On a Tuesday in late April of 2022, the quiet town of Hartselle, Alabama, was unsettled by the discovery of a local man's death. E.F. 'Frank' Jones, an 85-year-old male, was found deceased in his home on Bonnie Dale Lane Northwest. The grim discovery was made by Hartselle Police officers who were responding to a harassment complaint at the residence on April 26th.
It was soon determined that Jones had died from apparent gunshot wounds, turning a quiet neighborhood into a crime scene.
The investigation into the death of the retired Western Electric Regional Manager moved swiftly. On the very same day that Mr. Jones's body was found, authorities identified and arrested a suspect. Herbert Whitney Thompson Jr., a 74-year-old man, was taken into custody and charged with the murder of Frank Jones. Thompson was subsequently booked into the Morgan County Jail, with his bond set at $100,000, which he later posted for his release.
The legal proceedings continued to unfold in the months that followed. In May of the next year, a Morgan County grand jury formally indicted Herbert Whitney Thompson Jr. for murder. The indictment alleged that Jones had been fatally shot with a revolver. An arraignment for Thompson was scheduled for August 7, 2023. A private graveside service for E.F. 'Frank' Jones was held on April 30, 2022, at Hartselle Memory Gardens, where his family, including his wife, Ann Blevins Jones, and two daughters, Deborah J. Thompson and Donna Jones Burnett, gathered to mourn their loss.
