{"id":315858,"date":"2026-08-07T06:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/315858\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T06:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:34:25","slug":"homeless-man-who-admitted-torching-brooklyn-church-listed-violent-crimes-in-notebook-feds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/315858\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless man who admitted torching Brooklyn church listed violent crimes in notebook: feds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The homeless firebug accused of burning a historic Brooklyn church<\/a> to the ground kept a bizarre notebook with a handwritten chart of violent crimes \u2014 with sections marked \u201cMurder them,\u201d \u201cKill them\u201d and \u201cRape him,\u201d among others \u2014 federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.<\/p>\n

John Jones, 24, who\u2019s accused of starting the raging inferno<\/a> that destroyed the South Bushwick Reformed Church on June 17, admitted to the blaze and claimed he tried to torch a second Brooklyn church, according to a letter by prosecutors asking he be held without bail.<\/p>\n

And when officers arrested him Wednesday, they found a notebook<\/a> with \u201chighly concerning references to planned acts of violence,\u201d the feds allege \u2014 including a chart with sections labeled \u201cMurder them,\u201d \u201cKill them,\u201d \u201cStab them,\u201d \u201cMake them Pay,\u201d \u201cRape him,\u201d \u201cTells the truth\u201d and \u201cN\u00f8kk Truth Moon,\u201d with tally marks underneath.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Jones, who’s accused of starting the raging inferno that destroyed the South Bushwick Reformed Church on June 17, was allegedly found with a notebook (pictured) containing references to planned acts of violence, including a chart with sections labeled “murder them,” “kill them,” “stab them,” “make them pay,” “rape him,” “tells the truth” and “n0kk truth moon” and tally marks underneath. (U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK)<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of the categories on this page also appear to include repeated (and sometimes misspelled) instances of the word \u2018church,’\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney William Bristow wrote.<\/p>\n

Jones is slated to be arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court Friday.<\/p>\n

\"FDNYFDNY firefighters are pictured at the scene of a three-alarm fire at South Bushwick Reformed Church on Bushwick Ave. in Brooklyn on Friday, June 19, 2026. (FDNY\/X)<\/p>\n

Bristow called Jones a danger to the community, writing, \u201cThe defendant\u2019s apparent desire to burn down additional churches is corroborated by entries in a journal found in his possession at the time of his arrest on New York County charges on August 5, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police caught Jones at 1:39 a.m. Wednesday when he tried to steal a sandwich, a Coke Zero and a salad from a Times Square-area CVS on Broadway near W. 49th St., cops said.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Jones is accused of starting the massive arson fire that gutted the historic South Bushwick Reformed Church on Bushwick Ave. in Brooklyn on Friday, June 19, 2026. (U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK)<\/p>\n

A man appearing to be Jones was caught on video lurking around the church and trying to get inside it the day of the blaze, according to the feds. He then walked a few blocks to a 99-cent store to buy a lighter, paying with coins, and returned to the church, according to a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

Built in 1853, the Bushwick Ave. and Himrod St. church was designated a city landmark in 1968. The congregation dates back to the Dutch colonial period in the 1600s, according to the National Fund for Sacred Spaces. It was one of only eight surviving wooden houses of worship in New York City officially landmarked by the city\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The homeless firebug accused of burning a historic Brooklyn church to the ground kept a bizarre notebook with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3094,98,100,99,118793,118795,9,24,92260,63,105953,4111],"class_list":["post-315858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-arson","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-church-fire","tag-john-jones","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-notebook","tag-nyc","tag-south-bushwick-reformed-church","tag-violent-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}