William Perry Jackson

After this, Jackson appealed some of his sentences to the Oregon Supreme Court, arguing that some statements should not have been admitted as evidence. This tactic did not work for the murders of Armstrong and May, for whose murders his convictions were upheld. He was then granted a resentencing trial for the murder of Ulrich, but was again found guilty and resentenced to life imprisonment. As of October 2022, Jackson remains incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary and continues to serve his sentences.

In early August 1982, Jackson was extradited to Washington, where he was to face a sentencing trial for the murder of May. On August 5, he and a convicted robber named Gus Allen Turner broke through the plaster ceiling of their cell at the Lewis County Jail and climbed through, re-entered the courthouse and then managed to lower themselves to the ground using a rope made of blankets. From there, they split and went their separate ways, with Jackson fleeing to his native city of Milwaukie, Oregon, where he was arrested later that afternoon. He was then charged on first-degree escape charges, offering to plead guilty if the county sheriff spent a few weeks in isolation with him.

At trial, Smith pleaded not guilty to the charges relating to Ulrich's murder, with his trial being set for October 15 at the request of his court-appointed attorney. At his request, the trial was expedited even further and started on October 11, done in conjunction with Jackson's attorney, who was granted a similar request. In January 1981, he was convicted and automatically sentenced to life imprisonment, as the death penalty had been temporarily suspended at the state level at the time.

The first death linked to Jackson occurred on May 21, 1980, when he and 27-year-old accomplice Gary Allen Smith went to a kiosk in the Portland Transit Mall, where they beat up the janitor, 45-year-old Calvin Toran. After stealing $10 from him, they threw him in the back of their van and drove to Forest Park, where they stabbed him to death. On June 11, Jackson and Smith decided to break into a home in Vancouver, Washington occupied by 74-year-old Hazel Wilson. After prying the door open, the pair went inside and beat up the elderly woman until she was unable to get up. Jackson and Smith then ransacked the house, stole some valuables and promptly left. Wilson was found two days later by a concerned neighbor and driven to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries on June 14.

William Perry Jackson (born January 1955) is an American serial killer who, together with two accomplices, killed five people during robberies in Washington and Oregon from May to August 1980. Convicted and sentenced to multiple life terms in separate trials, in addition to another sentence for escaping from prison, he is currently serving his sentences in an Oregon prison.