THE AXE AND THE OMEN: The Callous Crimes and Horrifying Hex of Jake Bird

He was a drifter, a ruthless ax-murderer, and the man behind a chilling courtroom curse that seemed to claim lives long before his own execution.

October 30, 1947 dawned cold in Tacoma, Washington. The 45-year-old drifter Jake Bird entered the home of Bertha Kludt and her 17-year-old daughter, Beverly June. What happened next would stun not only the community but also be a revelation about one of America’s most prolific but lesser-known serial killers.

Jake Bird was born in Louisiana in 1901 and left home at 19 to live the life of a transient worker. For years he rode the rails across America, working odd jobs with railroad section gangs. This lifestyle of constant movement from town to town would later become important in linking him to dozens of murders in the United States.

Bird used an ax he had taken from a nearby shed to enter the Kludt home through an unlocked back door. He took off his shoes to sneak through the house and took $1.50 from Bertha’s purse. A struggle broke out when Bertha confronted him in the kitchen. Beverly, who heard her mother’s screams, ran downstairs to help. In the ensuing violent clash, Bird hacked at both women with the ax, killing them.

The women’s screams drew neighbors, who summoned the police. At the same time, Officers Andrew Sabutis and Evan “Skip” Davies arrived about the back yard as Bird tried to flee through the back door. They pursued him across several yards before cornering him in an alley. Bird brandished a jackknife and attacked the officers, slicing Davies’ hand and stabbing Sabutis in the shoulder. The officers did finally subdue Bird, despite their injuries. Sabutis, a former prizefighter, beat Bird essentially with a left hook to the jaw and a kick to the groin.

When police arrived at the Kludt home, they found a grisly scene. Bertha was dead in her bedroom, while Beverly’s body was discovered on the kitchen floor. Both women had been viciously bludgeoned with the ax, which was left at the scene.

Bird was brought in to the Tacoma City Jail, where he denied involvement, but the evidence was insurmountable. He had blood and brain matter on his clothes, his fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, and his shoes were at the scene. Bird later confessed, saying the murders were the result of a bungled burglary.

Bird went to trial on Nov. 24, 1947, and quickly, within three days, the proceedings were over. Even though the police had admitted to beating Bird after they arrested him, Judge Edward D. Hodge ruled that his confession could be used as evidence. Bird’s defense lawyer, James W. Selden, called no witnesses and offered little defense. After 35 minutes’ deliberation, the jury found Bird guilty of first-degree murder and recommended the death penalty.

The strange story of Jake Bird would take an eerie turn on December 6, 1947, when he was sentenced. After Judge Hodge rejected Bird’s motion for a new trial, Bird spoke to the court for 20 minutes. Angry that he had not been allowed to have a chance to defend himself, he concluded his remarks with a chilling pronouncement: “All of you who had anything to do with my case are going to die before I do.”

What was later dubbed the “Jake Bird Hex” seemed to work almost instantly. And within a year, five men tied to Bird’s trial were dead. Judge Edward D. Hodge, who sentenced Bird to death, died of a heart attack shortly after the trial on Jan. 1, 1948. Under-sheriff Joseph E. Karpach of Pierce County died April 5, 1948. Court reporter George L. Harrigan died June 11, 1948. Sherman W. Lyons, a detective lieutenant with the Tacoma Police Department who had taken Bird’s confession, died on Oct. 28, 1948. Bird’s own defense lawyer, James W. Selden, died Nov. 26, 1948 — one year to the day after Bird was convicted. A sixth man, Arthur A. Steward, a prison guard who worked on death row, died from pneumonia two months before Bird was executed.

As he awaited execution at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Bird started confessing to other murders. As an apparent measure to prolong his life, he took credit for 44 murders during his travels throughout the United States. Investigators from all over the country rushed to interview him. Though only 11 of the confessions could be confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt, police in different states were able to close many unsolved murder cases with information Bird gave them. His victims were identified in states including Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and Washington.

Bird’s earliest known victims were two women he axed to death in Evanston, Illinois, in 1942. His habit of abducting women in towns along the route of his railroad trips makes him one of America’s first known serial killers.

After a series of appeals and stays, Jake Bird was hanged at 12:20 a.m. on July 15, 1949, at the Washington State Penitentiary. In front of 125 witnesses, the trapdoor opened before a volunteer prison chaplain could complete reading Bird’s last statement, in which he requested forgiveness. Bird was brought down 14 minutes later and pronounced dead. He was interred at the prison cemetery in an unmarked grave, listed only as prisoner number 21520. His entire earthly belongings, worth $6.15, were bequeathed to his appeals lawyer, Murray Taggart.

The case against Jake Bird was never a national sensation, even when he confessed to dozens of murders around the country and the details of his crimes were odious. History now knows him as one of America’s most prolific serial killers and, perhaps most importantly, one of the first well-documented Black serial killers in American history.

The story of Jake Bird, with its barbaric slayings and alleged supernatural “hex,” is one of the strangest episodes in American crime history. Whether the deaths of the six men linked to his case were coincidence or something more sinister remains part of the lasting question surrounding the Tacoma Ax-Killer and his deadly curse.

SOURCES:
http://www.executedtoday.com/2012/07/14/1949-jake-bird/
https://www.ranker.com/list/jake-bird-hex-facts/jessika-gilbert
https://www.historylink.org/File/7971
https://www.historylink.org/File/7973