Murder of Thelma Taylor

[4][5] While Taylor was waiting for the bus, she was accosted by Morris Leland, a 22-year-old ex-convict, who asked her to accompany him to a spot near the Willamette River and the St. Johns Bridge, a short distance from what is now the Cathedral Park neighborhood.

On the morning of August 6, Taylor began screaming for help after hearing workers switching railroad cars at a nearby train yard.

[6] He then threw the rebar and knife into the river, wiped his fingerprints off of Taylor's lunch pail, and gathered up his cigarette butts.

[6][9] In the early morning hours of August 11, 1949,[10] Leland was arrested for car theft by the Portland Police, and subsequently confessed to kidnapping and murdering Taylor, though he wasn't a suspect in the crime.

[15] On April 20, 1951, Morris was again sentenced to death; he was executed in the gas chamber at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem on January 9, 1953.