Known for Prosthetic hands Website Official website | Name Jay Armes Role Private investigator | |
Occupation Actor, private investigator, author |
Jay j armes an el paso legend only in el paso kcos
Jay J. Armes (born Julian Armas; August 12, 1932) is an American amputee, private investigator, and actor. He is known for his prosthetic hands.
Contents
- Jay j armes an el paso legend only in el paso kcos
- Keep el paso loco jay j armes the investigators
- Early life and amputation
- Career
- Books and toys
- Television
- Awards and recognition
- References

Keep el paso loco jay j armes the investigators
Early life and amputation

Armes was born Julian Armas to Mexican-American parents Pedro and Beatriz in Ysleta, a low-income area near El Paso, Texas, now a southeast El Paso neighborhood.

At the age of eleven, he and his friend Dick Caples, seven years his senior, broke into a Texas & Pacific Railroad section house and stole railway torpedoes. Armes rubbed two torpedo sticks together, detonating them and causing the mangling of both hands.

Caples, who was standing nearby, was not injured. Armes was taken to Hotel Dieu Hospital in El Paso, where his hands were amputated.
Career
In 1958, after briefly working as an actor in California and returning to El Paso, Armes started his private investigative agency, The Investigators. In 1978, he launched The Investigators Security Course. Designed as a mobile patrol and security service, this branch of the organization served the community for a number of years until the patrol division was discontinued. Armes has been a certified Peace Officer.
Books and toys
In 1976, Armes published his autobiography, Jay J. Armes, Investigator; ISBN 0-02-503200-3. In 1977, the Ideal Toy Corp. launched the Jay J. Armes Toy Line, which featured a Jay J. Armes action figure with detachable prosthetics, various gadgets, and a Mobile Investigation Unit. In 1978, Armes and Ideal Toy Corp. launched an Investigative Course for Children which was introduced to a number of school districts throughout the United States. The same year, Armes authored a comprehensive correspondence-based investigative training course, and founded The Investigators Training Academy.
Television
Armes played the villain in the Hawaii Five-O episode "Hookman" (11 September 1973). The updated series, Hawaii Five-0, remade the episode with the same scenes and title on 4 February 2013; Peter Weller remade the role and directed the episode.
Armes' rescue of Marlon Brando's son was described on a season 7 episode of the Travel Channel show "Mysteries at the Museum."