Donald Eugene Webb

Donald Eugene Webb (born Donald Eugene Perkins; July 14, 1931 – December 30, 1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> was an American career criminal wanted for attempted burglary and the murder of police chief Gregory Adams in the small town of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania on December 4, 1980.<ref name="postgazette">Template:Cite news</ref> It was only the second murder in the town's nearly 150-year history; the first murder occurred in 1842.<ref name="CNN">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Webb was a fugitive featured on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list until 2007, setting a record in 1999 for longest stay on the list, but was never apprehended. In 2010, his record on that list was superseded by another criminal; Víctor Manuel Gerena. The murder of Police Chief Adams was never solved by prosecution of the criminal; it was the longest-running cold case of a police officer in the United States. In July 2017, Webb's remains were discovered in Massachusetts on the property of his wife Lillian Webb. She had hidden him in two of her homes for 17 years, until he died of a stroke in 1999.

Background and family

Donald Eugene Perkins was born in Oklahoma City in 1931. He was raised by his paternal grandfather.<ref name="walsh">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Perkins enlisted in the United States Navy, but received a dishonorable discharge.<ref name="search">Template:Cite news</ref>

Perkins legally changed his name to Webb in 1956 in Bristol County, Massachusetts.<ref name="mystery">Template:Cite news</ref>

Webb worked as a butcher, salesman, restaurant manager, and vending machine repairman.<ref name="toledo">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> Before 1979, Webb spent extended periods in the Southwest, New England, and on the West Coast.<ref name="mystery"/> After Webb's disappearance in 1980, his relatives and criminal associates consistently refused to cooperate with investigators.<ref name="toledo"/>

Webb had married Lillian and they had a son together. In 1981, Webb's wife Lillian lived in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.<ref name="mystery"/> She worked as a saleswoman for a now-defunct New Bedford box company.<ref name="search"/> In 1999, it was reported that Lillian, her son, and other relatives of Donald Webb were living in the Boston area.<ref name="record">Template:Cite news</ref>

Criminal career

Webb had convictions for burglary, possession of counterfeit money, possession of a weapon and dangerous instruments, breaking and entering, armed bank robbery, grand larceny and car theft.<ref name="mystery"/><ref name="slayer">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> In the mid-1970s, Webb served a two-year prison term in New York state prison.<ref name="pittsburghpress">Template:Cite news</ref>

The FBI has considered Webb "a master of assumed identities".<ref name="mystery"/> New York and Pennsylvania police have described Webb as "an itinerant burglar well versed in the art of criminal impersonation".<ref name="newdata">Template:Cite news</ref> Webb was identified by the FBI as an associate of the Patriarca crime family, who made a living robbing banks, jewelry stores, and high-end hotels up and down the East Coast. They fenced the goods through "the mob" in Providence, Rhode Island.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="auto1">Template:Cite web</ref> He was also involved with an organized crime outfit in the Miami area, where he would also fence the goods.<ref name="auto"/>

In 1979, Webb and two accomplices allegedly burgled suburban Albany homes while posing as sewer and water inspectors. Webb and Frank Joseph Lach, one of the accomplices, were arrested in Colonie, New York.<ref name="mystery"/> They were charged with attempted burglary, but after their bails were posted (bail of Webb was $35,000), they failed to appear at a December 1979 court date.<ref name="pittsburghpress"/>

Frank Lach

Frank Joseph Lach (November 23, 1940 – November 4, 2017), was closely associated with Webb. Lach is from Cranston, Rhode Island<ref name="mystery"/> and was believed to be involved with a Massachusetts-based gang responsible for a number of jewel thefts from residences and businesses in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as having ties to organized crime in New England and South Florida.<ref name="federal">Template:Cite news</ref>

Although the last known connection of Webb and Lach was in Allentown, Pennsylvania in July 1980, Lach was believed to be with Webb when he killed Police Chief Gregory Adams in December 1980 in Saxonburg. (See below)<ref name="mystery"/><ref name="justice">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Lach was subsequently wanted by the FBI for interstate flight from justice; he was captured in South Miami, Florida in May 1982. He was extradited to New York, where he was convicted of burglary and bail-jumping.<ref name="justice"/> He was paroled in November 1985.<ref name="DOC">Template:Cite web</ref> In February 1986, he was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to transport stolen property interstate,<ref name="federal2">Template:Cite news</ref> and of driving under the influence and parole violation in June 1996.<ref name="federal"/> Lach served time in federal prison and was released in October 2000.<ref name="BOP">Template:Cite web</ref> Lach died on November 4, 2017, at his house in Cranston, Rhode Island, at age 76.

Murder of Gregory Adams

File:Gregory Adams.jpg

Gregory Adams

On December 4, 1980, Gregory B. Adams, a 31-year-old police chief of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, and nine-year veteran of law enforcement, made a routine traffic stop in the parking lot of Agway Feed Store<ref name="slayer"/> on Butler Street.<ref name="letter2">Template:Cite news</ref> Adams used his patrol car to stop the suspect by blocking the exit of the parking lot. When he asked the suspect for his driver's license, the suspect gave fraudulent identity documents then shot Adams. Officer Adams returned fire, but the shots were not fatal.<ref name="memorial">Template:Cite web</ref>

The man believed to be Donald Eugene Webb got out of the car and fought with Adams,<ref name="toledo"/> disarming him and pistol-whipping him with his own revolver.<ref name="newdata"/> Witnesses heard fired shots; four "pop" noises, presumably from a semiautomatic .25-caliber Colt pistol,<ref name="mystery"/> and a "boom" from Adams' revolver.<ref name="toledo"/> He was shot once in the arm and once in the chest at close range.<ref name="newdata"/> By another account, Adams was shot twice in the chest,<ref name="memorial"/> one bullet collapsing a lung and another tearing through the bottom of his heart.<ref name="search"/> Adams was not wearing his bulletproof vest at the time.<ref name="memorial"/> The killer took Adams' gun, ran to his patrol car, ripped out its microphone and took the keys before driving away in his own car.<ref name="toledo"/>

A nearby resident found the mortally wounded Adams, who told her that he did not know his attacker and that he knew he was not going to make it.<ref name="toledo"/> In addition to being shot, Adams was so badly beaten he was almost unrecognizable.<ref name="foxnews">Template:Cite web</ref> Adams lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and died of his injuries.<ref name="toledo"/> He was survived by his wife Mary Ann Adams<ref name="memorial"/> and their two sons, Benjamin and Gregory, Jr.<ref name="postgazette"/> Adams is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Herman, Pennsylvania.<ref name="memorial"/>

Investigation

A .25-caliber Colt pistol, O-type blood (Webb's blood type), and a New Jersey driver's license bearing the name Stanley John Portas, an alias of Webb and the name of his wife Lillian's late prior husband, were among the evidence found at the murder scene. Portas had died in 1948.<ref name="postgazette"/><ref name="toledo"/><ref name="slayer"/><ref name="pittsburghpress"/> Webb is believed to have been in Saxonburg for a planned burglary of a jewelry store.<ref name="letter">Template:Cite news</ref> Adams' revolver was later found approximately Template:Convert away along Cornplanter Road in Winfield Township, Pennsylvania. All six bullets of the weapon had been fired.<ref name="search"/>

A white Mercury Cougar, which Webb had rented, was allegedly used as a getaway car.<ref name="search"/> Two weeks later, it was found abandoned at a Howard Johnson's motel in Warwick, Rhode Island.<ref name="newdata"/> Significant amounts of O-type blood were found under the steering wheel, suggesting that Webb was wounded by gunfire in the struggle with Adams.<ref name="toledo"/><ref name="record"/>

Webb was named as a main suspect in the killing of Adams, and a nationwide manhunt began.<ref name="slayer"/> He was charged in absentia with murder, attempted burglary, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. A federal arrest warrant was issued for him on December 31. On May 4, 1981, Webb was named as the 375th fugitive to be placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.<ref name="foxnews"/>

File:Age-enhanced photograph of Donald Webb.jpg

Age-enhanced photograph released by FBI in 1996.

Webb had strong ties to Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts,<ref name="mystery"/> where the last confirmed sighting of him was made by an anonymous tipster in July 1981.<ref name="postgazette"/> It was reported to the Boston FBI office, but Webb had fled by the time investigators arrived.<ref name="postgazette"/> There were later unconfirmed sightings of Webb, or men resembling him, in Massachusetts, Washington, Canada and Costa Rica.<ref name="search"/>

In January 1990, FBI director William S. Sessions received a letter postmarked January 23<ref name="letter2"/> and written by someone claiming to be Webb, asking for forgiveness from Adams' family. The letter suggested he might surrender to authorities,<ref name="letter"/> but only if he could talk directly to John Walsh, host of the TV show America's Most Wanted.<ref name="walsh"/> Walsh said on his show that the FBI's evidence technicians examined the letter and believed it was authentic.<ref name="letter"/> Handwriting tests were inconclusive.<ref name="letter2"/> On April 1, 1990, a man claiming to be Webb called John Walsh but when asked questions to confirm his identity, was unable to name two of Webb's closest relatives. The call was dismissed as an April Fools' joke.<ref name="walsh"/> The murder case was featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.<ref name="letter"/>

After more than 18 years on the list, on September 14, 1999, Webb was noted as the fugitive with the longest tenure on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list, surpassing the previous record held by Charles Lee Herron.<ref name="record"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2005, an unidentified man in Detroit was found using Webb's name, age and Social Security number. Detroit police tracked the address to a burned-out house in a poor section of town. Authorities considered this a case of identity theft, however unusual.<ref name="search"/>

The FBI removed Webb from the Ten Most Wanted list on March 31, 2007. He was replaced by Shauntay Henderson.<ref name="Time">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Webb held the record of being on the FBI's wanted list longer than any other fugitive until 2010, when Víctor Manuel Gerena surpassed his record. Although Webb was still a fugitive considered armed and dangerous by the FBI, the significant lack of leads made some investigators believe Webb had died.<ref name="toledo"/><ref name="record"/>

On December 4, 2015, the FBI increased their reward to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of Webb, or to the location of his remains.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> Key investigators, including the FBI special agent assigned to finding Webb, believed he was still alive.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto1"/>

On June 1, 2017, Mary Ann Adams Jones, the police chief's widow (who had remarried), filed a lawsuit for civil damages against Donald Eugene Webb, his wife Lillian Webb, and Webb's stepson Stanley Webb. FBI investigators had announced that in 2016 they had discovered a secret room hidden behind a closet in the basement of Lillian Webb's home in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The room had not existed when Lillian purchased the home. Agents also discovered a cane inside the room, which they believed may have been used by Webb after being shot in the leg by Adams.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="auto1"/> The lawsuit had to be dropped in exchange for the revelation due to criminal and civil immunity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On June 15, 2017, the FBI released newly acquired photographs of Webb taken in the 1970s. They hoped these would aid in gaining the public's assistance in either capturing Webb or locating his remains. Faced with prosecution for harboring a criminal, Lillian Webb arranged to confess to police and the FBI. She told about sheltering Webb, and the strokes he suffered near the end of his life. He had been treated for four weeks in Tobey Hospital in Wareham, Massachusetts, under an assumed name for a compound fracture to his leg in 1980 after the murder.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She led the FBI to human remains buried on the grounds of her Dartmouth home. On July 17, 2017, the remains were identified by FBI forensic investigators as belonging to Webb. The investigators found that Webb had died in 1999 after suffering multiple strokes. State police documents said that Webb had lived for nearly 19 years hidden by his wife in the two different houses where she lived in at that time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

External links

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