Missing Baby Gabriel PI Jay J. Armes: My Best Secret Agent Plus Rare Facts & Not-So-Rare

Famous Private Investigator (P.I.) Jay J. Armes and his esteemed son, P.I. Jay J. Armes III, are working together along with an investigation team, assembled by the senior Mr. Armes, to find Baby Gabriel Johnson, who went missing at age eight months in San Antonio Texas on December 27 2009. His mother and kidnapper- and possible murderess- languishes in an Arizona jail; his father is independently searching for him.

The Armes custom power team of Ralph Thomas, Logan Clark, and Bill Dear now includes the first U.S. detective agency, The Pinkertons. Mr. Armes and team have many leads for missing Baby Gabriel and are following them all. "The baby is still out there; I know that," Mr. Armes said. "I've got so many agents working on it that I know we'll find him. I selected these agents myself. They are top-notch." Jay J. Armes has solved every case he's ever worked on. "When I'm on a case, I'm on it all-out and full-time- it's what I do," said Mr. Armes. This fact makes him everyone's best secret agent, including Baby Gabriel's.

Writer Ian Fleming may have created secret agent 007 James Bond, in 1953, but the origin of a real-life secret agent came about after Mr. Armes left a nigh-decade-long acting career in Hollywood and in 1958 opened up his Central Bureau of Investigation in El Paso Texas. "I am not like 007- 007 is like me," Mr. Armes said. A later name change to The Investigators and a relocation to the address 1717 Montana bring us to the present-day name and headquarters. And present-day fame.

Yet, the glitzy world-famous private investigator who rides around in a limousine driven by a bodyguard was first put in the spotlight after an alarming childhood mishap with an inspiring comeback. If you know the story, well... here it is again.

In 1946, Ysleta Texas lad Julian Armes- Jay J's birth name- was age ten when he and his buddies found railroad detonators near their homes. These button-like detonators or torpedoes are strapped to the rail so that when a train runs over one, an explosive bang signals a warning to the engineer of danger ahead. As young Jay J. handled a detonator, it exploded. His destroyed hands had to be amputated and were replaced by hooks, which young Jay J. mastered the use of within four months- enabling him to function as usual and even better.

A vibrant boy who grew into a dynamic man, Jay J. Armes was not only once an actor and is not only a renowned private investigator but was also once a City Council member of Lower Valley from 1989 to 1993, during which time, he kept the Council honest. For instance, when the Council proposed using a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to build tennis courts for University of Texas El Paso under the guise that the courts would keep gangsters playing tennis instead of perpetrating crimes, Mr. Armes spoke against it. Soon after that, HUD declined the underhanded proposal that would have ill-used money intended for the development of low-income neighborhoods.

Secret agent Jay J. Armes not only made an honest politician but he is ever a humanitarian. While he earns well-deserved astronomical sums for his investigative services, he sometimes works for free, such as in the case of missing Baby Gabriel. And his money-earned is where his heart is- he has played a longtime low-key benefactor to Lee and Beulah Moor Children's Home, where he periodically stops by with a truckload of staples and hygiene goods. "There are a lot of sides to Mr. Armes- he is a very generous person and while we know him, we really don't know him," said Jim Thomas, a senior administrator of the Home.

We'll never fully know the real Jay J. Armes, whose record of 100% investigative successes encompasses numerous famous cases, including the retrieval of Marlon Brando's kidnapped son from Mexico. Children can buy toy action figures of JJ and his Mobile Investigation Unit. Adults can read his book Jay J. Armes Investigator, as told to Frederick Nolan. And we all can read the real-life action hero's upcoming new book My Best Secret Agent, which is his tribute and thank you to God for a wonderful life. At 77, Jay J. Armes has no plan to retire. The American hero whom Ralph Thomas has dubbed the King of Investigation- akin to Elvis Presley the 'King of Rock-n-Roll'- is even in the process of making a motion picture deal with a major studio.

So, while we can never know the extraordinary Jay J. Armes, we can view vignettes of his life- past, present, and future. Thence, enjoy this charming lesser-known vignette of Jay J. Armes' home environment.

When people think of celebrities with wild animals for pets, they instantly think of the late Michael Jackson and his private menagerie at his Neverland Ranch in California. But secret agent Jay J. Armes should also come to mind. When pop maestro Michael was only age eleven, in 1969, Mr. Armes' neighbors were complaining about the lions, tigers, and elephants that Mr. Armes kept behind his half-million-dollar mansion, in Lower Valley.

Today, Mr. Armes still keeps lions; he also keeps white tigers and has a chimpanzee named Gypsy. The tigers that eventually died were reproduced by taxidermists; they stand in Mr. Armes' office- one tiger has a particularly kindly face. And the charming man whom we admire as our 'best secret agent' and the King of Investigation stands with his erstwhile pets for a snapshot, giving his worldwide audience a glimpse into the multi-faceted life of the man called Jay J. Armes.

Related articles:
Famous PI Jay J. Armes May Sue Baby Gabriel Dad Logan McQueary for Libel; March 10, 2010
Baby Gabriel 'Missing Person' Becomes Homicide BUT 'No Murder Evidence' Says Jay J Armes;
Jay J. Armes Talks to Baby Gabriel Johnson Dad- Starts Mexico Search;
Baby Gabriel Investigator Jay J. Armes Puts Heavyweight Team Together;
Baby Gabriel Dad Logan to Meet With Marlon Brando Investigator Jay J. Armes;

Sources: elpasotimes; theinvestigators;