Born December 14, 1901, in Louisiana, Jake Bird was born. He worked as a manual laborer on the railroad. He laid and maintained the tracks. There is not much known about his past; he didn’t even know the exact location where he was born, just that it was in Louisiana. We do know his lengthy criminal records. He was in prison for a cumulative total of 31 years. His previous crimes were burglary and attempted murder.
The first murder was reported on October 30, 1947, in Washington when people reported hearing a woman screaming in a residence. Police arrived, and a man ran out of the back door, through the backyard, and over a fence. The police chased after him over many fences until a high-wired fence stopped him. The officers cornered the suspect, so he pulled out a switchblade and stabbed one officer in the back and the other in the hand.
Lucky for the police officers, one of them was a former prizefighter who punched the suspect in the groin and jaw, knocking him out. When they went back to the home they were called in to investigate, they found the bodies of Berthha Kludt, 53, and her daughter, Beverly, 17 both struck in the head several times with an ax.
The man that fled the scene was Bird. He tried to claim at trial that he just wanted to rob them but they found him so he had to kill them but it was later found that he tried to sexually assault Bertha before she was killed.
Bird was only charged for Bertha’s murder because the jury had to prove it was premeditated so Bird would qualify for death penalty. The trial was very short with Bird being found guilty and traces of brains and blood from both victims being found on his clothes. The jury ended up recommending the death penalty and the judge agreed to a death by hanging.
Bird, trying to delay his execution, claimed he could solve at least 45 murders he had committed or participated in. The governor gave him an extra 60 days to do so. He was interviewed by investigators from all over the country but out of his 45 claim, only 11 were able to be substantiated. Since Bird had so much information on all of them, he was the prime suspect, obviously. Bird said he killed mostly women from Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentuckey, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Dakoda, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, and Iowa.
Bird tried to get a retrial after his 60 extra days but it was denied. He was executed by hanging on July 15, 1949 and is buried in an unmarked grave at the prison in Washington.
Here are some fun facts for our last criminal:
Bird was the 7th Africa-American inmate to be executed since the death penalty was created in 1907.
Bird’s final statement was 20 minutes long and was about how his lawyers did not represent him right and they were against him the entire time.
A fun statement he said was “I’m putting the Jake Bird hex on all of you who had anything to do with my being punished. Mark my words, you will die before I do.”
To make this threat seem real, five people who had been involved with Birds trial died within a year of his conviction and many people connect this to the hex Bird put on them.
The five men that died within a year were:
- Edward D. Hodge, Pierce County Superior Court Judge, 69, died January 1st, 1948
- Joeseph E. Karpach, Pierce County Under-sherrif, 46, died April 5th, 1948
- George L. Harrigan, Pierce County court reporter, 69, died June 11 1948
- Sherman W. Lyons, Tacoma Police Detective Lieutenant, 46, died October 28th, 1948
- James W. Selden, Bird’s defense attorney, 76, died November 26th, 1948
Apparently all of these men died from heart attacks except for one who died form pneumonia, suspicious.
I found it super interesting how the focus of the blog was on the time period after he was arrested, as that was when they learned he was a serial killer. I also think it’s pretty unsettling how little is known about his past, and what happened to the other 34 murders that were not substantiated. It seems kind of crazy that the trial was pretty much open and shut and he was easily caught, yet apparently partook in 45 murders. I’ve really enjoyed reading this blog over the past 10 weeks, it’s been really fascinating learning about all these lesser-known serial killers!
This is super interesting. I really wonder if they ever identified a motive. It’s genuinely unfathomable that there are people out there who break into random houses, assault women, and try to kill them. I also found it interesting that you said he was charged with attempted murder. I’m assuming that means he was unsuccessful, but I don’t know what I would do if I had an axe through me and pieces of my brain shooting everywhere. I don’t think I could ever emotionally function again. Hopefully these women managed to have a long and happy life given the circumstances.