Arthur Gerald Jones was a Chicago commodities broker living in the tony northern suburb of Highland Park. He had a 17-year marriage, three children, and he held a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade. On May 11, 1979, he was reported missing from his home.
According to an affidavit filed in Nevada, Jones’ wife told investigators that about six months before he disappeared, he lost his job at the board of trade as a commodities trader and had to sell off his seat to pay off thousands of dollars in gambling debts. She said he also forged her name on a second mortgage application as he tried to get more cash to pay off his debts, according to the affidavit.
Jones’ wife last saw him on May 11, 1979. She told a Tribune reporter in 1979 that her husband “was not himself” in the months before he disappeared and particularly “jittery” after the murder of his friend and fellow trader Carl Gaimari.
Jones has admitted that he paid a friend $800 to create a fake identity for him, and he took that identity to Florida to try to create a new life for himself.
It’s not clear how fingerprints were obtained, but investigators connected Jones to a larceny arrest in Boca Raton in 1979, two arrests in Naples in 1980 and another arrest in Palm Beach, that same year. He was identified as Richard Lage in those arrests.
Jones then moved on to calling himself Richard Sanders, and was arrested in Santa Barbara, in October 1980. His fingerprints were connected to later arrests in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Westminster. He was arrested in Henderson, NV, as Joseph Richard Sandelli in 1992.
Despite his brushes with the law, Jones was able to land a job at the Rampart Casino in Las Vegas as a sports bookie. He held this job for ten years.
Because he disappeared without a trace, his family filed a petition to declare him legally dead, and that petition was granted in 1986. His family received social security benefits totaling approximately $47,000, a sum which he is going to have to pay back to the Social Security Administration.
Arthur Gerald Jones, now 73, plans to plead guilty to felony identity fraud in Nevada to avoid going to trial on more serious charges.
Jones has been free on $20,000 bail since shortly after his arrest July 19.
Source and Photo: Chicago Tribune
