Jake Bird was hanged at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla at 12:20 a.m. on July 15, 1949. He had been convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Bertha Kludt, a Tacoma woman killed in her home with an ax on October 30, 1947. Her 17-year-old daughter, Beverly June Kludt, was killed in the same attack. Two patrol officers caught Bird minutes later as he ran from the house, and he confessed that morning.
On death row he began to talk about other killings. He told officials he had committed or taken part in at least 44 murders over two decades as he drifted from town to town, and the governor of Washington postponed his execution so that police could hear him out. The historian Daryl C. McClary, writing for HistoryLink, the online encyclopedia of Washington history, reports that only 11 of those claims were substantiated, though Bird knew enough about others to be treated as a prime suspect. None of the claimed killings was ever tried. Bird's only conviction was the one from Tacoma.
The case drew little national attention at the time. In Tacoma it was remembered for something else: the warning Bird gave the courtroom at his sentencing, and the deaths that followed.
Reliable records of Bird's early life are thin. HistoryLink gives his birth year as 1901 and says he was born in Louisiana and left home at about 19. For most of his adult life he was a transient. He often worked as a laborer on railroad section gangs, the crews that maintained track, and the work moved him from one town to the next. The Washington State Department of Corrections, in its list of everyone executed in the state since 1904, records his occupation as laborer.
By 1947 he had a long criminal record. It included burglaries, assaults and attempted murder; one of McClary's accounts adds murder to the list. Bird himself estimated that he had spent about 15 years in prisons in various states.
At about 2:30 in the morning on October 30, 1947, Tacoma police officers Andrew P. Sabutis and Evan "Skip" Davies were sent to a house on the city's south side after neighbors reported screams. As they arrived, a barefoot man ran out the back door, broke through a picket fence and fled through the neighboring yards. The officers chased him over several more fences and cornered him in an alley a short distance away.
The man pulled a jackknife and wounded both officers before Sabutis, a former prizefighter who had boxed under the name "Tiny" LaMarr, subdued him. A third officer, John Hickey, took the prisoner to a hospital by patrol wagon, where he was treated for cuts. Sabutis was admitted to a hospital with a serious wound; Davies was treated and released.
Inside the house, officers found the bodies of Bertha Kludt and her daughter, Beverly June Kludt. Bertha Kludt was 52, though one account also gives her age as 53. Beverly June was 17. Both had been killed with an ax, which was left in the house.
Little is recorded about the two women beyond their names, their ages and the fact that they lived together in the house where they died.
The prisoner was identified as Jake Bird, 45. At the Tacoma City Jail, Detective Lieutenant Sherman W. Lyons questioned him, and Bird dictated and signed a confession in front of four officers.
In that statement he said he had come to the house to commit a burglary, going in through an unlocked back door, and that he had armed himself with an ax from a nearby shed. He said he took $1.50 from Bertha Kludt's purse, that she confronted him, and that both women were then killed. He said he attacked the two officers with his knife because he thought they were going to shoot him. He maintained that burglary had been his only purpose.
On October 31, 1947, Deputy Prosecutor Earl D. Mann filed a charge of first-degree murder against Bird in Pierce County Superior Court. The charge covered only the death of Bertha Kludt. HistoryLink explains that it was customary at the time to file a single charge when more than one person had been killed. Beverly June Kludt's death was never charged separately.
Judge Edward D. Hodge appointed James W. Selden, a former Pierce County prosecutor, to defend him. Bird pleaded not guilty and was held without bail, and the trial was set for Monday, November 24, 1947.
At a hearing on November 14, Selden asked the judge to move the trial out of Pierce County and to release him as Bird's lawyer, because Bird wanted to conduct his own defense. Judge Hodge denied both requests.
Jury selection was slow. Lawyers questioned potential jurors about what they had read in the papers and about whether Bird, a Black man, could receive a fair trial in Tacoma. Four prospective jurors were excused because they had recently served on another first-degree murder case that had ended in a death sentence. The jury that was seated had nine men and three women.
Prosecuting Attorney Patrick M. Steele set out to prove that Bertha Kludt's killing was premeditated, which under Washington law at the time was required before a jury could recommend death. The physical evidence was strong. The victims' blood was on Bird's clothing, his bloody fingerprints were found in the house and on the ax handle, and his shoes were found at the scene.
The most contested moment came from a prosecution witness. Officer John Hickey testified that he and another officer, Russell Skattum, had beaten Bird after his arrest. Hickey admitted that he had lost his temper and struck Bird with his fist and a nightstick. Selden argued that the confession had been obtained under duress and should be kept out. Judge Hodge ruled that the beating had nothing to do with the confession and admitted it, and the confession was read to the jury.
The defense rested without calling any witnesses. Bird did not testify. The trial lasted about two and a half days.
Closing arguments were heard on Wednesday, November 26, 1947. The jury deliberated for 35 minutes, found Bird guilty of first-degree murder and recommended the death penalty. As deputies led him back to jail, HistoryLink reports, Bird asked them what all the excitement was about.
On Saturday, December 6, 1947, Judge Hodge denied a motion for a new trial and sentenced Bird to be hanged at the Washington State Penitentiary on January 16, 1948. Selden then told the court that no appeal would be filed. He said that a man who believed no lives were safe except his own was "a detriment to society and should be obliterated."
Bird was allowed to speak, and he talked for about 20 minutes. He complained that his own lawyers had asked for his execution. Then, according to HistoryLink, he told the courtroom: "All you guys who had anything to do with this case are going to die before I do."
On December 7, 1947, Undersheriff Joseph E. Karpach and Deputy Michael Waverek drove Bird to the penitentiary at Walla Walla. Soon after he arrived, he began confessing to other killings, about a dozen at first, spread over some 20 years.
On January 6, 1948, at the request of Governor Monrad C. Wallgren, Prosecutor Steele and Lieutenant Lyons traveled to the penitentiary to hear what Bird had to say. Their notes of his statements filled a 174-page report for the governor's office. Steele told the press that he did not intend to let Bird stretch out his life by holding back information.
By then Bird was claiming that he could clear up at least 44 murders that he had committed or been involved in. On January 15, 1948, the day before his scheduled execution, Governor Wallgren granted him a 60-day reprieve.
Investigators from several states came to interview him or reviewed their unsolved cases against what he said. HistoryLink lists the states named in his claims as Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Washington, and says most of the victims he described were women. McClary writes that only 11 of the 44 were substantiated, but that Bird knew enough about the others to be considered a prime suspect, and that police in several states used his statements to close unsolved cases. The essays do not name the 11 cases, the victims, or the agencies that judged them substantiated. No other state charged him.
Within a year of the sentencing, five men connected with the Tacoma case had died. HistoryLink lists them:
Judge Edward D. Hodge, 69, who presided at the trial and sentenced Bird, died on January 1, 1948.
Undersheriff Joseph E. Karpach, 46, who had taken Bird to Walla Walla, died on April 5, 1948.
George L. Harrigan, 69, the court reporter at the trial, died on June 11, 1948.
Detective Lieutenant Sherman W. Lyons, 46, who had questioned Bird and taken his confession, died on October 28, 1948.
James W. Selden, 76, Bird's appointed defense lawyer, died on November 26, 1948.
According to The Tacoma News Tribune, as cited by HistoryLink, all five died of heart attacks. The run of deaths became known as the Jake Bird Hex. HistoryLink also notes that Arthur A. Steward, a guard on death row at the penitentiary, died of pneumonia about two months before the execution, but it does not count him among the five.
Bird, who had no formal education, became what HistoryLink calls a jailhouse lawyer. He petitioned the Washington Supreme Court for a new trial and argued his own case, saying that Judge Hodge had made several errors. The court denied the petition on November 30, 1948.
Judge Hodge had died by then. On December 3, 1948, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Hugh J. Rosellini signed a new death warrant setting the execution for January 14, 1949.
A Walla Walla attorney, Murray Taggart, took up Bird's case. He obtained a stay so that Bird could appeal to the federal Court of Appeals, on the condition that the court agree to hear the case. It declined. Judge Rosellini reset the execution for July 15, 1949. Taggart asked for a further stay to go to the United States Supreme Court and was refused. He filed three more petitions there, and the Supreme Court refused to review the case each time, the last on July 14, 1949, the day before the execution. Governor Arthur B. Langlie declined to grant clemency.
Through these filings Bird put off his execution by about a year and a half.
On the evening of July 14, Bird ate his last meal on death row and spent about two hours talking with Taggart. He told the lawyer that he could accept losing if he felt that everything possible had been done.
Later that night he was moved to a holding cell near the gallows, shaved and dressed in new clothes. Just after midnight he walked the short distance to the gallows with Warden Tom Smith and two guards. About 125 witnesses were present. Bird said nothing to them. The volunteer chaplain, the Reverend Arvid C. Ohrnell, began reading a note in which Bird said he bore no malice and asked forgiveness. The trap opened before the chaplain finished.
Bird was hanged at 12:20 a.m. on Friday, July 15, 1949. The prison physician, Dr. Elmer Hill, pronounced him dead. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the prison cemetery, identified only as convict No. 21520. He left his entire estate, $6.15, to Taggart.
HistoryLink reports that he was the 63rd prisoner and the seventh African American executed in Washington since 1904. The Department of Corrections list of executions since 1904 records him as Black, 47 years old, a laborer, from Pierce County, and executed on July 15, 1949.
The number of killings. Bird's own figure of at least 44 has never been tested in a court. HistoryLink says 11 were substantiated but does not identify them. Without the case names, dates and the agencies' own findings, those killings are claims and police attributions, not proven crimes.
His earlier record. One HistoryLink essay includes murder in his prior record and the other does not. Neither names a case. His own estimate of about 15 years in prison is the only figure reported.
The confession. Bird's confession was admitted at trial even though a police witness admitted beating him in custody. Judge Hodge found the two events unrelated. The Washington Supreme Court later denied his petition for a new trial; the grounds of its ruling were not reported.
The hex. The five deaths were reported by the Tacoma press of the time, which, according to HistoryLink, gave heart attacks as the cause in each case.
1901: Born in Louisiana (year as given by HistoryLink).
October 30, 1947: Bertha Kludt and her daughter Beverly June Kludt killed in their Tacoma home; Bird arrested nearby after a chase and confesses at the city jail.
October 31, 1947: Charged in Pierce County Superior Court with first-degree murder for Bertha Kludt's death.
November 14, 1947: Requests for a change of venue and for Bird to represent himself denied.
November 24 to 26, 1947: Trial; jury of nine men and three women finds him guilty after 35 minutes and recommends death.
December 6, 1947: New-trial motion denied; sentenced to hang on January 16, 1948; warns that everyone connected with the case will die before him.
December 7, 1947: Taken to the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.
January 1, 1948: Judge Edward D. Hodge dies.
January 6, 1948: Prosecutor Steele and Lieutenant Lyons interview Bird at Walla Walla for the governor.
January 15, 1948: Governor Wallgren grants a 60-day reprieve.
April 5, 1948: Undersheriff Joseph E. Karpach dies.
June 11, 1948: Court reporter George L. Harrigan dies.
October 28, 1948: Detective Lieutenant Sherman W. Lyons dies.
November 26, 1948: Defense lawyer James W. Selden dies.
November 30, 1948: Washington Supreme Court denies his petition for a new trial.
December 3, 1948: Judge Hugh J. Rosellini sets a new execution date of January 14, 1949.
After December 3, 1948: Federal Court of Appeals declines the case; execution reset for July 15, 1949.
July 14, 1949: United States Supreme Court refuses review for the last time.
July 15, 1949: Hanged at 12:20 a.m. at the Washington State Penitentiary, Walla Walla.