William Perry Jackson: The 1980 Oregon and Washington Murder Spree
Background
William Perry Jackson, sometimes identified by the nickname “Pete,” is an American serial killer whose known crimes took place in Oregon and Washington during the spring and summer of 1980. Born in January 1955 in Milwaukie, Oregon, Jackson was approximately 25 years old when he participated in a violent crime spree that left five people dead.
Jackson did not commit the crimes alone. His principal accomplice was Gary Allen Smith, a 27-year-old man who traveled with him through the Pacific Northwest. Eighteen-year-old Michael Anthony Butler later joined them. Together, the men committed robberies, home invasions, assaults, abductions and murders between May 21 and August 10, 1980.
The victims were not connected to one another. They included a working man abducted from downtown Portland, elderly residents attacked inside their homes and a 14-year-old girl kidnapped while walking with a friend. Robbery was a recurring motive, but the violence used against the victims was far greater than necessary to steal their property.
Confirmed Victims
- Calvin Toran, 45 — murdered on May 21, 1980, after being abducted from the Portland Transit Mall in Portland, Oregon. He was taken to Forest Park and stabbed to death.
- Hazel Wilson, 74 — attacked inside her home in Vancouver, Washington, on June 11, 1980. She was found alive two days later but died from her injuries in a hospital on June 14, 1980.
- Julia Annabell Armstrong, 59 — murdered inside her Portland, Oregon, home on August 5, 1980, during a home invasion and robbery.
- Theodore Franklin May Jr., 78 — beaten to death in the garage of his home in Chehalis, Washington, on August 7, 1980.
- Charmel Ulrich, 14 — abducted near Scholls, Oregon, and murdered on August 10, 1980. Her body was left in a wooded area east of Waldport in Lincoln County, Oregon.
The Abduction and Murder of Calvin Toran
The first known murder connected to Jackson occurred on May 21, 1980. Calvin Toran was a 45-year-old janitor working near a kiosk in Portland’s downtown Transit Mall when Jackson and Gary Allen Smith approached him.
The men attacked Toran and robbed him of approximately ten dollars. Rather than leaving after taking the money, they forced the injured man into the rear of their van. Toran was driven away from the busy downtown district and taken to Forest Park, a large wooded area west of central Portland.
Inside the park, Toran was stabbed to death. The killing demonstrated the pattern that would characterize the rest of the spree: Jackson and his accomplices selected a vulnerable person, used overwhelming violence during a relatively minor robbery and then attempted to escape before the crime could be connected to them.
Jackson was eventually prosecuted for Toran’s murder. He waived his right to a jury trial and entered a guilty plea, receiving a life sentence for the killing.
The Attack on Hazel Wilson
On June 11, 1980, Jackson and Smith crossed into Vancouver, Washington, where they targeted the home of 74-year-old Hazel Wilson. The men forced their way into the residence and attacked Wilson during the burglary.
Wilson was severely beaten and left unable to summon immediate assistance. Jackson and Smith searched the house, took property and departed, leaving the injured woman alone inside her home.
Two days passed before a concerned neighbor entered the residence and found Wilson alive but critically injured. She was transported to a hospital for treatment. Despite medical efforts, she died from the injuries on June 14, 1980.
The delayed discovery of Wilson illustrated the vulnerability of residents who lived alone. Jackson and Smith apparently expected that no one would find her quickly enough to provide investigators with an immediate description of the attackers.
Jackson later pleaded guilty to Wilson’s murder. During later proceedings involving Smith, Jackson testified about the attack, although the two men gave conflicting accounts concerning their individual actions inside the home.
The Murder of Julia Annabell Armstrong
After traveling through Oregon and Washington, Jackson and Smith returned to Portland. On August 5, 1980, they entered the home of 59-year-old Julia Annabell Armstrong.
Armstrong was attacked and beaten to death inside the residence. The men then searched the home and stole property. As in the Wilson case, the victim was confronted in a place where she should have been safest. The privacy of the home instead allowed the offenders to commit the attack without attracting immediate attention.
Armstrong’s murder occurred more than six weeks after Wilson’s death. The passage of time had not ended the men’s violent behavior. Instead, the August killing marked the beginning of an especially intense period in which three people were murdered within six days.
Jackson was convicted of Armstrong’s murder and received another life sentence. His attempts to overturn the conviction through the appellate courts were unsuccessful.
Michael Anthony Butler Joins the Group
Shortly after Armstrong’s murder, Jackson and Smith encountered 18-year-old Michael Anthony Butler. Butler had access to transportation and became involved in the group’s criminal activity.
His participation changed the group from a two-man partnership into a three-person traveling band. The men moved through Oregon and Washington with little stability, searching for money, fuel and other property while using violence against people they encountered.
Butler later became important to the investigation. After making statements suggesting that he knew details about the disappearance of Charmel Ulrich, he was questioned by law-enforcement officers and provided information that helped authorities locate her body and identify Jackson and Smith.
The Murder of Theodore May
On August 7, 1980, Jackson, Smith and Butler were traveling in the Chehalis area of Washington when they needed gasoline. They entered the property of 78-year-old Theodore Franklin May Jr.
May was confronted in the garage of his home. He was beaten to death, and the men stole money, property and gasoline before leaving the area.
The killing was another example of extreme violence committed for a comparatively small material reward. May appears to have been selected because the offenders believed his home could provide what they needed and because his age made him less capable of resisting three younger men.
Jackson was convicted in connection with May’s death. Butler later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his own role in the killing. The Washington proceedings added further prison terms to the sentences imposed for the Oregon crimes.
The Abduction of Charmel Ulrich
The final known victim was 14-year-old Charmel Ulrich. On August 10, 1980, Charmel was walking with her 13-year-old friend, Laurie Leach, on a rural road near Scholls, Oregon.
Jackson, Smith and Butler approached the girls in a vehicle. Jackson and Butler got out and began speaking to them. The encounter suddenly became an attempted double abduction. Charmel was forced into the vehicle, but Laurie escaped and was able to report what had happened.
The men drove away with Charmel. During the following hours, she was held against her will and sexually assaulted. Court records establish that Butler raped her and ultimately cut her throat with a knife. Jackson and Smith were also convicted for their participation in the kidnapping and murder.
Before the killing, the abductors forced Charmel to make a telephone call from a public telephone. The call did not lead to her safe release. She was murdered later that day, and her body was concealed in a remote wooded location approximately 20 miles east of Waldport, Oregon.
Charmel’s disappearance immediately generated an urgent investigation because Laurie had witnessed the abduction. Police knew that multiple men and a vehicle were involved, giving investigators more information than had been available during the earlier home invasions.
Discovery of Charmel Ulrich’s Body
Investigators received a major break when they learned that Michael Anthony Butler had discussed the abduction in a manner suggesting direct knowledge of the crime. Butler was arrested in Forest Grove, Oregon, and questioned.
He admitted participating in the kidnapping and led detectives in a search for the location where Charmel’s body had been left. Butler initially directed officers to an incorrect area, but he later identified the wooded site east of Waldport.
The recovery of Charmel’s body provided physical confirmation of the crime and strengthened the case against all three men. Information supplied by Butler helped authorities locate and arrest Jackson and Smith.
Arrests
William Perry Jackson and Gary Allen Smith were arrested on August 22, 1980. The arrests occurred less than two weeks after Charmel Ulrich’s abduction and murder.
Jackson, Smith and Butler faced charges involving kidnapping, rape and murder. Investigators also began connecting the men to the earlier killings in Portland, Vancouver and Chehalis.
The crimes crossed state and county boundaries, requiring cooperation among several law-enforcement agencies. Evidence and statements obtained in one jurisdiction were used to examine unsolved attacks in another. The investigation ultimately established that the apparently separate murders were part of one traveling crime spree.
Trials and Convictions
Jackson was convicted of five murders committed between May and August 1980. The prosecutions occurred in both Oregon and Washington because the killings had taken place in the two states.
He received multiple life sentences for the murders. At the time of the prosecutions, the available sentencing laws resulted in life imprisonment rather than execution. Some of the sentences were ordered to run consecutively, ensuring that Jackson would remain imprisoned for an extended period.
Jackson pleaded guilty in some proceedings and contested charges in others. He also testified against Gary Allen Smith in the Hazel Wilson case. Their testimony revealed significant disagreements about which man had carried out particular acts of violence, but both were held criminally responsible for participating in the fatal home invasion.
Jackson appealed portions of his Oregon convictions. The convictions associated with Julia Armstrong and Theodore May were upheld. Although he received a new sentencing proceeding in the Charmel Ulrich case, he was again sentenced to life imprisonment.
The 1982 Jail Escape
Jackson’s criminal conduct continued after his murder convictions. In August 1982, he was being held at the Lewis County Courthouse jail in Washington while awaiting additional proceedings related to Theodore May’s murder.
On August 5, 1982, Jackson and convicted robber Gus Allen Turner escaped by breaking through the plaster ceiling of their cell. The men climbed into the courthouse structure and used a rope made from blankets to lower themselves from the building.
After reaching the ground, Jackson and Turner separated. Jackson traveled toward his hometown of Milwaukie, Oregon, but his freedom lasted only a few hours. Authorities recaptured him later that afternoon.
Jackson was subsequently charged with first-degree escape and received an additional prison sentence. The escape attracted considerable attention because he had already been convicted of five murders.
Patterns in Jackson’s Crimes
Jackson’s murders did not involve a single type of victim. The victims ranged from 14 to 78 years old and included both men and women. What they shared was vulnerability at the moment Jackson and his accomplices encountered them.
Three victims were attacked in or near their homes. Calvin Toran was abducted while working, and Charmel Ulrich was kidnapped while walking along a rural road. The offenders repeatedly moved their victims away from public view or selected private locations where intervention was unlikely.
Robbery was present in several crimes, but the amounts of money and property taken were often small. Toran was reportedly killed after being robbed of approximately ten dollars. Theodore May was murdered while the offenders were seeking gasoline and valuables. The brutality of the attacks was therefore severely disproportionate to the financial benefit.
The crimes were also opportunistic. Jackson and his accomplices traveled from place to place, targeting people who happened to be accessible. Their mobility initially made it difficult for investigators to recognize that murders in different cities and states were connected.
The Role of Jackson’s Accomplices
Gary Allen Smith participated in the crime spree from its early stages. He was implicated in the murders of Calvin Toran, Hazel Wilson, Julia Armstrong, Theodore May and Charmel Ulrich.
Michael Anthony Butler joined Jackson and Smith during the final portion of the spree. He participated in the murders of Theodore May and Charmel Ulrich. Butler’s later statements to investigators were instrumental in locating Charmel’s body and apprehending the other men.
Accounts of the crimes have sometimes differed regarding which offender delivered a specific fatal injury. Such disagreements were especially prominent during the prosecutions, when the defendants attempted to reduce their own responsibility by blaming one another.
Regardless of the individual acts attributed to each man, the courts found the participants legally responsible for crimes committed as a group. Jackson’s presence, assistance and direct involvement resulted in five murder convictions and multiple life sentences.
Victim Summary by Date and Location
- May 21, 1980 — Calvin Toran: Abducted from the Portland Transit Mall in Portland, Oregon, and murdered in Forest Park.
- June 11, 1980 — Hazel Wilson attacked: Assaulted during a home invasion in Vancouver, Washington.
- June 14, 1980 — Hazel Wilson died: Died in a hospital from the injuries inflicted during the June 11 attack.
- August 5, 1980 — Julia Annabell Armstrong: Murdered during a burglary at her home in Portland, Oregon.
- August 7, 1980 — Theodore Franklin May Jr.: Murdered in the garage of his home in Chehalis, Washington.
- August 10, 1980 — Charmel Ulrich: Abducted near Scholls, Oregon, and murdered before her body was concealed east of Waldport, Oregon.
Legacy of the Case
William Perry Jackson’s crime spree lasted less than three months, yet it extended across two states and claimed five lives. The case illustrates how mobile offenders can exploit jurisdictional boundaries and how seemingly unrelated robberies, disappearances and home invasions may be connected.
The victims were ordinary people engaged in everyday activities. Calvin Toran was working. Hazel Wilson, Julia Armstrong and Theodore May were inside their homes. Charmel Ulrich was taking a walk with a friend. Their deaths were the result of encounters with offenders willing to use lethal violence for money, transportation, fuel or control.
Jackson accumulated multiple life sentences in Oregon and Washington, as well as an additional sentence for his 1982 escape. His convictions ensured that the murders of Toran, Wilson, Armstrong, May and Ulrich were formally attributed to the crime spree in which he participated.
The case remains notable for the speed with which the violence escalated, the wide range of victims and the cooperation required among investigators in Oregon and Washington. Most importantly, it is remembered through the five people whose lives were taken during the violent summer of 1980.
