A man who vanished more than three decades ago and declared dead by a US court was found alive under an assumed name supposedly to evade crimes he had committed. Court records paint a picture of Arthur Gerald Jones as a powerful Chicago financier who was tormented by snowballing gambling debts and a troubled marriage when he left home to run an errand in spring 1979 and never returned. FBI agents investigated his disappearance, focusing on possible mafia connections, but never solved the case. An Illinois court declared the husband and father of three dead in 1986. Now, more than three decades later, authorities say Jones has been living under an alias, spending the past 10 years working as a bookie at a Las Vegas casino under the name Joseph Richard Sandelli. Jones, 72, was arrested Tuesday on four felony counts related to identity theft and fraud after a report that he fraudulently used a Social Security number led to an investigation. A criminal complaint filed Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court says Jones told investigators this week that he left Highland Park, Illinois, all those years ago to get a “fresh start” and hasn't talked to his family or friends there since. Before disappearing, Jones paid a friend in Chicago $800 for fake documents and a Social Security number belonging to another man, authorities said. — AP The affidavit says Jones was a former Chicago commodities broker who lived in Highland Park with his wife, Joanne Esplin, and three young children. He told investigators he held a seat with the Chicago Board of Trade but was forced to sell it to pay debts. Attempts by the Associated Press to contact Esplin were unsuccessful Friday. She and Jones had been married 17 years when he disappeared. She told investigators her husband forged her name to get a second mortgage on their home and pay personal gambling debts, the affidavit said. She also said she suspected he was delivering money or running errands for the Chicago mob. Esplin said the last time she saw her husband — whose gambling once led him to bet $30,000 on a basketball game — was May 11, 1979, when he left to run an errand. She said he looked very nervous at the time, the affidavit said. Presuming Jones had died, Social Security paid his family $47,000 in survivor benefits.
