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The gravel-voiced Jones has none of the polish of his machines. He wears horn-rimmed glasses and ill-fitting pants, gulps coffee, chain-smokes Pall Malls and often totes a Colt .45. "When I was broke, I was crazy; now that I am rich, I am eccentric," he declares. He is about 65 but refuses to confirm it. His motto for summing up his favorite pursuits: "Younger women, faster airplanes and bigger crocodiles." Jones has had five wives, all of whom he married when they were between the ages of 16 and 20. He lives with his current spouse Terri, 23, on his 600-acre Jumbo Lair spread near Ocala, Fla., which is also home to 90 elephants, three rhinos, a gorilla, 150 snakes, 300 alligators and 400 crocodiles. The animals come in handy for Jones' research projects, which he and his staff conduct with no particular goal. "If I knew what I was going to discover, I wouldn't do it," huffs Jones. "Very little in life happens according to plan." But with his growing fortune, Jones has plans that tend to happen.