In Their Own Words: Lynetta Jones, Mother of Jim Jones

The following is a poem written by Lynetta Jones, an Indiana native and mother of the infamous Reverend Jim Jones:

The Molder

I took a piece of plastic clay,
And idly fashioned it one day,
And as my fingers pressed it still,
It molded – yielding to my will.

I came again when days were past,
The bit of clay was firm at last,
The form I gave it, still it wore,
And I could change that form no more.

A far more precious thing than clay,
I gently shaped from day to day,
And molded with my fumbling art,
A young child’s soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone,
And it was a man I looked upon,
Who such godlike nature bore
The men could change it – NEVERMORE
.

Trivia: The Betty Broderick Murders

As a lifelong Hoosier and true crime addict, I’m constantly amazed at just how much horrid shit is linked to my home state. I’ve decided to start sharing some of these items with you because, although they are only tangentially related to our topic, they’re disturbingly interesting nonetheless. Case in point…

Q: Where did divorcee and media-sensation murderess Betty Broderick meet her husband Dan, the man she would one day marry, divorce, and eventually kill?

A: In 1965, 17-yr-old Elizabeth Anne (Betty) Bisceglia traveled with some classmates from her all-girls Catholic college in New York to a football game between the Fighting Irish and the USC Trojans. While at Notre Dame for the weekend, she attended a party where she was approached by Daniel T. Broderick, a medical student nearly five years her senior. The two wed after almost four years of courtship. Fast forward more than twenty years, nine pregnancies, four living children, and one very bitter break-up to 1989… Betty went to the house where her ex-husband lived with his much-younger second wife and shot them both to death.

Betty, now 73 years old, is still alive and incarcerated for the crime.