Reporter-News Archives Sunday, January 21, 2001 Detective couldn’t locate Barre Cox By Loretta Fulton Reporter-News Staff Writer He found Marlon Brando’s kidnapped son in Mexico, and he helped convict the heir to a candy fortune in Chicago. But famed private eye Jay J. Armes had no more luck than anyone else in tracking the elusive Barre Cox. Armes, El Paso’s version of Magnum P.I., was hired by the father and wife of Wesley Barrett “Barre” Cox about a month after Cox’s 1976 Oldsmobile 98 was found abandoned and ransacked in Jones County on July 12, 1984. Cox was en route from Lubbock, where he was working on a doctorate in art education, to San Antonio, where he lived with his wife, Beth, and their 6-month-old daughter, Talitha. He phoned his wife to say he planned to stop in Abilene to visit friends the couple had made when they worked at Abilene Christian University in the 1982-83 school year. But Cox never showed up. Sixteen years later, on Dec. 10, he was spotted in a Dallas church by an acquaintance. Armes said he told Beth Cox and Barre Cox’s father after years of searching that he had come to two conclusions. “My analysis was that he either got amnesia and disappeared under a new name or he was doing it purposely,” Armes said. Beth Cox said her long-lost husband called her after he was sighted in Dallas and told her he had suffered amnesia for more than 16 years and knew nothing of her or the couple’s daughter, who turned 17 on Jan. 1. He told his wife he awoke in a Memphis hospital from a two-week coma after being found beaten in a car trunk there. Memphis law enforcement agencies and hospital administrators have been unable to confirm that story. Cox has been living under the name James Simmons as an employee of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif. A Clarendon rancher named James Simmons said Cox used his Social Security number for several years. None of that surprises Armes, who in more than 30 years as a private investigator has been associated with some high-profile cases. Armes said he predicted that Cox might be gay and wanted to establish a new identity. “Coming out,” or announcing a homosexual lifestyle, wasn’t as commonplace in 1984 as it is now, Armes said. “Maybe he is ashamed,” the detective theorized. Armes said he learned of Cox’s reappearance from Beth Cox, who called him last week. Barre Cox’s father, who along with Beth Cox employed Armes, died in 1991. Armes said Beth Cox was shocked when he first suggested Barre Cox might be gay. “She said, ‘You hurt my feelings when you mentioned it,’” Armes recalled. But in his conversation with Beth Cox last week, Armes said she agreed it made sense. For years after Cox disappeared in 1984, Armes said he checked every couple of weeks to see if the missing man was using his Social Security number, but with no luck. Every lead was traced, every phone tip checked — all to no avail, he said. That’s an unusual ending for an Armes investigation. A message on his telephone claims, “There is no case too big or too small for us to handle.” Indeed, that has been the case over the years. Armes’ name has been associated with some of the biggest crime stories of recent decades. He found actor Marlon Brando’s son, Christian, who was 11 at the time, in Mexico after he was kidnapped. In 1991, Armes said, he located Heath Candy Co. heir Donald J. Webber in Thailand after he was accused of murdering a former girlfriend. The girl was a student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., just north of Chicago. Armes said Webber was later convicted of murder and remains imprisoned. In Texas, Armes was involved in the 1984 case of Jamiel “Jimmy” Chagra, who pleaded guilty to charges of planning to kill a federal prosecutor who was spearheading a series of drug investigations. Chagra also was convicted of obstruction of justice in the investigation of the murder of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr., who was killed in an ambush outside his San Antonio home in 1979. With that kind of background, Armes is well prepared to question Cox, something he hopes to do next week. If that happens, he may be able to learn something about the mysterious Barre Cox/James Simmons that others are still questioning. “I can tell within an hour if he’s telling the truth or not,” Armes said. (See related Special Report) Contact staff writer Loretta Fulton at 676-6778 or fultonl@abinews.com. Check out our Web site at www.reporternews.com Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story Start or Join A Discussion about This Story Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: Enter their email address below: texnews reporternews local news features Copyright ©2001, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications