How a Chilling Radio Callout Informed George Jones He Was a Person of Interest in This Brutal 1965 Homicide

When a musician is at the top of their professional game, it can feel like nothing in the world can stop them. But as George Jones learned in a harrowing turn of events in late 1965, not even stardom is enough to protect you when the police come calling. This lesson came crashing down on the country star’s shoulders on November 8, 1965, while traveling with his band near the Texas-Mexico border.

As Jones and his bandmates listened to music on the radio, an announcer’s voice interrupted the song with a bone-chilling announcement. “Country music singer and Grand Ole Opry star George Jones: if you’re listening, call the Houston police department immediately,” Jones remembered hearing in his memoir, I Lived To Tell It All. He described the broadcaster’s voice as “urgent.”

The band made it to a payphone further down the road, and one of the musicians called the police station. When Jones’ bandmate returned to the car, he told Jones that the police wanted to speak to the band regarding the murder of Jacqueline Young, a young woman who had been on their tour bus two days earlier on November 6. Police found her dead in the backseat of her car, four miles from the venue where she hopped into Jones’ bus.

George Jones Was a POI, Not a Suspect

Jacqueline Young’s body was discovered in the backseat of her car that was parked in an open field off Highway 146. This was a short distance away from Shelly’s Nightclub near La Porte, Texas, where George Jones and his band had been playing on the night of November 6, 1965. Young, who was the secretary of George Jones’ fan club, met with Jones on his tour bus ahead of their performance.

Jones dictated a Christmas letter for the fan club to Young, who Jones said was drinking and taking pills while on the bus. Young passed out before the show began. Rather than waking her up before his call time, Jones opted to let Young sleep. When he returned after the show, she was no longer on the bus. According to Jones, he was unaware of her whereabouts until his bandmate informed him of her death—and the troubling fact that they were among the last to see her alive.

“It wasn’t long until my camper was surrounded by deputies and highway patrolmen,” Jones wrote. “They asked the boys and me a lot of questions, and what we said must have satisfied them, as they said we could go on to McAllen to do our Sunday night show if we would drive back to Houston on Monday to take the lie detector tests. As I look back on it now, maybe they were trying to see if I would run.”

Roger Miller Received Life Sentence For Jackie Young’s Murder

No, not that Roger Miller.

George Jones was briefly a person of interest due to his proximity to Jackie Young in the hours leading up to his murder. However, there was never any evidence to make Jones a full-blown suspect. Nevertheless, the sheer mention of his name in articles regarding the slain woman was enough to spread rumors of his guilt. Police attended more of his shows. People watched Jones with a wary eye. Jones’ family dealt with distrustful whisperings around town. 

It wasn’t until a conviction in 1966 that Jones was able to rid himself of these rumors. That summer, a gas station attendant named Victor Eugene Miller II was convicted of Jacqueline Young’s murder. “Ironically,” Jones wrote, “his nickname was Roger Miller, the name of another famous country singer.”

Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage

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