another series of violent crimes, including the 1991 murders of three members of the Lloyd family. Those later killings eventually resulted in a capital-murder conviction, a death sentence and his execution by lethal injection in 2004.
The death of Michael Anthony Jones was therefore not an unsolved Fort Worth homicide. Edward Lewis Lagrone was arrested, charged, tried without a jury, convicted of the murder and sentenced to imprisonment. While many personal details about Jones have not been preserved in easily accessible public accounts, the known record shows that his death began with an argument outside a neighborhood lounge and ended with a sudden burst of gunfire. The man convicted of taking his life was released after serving only a fraction of his sentence and later went on to kill again.
