Donald Eugene Webb (born Donald Eugene Perkins; July 14, 1931 – December 30, 1999) 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. It was only the second murder in the town's nearly 150-year history; the first murder occurred in 1842.
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 In 2010, his record on that list was superseded by another criminal; Víctor Manuel Gerena.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. Perkins enlisted in the United States Navy, but received a dishonorable discharge.
Perkins legally changed his name to Webb in 1956 in Bristol County, Massachusetts.
Webb worked as a butcher, salesman, restaurant manager, and vending machine repairman. Before 1979, Webb spent extended periods in the Southwest, New England, and on the West Coast.
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. In the mid-1970s, Webb served a two-year prison term in New York state prison.
The FBI has considered Webb "a master of assumed identities". 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. He was also involved with an organized crime outfit in the Miami area, where he would also fence the goods.
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)
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. In February 1986, he was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to transport stolen property interstate, and of driving under the influence and parole violation in June 1996. Lach died on November 4, 2017, at his house in Cranston, Rhode Island, at age 76.
Murder of Gregory Adams
thumb|upright|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 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.
The man believed to be Donald Eugene Webb got out of the car and fought with Adams, Adams lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and died of his injuries. Adams' revolver was later found approximately away along Cornplanter Road in Winfield Township, Pennsylvania. All six bullets of the weapon had been fired.
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. 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. Key investigators, including the FBI special agent assigned to finding Webb, believed he was still alive.
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.
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 she lived in at that time.