Ernest Jones, a 40-year-old taxi driver, was found bludgeoned to death on October 9, 1980, on the banks of the Niagara River in Tonawanda, New York. Investigators reported that his heart had been surgically removed from his chest, a gruesome detail that suggested a motive beyond robbery or random violence.

The killing came one night after Buffalo taxi driver Parker Edwards, 71, was discovered dead in the trunk of his cab; Edwards had also been bludgeoned and his heart excised. The two back-to-back deaths, both involving Black taxi drivers and the same disturbing signature, were linked as the Taxi Murders and prompted an intensive investigation.

No arrests were ever made in Ernest Jones’s killing and no suspects were publicly identified. Does anyone have information about Jones, his work that week, or the nights leading up to these killings?