Aphrodite Jones
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Aphrodite Jones (born November 27, 1958) is an American author, reporter, and television producer. Jones is an executive producer and the host of the television series '' True Crime with Aphrodite Jones''. Previously, Jones hosted a show called ''The Justice Hunters'' for USA Network, and was a crime reporter for
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, covering the trials of Scott Peterson,
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
, and Dennis Rader for '' The O'Reilly Factor'' and '' Geraldo At Large''.


Early life

Jones was born in
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, to
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Captain Ashton Blair Jones Jr. and his Greek wife Maria Kalloumenous, a native of Patras,
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. She has a sister named Janet.


Career and education

While attending
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
, Jones appeared in two episodes of '' Match Game '78''. During the first episode she mentioned that her grandmother was also named Aphrodite. After graduating, Jones worked as a celebrity beat reporter for United Features Syndicate. In 1992, Jones was teaching English at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky when she published her first book, ''The FBI Killer'', about Mark Putnam, the first active
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
agent convicted of homicide. The book was the source material for the 1994 made-for-television film ''Betrayed by Love'', starring
Patricia Arquette Patricia Arquette (; born April 8, 1968) is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'' (1987) and has since received several awards, including an Academy Award, two P ...
and Steven Weber. Jones' second book, ''Cruel Sacrifice'', chronicled the 1992 murder of Indiana teenager Shanda Sharer by four other teen-aged girls. The book's subject matter cost Jones her job at Cumberland College, a conservative
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institution. ''Cruel Sacrifice'' was on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller List for three months in 1994. In 1996, Jones published the groundbreaking book, ''All She Wanted'', now entitled ''All He Wanted'', based on one of the first transgender hate crimes in America. The book was initially meant to provide the source material for the
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
-winning film '' Boys Don't Cry'', starring Hilary Swank, but the film was rewritten extensively, prompting Jones to file a lawsuit against its distributor, Fox Searchlight Pictures. Jones has written a total of nine books, among them ''A Perfect Husband'', about the murder case against Michael Peterson, now infamous to viewers of the Netflix series, ''"The Staircase."''


''True Crime with Aphrodite Jones''

Jones hosted and executive produced the documentary television series '' True Crime with Aphrodite Jones'', which aired in first run on the Investigation Discovery channel from 2010 to 2016.


Personal life

, Jones resides in
South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...
.


Books

* ''The FBI Killer'' (1992) – about the murder of Susan Smith * ''Cruel Sacrifice'' (1994) — about the murder of Shanda Sharer * ''All She Wanted'' (1996) — about the hate crime committed against a transgender boy, Brandon Teena * ''Della's Web'' (1998) — about convicted murderer Della Sutorius * ''The Embrace: A True Vampire Story'' (1999) — about convicted murderer Rod Ferrell * ''Red Zone: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the San Francisco Dog Mauling'' (2003) – about the dog attack that killed Diane Whipple * – about the 2003 Michael Peterson trial * ''Michael Jackson Conspiracy'' (2007) — about the 2005 Michael Jackson child molestation trial * ''Levi’s Eyes'' (2023) — about Karl Karlsen’s murders for insurance fraud


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Aphrodite 1958 births Living people American non-fiction crime writers American television hosts American women television hosts American writers of Greek descent University of California, Los Angeles alumni American crime reporters