Tales from the Morgue

Teen Club Policed, Owner Says

July 10, 1964

Bobby Fuller, who operates the Northeast Teen Rendezvous at 4984Hondo Pass Drive, said Thursday that reports of fighting in the club “are not true.”

He said that there are at least two policemen on duty at the teenage club at all times and that fights may originate at another location, with the fight principals returning to the club sometimes after the fracas is over.

The club operates four nights a week from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

“We also have parent supervision and there is one policeman for every 100 kids. According to the police department, juvenile delinquency in this area has been lowered 85 per cent,” Fuller said.

Fuller said that the club is strictly for high school and college students between 14 and 20 years old. Members are given a card and a periodic check on them is made at schools.

“This is to weed out the drop outs,” Fuller explained.

Average attendance at the teen club is about 400.

Bob Jones buys Blue Flame Building

04/09/2004

By Vic Kolenc
El Paso Times

El Paso businessman Bob Jones hopes to spur Downtown redevelopment by putting office workers and students in two prominent and vacant Downtown office buildings, which Jones recently purchased for more than $2.6 million.

Jones last week completed the purchase of the 16-story Blue Flame Building at 120 N. Stanton St., once the headquarters of El Paso Natural Gas Co., which moved to Houston in 1996. And late last month, he completed the purchase of the 12-story Mills Building at Oregon and Mills streets, which had housed El Paso Electric Co. until early 1997.

"Downtown El Paso can be the hub it once was and much more," Jones said in a written statement. One key to doing that is to have more people occupying office buildings there, he said.

He bought the Blue Flame Building for $1.63 million from the El Paso Independent School District, the district reported. The district used the building for administrative offices for a time.

A deed of trust filed in the county clerk's office indicates the Mills Building was bought for $1 million from Westcap Corp. That's a subsidiary of National Western Life Insurance Co. of Austin.

Jones, who has been in El Paso more than 20 years, has seen various Downtown initiatives fail and decided "somebody needs to step to the plate and start something," said Marc Schwartz, a spokesman for the businessman. Jones was not available Thursday for an interview.

Jones is best known as president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Employment of the Disabled. It's a not-for-profit corporation, which operates an East Side factory with about 2,500 mostly disabled workers and operates a psychiatric hospital. It also owns Access Administrators, a health-plan administration company. Jones is also a managing partner of the East Side's Physicians Hospital, which opened late last year.

The not-for-profit center is not involved in the building purchases, Schwartz said.

Jones' background includes operating businesses involved in real estate development. He was a consultant for Franklin Land and Resources Inc., a former subsidiary of El Paso Electric, which renovated the Camino Real Hotel and Cortez Building, Schwartz said.

Paul Dipp, a partner in Plaza Properties, which owns the historic Plaza Hotel building across the street from the Mills Building, said, "We're very excited about him being involved (in Downtown) because he's an experienced real-estate developer (and) a very significant force in the community."

Jones' plans for the Mills and Blue Flame buildings could make it easier for Plaza Properties to attract a developer to refurbish the 18-story hotel building, Dipp said.

Michael Breitinger, executive director of the Central Business Association, said, "Any occupancy (of vacant buildings) brings energy Downtown, whether employees or students. It can only serve to help Downtown."

Plans for the Mills Building call for locating a performing arts and science school for middle- and high-school students there. Jones asked Iris Burnham to start the school. She is founder and superintendent of the private School for Educational Enrichment and the public Burnham Wood Charter School, located on the same West Side campus.

"A school would generate interest and population in an area that hasn't had that," Burnham said. "He (Jones) sees the connectivity necessary to make the (Downtown) community vibrant and come alive."

The school could have as many as 400 students and "when you bring children, their parents will follow to see performances and go to open houses," Burnham said.

The school, which would operate as a not-for-profit organization, is targeted for a 2005 opening, Burnham said.

Plans also call for eventually having dormitories in the school to bring students in from Mexico and other parts of this region, she said.

Jones plans to locate at least 300 employees of Access Administrators, the health-plan administration company, in the Blue Flame Building and expects to get other tenants, Schwartz said.

Remodeling will be done on both buildings, Schwartz said.

El Paso Renaissance Blue Flame LP and El Paso Renaissance Mills LP are limited partnerships formed by Jones to purchase the buildings. Those operate under Sahara Development, a company Jones recently started to handle the newly purchased buildings and other holdings, Schwartz said.

The buildings

• The Mills Building, 303 N. Oregon: A creation of Gen. Anson Mills and built by noted El Paso architect Henry C. Trost in stages from 1911 to 1915. Erected when El Paso was a city of 15,000, the 12-story building dominated the Downtown landscape. It's been vacant since early 1997, when El Paso Electric Co. moved out.

• Blue Flame Building, 120 N. Stanton: Built in 1953 by prolific El Paso contractor Robert E. McKee. The 16-story building for years was headquarters for El Paso Natural Gas Co. The company in 1996 donated it to the El Paso Independent School District, which used it for administrative offices for a time. The building's name comes from the 21-foot illuminated flame on its roof.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at [email protected], 546-6421.
Photo Caption: The Mills Building, at Mills and Oregon streets Downtown, was completed in 1915 and designed by noted El Paso architect Henry C. Trost. New owner Bob Jones plans to house a fine arts middle school and high school in the building, which is near the El Paso Museum of Art and the Plaza Theatre.

05/12/2006

Bob Jones, the former president and chief operating officer of El Paso's National Center for Employment of the Disabled, sold his three Downtown buildings Thursday.

Transactions recorded at the El Paso County clerk's office show that the companies Jones controls sold the Blue Flame Building, the Mills Building and the Luther Building, which he bought in 2004 for about $3 million.

Weds As Death Is Approaching

August 1, 1931

Church Ceremony Performed Here Two Hours Before R. Ochoa Dies.

Fearing he would die without being married with the sanction of the church, Rafael Ochoa, 23, fatally injured early Saturday morning in an automobile accident, was re-married at City-County hospital two hours before his death yesterday afternoon.

Ochoa was married by a justice of the peace two weeks ago. Neither he nor his young wife, Celia, were satisfied with the marriage, so yesterday when it became apparent Ochoa was going to die he asked Celia again to become his bride. A priest from Guardian Angel church gladly performed the ceremony.

Thrown From Car

Highway police, learning of the accident only last night, learned Ochoa was injured early Saturday morning when he accidentally was thrown from a car in which he was riding with Manuel Estrada.

Estrada told officers he was blinded by lights near the junction of the old lower valley road and the Ascarate cutoff road. He saw a wagon directly in front of him, swerved quickly to avoid a collision, throwing Ochoa from the car.

A court of inquiry will be held by Coroner M.V. Ward this afternoon to place responsibility for the accident.

Funeral arrangements for Ralph A. Gillette, 31, fatally injured early Saturday evening when his car collided with a freight train at the Southern Pacific railroad crossing on Cotton avenue, still are pending.

Sheriff Fox Says Actors and Dancing Girls Are Too Expensive!

August 16, 1938

There’s one thing Sheriff Chris P. Fox has learned not to do in putting on the annual Sheriff’s department jamboree, he said Monday as he and his deputies began making plans for this year’s affair.

“We can’t afford to bring high priced Hollywood actors and dancing girls to El Paso as we did last year,” the sheriff said. “Instead of eating hamburgers and riding on chair cars they took drawing rooms and ate $1.50 breakfast on their way here, costing us $2100. This year the show will be just as good but we’ll have to do without outside talent of this caliber,”

Sheriff Fox said this year’s jamboree will be held Sept. 19, at Dudley Field as usual. The barbecue feat will begin at 3 p.m. and continue until 6:30 p.m. After a 30-minute intermission the real show will start.

This year’s jamboree will be dedicated to traffic safety with Capt. Allan G. Falby, County highway patrol chief, in charge of the program. There also will be contests and side shows, Fox said.

Harry Wiley, chief deputy, and Art Rapley, County Jail chef, will be in charge of the barbecue.

“We want to serve notice on ranchers of this section who might be planning to attend the jamboree, that if they come they might as well expect to eat some of their own cows,” the sheriff warned.

Mentions Sep. 25, 1890

September 25, 1890

G.W. Wood and wife of Las Cruces are registered at the Grand Central.

The old saloon building north of the railroad and opposite the plaza is being torn down. Thus goes the old landmarks.

We understand that F.R. Steele and B.D. Russell will spend a time hunting on the Gomez ranch.

Mrs. Daniel Cherry and daughter Susie are again at home after a pleasant summer in Minnesota.

William Hill of Marshall has secured judgment against the Texas & Pacific railway in the sum of $20,000 damages in having both his feet cut off by a train on the defendant’s road. His mother obtained an additional judgment for $3000.

Thomas J. Ryder has severed his connection with the Mexican Ore company and leaves for Mexico today. He will hereafter be associated with R.S. Towne of the San Luis Potasi smelting company and for the next three or four months will be traveling through the republic in the interest of the latter company

The fire plug on the State National bank corner is useless. Probably when some valuable property is consumed by fire in the neighborhood, the fire department will discover the fact. The plug has been in this condition for several months.

Messrs. J.B. and W.F. Payne were up hunting yesterday at Mesquite, New Mexico, and the results were three wild cats and a number of ducks. The gentlemen intend having the cat skins stuffed. They report that hunting in that vicinity will be good in a short time.

1986: Experience is on Luther Jones' side

June 01, 1986

By Michael Scanlon
Times staff writer

If political experience alone could win an election, Luther Jones wouldn’t have to campaign very hard.

He started his career in law early. Leaving his Corpus Christi home at 16 to spend the summer working in the Odessa, Texas, law office of famed criminal attorney Warren Burnett.

He finished his secondary education at a Kerrville, Texas, military school and came to the Sun City.

Jones, 39, attended the University of Texas at El Paso during the 1960s before entering St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio at the age of 19.

He eared his law degree in 1968, passed the bar examination and was sworn into the Texas Bar Association shortly after his 22nd birthday.

His fist stint in public service was short-lived.

In November 1969, he was appointed assistant district attorney by then-District Attorney Jamie Boyd but resigned the following March.

“I wasn’t able to get cases to trial. I got frustrated and quit.”

Besides practicing criminal law out of a downtown office, Jones tried his hand in the retail business as an investor.

He and partner Charles Tuggle opened two stores under the name Hi Fashion Wigs.

“It was an unsuccessful business venture in which I lost money,” he said.

Jones, meanwhile maintained a downtown law office.

In 1971, a 24-year-old Luther Jones challenged incumbent George Rodriguez Jr. for a municipal court judgeship but lost by 10,000 votes.

Later that year, Jones announced his candidacy for state repetitive and embarked upon what was to be a colorful and controversial three term career in the Texas Legislature.

Voters in the June 1972 runoff election handed the legislative seat to Jones by a comfortable margin of more than 2 to 1 over Juan Stockmeyer.

“My principal qualification for seeking that office was that I wanted it,” Jones said.

During his first term, Jones was appointed to the house Appropriations Committee, Legislative Property Tax Committee and House Rules committee.

He accused Delwin Jones, executive director of the legislative Property Tax Committee, of violating House rules by hiring two staffers without first consulting the committee membership.

The committee is a full-time organization and its executive director oversees its staff.

Luther Jones’ threat that he would demand the executive’s resignation prompted a next-day apology from Delwin Jones.

During his subsequent years in the legislature, Luther Jones built a reputation as a friend of teachers, Panhandle farmers, consumers and feminist.

In 1975, when Bill Clayton won his first term as speaker of the House, it was with Jones’ support. Clayton rewarded him with the chairmanship of the House Elections Committee.

But two years later, Jones refused to pledge his support to Claytons’ efforts for re-election in 1979 and was replaced as chairman of the committee.

Although Clayton was unopposed in 1979, Jones was one of eight House members to vote against him for speaker of the 66th Legislature.

Early during the session, Jones was a member of the Gang of Four that disapproved of Clayton’s performance as speaker and his closeness to legislative lobbyist.

Other members of the gang were now – U.S. Reps. John Bryant and Ron Coleman, and state Sen. John Whitmire.

“It wasn’t a personal thing,” Jones said. “We were fighting on hard, substantive issues.”

Speaker Clayton was not Jones only state-level target in those days.

He also filed a lawsuit against then Gov. Dolph Briscoe, seeking to stop the governor from using $250,000 of the $5 million appropriated to his office in the School Finance Bill to study revamping tax laws.

Jones lost the suit in court.

Saying the Legislature needed fresh blood and he needed time for his family, Jones declined to seek another term in the legislature.

With considerable support, he sought the post of state Democratic Party chairman.

But the help of teachers, farmers, feminist and consumers was no match for the power of organized labor. The AFL-CIO announced it was endorsing Bog Slagle of Sherman, Texas, for the job.

Jones said, “I was sunk.”

After the defeat, Jones made a three-year departure from the public eye. He maintained a limited law practice while doing legal work for El Paso Sand and Cashway, owned by his father-in-law, James Morton Shelton.

Jones and Carol Shelton had been married for 10 years and had two daughters.

In March 1983, when County Attorney George Rodriguez quit to accept an appointment from Gov. Mark White, El Paso County commissioners Court appointed Jones to take his place.

He was touted as one of County Judge Pat O’Rourke’s “closest friends and advisers” and had the unanimous support of commissioners.

But that alliance deteriorated when Jones took the position that “the county attorney is no more the lawyer for Commissioners Court than the state attorney general is the lawyer for the Legislature.”

Another relationship also fell by the wayside for County Attorney Luther Jones.

In the spring of 1984, Carol Shelton Jones filed a divorce petition in state district court.

Relations with commissioners Court were strained when Jones threatened to file a lawsuit to force commissioners and O’Rourke to correct numerous fire and safety code violations at the City-County Building.

And Jones refused to defend the county against a federal lawsuit filed by a group of Lower Valley residents who didn’t want a drug-treatment program located in Socorro.

Jones said he believed the residents were right and Commissioners Court was wrong in building the Aliviane program – a residential treatment center – next to a community park.

County Commissioner Mary Haynes had supported Jones’ appointment.

“I have observed him for a long time.” She said. “And I find him to be a crafty politician. I have been disappointed that he hasn’t chosen to be a constructive part of the solutions to our problems at the county. Instead, he has chosen to grandstand and grab headlines.”

Haynes’ comments are in sharp contrast to those of someone who worked with Jones.

Norma Burns, executive secretary in the county attorney’s office, served Jones during his tenure there.

“He’s a great guy,” she said. “He’s very professional. He’s a perfectionist. He likes to do thing right now.

Luther Jones photo gallery

Cases Before The Courts Yesterday

April 24, 1912

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PETROLITHIC COMPANY SUED FOR DAMAGES

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Sheriff’s Office Crowded With Service Papers – Police Docket and Notes of Arrest

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William E. Baker has filed suit in the Forty-first district court against the Petrolithic & Construction company to recover the sum of $1,000 as damages. The plaintiff alleges in his petition that because of the failure of the defendant company to keep red lights at its construction works at the intersection of North El Paso street and West Boulevard as required by a city ordinance, he ran his automobile into a hole at that point, and it was badly damaged.

William Walker vs. E.P. & S.W. Railway company, a suit for damages, is on trial in the Forty-first district court.

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SHERIFF’S OFFICE BUSY ON COURT CASES

Thursday is clean-up day for the district courts, and the sheriff’s department is the center of much activity. Unless service is obtained by tomorrow in the cases now on the docket for trial for the present term of court, they will have to go over for the next term. Members of the sheriff’s department are making every effort to make the returns before the last day of grace.

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SENTENCED IN THIRTY-FOURTH DISTRICT COURT

Pedro Ortega and Gregorio Navarro, both pleaded guilty yesterday in the Thirty-fourth district court to a charge of burglary, and were sentenced to serve three years in the penitentiary.

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POLICE COURT DOCKET

Following is yesterday’s police court docket: S.T. Johnson, drunk and disturbing the peace, dismissed; George Lewis, vagrancy, dismissed; Francisco Acuna, assault and malicious mischief, $5; Pedro Ortega, assault, drunk and disturbing the peace, $5; J.A. Watson, vagrancy, given one hour to leave town; A. W. Shaw, drunk and down, dismissed; Katherine Kelly, drunk and disturbing the peace, dismissed; Frederico Allre, vagrancy, dismissed; Jose Camarillo, drunk, $5; John Mundig, deserter, delivered to the Fort Bliss authorities.

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OTHER POLICE CASES

George Lewis, who was arrested yesterday morning by the city detective department on a charge of vagrancy, was tried and acquitted yesterday afternoon in police court. Lewis was arrested in the Orient rooming house on East Overland street. It is stated that in the room which he occupied were found many decks of cards, dice, card clippers and other gambling devices. Judge Poll held that the evidence produced against the man was not sufficient to convict him of the charge of vagrancy.

Ernest Reed, who was placed under arrest last Friday as a suspicious character by the detective department and later transferred to the county jail, has been released. The suspicion held against Reed was found to have no solid foundation.

Hall Of Fame Makes Change To ‘Ms.’

January 18, 1977

El Paso Softball Hall of Fame Association had a real problem on its hands when it came time to award the Mr. Softball title in 1975.

Their “Mr.” was really a “Mrs.” – Evie Monticone – who has been promoting and coaching girls’ softball in El Paso since the 1960s.

After a little thought, they changed the name of the award to the “Mr. And Ms. Softball” and happily awarded it to Mrs. Monticone – who has been promoting and coaching girls’ softball in El Paso since the 1960s.

Softball and baseball have been Mrs. Monticone’s love since she was a little girl growing up in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Her mother died when she was six – leaving her father and godmother to bring her up. She had no brothers, so her father, a good baseball player himself, was pleased when she got interested in sports.

“I would go with him to games. He really encouraged me. I played baseball with the boys and he liked that – although my godmother didn’t really approve,” she says.

She admits it was rather unusual for a girl growing up in Mexico to be allowed to play baseball. “They didn’t like to see girls participating in sports – it wasn’t ladylike.”

In the United States, it hasn’t been until recently parents encouraged girls to participate in team sports. “Now parents see the girls are not getting hurt. Girls enjoy sports just as much as the boys.”

Yet, she also sees a difference in girls and boys playing sports.

“Girls can play just as aggressively as the boys, just not under the same rules. The only sport I don’t like for girls is football, because of the roughness.

“Boys go out to compete and win. Girls like to excel at a sport, but it’s not as necessary to win.”

Mrs. Monticone more or less volunteered herself into a job with Parks and Recreation.

Helping to organize softball and basketball for girls of the Optimist, she had her hands full – hundreds of girls and not enough facilities.

She came to the city to ask for help, the city agreed, and also asked if she wouldn’t like to work for the City doing the same thing.

Mrs. Monticone began working part time in 1969, as the seasons needed, first helping then director Gene Stogner with basketball, then with the football program.

“For girls’ softball, I used to go to the schools and have the principals tell the kids about the summer program for girls. We’d meet after school and I’d take names.

“I would end up with 30-40-50 kids but no coaches. So I’d call the PTA and their parents. Mostly they said, ‘no, I’m sorry, I can’t do it,’ or, ‘I don’t have enough time.’ But I always ended up with someone glad to coach or at least try. Once I got him or her into it, he was generally hooked!”

Under her guidance, the program expanded so quickly, she now has 75 teams, with the average of 16 per team. She has also built up 18 teams of girls’ basketball, and is now opening basketball to women 16 and over.

Her expansion of the programs has only created more work for the mother of three (Joe, 21, Martha, 19, and David, 17). Because she is responsible for scheduling all these teams’ games.

“If somebody wants to enter the league, they can call me or come down. We do have a deadline to allow me enough time to work on a schedule.”

She divides teams into different areas of the city or leagues. “If there are only four teams, they play each other three times. Six teams is perfect. I schedule a double round-robin (each team plays the others twice) for a 10-game schedule.

“Our basic problem is finding locations. For instance, Delta Recreation Center is busy from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Saturdays with 10 games.”

Because of the reaction she has had when softball and basketball are offered, Mrs. Monticone hopes she will be able to expand athletics for women and girls Volleyball is the next sport on her list.

“There are a lot of girls who would like to do something – if it were offered to them.”

Cows And Chickens Go On Strike When Airplane Gyrates

August 4, 1931

Mysterious gyrations of a still more mysterious airplane playing around in the skies in the lower valley have caused grave concern to lower valley farmers.

Cows are refusing to give milk and chickens decline to lay eggs.

Indignant over the plane’s continued activity in the neighborhood caused the residents to complain to county highway police last night. Armed with sawed off shotguns, Captain Allan G. Falby and a posse of officers went to investigate the case, believing they were on the trail of an airplane bootlegger.

After an hour of investigation, Captain Falby said he learned the airplane pilot apparently has been doing stunts to please the fancy of a young woman friend living in the neighborhood. He was given the airplane number and is planning to report the matter to department of commerce officials.

Ysleta Report

May 9, 1888

Orange Trees in Bearing – Only Two Saloons and No Bawdy Houses – Strawberries a Plenty.

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The Ysleta Report says:

Don Durado Elias has orange trees with young fruit. Taking into consideration that the past winter was the severest ever known here this is big thing for the valley. The variety is the Unshiu, introduced by Mr. A. E. Boulet, who deserves great credit for his enterprise.

An El Paso paper suggests Ysleta as a proper place for a prize fight between the two big brutes, Sullivan and Kilrain. The suggestion shows how little some newspaper men know about even their nearest neighbors. Ysleta, although a border town and has a mixed population, is probably the most unfit place in the United States for anything of the sort. With its population of over twenty-five hundred inhabitants it has only two saloons and not a single house of prostitution. In fact there is nothing here to favor such an exhibition. We have positively no hoodlum element at all. Our law abiding people would not permit such a degrading exhibition to take place in our midst.

Strawberries and green peas in abundance are offered on our streets.