A new documentary has traced Kenner Elias Jones, a former North Wales choirboy who became one of the world's most notorious fraudsters, to a care home in Germany. Jones, who carried the cross and sang at the 1969 Investiture of the then Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle, spent years posing as a doctor, priest and charity boss, deceiving even his own wife for four years.
The film, produced by Caernarfon-based Cwmni Da and Awen, will premiere at Galeri in Caernarfon on Tuesday, December 2. Among the guests will be his ex-wife, former Canadian TV journalist Lee McKenzie, and producer Marc Edwards, who has followed the story for over three decades.
Jones's criminal career began after the Investiture when he studied at Sheffield Polytechnic and helped the Liberal Party win a council seat, before disappearing with debts. He received probation and psychiatric treatment, then served prison sentences in Coventry and London. In 1979, he charmed McKenzie on Llandudno promenade, married her, and moved to Vancouver, where he plundered her savings and forged her signature, leading to her arrest.
McKenzie said: 'I got to know that Ken Jones was willing to sell the people who loved him right down the river.' After returning to Wales with his second wife, Elsie, Jones applied for a BBC job but was recognised by a former schoolmate on the interview panel. He later volunteered for the Liberal Democrats before fleeing the night before a 2003 fraud trial in Lewes.
The documentary will be followed by a two-part S4C series, 'Con Jones: Twyllwr Gorau'r Byd' (Con Jones: World's Best Conman), airing in the new year.
