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On 35th Anniversary of Pennsylvania Police Chief’s Murder, Donald Eugene Webb Remains a Fugitive

On 35th Anniversary of Pennsylvania Police Chief’s Murder, Donald Eugene Webb Remains a Fugitive

FBI Pittsburgh
4 December 2015

Public Affairs Specialist Carrie Adamowski
philadelphia.media@fbi.gov

Today, December 4, 2015, the FBI marks the 35th anniversary of the murder of Pennsylvania police chief Gregory Adams and announces a reward of up to $100,000 for Donald Eugene Webb, the fugitive wanted for this heinous crime.

This reward is payable to any person who can provide information leading to Webb’s arrest or to any person who can provide information leading to the recovery of Webb’s remains. Webb, one of the longest-tenured fugitives ever to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, would now be 84 years old. The FBI remains committed to bringing this violent criminal to justice.

On December 4, 1980, at approximately 3:00 p.m., Police Chief Gregory Adams of the Saxonburg Borough Police Department, located in Butler County in northwestern Pennsylvania, was allegedly beaten and shot to death by Donald Eugene Webb during a traffic stop. Webb is believed to have been wounded in the confrontation.

At the time of Chief Adams’s murder, Webb was a 50-year-old career criminal and a federal fugitive wanted for a jewelry store burglary in the Albany, New York area. He is believed to have been in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania that day to case a possible burglary target; he was known to stay, under an alias, in motels in eastern and central parts of the state, including the Allentown, Easton, Jim Thorpe, Scranton, and Williamsport areas.

Webb lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and was known to associate with others from Fall River and Taunton, Massachusetts, who were connected to members of the Patriarca Crime Family in Providence, Rhode Island. On December 21, 1980, Webb’s white Mercury Cougar getaway vehicle was located in a Howard Johnson’s parking lot in Warwick, Rhode Island, suggesting he returned to the Providence/Southeastern Massachusetts area after the chief’s murder.

For the last 35 years, the FBI has been conducting the fugitive investigation for Webb, largely in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Police, which is handling the Chief Adams homicide investigation. Both agencies have been assisted by local and state police in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The FBI is asking anyone who may have information regarding the whereabouts of Donald Eugene Webb, dead or alive, to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).