The Murder of Five Year Old Myretta June Jones

0:00 Welcome to True Crime Stories with Crimatorium.

0:21 If you like weird, spooky and strange history, then I have the podcast for you. My name is Brenda, and I'm the host of Horrifying History. Are you into the dark side of history? Horrifying History tells you about the side of history that people don't normally talk about. We tell the tales of haunted places, infamous true crimes, the paranormal and unsolved mysteries, and then we look to history to see where the truth actually lies. Want to get spooky with us? Get your Horrifying History fix by subscribing today on your favorite podcast provider or by going to our website at horrifyinghistory.podbean.com.

1:03 Today's case is another one from way back. These old cases are interesting because investigators didn't have DNA or CCTV footage. They had to use good old-fashioned techniques to solve crimes. Also, it reminds us that these sorts of crimes have always happened. And maybe they aren't more common these days. We just have more ways to hear about them now. This is the chilling case of Joyce Christine Nichols.

1:34 In 1947, 13-year-old Joyce Nichols lived with her father Calvin and her stepmother Edith, along with her 14-year-old brother Jerry, near Bakersfield, California. Joyce was born on April 18, 1934 to Calvin and Ollie. The couple divorced in 1943 and the family lost track of Ollie's whereabouts and she died in 1946 at the age of 31. Edith and Calvin got married in October of 1943. Myretta Jones was born on June 18, 1942, to parents Laureen and Earl Jones. She was five years old when on November 17, 1947, she stopped to visit her grandmother after getting off the bus from kindergarten.

2:28 Her grandma, Clara Sprouse, gave her 20 cents to pick up tomato juice at Wayside Grocer, just a few blocks away. Joyce Nichols spotted Mireta on her way to the store and walked in with her and helped her purchase the tomato juice She then invited Mireta to her house to play Joyce peeled potatoes and swept the kitchen floor Her brother Jerry came in briefly and saw the two together After the tasks were done, Joyce asked Mireta if she wanted to go play in a cave This cave was one that the neighbor boys had dug in a ditch bank in a vacant field close to Joyce's home.

3:11 They used it as a pirate's den.

3:17 Myretta's mother, Lorene, wasn't alarmed when she didn't come straight home from school as she often stopped off at her grandma's house after getting off the bus. It wasn't until 4 p.m. when Clara Sprouse called Laureen to let her know that Myretta hadn't returned from the store that she knew something was wrong. The search began at around 6 p that night Neighbors and sheriff deputies scoured the area Witnesses reported seeing Myretta with a young girl in the wayside grocer and others saw the two walking together towards the vacant field where the cave was.

3:57 Around 9 p.m. that evening, a group of boys, including Joyce's brother Jerry, led the deputies to the cave, where they discovered Myretta's nude body. There was a bloody rock and a shovel laying nearby. At the end of the cave, Myretta's clothes were found neatly folded on the ground along with a can of tomato juice.

4:22 Jerry went home and told his parents about the discovery of Myretta's body and that he had seen Joyce with her that afternoon. Calvin and Edith had heard about the missing girl on the radio shortly before Jerry returned home. After Calvin learned of the discovery, he woke Joyce up and questioned her about the day's events. Joyce readily confessed to taking Myretta to the cave and hitting her with a rock. When asked why, she said it was from an urge. Calvin ordered Edith and Jerry not to say a word about the confession until he decided what to do.

5:03 Edith washed Joyce's bloody clothes that night. Interrogations of known sex offenders in the area failed to turn up any suspects in the case. After talking to neighbors, however, deputies got a break in the case. A schoolmate of Joyce said she saw her walking with Myretta towards the cave on the afternoon she went missing. Another woman said she had seen Joyce washing her hands in the canal near the cave. Two clerks from Wayside Grocer also identified Joyce as the girl that was with Myretta that day at the store.

5:45 Neighbors also told the deputies stories about Joyce strangling kittens and puppies, and when questioned about which of their pupils could commit such an act, school personnel mentioned Joyce. On November 19, 1947, the deputies went to Joyce's school, Emerson Junior High, and pulled her out of class. Once in custody, Joyce admitted to the deputies and her parents that were present to taking Myretta home while she completed chores and then taking her to the Pirate's Cave. She went on to say that she told Myretta to take her clothes off, but Myretta refused.

6:28 She said she slapped Myretta around and pulled her hair until she agreed to take her clothes off. When asked what the reason was for killing her, she stated that she had a big desire to hit her.

6:45 The police knew that this wasn't the entire story. Myretta had suffered from a skull fracture and she had been sexually assaulted, or in their words at the time, played with. When asked whether or not she played with Myretta, Joyce said, no, I don't do things like that. In a later conversation that day, she said she didn't know why she did it and that she got no thrill from doing it. It came out later that Joyce inserted her finger into her private area, after which Myretta threatened to tell her grandmother.

7:21 That when she slapped Myretta and pulled her hair grabbed a rock and hit her with it until she quit moving She then dragged Myretta body further into the cave in an attempt to hide it Joyce admitted that the reason she brought Myretta to the cave was to play with her in a perverted way. Joyce was sent to a hospital for observation, and in the end, it was determined that she had the educational age of an 11-year-old, and that there were indications of very early brain damage, that she had a sadistic tendency with animals, and the episode in question may have been in part provoked by increased sexual tension preceding her first menstrual period, which occurred within a week after the crime was committed.

8:14 She was borderline mentally defective and had emotional and personal deviation of such a serious nature as to jeopardize successful social relationships at that time. It was also determined that the murder wasn't premeditated. She just became frightened when Myretta started crying and threatening to tell her grandmother. When she realized Myretta was dead, she tried to conceal the body, washed her hands, then went home and ate dinner, showing little or no concern or emotion over what had just happened.

8:52 They concluded that she is too dull mentally to benefit from individual psychotherapy and recommended that for the present she be confined to a girls' institution. Joyce was also declared sane. A coroner's inquest was held. Joyce's parents as well as Myretta's were present. Joyce testified that she took Myretta to the cave and the little girl took off her clothes. She cried and threatened to tell her grandmother and that's when she hit her in the head four times. She then washed her hands in the canal.

9:32 Her stepmother Edith also testified that Joyce confessed to hitting Myretta, but that was all Joyce could remember. I guess she blanked out, Edith said. She added that Joyce got along better with younger girls than girls of her own age, that she never had any lasting friendships and played home alone most of the time. Calvin, Joyce's father, said that Joyce ate a normal meal and went to bed early instead of listening to the radio like she normally did that night. He added that he knew Joyce was a psychopath.

10:09 He had taken her to a psychiatrist, but he had no idea that she would employ violence. In the past, she has told me unusual things that turned out to be lies, and I wasn't sure about this, he said, referring to Joyce's confession about hitting Myretta. He added that Joyce is not a mean girl. A few times she has done mean things to kids, but all kids do that.

10:37 Myretta's mother, Lorene Jones, said that they often let Myretta play with the other children in the neighborhood, and they built a white picket fence around their house so they could keep her in the yard. I couldn't watch her all the time, she said. I have a little dressmaking business at the house, and you know how it is with kids. You can't watch them all the time. She also added, Of course we plan on buying a house in a better neighborhood. That Joyce should never be set free I have another little girl I don want to think that there can be anyone like that going about in the world Earl Jones, Myretta's father, said that Joyce should never be let loose, crazy or not.

11:22 She should never be allowed around other people. The coroner concluded that Myretta died by homicidal violence caused by injuries to the scalp, exposing brain tissue by Joyce Nichols and she had been sexually violated.

11:40 After it was over, Joyce asked her parents when she was going to go home. Edith answered through a flood of tears and Calvin turned his back in an attempt to hide his emotion.

11:55 The juvenile court decided that even though she was 13 at the time of the offense, she could be tried in a superior court. Joyce was charged with first-degree murder and she pleaded guilty. On May 28, 1948, she became the youngest person in that court's district to be sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.

12:22 Joyce was sent to the Ventura State School for Girls with the order to be transferred to the women's prison in Tehachapi at the age of 21. An appeal was filed and on October 26, 1948, the courts ruled that there was no evidence of premeditation and the charge was reduced to second-degree murder. The new sentence imposed is unclear. However, records show that she got married on December 12, 1953, so by this, it is assumed that the sentence was reduced to five years. That marriage ended in divorce and on April 24, 1959, she got married for a second time.

13:10 The couple had at least one child together. Joyce died on May 15, 2000, at the age of 66. she's buried in the Fresno Memorial Gardens this case is reminiscent of the 1956 movie The Bad Seed which I watched again recently it's a good movie and at the end it says you've just seen a motion picture whose themes dare to be startlingly different may we ask that you don't divulge the unusual climax of the story thank you so I'll respect that and encourage you to watch it if you haven't already you can rent it from YouTube or Amazon Prime maybe the protagonist Rhoda would have blossomed into something better like Joyce from today's case appeared to have if we are to judge by what it says on her headstone if Joyce was really a psychopath like her dad said one has to wonder did she learn to control her behavior or did she take medication to control it?

14:20 Or maybe both? Did she receive ongoing therapy or did she just grow out of her condition? What do you guys think? On a side note, while I was researching this case, I discovered that Myretta is my 10th cousin and Joyce is my 10th cousin twice removed. Thanks for listening and watching everybody and until next time, take care.