Donald Eugene Webb, FBI Most Wanted List, 1981-2007, body recently discovered

On August 4, 1980, forty-nine-year-old Donald Eugene Webb, a career criminal and associate of the Patriarca Crime Family was in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, preparing to rob a jewelry store when he was stopped by the local police chief during a routine traffic stop.

Summary of Webb’s crime from Wikipedia.org

Gregory B. Adams, a 31-year-old police chief and nine-year veteran of law enforcement, made a routine traffic stop in the parking lot of Agway Feed Store on Butler Street in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania at about 2:50 p.m. or 3:10 p.m. on December 4, 1980. 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 and shot Adams. He returned fire, but the shots were not fatal.

The man believed to be Donald Eugene Webb got out of the car and fought with him. Adams was disarmed and pistol-whipped with his own revolver, being struck several times causing deep wounds to his face and head.

Witnesses heard fired shots; four “pop” noises, presumably from a semiautomatic .25-caliber Colt pistol and a “boom” from Adams’ revolver. He was shot once in the arm and once in the chest at close range. By another account, Adams was shot twice in the chest, one bullet collapsing a lung and another ripping the bottom of his heart. Adams was not wearing his bulletproof vest at the time as he had lent it to another officer. 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.

A nearby resident found the mortally wounded Adams, who told her that he did not know his attacker and that he thought he was not going to live. Adams was so badly beaten he was almost unrecognizable. Adams lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and died of his injuries. Adams was survived by his wife Mary Ann Adams (later Mary Ann Jones), and their two sons, Benjamin and Gregory, Jr. Adams is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Herman, Pennsylvania.

Webb’s blood type (O) and a New Jersey driver’s license bearing the name of an alias connected to Webb were found at the scene of the shooting. Two weeks later, the rented car he had driven was found at a Howard Johnson’s motel. On the seat and floorboard were bloodstains that matched Webb’s type. Webb was placed on the FBI’s Most wanted list in 1981, and he remained there for 25 years, 10 months and 27 days. He was removed from the list on March 31, 2007 to make room for more contemporary and dangerous fugitives.

On June 15, 2017, the FBI released never before seen photographs as well as a press release detailing Donald Webb’s crime, descriptive features, and list of known aliases. Read Press Release.

Never before seen photographs of Donald Eugene Webb, later found buried in his wife’s backyard. Click to open larger in new window.

This press release out-of-nowhere was the result of an April 2017 FBI search of the Dartmouth, Massachusetts home of Webb’s wife (ex-wife?) where they found a door inside a closet that led to a secret room. Inside the room, they found a cane. Since Webb was shot in the leg by Chief Adams, it was assumed it belonged to him. A check of local building permits proved that this addition to the house was done without a proper building permit.

Also in June, Chief Adam’s Widow, now Mary Ann Jones, filed a lawsuit against Donald Eugene Webb, his wife, Lillian, and her son, charging wrongful death and conspiracy in the 1980 murder of her first husband. Read article.

Earlier this month (July 2017), FBI agents returned to his Webb’s home in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. After promising his wife, Lillian, immunity from prosecution, she showed them the area in the backyard where he was buried. Tests confirmed it was Donald Eugene Webb, and that he had died in 1999.

Donald Eugene Webb was the second longest fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Still evading capture, is Victor Gerena, who robbed an armored truck in 1982 and escaped to Cuba.

VIDEOS:
Discovery

Death

Widow Speaks Out

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