“The blinds stuck, so he ripped them off the wall. A water cooler had mold in it, so he grabbed a large knife, stabbed the plastic base wildly and smashed it on the ground,” Owens wrote. “Once a co-worker stopped by the office with a pet fish he was taking home to his niece. It swam in circles in a small, transparent bag. When Jones saw the bag balanced upright on a desk in the conference room, he emptied it into a garbage can. On one occasion, he threatened to send out a memo banning laughter in the office. ‘We’re in a war,’ he said, and he wanted people to act accordingly.”
In one incident when Jones wanted to “blow off steam,” the crew drove to a ranch outside Austin, Texas, to shoot guns.
“He picked up an AR-15 and accidentally fired it in my direction,” Owens recalled. “The bullet hit the ground about 10 feet away from me. One employee, who was already uncomfortable around firearms, lost it, accusing Jones of being careless and flippant … [Jones] claimed he had intentionally fired the gun as a joke — as if this were any better.”
During another incident, Jones “walked into my office shirtless,” Owens said, which he described as “normal.” Jones then proceeded to instruct another employee to hit him. The two repeatedly punched each other in the arm. “On his last hit, the sound was different. Wet. I thought I could hear the meat split open in the employee’s arm,” Owens recalled. “Jones roared as he punched a cabinet, denting the door in. A few weeks later, I heard that Jones had broken a video editor’s ribs after playing the same game in a downtown bar.”
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