The Tacoma Times

WEBB IS SAVED FROM GALLOWS
Life Spared At Eleventh Hour
(By United Press Leased Wire.)
SALEM, Ore., Sept. 5.—Jesse P. Webb, the trunk murderer who was to have been hanged in the penitentiary, was saved from the gallows today by Gov. West, who commuted Webb's sentence to life imprisonment.
The plea of 17-year-old Julia Webb, coupled with two poems, one entitled 'The Tragedy,' the other 'They Hanged Bill Jones,' saved Webb.
Webb was to hang at 12:30 but was reprieved an hour before.
Webb, who had coolly prepared for death, almost collapsed when told.
'I was afraid to die,' he sobbed.
'My deepest regret was the disgrace.'
'I commuted Webb's sentence for several reasons,' said Gov. West.
'First was the appeal made to me by Webb's daughter. When I saw the child pitifully pleading for his life, I got to thinking of what my own daughter would think of me if I allowed the law to choke another father to death to satisfy a few blood-hungry persons.'
'Then I happened to read two little poems. 'They Hanged Bill Jones,' and the other 'The Tragedy.''
PORTLAND, Sept. 5.—Jesse P. Webb, sentenced to hang at Salem today, murdered William A. Johnson, a wealthy rancher at the New Grand Central hotel here October 21, 1910. After beating Johnson nearly to death with a black jack, he stuffed the body, still alive, in a trunk, sent it to the depot and checked it to Puyallup.
Bloodstains led to the discovery and two days later Mrs. Carrie Kersh, who had accompanied Johnson from Spokane, and Webb were arrested together. Mrs. Kersh had $1,900, which Johnson had given her for safe keeping.
Both Webb and the woman had deserted their families in Seattle previously and had been living together in Spokane.
They were charged with the murder. Mrs. Kersh was sentenced to 15 years in the penitentiary.
The case was one of the most sensational in the history of the Pacific Northwest.
Girl Pleads For Father
(By United Press Leased Wire.)
PORTLAND, Sept. 5.—Brought to a sudden realization that the law says her father must hang in a few hours, Julia Webb, 17, daughter of Jesse P. Webb, the 'trunk murderer,' yesterday made a frantic attempt to get up a petition to urge Gov. West to commute Webb's sentence to life imprisonment.
Weak from worry, bedraggled and almost hopeless, the woman tramped through the rain stopping people on the streets, in stores and shops, tearfully appealing for their signatures. At noon her list of petitioners was pitifully small, but driven by the idea of a noose around her father's neck, the girl continued to render what probably will be her last service to him.