FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
this is probably irrelevant
java version "1.8.0_60"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)


ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
3.19.0-61-generic #69~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 9 09:09:13 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

EXTRA RELEVANT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION :
its really just appears to be a documentation bug

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
your line:
M/L     month-of-year               number/text       7; 07; Jul; July; J

should probably be either:
M/L     month-of-year               text/number       7; 07; Jul; July; J
or
L/M     month-of-year               number/text       7; 07; Jul; July; J

the order of letters in the first column should reflect the order of values in the third column

REGRESSION.  Last worked in version 8u73

ADDITIONAL REGRESSION INFORMATION: 
it really just appears to be a documentation bug

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
import java.lang.String;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;

class DTF {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
            String ds =    "Fri Apr 01 00:13:53 EDT 2016";
            String dtfmt = "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy";
            System.err.println(dtfmt);

            DateTimeFormatter fmtr = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(dtfmt);
            ZonedDateTime date = ZonedDateTime.parse(ds, fmtr);

            String text = date.format(fmtr);
            System.err.println(text);
            System.err.println(date.toString());
    }
}


EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
since the string contains 'Apr', I expected that I should have used 'LLL' instead of 'MMM' to parse the
string.
In this case, I would expect a date parse exception such as this:
Exception in thread "main" java.time.format.DateTimeParseException: Text 'Fri Apr 01 00:13:53 EDT 2016' could not be parsed at index 4
	at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.parseResolved0(DateTimeFormatter.java:1949)
	at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.parse(DateTimeFormatter.java:1851)
	at java.time.ZonedDateTime.parse(ZonedDateTime.java:597)
	at DTF.main(DTF.java:15)

ACTUAL -
EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy
Fri Apr 01 00:13:53 EDT 2016
2016-04-01T00:13:53-04:00[America/New_York]


ERROR MESSAGES/STACK TRACES THAT OCCUR :
I got no error message with the format string "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy"
with the format string "EEE LLL dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy", I get:
Exception in thread "main" java.time.format.DateTimeParseException: Text 'Fri Apr 01 00:13:53 EDT 2016' could not be parsed at index 4
	at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.parseResolved0(DateTimeFormatter.java:1949)
	at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.parse(DateTimeFormatter.java:1851)
	at java.time.ZonedDateTime.parse(ZonedDateTime.java:597)
	at DTF.main(DTF.java:15)


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
import java.lang.String;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;

class DTF {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
            String ds =    "Fri Apr 01 00:13:53 EDT 2016";
            String dtfmt = "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy";
            System.err.println(dtfmt);

            DateTimeFormatter fmtr = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(dtfmt);
            ZonedDateTime date = ZonedDateTime.parse(ds, fmtr);

            String text = date.format(fmtr);
            System.err.println(text);
            System.err.println(date.toString());
    }
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
import java.lang.String;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;

class DTF {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
            String ds =    "Fri Apr 01 00:13:53 EDT 2016";
            String dtfmt = "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy";
            System.err.println(dtfmt);

            DateTimeFormatter fmtr = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(dtfmt);
            ZonedDateTime date = ZonedDateTime.parse(ds, fmtr);

            String text = date.format(fmtr);
            System.err.println(text);
            System.err.println(date.toString());
    }
}