William Perry Jackson

In the summer of 1980, a series of brutal attacks on both sides of the Columbia River left five people dead and a community stunned by the randomness of the violence.

The killings began in Portland, Oregon, and spread into Vancouver, Washington, and small towns in between. The victims ranged from a 14‑year‑old girl to elderly homeowners in their seventies. The common threads were robbery, sudden brutality, and a small group of drifters moving between the states.

At the center was William Perry “Pete” Jackson, born in January 1955 in Milwaukie, Oregon. Between May and August 1980, Jackson and two accomplices—Gary Allen Smith and later Michael Anthony Butler—would leave a trail of beatings, home invasions, rape, and murder that ended only when one of them broke and led detectives to a shallow grave.

By the time the courts were finished with him, Jackson had been convicted of five murders (one as an accomplice), along with rape, kidnapping, and escape, and sentenced to multiple life terms in both Oregon and Washington. As of 2022, he remains in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.

Early Murders: Robbery Escalates to Killing

The Killing of Calvin Toran

The first known killing tied to William Perry Jackson took place on May 21, 1980, in downtown Portland’s Transit Mall.

Jackson and his 27‑year‑old accomplice, Gary Allen Smith, targeted a kiosk where 45‑year‑old janitor Calvin Toran was working. What began as a robbery turned into a beating: they assaulted Toran, stole just $10, and then forced him into the back of their van.

Instead of leaving him beaten but alive, they drove Toran to Forest Park, the heavily wooded area that borders northwest Portland. In the seclusion of the park, they stabbed him to death and left his body there.

This killing—over a handful of dollars—set the tone for what would follow: opportunistic crimes that escalated quickly into lethal violence.

Hazel Wilson’s Home Invasion

Less than a month later, on June 11, 1980, Jackson and Smith crossed the Columbia River into Vancouver, Washington.

Their target was the home of 74‑year‑old Hazel Wilson. They pried open the door and went inside, where Wilson confronted them. Rather than simply flee or restrain her, they beat the elderly woman so severely she could not get up.

After ransacking the house and collecting valuables, they left her on the floor and disappeared.

Two days passed before a worried neighbor checked on Wilson, found her badly injured, and got her to a local hospital. Hazel Wilson died on June 14 from her injuries. The crime, at first glance, looked like a residential burglary gone violently wrong. Investigators would only later link it to Jackson and Smith.

Drifting Between States and a Mounting Body Count

The Murder of Julia Annabell Armstrong

After the Wilson attack, Jackson and Smith began hitchhiking between Oregon and Washington through the summer. Their transient lifestyle made them harder to track and easier to dismiss as just more drifters passing through.

By early August, they were back in Portland.

On August 5, 1980, the pair broke into the home of 59‑year‑old Julia Annabell Armstrong. The pattern repeated: they beat Armstrong to death, then rifled through her belongings and looted her house.

For the second time in less than two months, an older woman had been beaten to death in her own home after a forced entry.

A New Accomplice: Michael Anthony Butler

Two days after Armstrong’s murder, on August 7, Jackson and Smith gained a third partner.

Eighteen‑year‑old Michael Anthony Butler picked them up while driving. Over the course of that day, he agreed to join their ongoing series of crimes. The trio soon headed north into Washington again.

In Chehalis, Washington, they went searching for gasoline. Instead of paying for it, they went into the home of 78‑year‑old Theodore May. Inside his garage, the group attacked him, beating May to death.

They stole cash, valuables, and gas before leaving the scene. The killings were now clearly linked not just by method, but by a small, mobile group of offenders moving quickly from town to town.

The Abduction and Murder of Charmel Ulrich

A Chance Encounter on a Rural Road

On August 10, 1980, Jackson, Smith, and Butler were driving near Scholls, Oregon, a rural community southwest of Portland.

Along a country path, they spotted two teenage girls walking: 14‑year‑old Charmel Ulrich and 13‑year‑old Laurie Leach. Jackson persuaded Butler to pull over. Jackson and Butler got out and began talking with the girls.

The conversation turned into a sudden attack. Jackson and Butler shoved Ulrich into the car. They tried to grab Leach as well, but she managed to break free and escape. She would later become a key witness to the abduction.

With Smith now at the wheel, the car pulled away, Ulrich trapped inside.

Assault in the Car and Forced Phone Call

As Smith drove toward a more isolated area near Rose Lodge, Oregon, Jackson and Butler raped 14‑year‑old Ulrich in the back seat.

Once they reached the secluded location, they forced her to make a phone call from a public telephone booth to Leach’s mother. The call was coerced, designed to mislead or confuse the family about her situation.

After the call ended, the violence escalated again. Smith stabbed Ulrich to death.

The group then transported her body and dumped it in a remote wooded area east of Waldport, on the Oregon coast. The killing marked the most horrific escalation in a string of already brutal crimes.

A Break in the Case: Butler Confesses

Suspicious Remarks and an Arrest

As police investigated the kidnapping of Charmel Ulrich, they began hearing troubling rumors.

Local authorities learned that an 18‑year‑old named Michael Anthony Butler had made comments about the abduction that suggested he knew more than he should have. His remarks hinted at details that had not been publicly released.

Butler was arrested in Forest Grove, Oregon, and brought to the nearest police station for questioning.

Under interrogation, Butler did not hold out for long. He admitted involvement in Ulrich’s abduction and murder. More than that, he offered to take detectives to the body.

Leading Police to the Grave

Butler first directed investigators to some campgrounds in Hood River County, but those locations were wrong. Eventually he led them to the correct burial site: a remote wooded area east of Waldport, where Ulrich’s remains were recovered.

With Butler’s cooperation, authorities now had a clear suspect and enough information to move quickly.

On August 22, 1980, both William Perry Jackson and Gary Allen Smith were arrested. Each man was charged with kidnapping, rape, and murder in the Ulrich case and held on $500,000 bail.

First Trials and Life Sentences

Smith’s Trial in the Ulrich Case

Gary Smith pleaded not guilty to the charges related to Charmel Ulrich’s murder.

His trial was initially scheduled for October 15, 1980, but at the request of his court‑appointed attorney, it was moved up. Smith wanted the process expedited, and on October 11 the trial began, coordinated in part with scheduling requests from Jackson’s attorney in related proceedings.

In January 1981, Smith was convicted. Because Oregon’s death penalty was temporarily suspended at the time, the sentence was automatic: life imprisonment.

Jackson’s Early Convictions

Around a month after Smith’s conviction in the Ulrich case, William Perry Jackson changed strategy.

In the case of Calvin Toran’s killing, he waived his right to a jury trial and agreed to plead guilty. He received a life sentence for that murder.

Jackson and his attorneys then offered to plead guilty in the Ulrich case as well, but the presiding judge, Richard Burke, denied the motion. Jackson’s legal team pushed back, petitioning the Oregon Supreme Court to remove Burke from the case on grounds of alleged prejudice. The high court refused.

In response to the ongoing disputes, Judge Burke lifted a gag order that had been limiting discussion of Jackson’s confessions. Jackson’s defense attorney objected, concerned that damaging statements would now be more freely used against his client.

In the end, Jackson was convicted in the Ulrich case and for two of the other murders, and he received consecutive life sentences. Shortly afterward, he pleaded guilty in Hazel Wilson’s murder and received yet another life term.

From inside prison, Jackson volunteered to participate as a test subject in medical research and drug experimentation programs—a detail that underscored how settled his long incarceration had become.

Escape from Custody

Breaking Out of the Lewis County Courthouse Jail

In early August 1982, Jackson was extradited to Washington state to face a sentencing trial for the murder of 78‑year‑old Theodore May.

He was being held in the Lewis County Courthouse jail when, on August 5, he and another inmate—convicted robber Gus Allen Turner—found a way out.

They broke through the plaster ceiling of their cell and climbed up into the courthouse structure above. From there, they made a rope from blankets and lowered themselves back down inside the courthouse, then slipped out and fled.

The two escapees separated and went their own ways.

Jackson headed south, back toward familiar territory: his hometown of Milwaukie, Oregon. His freedom was short‑lived. He was arrested later that same afternoon.

Prosecutors charged him with first‑degree escape. Jackson reportedly offered to plead guilty if the county sheriff agreed to spend a few weeks in isolation with him—a bizarre proposal that did not affect the outcome. The escape attempt merely added more time to a sentence that already stretched over multiple life terms.

Turning on an Accomplice: The Hazel Wilson Trial

Jackson Testifies Against Smith

In September 1982, shortly after his failed escape, Jackson took on a new role: witness for the state.

He agreed to testify against Gary Smith in Smith’s trial for the murder of Hazel Wilson in Vancouver, Washington.

During the proceedings, Jackson and Smith gave clashing accounts of what had happened in Wilson’s home. Jackson claimed that it was Smith who had sexually abused, beaten, and stomped on the elderly woman, while he, Jackson, allegedly did little or nothing to stop it.

On the stand, Jackson even recounted Smith joking about hitting Wilson with a frying pan, calling it “the old kaBANK! trick.” The grim remark underscored the cruelty of the attack as Jackson portrayed it.

Despite Smith’s continued protests of innocence and his open contempt toward Jackson, the jury was not persuaded by his denials. Smith was convicted of Hazel Wilson’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Appeals, Resentencing, and Current Status

Jackson’s Legal Challenges

From prison, Jackson continued to challenge parts of his convictions.

He appealed some of his sentences to the Oregon Supreme Court, arguing that certain statements had been improperly admitted as evidence. The high court reviewed his claims in the cases involving the murders of Julia Annabell Armstrong and Theodore May.

In both those cases, the court upheld his convictions. The arguments over evidentiary issues did not succeed in overturning the verdicts.

Jackson did secure a resentencing hearing in the case of Charmel Ulrich’s murder. However, the new proceeding did not change his fate: he was again found guilty and resentenced to life imprisonment.

Where He Is Now

By the early 1980s, the legal system in both Oregon and Washington had largely finished with William Perry Jackson. He had accumulated multiple life sentences for five killings, along with time for kidnapping, rape, and escape.

As of October 2022, Jackson remains incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, serving out his terms for a crime spree that, over less than three months in 1980, left five people dead across two states.