May 2025 Archives

In 1977, a middle-aged woman named Ada Jane Johnston was found burned to death in her car on a country road near Anniston, Alabama. The fire started in the engine compartment, an apparent murder. Her husband Homer was tried twice for the crime, a hung jury followed by a conviction that was reversed on appeal. The case was marked inactive in 1983.

Surrounding the case there were a husband and the insurance policies he bought, a suspicious fire at their home, and an implied threat to a friend who suspected the husband's guilt. There was also a strike at the Classy Ribbon factory where Jane worked.

Now in 2025 her granddaughter Tiffany Jones is trying to find the truth about what happened. She is looking for clues into her grandmother's state of mind, clues to what might have motivated the murderer, which might lead to the murderer himself.

Ada Jane was a mother, a sister, and a friend to many. Her story was cut short in 1977, and the people who loved her are still hoping for clarity and peace.

If you lived in Anniston in the 1970s -- or if your parents or grandparents did -- and remember Jane, the Johnston family, or lived near Winchester Rd in 1977, worked at Classy Ribbon, anything about that time, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Sometimes even the smallest memories matter.

A name. A neighbor. A street. A moment you never forgot.

You can comment here, send a private message, or just share this post in case someone else remembers.

Even if you know nothing, please share to help raise awareness as to what we are trying to do for this case.

This is not about stirring up trouble -- it's about honoring someone we lost, and leaving no stone unturned.

One of the threads she's following is connected to Tulsa. Ada Jane Johnston wrote often to TV preachers asking for prayer. Her granddaughter is hoping that one of those televangelists archived letters from donors and prayer partners. She wrote to BatesLine in hopes of finding a clue:

I believe those letters may hold insight into what she was going through at the time, and I've been trying to find out if any of that correspondence was archived--either by the ministry or through Oral Roberts University.

Unfortunately, I've hit a wall. I've contacted ORU, the ministry, and the library, but haven't been able to confirm if any of that partner correspondence from the 1970s still exists--or who might even know how it was handled.

I would be amazed if any of that material survives. You may recall the 1991 scandal involving prayer requests from various televangelist ministries which were discovered in a downtown Tulsa dumpster, despite on-air claims by TV preachers like Robert Tilton that they prayed over donors' prayer requests. At best, they prayed over computer printouts listing names and broad categories of concern. While Oral Roberts was not one of the televangelists mentioned by the story, he was part of the same network of Charismatic ministries, so it would not surprise me if his organization followed the same practices. A Tulsa-based mail processing company opened the envelopes from donors, processed the donations, sent out premiums to the donor (books, anointing oil, prayer cloths, etc.), and then discarded everything else.

Nevertheless, I've spoken to someone who worked for the data processing department of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (OREA) in the mid-1980s, who recalls that correspondence was preserved on microfiche. What was saved on microfiche is a different question, as is where that microfiche has ended up.

If you have any knowledge of the whereabouts of 1970s OREA/ORU correspondence archives, you can reach Tiffany Jones through the Ada Jane Johnston Facebook page or by email at unwrittenbytiffany@gmail.com

Another month, another election: Today is the Republican primary runoff to fill vacancies in two Tulsa County House Districts. I encourage you to vote for attorney Beverly Atteberry in House 71 and pastoral coach and speaker Kevin Norwood in House 74.

More commentary about the candidates in my pre-primary post from April and my post from the filing period in January.

There are about two dozen special elections today across Oklahoma, mainly small-school bond issues. The general election for the Senate District 8 vacancy is also today in parts of Okmulgee, Okfuskee, McIntosh, Creek, and Muskogee counties. Bryan Logan, a conservative grassroots Republican prevailed in the April runoff to face a Democrat and an Independent.

UPDATE: Results turned out as hoped: Bryan Logan is now a senator-elect, with 62% in Senate 8. Atteberry won 66% of a paltry 222 votes cast in House 71, where highly competitive GOP primaries were common just 20 years ago. Kevin Norwood edged out incumbent-spouse Sheila Vancuren by 43 votes. The smallest turnout was 25 votes in the Garfield County town of Drummond, which renewed OG+E's franchise to provide electricity for another 25 years by a vote of 23-2.