An abusive husband and father's last stand went on for at least 7 hours in Arlington, Texas on Friday. The stand-off ended with water rather than gunfire.
NBC 5 in Dallas reported that prior to the standoff, Arthur Jackson IV took his daughter to the Mayfield Road Baptist Church in Arlington. The 4-year-old little girl was said to be covered in blood but otherwise unharmed. Jackson stated while at the church that he'd 'committed a crime.' He was also drenched with blood.
The crime the man allegedly commited was the murder of his wife, Lisa Ford-Jackson and his stepchildren: a 13-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. The children have not been named. The three were found in a home near Lake Arlington, 10 miles or so from the site of the standoff.
Tarrant County (TX) property tax records showed that the couple owned a home at 2101 Mims Street. Other Tarrant County records showed that Lisa Lynette Ford married Arthur Jackson IV in March, 2003. The murdered stepchildren were Lisa's kids from a previous relationship, the 4-year-old was the product of Arthur's and Lisa's marriage.
The Dallas Morning News reported that police in Fort Worth had been called to the Jackson residence at least twice in recent months. One call was from Arthur, who said he was worried about his kids being left by themselves, the other call was from Lisa, who said that her husband was harassing her, knocking on the door and repeatedly ringing the doorbell.
Arthur Jackson IV finally forced an ending to his confrontation with police. As noted by Jules in the comments left on this post, he pulled out of the driveway where he'd been since early in the afternoon and led the police on a short chase that ended with his vehicle sinking into Lake Arlington.
Reader KatK left this link in the comments below this entry. MyFox Dallas reported that Arthur Jackson shot himself as the vehicle sank into the lake.
An AP story about the standoff contained a statement that seemed weirdly familiar. The kind of thing neighbors so often seem to say when men commit astonishing acts of violence. A man who lived near the Jacksons said the following about the allegedly murderous Arthur: "He was the friendliest guy around [. . .] He was a happy go lucky guy. Every time I saw him, he had a smile."
Seems like they always do. A smile makes for excellent camouflage.
*****
This post marks the introduction of two new ideas for The True Crime Weblog: An active use of the term "Suburban Gothic"; and a possible change in the way certain blog entries are written.
I certainly didn't invent the idea of "Suburban Gothic." But I have often felt that I had a unique take on the meaning of that term. I was raised in a strange situation. My family lived in a home set well back from a rural State road. Our nearest neighbors until I was 16 or so were all family. I knew other boys and girls in the area and even played with them, but the point is this -- I didn't live in the suburbs. They were just across the road, for a long time through a half-mile wide stretch of woods. Riding my bicycle through a field to the road where the suburbs began was for me like entering a completely different world just a mile from my home. From perhaps 7th grade onwards I entered the suburbs as a stranger in a strange land much of the time, and that perception has never left me. It informs how I view certain crime stories -- therefore, it will become for the purposes of this weblog a label (or category, if you think in terms of the Wordpress blog publishing program) that I use whenever I cover certain crimes in the news.
The change in how entries are written isn't big, but it will be noticeable. Rather than doing as so many bloggers do and posting sometimes numerous updates, I will simply begin editing and adding to entries as I go. Therefore the blog entry you are reading now may look very different tomorrow. It may contain a great deal more information on the crime being covered, as well as re-written passages. Other portions may be removed, redacted, etc. This is similar to the system certain newswires and newspapers appear to use for online articles.
At a certain point, of course, new entries for a given subject will be necessary. And updates can't be completely abandoned, style-wise. Sometimes they make sense.
I decided to make this slight change because looking back over old posts I sometimes found updates distracting, even confusing. Hopefully using re-writes and add-ins instead will make for a reading experience that ages better -- that is, if someone is reading this post a year from now, it will make more sense and be more coherent than it might be if it were a bunch of updates. I also got tired of ending each entry on a developing story with some variation on "this entry will be updated." This is one where you can assume that will happen if you are reading the post within an hour of its publication. Otherwise, I may no longer add that note to each post I plan to add to later.
NBC 5 in Dallas reported that prior to the standoff, Arthur Jackson IV took his daughter to the Mayfield Road Baptist Church in Arlington. The 4-year-old little girl was said to be covered in blood but otherwise unharmed. Jackson stated while at the church that he'd 'committed a crime.' He was also drenched with blood.
The crime the man allegedly commited was the murder of his wife, Lisa Ford-Jackson and his stepchildren: a 13-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. The children have not been named. The three were found in a home near Lake Arlington, 10 miles or so from the site of the standoff.
Tarrant County (TX) property tax records showed that the couple owned a home at 2101 Mims Street. Other Tarrant County records showed that Lisa Lynette Ford married Arthur Jackson IV in March, 2003. The murdered stepchildren were Lisa's kids from a previous relationship, the 4-year-old was the product of Arthur's and Lisa's marriage.
The Dallas Morning News reported that police in Fort Worth had been called to the Jackson residence at least twice in recent months. One call was from Arthur, who said he was worried about his kids being left by themselves, the other call was from Lisa, who said that her husband was harassing her, knocking on the door and repeatedly ringing the doorbell.
Arthur Jackson IV finally forced an ending to his confrontation with police. As noted by Jules in the comments left on this post, he pulled out of the driveway where he'd been since early in the afternoon and led the police on a short chase that ended with his vehicle sinking into Lake Arlington.
Reader KatK left this link in the comments below this entry. MyFox Dallas reported that Arthur Jackson shot himself as the vehicle sank into the lake.
An AP story about the standoff contained a statement that seemed weirdly familiar. The kind of thing neighbors so often seem to say when men commit astonishing acts of violence. A man who lived near the Jacksons said the following about the allegedly murderous Arthur: "He was the friendliest guy around [. . .] He was a happy go lucky guy. Every time I saw him, he had a smile."
Seems like they always do. A smile makes for excellent camouflage.
I certainly didn't invent the idea of "Suburban Gothic." But I have often felt that I had a unique take on the meaning of that term. I was raised in a strange situation. My family lived in a home set well back from a rural State road. Our nearest neighbors until I was 16 or so were all family. I knew other boys and girls in the area and even played with them, but the point is this -- I didn't live in the suburbs. They were just across the road, for a long time through a half-mile wide stretch of woods. Riding my bicycle through a field to the road where the suburbs began was for me like entering a completely different world just a mile from my home. From perhaps 7th grade onwards I entered the suburbs as a stranger in a strange land much of the time, and that perception has never left me. It informs how I view certain crime stories -- therefore, it will become for the purposes of this weblog a label (or category, if you think in terms of the Wordpress blog publishing program) that I use whenever I cover certain crimes in the news.
The change in how entries are written isn't big, but it will be noticeable. Rather than doing as so many bloggers do and posting sometimes numerous updates, I will simply begin editing and adding to entries as I go. Therefore the blog entry you are reading now may look very different tomorrow. It may contain a great deal more information on the crime being covered, as well as re-written passages. Other portions may be removed, redacted, etc. This is similar to the system certain newswires and newspapers appear to use for online articles.
At a certain point, of course, new entries for a given subject will be necessary. And updates can't be completely abandoned, style-wise. Sometimes they make sense.
I decided to make this slight change because looking back over old posts I sometimes found updates distracting, even confusing. Hopefully using re-writes and add-ins instead will make for a reading experience that ages better -- that is, if someone is reading this post a year from now, it will make more sense and be more coherent than it might be if it were a bunch of updates. I also got tired of ending each entry on a developing story with some variation on "this entry will be updated." This is one where you can assume that will happen if you are reading the post within an hour of its publication. Otherwise, I may no longer add that note to each post I plan to add to later.
