Arthur Gerald Jones

Arthur Gerald Jones
Arthur Gerald Jones. Las Vegas NV July 25 2011 A Chicago man who went missing 32 years ago and was declared legally dead was found in Las Vegas – alive and well.

Arthur Gerald Jones, a Chicago commodities trader, was living in the Windy City until 1979. He allegedly faced gambling debts and even trouble with the mob, his wife of 17 years told investigators.

One day in May, he said was going an errand – and never came home.

Seven years later, the married father of three was declared legally dead by a court, and his family was paid $47,000 by Social Security in survivor benefits.

But Jones wasn’t dead.

He left Chicago with a fake driver’s license and a stolen Social Security card and birth certificate bought for him by a friend, shortly after being forced to sell his seat with the Chicago Board of Trade to pay his gambling debts.

Earlier this week, according to an affidavit, he was arrested on four felony counts related to identity theft after he was found working as a bookie in a Las Vegas casino under the name Joseph Richard Sandelli.

By the time investigators caught up with him after he was busted with a fake Social Security number, he had a whole new life – and girlfriend.

Patricia Baal told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that they had been together for 22 years.

“My feeling is we’ve been together 22 years, and he’s been very loving and respectful to me and my family. And I love him. And everything’s fine,” she said.

It was not clear if she knew that he had been living under a false identification the entire time.

“It’s a little emotional over here,” she added to the paper.
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