Candy Jones

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Candy Jones (born Jessica Wilcox in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on December 31, 1925, died January 18, 1990) was a fashion model in the 1940s and 1950s, and from 1972, a co-host of John Nebel's talk radio show (he was her second husband) on WMCA in New York City.

Controversially, Jones claimed to be a victim of a secret mind control program between about 1960 and 1970.

[edit] Biography

Born Jessica Wilcox to a well-off family. Years later, under hypnosis, she reported that she was physically abused by her parents, and that she had vague memories of sexual abuse in her youth. Her parents, she insisted, kept her cloistered, and she had an imaginary friend named "Arlene" to help through her lonely episodes

She grew into an attractive, statuesque young woman (standing about 6'4", according to Bennett), and, changing her name, pursued a career as a fashion model. She was a quick success, becoming a runner up for Miss New Jersey in the Miss America contest. Jones was able to parley this into a hostess job at the main Miss America contest, and a successful career. She was one of the leading pin-up girls of the World War II era: in one month in 1943, she appeared on 11 different magazine covers.

During a lengthy United Service Organizations (USO) tour in the Philippines, Jones fell ill in 1945, and was treated by a doctor who was still alive when Candy publicised her mind-control claims; Donald Bain gave this doctor the pseudonym "Gilbert Jensen".

In 1946, Jones married fashion czar Harry Conover, one of the first model agents. They had three sons, though Jones says she didn't realize Conover was bisexual until some years into their marriage. She recognized some people might consider this naive, but Jones insisted her abusive childhood had made her wary of intimate relationships, and though she had many suitors, she was rather sexually inexperienced when she married. She reported that Conover initiated sexual activities with her very few times, and only when he was intoxicated. Without notice, Conover disappeared in late 1958. Jones notified police, and Conover's absence made the news. When he returned after a long binge, Jones sued for divorce in 1959. After the marriage was dissolved, Jones opened a modeling school.

On 31 December 1972, she married radio host "Long John" Nebel after a one-month courtship (they had met decades earlier when Nebel was a photographer). Shortly after their marriage, Nebel said, he noted that Jones exhibited violent mood swings, and, at times, seemed to display a different personality. Nebel called this "The Voice ... a look, a few moments of bitchiness." The Voice usually vanished rather quickly, but the change was so drastic from Jones's usually pleasant demeanor that Nebel was startled.

Colin Bennett writes, "A few weeks after their marriage, she did tell Nebel that she had worked for the FBI for some time, adding mysteriously that she might have to go out of town on occasion without giving a reason. This left Nebel wondering whether there was a connection between the 'other' personality within Candy and the strange trips she said she made for the FBI."

Nebel began hypnotising Jones, and uncovered an alternate personality named "Arlene", and eventually concluded Jones had been part of a CIA mind-control program. They eventually recorded hundreds of hours of these hypnotic sessions. As "Long John" was not above hoaxing his radio audience, many doubted the recovered memories of Candy Jones's past were genuine; later skeptics would argue that false memory syndrome was a more plausble explanation.

Jones said she had some conscious memories of this program: it began in 1960, when an old USO accquaintence (an unnamed retired army general) asked to use Jones' modeling school as a mailing address to receive some letters and packages. Jones agreed, she says, out of a sense of patriotism.

Eventually, said Jones, she was asked to deliver a letter to Oakland, California on a trip she'd scheduled. Again, Jones reported she agreed, and was surprised to discover the letter was delivered to Dr Jensen, who had treated her in the Philippines nearly two decades earlier. Jones said Jensen offered hefty amounts of cash if she was willing to be hypnotized and engage in further plans; in their earlier meetings, Jensen had noted that Jones was an ideal subject for hypnosis. Jones agreed, she said, because her modelling school was faltering, and she wanted to keep her sons in their costly private schools.

An alternate personality called "Arlene" was reportedly groomed, so that Jones would have no memory of Arlene's activities. She allegedly made trips to locations as far away as Taiwan. Donald Bain writes, "she would be a messenger for the agency in conjunction with her normal business trips." This type of "super spy" who would have no memory of her activties was perhaps first suggested by Dr. George Estabrooks in his classic 1943 book, Hypnotism

Again with the USO, Jones visited South Vietnam in 1970; she later suspected her visit had some connection to a disastrous attempt to free American prisoners of war from North Vietnam.

Jones's and Nebel's claims were first made public in 1974 (in Donald Bain's The Control of Candy Jones), and were, then and now, generally viewed skeptically: Nebel was a prankster and a hoaxer of long standing. A few years later, however, when the Rockefeller Commission made public the decades-old CIA mind-control program MKULTRA, some found it harder to dismiss Jones and Nebel's claims outright. Nebel accepted his wife's claims, and openly discussed killing Dr. Jensen in revenge. Jones' story gained more notice after the public discolosure of MKULTRA, and Bain's book was republished by Playboy Press.

Jones's purported history as a CIA operative has not been confirmed, and evidence beyond her tape-recorded hypnosis sessions is scant: associates in her modeling schools noted that Jones indeed had some puzzling absences from her modelling school--supposed business trips where little or no business seemed to be conducted. Bain writes that another piece of evidence came forth when "Candy inadvertently held onto a passport of 'Arlene Grant': Candy in a dark wig and dark makeup." Jones says she had no memory of dressing up in such an outfit, or of posing for a passport in a different name.

Bain also claimed that a tape recorded answering machine message was reportedly left on Jones and Nebel's home telephone number on July 3, 1973: "This is Japan Airlines calling on oh-three July at 4.10 p.m. ... Please have Miss Grant call 759-9100 ... she is holding a reservation on Japan Airlines Flight 5, for the sixth of July, Kennedy to Tokyo, with an option on to Taipai. This is per Cynthia that we are calling." When Jones telephoned the number and asked for Cynthia, she was told that no one of that name worked at the reservations desk. Bain specualtes that "Cynthia" might have been "Arlene's" CIA contact, or perhaps a "code word" meant to trigger a hypnotic suggestion.

Additionally, Brian Haughton notes that "There was also a letter she (Jones) wrote to her attorney, William Williams, to cover herself in case she died or disappeared suddenly or under unusual circumstances; she told him she was not at liberty to reveal exactly what she was involved in. Bain wrote to Williams who corroborated this fact."[1]

Its also worth noting that in 1971, an article by Estabrook was published in Science Digest, wherin he openly discussed the successful creation of amnesiac couriers of the type Jones claimed to have been (see external links below).