Claude Jones


Claude Jones in family snapshots taken at Texas' death row visitors' room the day before he was was executed.


Facts of Crime: In November 1989, Jones entered Zell's liquor store in Point Blank and asked the owner, Allen Hilzendager, to retrieve a bottle for him. As Hilzendager turned to get the bottle, Jones shot him three times with a .357 Magnum revolver. Jones took $900 from the cash register and fled in a getaway vehicle waiting outside. Waiting in the car were Jones' two accomplices, Kerry Daniel Dixon, Jr. and Timothy Mark Jordan, in the middle of a multi-state crime pree that ended when Jones was arrested in Florida for bank robbery. Dixon received a 60-year sentence, Jordan a 10-year sentence. Jones had spent much of this adult life in prison following numerous convictions in Texas and Kansas. While in a Kansas prison serving a life sentence for murder, he killed another inmate. He served a total of eight years on his life sentence.

Victim: Allen Hilzendager

Time of Death: 6:42 p.m.

Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: eight soft fried eggs, bacon, sausage, one T-bone steak (well-done), six slices of buttered toast with strawberry jelly, and a pitcher of cold milk

Final Statement: Jones apologized to the victim's family and expressed love to his own family.