Richard "Dick" Jones was the corrupt Senior President of Omni Consumer Products.
The Enforcement Droid Series 209 was Jones' pet project. As a ruthless silver-haired fox, Jones is corrupt, opportunistic, fiercely competitive and totally immoral; Jones would do anything to eliminate any competition with him and his project, even if it meant murder.
As muscle, and to carry out any extra jobs outside of the boardroom, Dick Jones had a violent and infamous ace up his sleeve in the form of crime boss Clarence Boddicker and his band of thugs.
Biography[]
ED-209 failure[]
Jones appeared on Mediabreak, denying that OCP's mismanagement and restructuring of the Detroit Police Department was responsible for recent casualties. Jones passed the complaints from police officers off as unjustified, saying, "if you can't stand the heat, you'd better stay out of the kitchen."[1]
In the OCP boardroom, Jones gave a stirring speech to the board during ED-209's unveiling, setting out the objectives and previous triumphs of OCP, before unveiling the machine that would keep their assets safe. Unfortunately, the demonstration went horribly wrong when the ED-209 gunned down and killed a colleague, Mr. Kinney, tearing him to pieces with its heavy machine guns. Jones simply passed the incident off as a common glitch, more concerned with his contract and status rather than the bloody corpse sprawled over the model of Delta City. The "Old Man" did not see things the same way, however, and harshly scolded him for the incident. In the momentary silence, Jones lost his momentum and Bob Morton stepped up to tell the Old Man about his RoboCop program. Despite Jones' attempts to silence the young executive, he was himself silenced by the Old Man, who was most interested in Morton's project, which managed to take off after the death of Officer Alex Murphy, who was used to create the cyborg police officer, RoboCop. Jones contributed a directive to the cyborg's psychological profile, prohibiting him from arresting a senior OCP employee.[1]
Morton's "mistake"[]
Months later in the executive lounge, Jones sat in a bathroom stall while – oblivious to his presence – the younger execs Bob Morton and Walker strode in, laughing, joking and severely belittling Dick Jones as they relieved themselves. Calmly, Dick opened the stall door and revealed his presence, causing Walker to leave in a hurry before he had even finished relieving himself. Casually, Dick approached Bob, first congratulating him, then reminiscing to Bob about the time he was a cocky young executive. Dick grabbed him by the hair, spitting threats and spite, and Bob had to physically break his hold. Dick half-grinned at Bob's show of fear before, telling him, with acute seriousness: "You'd better pray that that unholy monster of yours doesn't screw up." Dick then turned his back and left.[1]
He soon recorded an intimidating message to be shown to Morton by Clarence Boddicker, who he had assigned to kill him.[1]
Boddicker was later arrested by RoboCop. In an attempt to stop RoboCop from crushing his throat, Boddicker spilled his employer's name. Boddicker called Jones while in custody. Due to the cyborg's memory being permissible evidence in court, Jones merely told Clarence to keep his mouth shut and assured him the lawyers would take care of his release.[1]
Jones then hung up and waited for RoboCop to arrive, opening the door and greeting him personally, even agreeing to be put under arrest and taken down to the precinct. RoboCop's fourth directive was activated, sending him into a mechanical spasm, slowly disabling him. A sly grin spreading over his face, Jones perched on the corner of his desk, mere inches away from the floundering machine, and gloated to him about his built-in limitations. Jones told the cyborg that he was being shut down to due to Directive Four, Jones' own addition to RoboCop's programming; "Any attempt to arrest a senior officer of OCP results in shutdown." Seeing that RoboCop was still trying to overcome the shutdown and arrest him, Jones activated an ED-209 droid, which he immediately set upon RoboCop. Jones expected the fight to be over in seconds, saying, "I had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake. Now it's time to erase that mistake!"[1]
The self-satisfied, certain smile dropped from his face, however, after RoboCop managed to use the droid's heavy weaponry on itself, destroying an arm and allowing RoboCop the chance to escape. Picking up the phone, Jones called Lieutenant Hedgecock and ordered him and as many other cops he could find to the OCP headquarters to destroy RoboCop. However, the cyborg managed to escape with the assistance of Officer Anne Lewis.[1]
Clarence was summoned to Jones' office the next morning and ordered to find and destroy the machine. Clarence, leaning in close and showing off his cut, scarred, bruised face, declined the assignment as the cyborg was simply too dangerous to tangle with, and Clarence had other ways of making money. Jones then rephrased his proposition, making a deal with Clarence to be the sole man in charge of gambling and protection rackets, prostitution and drugs amongst the two million workers who were to construct the dream of Delta City. Clarence eventually relented and agreed. Jones handed Clarence a tracking device to find the cyborg. Clarence then requested vehicles, his gang, and military grade firepower. Jones smirked as he related to Clarence, "we practically are the military".[1]
Confident that the no-nonsense Boddicker and his capable followers, equipped with anti-material weapons, would get the job done, Jones continued in his role as Senior President. A board meeting was due with the Old Man and Donald Johnson present as well as full contingent of OCP execs. Jones delivered a blistering speech on the company's future and the goals set out and related how the company was going to tackle those goals. Suddenly, RoboCop entered, battered, bloodstained, and without his helmet, revealing Murphy's face to the board, Jones realizing in dismay that Clarence had failed.[1]
The Old Man, residing with unmatched calmness in his chair, asked the Officer what he wanted, and Dick Jones began to panic as RoboCop alleged Dick Jones was a murderer, but made it clear that he could not arrest an officer of OCP. Exhibiting the same matter-of-fact relaxed nature, the Old Man asked for evidence.[1]
Dick Jones after he gets shot by RoboCop
Without delay, RoboCop used his data spike to access the wall of monitors in the board room, playing a recording of Jones admitting that he killed Bob Morton. The exposed Jones grabbed a loaded pistol from a display case and grabbed the Old Man around the neck, blurting demands and threatening to kill his hostage. Enraged at Jones, the Old Man fired Jones on the spot, elbowing him in the stomach before slipping out of his grasp. RoboCop thanked the Old Man. Jones tried to shoot the Old Man, but with Directive 4 now null and void, RoboCop summarily executed Jones by shooting him multiple times, causing him to stagger through the boardroom windows and fall to his death.[1]
Some time later, his office became Max Becker's when he became acting CEO of OCP after the Old Man's death.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Jones was portrayed by Ronny Cox. His casting was against type, as he had become known for portraying "soft" characters.[3]
His nickname, Dick, would also be used as Richard Gless's nickname for the television series.
A prequel television series focused on Jones was announced in 2020,[4] but no further developments have been announced.
Appearances[]
- RoboCop (1987)