Fugitive told wife to bury him in backyard when he died

Lillian Webb and Donald Eugene Webb.

A longtime fugitive whose remains were recently dug up from the Dartmouth backyard of his former wife had instructed her to bury him there after he died in 1997 while he was on the run for allegedly murdering a Pennsylvania police chief in 1980, court records show.

The shocking revelation in the case of Donald Eugene Webb, a career criminal with mob ties who was accused in the murder of Police Chief Gregory Adams of Saxonburg, Pa., in December 1980, was contained in a search warrant affidavit filed in Boston Municipal Court.

The affidavit said Webb’s former wife, Lillian Webb, and her lawyer told investigators last week that Donald Webb returned to Massachusetts after the murder of Adams and checked into a Wareham hospital under a fake name. He remained at the hospital for weeks and was treated for a severe leg injury.

After his discharge, Webb returned to the New Bedford residence he shared with his wife, and investigators believe the address contained “a hidden room which was used to hide Donald Webb during this time frame,’’ wrote Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael F. Cherven in the affidavit.

Pennsylvania authorities had charged Webb with murdering Adams soon after the slaying.

Webb and his wife, meanwhile, remained in New Bedford until 1997, when Lillian Webb purchased a home on Maplecrest Drive in Dartmouth, according to the affidavit.

“Lillian stated that after Donald Webb was discharged from Toby Hospital he returned to 275 Hawthorne St., New Bedford, M.A., where he lived with Lillian until 1997,’’ Cherven wrote.

Authorities searched the Dartmouth home last week and dug up Donald Webb’s remains on July 13 from the backyard.

He had suffered a stroke in 1997, according to Cherven.

“Lillian stated that Donald Webb informed her that he was dying and instructed her to begin digging and prepping a hole in the back yard of the residence,’’ Cherven wrote. “According to Lillian, she dug a grave,’’ and when Webb died after a second stroke, “she then placed [him] into the grave in the back yard … where he has remained since approximately 1997.’’

Lillian Webb, 83, who received immunity in exchange for her cooperation, could not be reached for comment. She filed for divorce from her deceased husband in 2005.

Cherven, who is attached to Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, has been leading an illegal gambling investigation targeting Lillian Webb’s son, Stanley, since January, the affidavit said.

But the trooper became interested in the Dartmouth residence as early as November 2016, when FBI Special Agent Thomas MacDonald told him there was a hidden room in the basement, Cherven wrote.

That room was about the size of a large shower stall, with a hook lock fastened to the inside of the door, according to the affidavit. Investigators found a cane and three cardboard boxes of silver coins inside the room, as well as 42 photos of Donald Webb in the residence, Cherven wrote.

Lillian Webb told authorities she had never used the cane and knew nothing about it, records show.

The coins were significant, Cherven said, since Donald Webb had committed a string of burglaries and thefts at the time of Adams’s murder and had outstanding warrants in New York. Lillian Webb “did not provide an answer’’ to authorities who asked about the ownership of the coins, Cherven wrote.

Lillian also claimed the secret room was meant to provide her with a hiding place if the house was ever burglarized, the affidavit said.

Authorities contend that Webb fatally shot Adams during a traffic stop in Saxonburg on the afternoon of Dec. 4, 1980. Webb had been a federal fugitive for almost a year before the chief’s murder, legal filings show.

Webb’s white Mercury Cougar was found, with blood traces, in a Howard Johnson’s parking lot in Warwick, R.I., about two weeks after the chief’s murder.

On Dec. 31, 1980, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Webb alleging unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, after he was charged in Pennsylvania with first-degree murder for Adams’s killing.

Webb was believed to be in Pennsylvania planning to rob a jewelry store, authorities said. Officials said he also had ties to the notorious Patriarca crime family in Providence.

He was in his mid-60s when he died.