Photo: St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department/AP/Shutterstock; Facebook
In 2017, the imperial wizard of a local Missouri KKK chapter was found shot to death — and now his wife has been sentenced to life in prison for his murder, PEOPLE confirms.
Frank Ancona, 51, was the Lakewood, MO, based leader of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. After he went missing in February 2017, a family discovered his body on the banks of the Big River in Belgrade, MO, according tothe Daily Journal.
Ancona’s autopsy revealed that he died from gunshot wounds to the head, theWashington Post reports.
Malissa also allegedly informed police that her husband had told her he wanted a divorce.
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When Malissa was arrested following her husband’s murder, she claimed her son, Paul E. Jinkerson Jr., had actually been the one to shoot and kill Ancona, according tothe Daily Beast. Jinkerson was subsequently charged as well.
But at the St. Francois County Circuit Court this past Friday, Malissa’s story changed. She admitted that it was she, not her son, who had fatally shot Ancona, telling Circuit Judge Wendy Wexler Horn, “I fired both shots that killed my husband,” according tothe St. Louis Post-Dispatch.She also admitted to cleaning her bedroom walls, discarding bloody bedding and dumping her husband’s body, but she said her son had assisted in those actions.
Malissa pled guilty to second-degree murder, abandonment of a corpse, and tampering with evidence, a spokesperson for the court confirmed to PEOPLE.
In a previous letter to the judge, Malissa admitted that Jinkerson “did not pull the trigger, (I DID).”
Jinkerson is due to stand trial on May 6 for first-degree murder. “The real and only killer pled guilty on Friday — that was his mother,” Jinkerson’s attorney, Eric Barnhart, tells PEOPLE via phone. “Paul Jinkerson is innocent.”
source: people.com
