For a decade, the murder of Ronald A. Jones remained a cold and silent file in the records of the Richmond Police Department. The 31-year-old man’s life was cut short on October 6, 1980, in a violent encounter that would only be understood years later as the first known killing by a serial murderer. The initial investigation offered few leads, leaving a family to grieve without answers and a community unaware that a killer was just beginning his violent spree.
On that Monday in early
autumn, Ronald’s path crossed with a man named Willie Ben Jones. The two men, who were not related, went to Willie Ben Jones's apartment in Richmond, Virginia. An altercation broke out, and Willie Ben Jones fatally stabbed Ronald. After the killing, he discarded Ronald's body behind the apartment building, where it was later discovered. For years, the case languished, with no suspect identified and no justice for Ronald.
The silence surrounding the case was finally broken in November 1990, when Willie Ben Jones, a Richmond native with a history of alcohol-fueled violence, began to confess. In a bizarre series of events, he approached at least three different police stations to admit to multiple murders, but his claims were initially dismissed. Determined to be heard, he then traveled to the FBI offices in Washington, D.C., where he confessed to four killings to an agent. This time, authorities listened.
Detectives were dispatched to verify his claims, starting with his most recent victim, Shirley Marie Jones, whom he had killed in February of that year. They found her body hidden in a trunk, confirming the grim truth of his confession. With this corroboration, investigators began to unravel a decade of violence. Jones was extradited back to Virginia and charged with the murders of Ronald A. Jones, Marinda Zimmerman, and Shirley Marie Jones.
Willie Ben Jones also confessed to killing a fourth woman, Priscilla Louise Leeper, in 1988, though he was never prosecuted for her death. The confirmed victims spanned a decade of terror. A year after killing Ronald, in November 1981, Jones strangled 24-year-old Marinda Zimmerman during an argument and left her body in an alley. Nearly nine years later, in February 1990, he strangled 36-year-old Shirley Marie Jones.
During his trial, the motive behind the brutal slayings became chillingly clear. Richmond Detective Steve A. Dalton testified that Jones stated he killed his victims because "they had to be punished." Jones targeted individuals he believed to be sex workers, appointing himself their judge and executioner. On March 27, 1991, Willie Ben Jones pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder.
On May 14, 1991, a judge sentenced him to the maximum penalty: 60 years in prison, consisting of three consecutive 20-year sentences for each life he had taken. Under Virginia's "three-time-loser" law, he was not eligible for parole. The conviction closed the cases on three homicides that had haunted the city of Richmond, finally bringing a measure of legal resolution to the families of Ronald A. Jones, Marinda Zimmerman, and Shirley Marie Jones. The confession and subsequent conviction ensured that the man responsible for their deaths would be held accountable for his decade-long reign of violence.
