Palm Beach Mystery Lady

By Fefi Monje

Joy Jones was a daughter of a dirt-poor sharecropper. The fantasy world she created for herself and the three personalities that took her place at times prompted you to question the truthfulness of her stories. She fantasizes her life the way she wanted you to believe. She married Sir Charles Mitchell in Palm Beach, Florida. He passed away leaving her his fortune. She purchased a mansion in Mobile, Alabama, to be near her estranged family. She wanted to make amends for her years of silence and absence from them. After arriving in Mobile a few weeks, she became missing from her home, and it was assumed that she had been murdered and taken away in the missing bedsheets. Her mattress was blood-soaked and fingernail tips scattered around the bedroom indicating a fight. After mass publicity for seven years, she was declared dead. FBI continued searching and finally found the killer and received a confession.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Mar 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781466980785

Fefi Monje

Fefi Monjé has a degree in business administration plus writing credits, is author of her franchised system of teaching cosmetology and charm and modeling schools, a fashion commentator plus script writer. Her business experience with people plus her world travels as a military wife, where she met interesting people, fueled the fire for her desire to write. Many have asked her to write about them. She warned, “Be careful what you wish for, you could appear in print.” She is the widow of an air force colonel. She writes from her home in Mobile, Alabama, and lives among her memories.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The JJ Sharecroppers

A T AN EARLY AGE, Joy was clinging on to the thought, Just because I was born poor does not mean that I have to die poor.

Ah, the sweet mystery of Joy! She was as complicated and mysterious as she was beautiful and sweet.

Joy had high ideals and seemed determined to have a better life than her upbringing. She wanted fame, fortune, and respect. I’m not sure in what order, but marrying a wealthy man seemed to be the most paramount thing on her mind.

Joy Jones was born on January 14, 1934, in a small rural community of Plantation Grove, Mississippi. Her parents were Jane and Jacob Jones. The family name was distinctive, as each member had the initials JJ. The farm, or plantation as it was referred to at times, was eventually known as the JJ Farm.

It was difficult for the parents trying to raise ten children in depressed times. They were dirt-poor sharecroppers. They raised cotton, when cotton was king, and corn. They also had a truck farming business of vegetables when they were in season, plus eggs and chickens. In the winter months, the butchering of the beef and hogs were done. The men cut the trees in the forest, thinning them out as required periodically. The logs were taken to the sawmill to be cut into lumber. They also had a sugarcane mill and made syrup during the sugarcane season. Of course, they made white lightning liquor in a secret secluded spot way back deep into the woods. There was no such thing as time off for vacations. There was something to do at all times.

Joy announced to the family, I see no percentage in being dubbed the best cotton picker, or the best cotton-hoeing person in Mississippi.

Although it was well known in the area that Joy always won the contest in picking the most cotton in a given period of time, she let the family know that it would not be her full-time vocation.

The family lived in an old unfinished farmhouse that had ten bedrooms. The old farmhouse was started by Dr. Black, who inherited the huge farm and acreage from his grandfather. He started the huge home with the hopes of living in it with his new bride but was forced to stop building because his bride refused to live in such a lonesome, isolated, poverty-stricken environment. She was a city girl and wanted no part of the primitive country living. They remained in Laurel, Mississippi, and Dr. Black continued his practice.

Dr. Black had heard his father speak highly of the Jones family over the years, and he approached Jacob about living in the home and sharecropping the land. The Jones family definitely needed the large home to accommodate their family. The rich farmland was a bonus too, plus the logging business would keep them occupied in the winter months. They agreed to farm the land 50/50 sharecropper-style.

From an architectural standpoint, the home was quite pretentious in style from the outside. However, to aptly describe the home in general, you would have to say that it was the beginning of an unfinished structure. It was completely void of paint on the exterior and the interior. It resembled a barn when you walked inside, or an industrial building. It had eleven-foot ceilings. The intended baths had no fixtures and no plumbing. These five intended baths turned into storage areas. It had a fireplace in every room for heating, and kerosene lamps were used for lighting. A well and a pump were located in the rear of the house that supplied the water.

Since the home had no plumbing, an outdoor privy was built down the hill from the house. It was known as the three-holer. That meant that it had three places if three people wanted to go at the same time. It was often expressed as Two is company, and three is a crowd.

The privy was one of a kind in the community. It had a tar paper roof, and the roof was shaped like a steeple. The siding and framing was rough primitive boards. It was well known for the elaborate wallpaper in it. Someone was creative and wallpapered it with fancy Victorian wallpaper. The design was dancing girls, heavily made up, upswept hairdos with fancy large combs, and fancy pink and purple plumes used as fans to conceal the lack of clothes in private places. The wallpaper had some water stains in places, but you could still appreciate the fancy design. The privy was equipped with the usual Sears Roebuck catalog and a bucket of corncobs instead of today’s toilet tissue.

The parlor was where everyone gathered after dinner on Sunday. It was furnished in a simple manner. An upright piano; a radio; a wind-up phonograph, which played very thick records; and a few straight chairs of nondescript style were placed in the room. The records were entertaining, and Jane often played a few church hymns on the piano. All of the family photographs were sitting on top of the piano. A horsehair upholstered sofa and a matching chair were in the parlor.

Everyone avoided sitting on these two pieces, as the horsehair upholstery made you feel as though you sat on a pin cushion or in a bed of fire ants.

Most of the bedrooms had brass beds and feather mattresses, and the rest had corn shucks stuffed in the mattresses. They were both difficult to make up each day. You had to beat and fluff them to make them look nice. Each bed had a beautiful colorful quilt on it that was made by Jane and the daughters. They were used for warmth, and they made a most attractive bedspread. Some of the bedrooms had humpback tin trunks. They were all locked and contained the older girls’ trousseaus.

The dining room was a rectangular shape. It had a long harvest table with benches. It would seat eighteen to twenty people. The two canary blue primitive cabinets stood in the corners. They had screen doors on them to keep the insects out and were called the pie safes. They also held the good china.

The kitchen had a huge black cast iron stove. It was considered a deluxe model and was a luxury in those days. It had a reservoir for hot water on one end. A big washtub was filled with warm water from the reservoir for Saturday night baths. After the baths, the tub was hung on the outside of the house on a huge spike nail.

During these times, there was no money for luxury items. However, they did have plenty of wholesome healthy food. They literally lived off the fat of the land, as they called it. Very few items had to be purchased at the mercantile store, which was located near the church and schoolhouse. Even though the home was not complete, it was the largest and nicest home in the community. The plantation had several shacks on it when Jacob took over, including the one the Negro family lived in. He did not want to interfere with their livelihood, so he made them a 50/50 sharecropper proposition and they continued to live there. Amous was a good farmer, and he gave him extra work during sugarcane season and logging in the winter months.

There was much opposition about the Negro family living on the farm. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members particularly did not take too kindly to the Negro family living in the community. Jacob was quick to tell them that they were there.

He was concerned about the KKK leader, though, as he constantly told Joy that she would be taken care of one day. Jacob confronted him and asked him for an explanation of the remark, and he answered, Why, my dear preacher man, you will see in time. You’ll see.

The KKK was known to put the fear of God in all the good Christian people. Jane was reading to the children one evening and teaching them to say their prayers. She was nine months pregnant and ready to deliver any moment when a group of men rode their horses up to the house galloping and prancing around in a loud boisterous manner. They were dressed in their white sheets and hoods with a mask to conceal their identity. It was a dark cold night, and the white sheets and hoods were lighting up the area with the help of the lightening bugs.

One of the men knocked on the door and asked to speak to Jacob. Jane cracked the door slightly and told him that Jacob was out of town. He wanted to know where he was. She told him that he was in Laurel attending a church meeting with a friend. The truth was, though, he was up in the hills making moonshine whiskey.

The tough-looking scumbag that appeared to be the leader said, Give Jacob a message and a warning from us. We is plenty tired of him bringing dem black niggers to work the farms and the sawmill. We don’t aim to have dem around here. If you can’t convince him, you may never see the youngling you carry in yo’ belly.

He, crudely, spit his chewing tobacco on the steps and ordered the gang to ride away. They rode off galloping the horses and hollering in loud voices. Some were using foul profanity. Jane was so frightened that she slammed the door quickly, turned around, and fell to the floor in a dead faint. The kids got the smelling sauce and revived her. She told the oldest son to run get Amous’s wife, Aunt Milly. She was the Negro midwife in the community. She came and delivered her baby girl. Jane was praying that the KKK would not return while the midwife was there. If they did, it was sure to mean trouble.

Jacob was six foot tall and very thin. He weighed about 150 pounds. He was considered a handsome man by the ladies in the community. He had nice features, heavy full-bodied head of hair, except for a few silver threads around the temples. His eyes were jet black and set wide apart. He had a rugged complexion due to the weather exposure, but it was just enough to give him the macho and sexy look. He had a broad smile and was a warm, friendly person. He loved his family and was very attentive to them. He could be a strong disciplinarian if needed. You could tell when he was serious, as he always shook and pointed the forefinger of his right hand. That was the attention-getter, and the children became attentive immediately.

Jane was five feet five tall; weighed about 115 pounds; and had light blond voluptuous lips, dark brown eyes, a flawless complexion, and the perfect oval-shaped face. She wore her hair long and pulled it straight back into a chignon. She was considered a real classic beauty. She was always neat looking and well put together. She wore long dresses most of the time, with gathered skirts, and always a white starched apron cinched around her tiny waistline. Having all the children had not altered her beautiful figure or her beautiful looks. She was a sensitive, kind, loving mother and wanted the best for her family.

Jane was an excellent cook. She could whip up a meal in no time at all that would please the most discriminating palate. She was also a great seamstress and an excellent designer. She made all the family clothes, which included those of the male members too.

The older children’s clothes were passed down to the younger siblings as they grew out of them. Joy was the only one in the family that objected and voiced her opinion about hand-me-down clothes or homemade clothes. She swore to everyone: When I make my own money, one day, when I have money, when I’m rich, I’ll not wear hand-me-down clothes or homemade clothes. I’ll wear couture originals!

The siblings stuck their tongues out at her and poked fun, but it did not faze Joy or alter her thinking. If anything, it made her more determined to get the things in life that she had planned on.

Her brother, Jack, said, Leave it to Miss Stuck-up to come up with those fifty-cent words. She just wants to act smarter than us.

The children went through the usual kid diseases together. These included the dreaded head lice and the seven-year itch. The head lice were worse on the girls, as they all had long thick hair. The brothers wanted to cut their hair so bad, and they chased and teased them so, which scared them half to death. They took turns dipping each other in the big washtub containing lice solution. They referred to it as the dipping vat.

Joy said, It is no shame to get the seven-year itch or the head lice, but what a crying shame it would be if you could not get rid of them. The five sons, Jack, John, Jasper, Jennings, and Jonathan, looked a lot like their father; and they all looked so much alike and had the same mannerisms that it was difficult to tell them apart. They were hardworking tough guys and overprotective of their five sisters. They were considered the typical rednecks. They were all about five feet five tall, weighed about 150 pounds, had dark hair with sun streaks, and burnished bronze suntans.

The five daughters, Janice, Janelle, Joan, Joy, and Jill, were the perfect picture of their mother. They were all tall and thin and had curvaceous shapes, dark brown eyes, and flawless complexions. They were friendly and had warm personalities. They were friendly in a reserved way, all except Joy. She was gregarious, confident, did everything precisely with a purpose in mind, and seemed to have her feet firmly on the ground and determined about everything.

Her siblings called her Miss Stuck-up. The brothers used to tease her about being so prissy, and they said she thought she was better than they were and too good to work on the farm.

The girls were all prim and proper, and they wanted their brothers to be also, but that was wishful thinking on their part. Their answer to their sisters came from Jack: We ain’t planning on acting stuck-up, and we ain’t gonna be no city slickers. You girls gotta get dem silly notions out of yo’ heads.

Joy stayed in hot water with her brothers all the time, because she insisted on correcting them, especially their grammar and manners. Her sisters tried to persuade her to leave them alone, as it was useless to try to change them. However, she pranced around in her prissy fashion in front of them, correcting their grammar and provoking them into a fighting mood.

Jasper said, We hope to hell you can find yo’ self a sugar daddy one day and will go away and leave us alone.

Well, without any doubt, Joy had plans along these lines; but she would do it at her convenience, not theirs. Joy soon learned that they only acted tough with her. She actually called the shots with them, and they enjoyed every moment of it too.

The children had an isolated and sheltered upbringing in a small rural community at a time when there were no telephones. Church and school gatherings were their prime activities. It was a different era—emphasis being placed on morals and religious beliefs. This area was known as the Baptist Belt, and church and school was a strict discipline. Sick or well, attendance to all church activities was mandatory.

The only transportation they had was the rattletrap truck they used for truck farming. It had to be cleaned up each week for the weekend activities. The children took turns in cleaning it up. They were permitted to use it on special occasions to drive into Laurel or Waynesboro to see their friends. They preferred to go to Waynesboro so they could get hamburgers with all the trimmings from Breyland’s Café, and an RC Cola. The boys often met their rough and rowdy friends and delighted in coming home and telling the dirty jokes to shock their sisters. The girls were all ears, acting the innocent ones, but they saved the laughs until the brothers were out of sight. You could tell they enjoyed hearing the jokes.

The JJ boys were all fight pickers. When they went into town, they came home with shiners and bloody noses and their clothes were torn half off. It made you wonder what the other fellows looked like, because the JJ boys were pretty rough scrappers. When one of the JJ boys was fighting, they all wound up fighting. They took up for each other and usually wound up in a brawl.

The boys enjoyed switching dates. They even switched their clothes at times when they were out on a date to fool the girls. This practice soon stopped when they lost a couple of desirable girl friends because of these pranks. The girls did not take too kindly to being fooled. They did look so much alike it was not difficult to fool their best friends.

When the boys in the community, as well as those in Laurel and Waynesboro, became interested in the girls, they soon learned that they had to tow the mark if they dated the JJ girls. Word got around fast, and they knew they would have to answer to the JJ boys.

The boys got the name of being tough rascals. They had a crude tough manner but could be courteous and polite befitting the occasion.

They made no effort to put any polish on the truth. You got a cut and dried answer—crudely put most of the time. They were just typical rednecks and did not intend to change.

They raised a lot of chickens and sold the eggs. The children rotated their duties in feeding them, cleaning the pens, and gathering the eggs. They also milked the cows. The boys took care of the feeding of the horses, cows, and pigs.

They had a huge smokehouse on the farm. This is where all their meat was hung after they slaughtered the hogs and beef. They called this hog killing and slaughtering day.

A lot of salt was put on the meat, and a slow fire was built underneath to smoke and cure it. The meat was hung from the overhead beams until it was cured.

Joy was teased by all the children about squealing on slaughtering day. She was dubious about wringing the chickens’ necks and putting them in boiling water so the feathers would pull off. When Jane learned that Joy had such a problem, she made sure that she found another chore for her. The kids used to tease her and throw buckets of water on her when she passed out cold on slaughtering days. As a rule, the children were very cooperative, considerate of each other, and got along well together.

The oldest sister, Janice, was a half-sister, as Jacob had a previous marriage and was divorced. The children did not know she was a half-sister until they were all grown, as no difference was made in the rearing of any of the children. They were all cared for alike and were given much love and kindness.

Janice married the Baptist minister’s son when she was sixteen, and they moved to Texas, where he obtained work in the oil fields. Their marriage was under protest by Jacob. He did not hold preachers in high esteem and did not care to have his daughter mixed up in a preacher’s family.

Jane told him, There is no point in making a big fuss about the marriage. He could not be blamed because his father was a preacher.

A small community like Plantation Grove did not go without scandals and disgrace. Jacob was shocked beyond dismay one evening when he came home from working fields for his supper. He found a note attached to his infant child, Janice, who was four months old. It seemed that his wife and the local preacher, who was single, took the church funds, purchased a big Lincoln automobile, and drove away lovingly together to parts unknown.

Jane’s family were farmers and lived down the road a piece from Jacob. Jane and her mother took care of the infant and prepared meals for Jacob. Within two months, Jacob and Jane were married. They started having their family right away and spaced their nine children one year apart.

The boys all married