Aphrodite Jones
Encyclopedia
Aphrodite Jones is an American reporter, author, and cable TV host of the series, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, which airs on Investigation Discovery. Before landing the hosting position with Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

's new network, Jones hosted a show called The Justice Hunters for USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...

, and then became known as a crime reporter for Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...

, covering the trials of Scott Peterson
Scott Peterson
Scott Lee Peterson , an American, was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child in Modesto, California, in 2002. Peterson's arrest and subsequent trial dominated the American news media until 2005, when he was sentenced to death by lethal injection...

, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

, and the BTK Killer.

Most recently, Jones has been featured on a number of television news shows discussing the trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida mother accused of murdering her daughter. Jones was present for the entirety of the trial and was interviewed on The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor, originally titled The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998 and often called The Factor, is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political issues with guests.The program was the most watched...

, Piers Morgan Tonight
Piers Morgan Tonight
Piers Morgan Tonight is a talk show on CNN, hosted by Piers Morgan. The show premiered on January 17, 2011 and filled the former Larry King Live timeslot. The theme music is written by Anthony James, composer and CEO of British company Music Candy, and his writing partner Yiorgos Bellapaisiotis,...

, Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell
Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell
Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell is a current affairs TV show on HLN hosted by Jane Velez-Mitchell. It airs weekdays in the 7-8 PM EST time slot and repeats at 4-5AM ET. It replaced the Glenn Beck program in late 2008...

, Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...

, and Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace
Nancy Ann Grace is an American legal commentator, television host, television journalist, and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a victims' rights standpoint, with an outspoken style that has won her both praise and condemnation...

.

In addition, Jones has regularly contributed television commentary about the psychological profiles involved in newsworthy trials including those involving O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, the BTK serial Killer, the Menendez Brothers, Charles Manson, Robert Blake and JonBenet Ramsey. A reporter and contributor for Fox News, Jones also hosted her own series, The Justice Hunters for USA, and began her career as a national columnist for United Features Syndicate.

At Fox News, Jones worked for Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...

, providing trial coverage and commentary. In addition to being a Fox contributor, Jones has provided TV commentary to other major cable networks, including MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

, CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...

, A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, HLN
HLN
HLN can refer to*HLN , a cable network formerly known as Headline News*The IATA airport code for Helena Regional Airport*The Horizon League Network—see Horizon League#Horizon League Network*The shorthand notation of Phenolphthalein...

, Court TV
Court TV
truTV is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Time Warner. The network launched as Court TV in 1991, changing to truTV in 2008...

, and E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...

. She also reported for the broadcast networks NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

.

True Crime with Aphrodite Jones

True Crime with Aphrodite Jones is in its second season on Investigation Discovery. Each episode follows Jones as she conducts her own investigations into some of the most headline-making crime stories of our time. From never-before-seen footage of JonBenét Ramsey
JonBenét Ramsey
JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was an American child beauty pageant contestant who was murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado, in 1996. The six-year-old's body was found in the basement of the family home nearly eight hours after she was reported missing. She had been struck on the head and strangled...

 to an exclusive interview with a confidant of Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith
In 1992 Smith was chosen by Hugh Hefner to appear on the cover of the March issue of Playboy, where she was listed as Vickie Smith, wearing a low-cut evening gown. The centerfold was photographed by Stephen Wayda. Smith said she planned to be "the next Marilyn Monroe". Becoming one of Playboys...

, Jones reveals shocking new details of crimes you thought you knew. Jones lands pivotal interviews and gains insider access to those connected to the case, revealing either new evidence or conducting exclusive interviews in each episode.

Season 2 Episodes

  • JonBenét Ramsey
    JonBenét Ramsey
    JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was an American child beauty pageant contestant who was murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado, in 1996. The six-year-old's body was found in the basement of the family home nearly eight hours after she was reported missing. She had been struck on the head and strangled...

  • Anna Nicole Smith
    Anna Nicole Smith
    In 1992 Smith was chosen by Hugh Hefner to appear on the cover of the March issue of Playboy, where she was listed as Vickie Smith, wearing a low-cut evening gown. The centerfold was photographed by Stephen Wayda. Smith said she planned to be "the next Marilyn Monroe". Becoming one of Playboys...

  • Killer Contestant: Rodney Alcala
    Rodney Alcala
    Rodney James Alcala is a convicted rapist and serial killer. He was sentenced to death in California in 2010 for five murders committed in that state between 1977 and 1979, and is currently under indictment for two additional homicides in New York. His true victim total remains unknown, and could...

  • Loyalty, Lies and Loss: Scott Rothstein
  • Twist of Faity: Matt Baker
    Matt Baker
    Matthew James Baker is an English television presenter who co-hosts the Monday-Thursday editions of BBC One's The One Show and co-presents Countryfile on the same channel.-Early life:...

  • The West Memphis Three
  • Amanda Lewis
  • The Reality Show Killer: Ryan Jenkins
  • Children of Thunder: Glenn “Taylor” Helzer

Early life

Jones was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Captain Ashton Blair Jones, Jr, and his wife, Mary, who were living the military life on the Great Lakes Naval Base. Jones' paternal ancestors include Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark...

, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

, and Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...

. Her father, Ashton Blair Jones, served as a communications and tactical officer during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and later was the Director of the Navy Material Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York, where he met and married Mary Kalloumenous. Jones has a sister, Janet Blair, who is now the Director of the Career Center at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

.

Jones suffered the loss of both her parents at an early age. Her mother, Mary, died of a heart attack when Jones was 17, and her father, Blair, died of a heart attack just days after Jones turned 21. According to Jones, being surrounded by tragic circumstances at a young age became a theme in her life. When Jones meets a person who has suffered a sudden loss, she feels she can "empathize completely" with them. The fact that Jones has dedicated her career to "a life of crime" and crime victims is not an accident. "Though it was so many years ago that my parents died," Jones recalled, "the heartbreak always stays with me. No one really gets over the loss of their closest family, but I have used my life's work to try to help others find a moment of catharsis."

Career and education

After graduating at the top of her class from UCLA in 1979, Jones completed a three-year stint as a columnist for United Media, where she chronicled the evolution of cable television in her national column, "Cable View". During that time, Jones interviewed the executives and TV personalities helping to launch and sustain such channels as MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

, VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

, HBO, Cinemax
Cinemax
Cinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks that broadcasts primarily feature films, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a...

, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, TBS
TBS
The acronym TBS may refer to:In broadcasting:*Tokyo Broadcasting System, a TV station in Tokyo, Japan*TBS Radio & Communications, the flagship radio station of the Japan Radio Network *TBS , a US cable television channel...

, Showtime, DISNEY, and the Playboy Channel. Jones describes that time as "the biggest party on Earth, because each cable channel was trying to outdo each other by pandering to journalists."

Jones eventually grew tired of what she called “the TV party life”, and decided to leave United Media to complete a Master of Arts Degree at Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

 in 1987, and then went on to pursue a Ph.D. from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

. During her years at NYU, Jones completed her Ph.D. coursework, as well as the written and oral exams, but was unable to satisfy her dissertation director(s) and thus gave up. For her work in the Ph.D. program, Jones was awarded a Master of Philosophy Degree from NYU in 1991.

While writing her dissertation, Jones took a job as an Assistant Professor at Cumberland College
Cumberland College
Cumberland College may refer to:*Cumberland College, Otago, a residential college for the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand*Cumberland College a defunct institution in Princeton, Kentucky...

 in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

. It was the spring of 1989 when Jones landed herself a second job as a radio news director at a local radio station, and soon after she found herself reporting about an FBI agent who had killed his informant. She knew Pike was “near the end of nowhere” but could not fathom that national news organizations would fail to report on “the first FBI agent in history to go to prison for killing someone.”

Jones soon wrote her first book, The FBI Killer, which was quickly turned into an ABC Movie-of-the-week, betrayed by Love, starring Patricia Arquette
Patricia Arquette
Patricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....

 and Steven Webber
Steven Webber
Dr. Steven Lars "Steve" Webber is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera, General Hospital. Steve was born in 1977, the character has appeared briefly in three different storylines, played each time by a different actor. As as infant in the late 1970s, the character was portrayed by Martin...

. Not long after, Jones landed the exclusive rights to a teen crime drama she chronicled in her book Cruel Sacrifice, which hit the New York Times list at #4 and stayed there for over three months. Overnight, Jones was considered a "veteran" crime writer, and her third book, All She Wanted, was optioned as a major motion picture by Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...

, with Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

 attached. The original film was never made, but Jones’ book was later transformed into the Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry may refer to:* Boys Don't Cry , a one-hit wonder British studio band known for "I Wanna Be a Cowboy"* Boys Don't Cry , a 1999 film starring Hilary Swank and Chloë Sevigny* Boys Don't Cry , a 1980 album by The Cure...

.

Jones spent time talk show circuit appearing on The Today Show
The Today Show
Today is an iconic American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world. The show is also the fourth-longest running American television series...

, Montel Williams
Montel Williams
Montel Brian Anthony Williams is an American television personality, radio talk show host and actor. He is best known as host of the long-running The Montel Williams Show, and more recently as a spokesperson for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance...

, Maury Povich
Maury Povich
Maurice Richard "Maury" Povich is an American TV talk show host who currently hosts his self-titled talk show Maury.-Personal background:...

, Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo, and Leeza
Leeza
Leeza is a daytime television talk show hosted by Leeza Gibbons. The show ran on NBC between 1994 and 2000, and was also shown on other stations in markets where the local NBC affiliate pre-empted it in favor of other programming...

. She also went on to write five more best-selling books, among them, A Perfect Husband, which was made in to the Lifetime
Lifetime
Lifetime may refer to:*Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive*Mean lifetime, a certain number that characterizes the rate of reduction of a particle of an assembly...

 movie The Staircase Murders, starring Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...

.

In the summer of 2008, Jones was given her big break at the Discovery Network in Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...

, when then head of ID, Clark Bunting, bought a 13-episode series starring Jones, to be delivered in 2009. The series aired in 2010, under the title True Crime, and was greeted to critical and public acclaim. Among her achievements during that series taping: an exclusive interview with OJ Simpson’s manager, and a face-to-face meeting with OJ Simpson outside the Las Vegas courtroom where he was last tried; and an exclusive interview with Phil Spector’s longtime assistant and exclusive footage of Mr. Spector “ranting like a lunatic” in his Alhambra castle.

Over the years, Jones has been quoted in publications including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, the NY Post, the NY Daily News, the Miami Herald, and USA Today.

Personal life

Jones has been married once, in 2010, to a man she wants to remain anonymous. “I always preferred my career to marriage,” she was quoted as saying, “but sometimes, when you meet Mr. Right, your world can turn upside down and you shift your priorities.”

Jones currently resides in both New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

Books

Most notably, Aphrodite's book "All She Wanted" was transformed into the Academy Award winning film, "Boys Don't Cry." Her other books include "The FBI Killer," which was subsequently made into the ABC movie, "Betrayed By Love;" as well as "A Perfect Husband," the story of Michael Peterson that was the basis for the critically acclaimed Lifetime movie, "The Staircase Murders." Jones has also authored "Cruel Sacrifice," "Della's Web," "The Embrace: A True Vampire Story," "Red Zone: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the San Francisco Dog Mauling," and her latest work, "Michael Jackson Conspiracy," which examines the media's role in the court of public opinion, using evidence and exhibits from the highly charged molestation trial against Michael Jackson.
  • Michael Jackson Conspiracy (2007) - The story of how the media sensationalized the prosecution's case against the late famous popstar Michael Jackson
    Michael Jackson
    Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

  • A Perfect Husband (2004) - Michael Peterson
    Michael Peterson (author)
    Michael Iver Peterson is a fiction writer and politician. In 2003, he was convicted of the murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson.-Personal life:...

     (the book was made into the film The Staircase Murders)
  • Red Zone: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the San Francisco Dog Mauling (2003) - Diane Whipple
    Diane Whipple
    Diane Alexis Whipple was a lacrosse player and coach, who is best known as the victim of a fatal dog attack in San Francisco in January 2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canario dogs named Bane and Hera , owned by neighbors living in the same apartment building.-Life:Whipple was born in...

  • The Embrace: A True Vampire Story - Rod Ferrell
    Rod Ferrell
    Roderick Justin Ferrell was a member of a loose-knit gang of teenagers from Murray, Kentucky, known as the "Vampire Clan". In 1998, Ferrell pled guilty to the double slaying of a couple from Eustis, Florida, becoming the youngest person in the United States on Death Row...

  • Della's Web - Della Faye Hall
  • All She Wanted - The story of Brandon Teena
    Brandon Teena
    Brandon Teena was an American trans man who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His life and death were the subject of the Academy Award-winning 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, which was based on the documentary film The Brandon Teena Story.-Life:Teena was born Teena Renae Brandon in Lincoln,...

     (on whom the movie Boys Don't Cry
    Boys Don't Cry (film)
    Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...

    was based)
  • Cruel Sacrifice - The murder of Shanda Sharer by Melinda Loveless and 3 others
  • The FBI Killer - Mark Putnam, the first FBI agent in history to be convicted of homicide

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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