Murder of Thelma Taylor

Thelma Anne Taylor was a 15-year-old American girl who was kidnapped, beaten, and stabbed to death in the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Her kidnapping and murder became a cause célèbre in Portland. Morris Leland, the man who killed her, was executed in 1953. The murder occurred on land which later became part of Cathedral Park. Kidnapping and murder: On August 5, 1949, Thelma Taylor, a sophomore at Roosevelt High School, was waiting for a bus in the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. She was going to Hillsboro to get a summer job picking beans. While she was waiting for the bus, she was accosted by 22-year-old Morris Leland, an ex-convict. Leland asked the girl to accompany him to a spot by the Willamette River under the St. Johns Bridge. Upon arriving at the secluded area, Leland held Taylor captive and attempted to rape her but desisted upon finding that she was a virgin. The two slept that night beneath the bridge in an area that was full of underbrush. On the morning of August 6, Thelma began screaming for help after hearing workers switching cars on a nearby railroad track. Leland then struck her on the head with a steel bar multiple times and stabbed her to death with a knife. He then threw the steel bar and the knife into the river and wiped his fingerprints off the girl's lunch pail. He gathered up his cigarette butts and buried the body in a shallow grave under a pile of driftwood. Conviction and execution: On August 11, 1949, Leland was arrested for automobile theft by the Portland police. He subsequently confessed to kidnapping and murdering Thelma Taylor. At his trial, Leland pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His trial began on October 4, 1950, and on February 7, 1951, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was executed in a gas chamber on January 9, 1953 at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon.