Frank Jones

1900 - 1969

Frank Jones was brought up in a poor and deeply religious African American household in Clarksville, Texas. Like many of his black peers, he was denied the opportunity to be schooled, so he spent much of his early life doing odd jobs and surviving on what he could. When he was nine years old, Jones began to see spirits. His mother, who had abandoned him when he was 3, had foreseen this as the inevitable outcome of his being born with the “caul” membrane over his left eye. Jones was insistent that his ability enabled him to see through to the world of spirits, which appeared to him under many guises. Beginning in 1941, Jones spent over 20 years of his life in Texan jails. He always maintained his complete innocence of the crimes of which he was accused, but the racist judicial system of the day was stacked against him. During the early 1960’s, the imprisoned Jones began to collect pieces of paper and to paint the “haints” or devils which had been present all of his life with blue and red accountants’ pencils. Naming his pictures “devil houses”, he would paint the spirits within architectural box frames, surrounded by flame-like flicks of color. Although he was due for release, he became unwell and died in Huntersville Prison Hospital in 1969.  ¹