Posted on 03/23/2005 11:30:53 PM PST by ambrose
Fugitive murderer returns to Mass. after 20 years on the lam
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
March 24, 2005
Dottie Johnson lobbied for years to keep the man convicted of killing her 21-year-old cousin from gaining his freedom.
Now, two decades after he escaped from a Massachusetts prison and disappeared, Norman A. Porter Jr. is back in custody.
"It's been a very emotional thing," she said, recalling the almost 45 years since her cousin, John "Jackie" Pigott, was shot to death in a robbery at the Saugus retail store where he worked. Johnson was 13 then.
"We hope it shows that our system has not failed the victims," she said.
Porter's whereabouts had been a mystery to police since he walked away from a pre-release center in December 1985. He was arrested in Chicago on Tuesday after a tipster in Massachusetts told police that Porter was living there. He did not fight his rendition to Massachusetts, and returned Wednesday, through T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., with a police escort.
Claire Wilcox, who was engaged to Pigott when he was murdered, was thrilled when she heard that Porter had been captured.
"This guy killed two people. ... To think that he was out there footloose and fancy free for 20 years was really appalling to me," she said.
Porter's arraignment could be as early as Thursday morning in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, where there is an indictment warrant in place for his prison escape, said David Traub, a spokesman for the district attorney.
Porter was convicted of shooting Pigott, a part-time clerk at the Robert Hall Clothing Store, in 1960. Porter ordered customers and store employees into a back room and ordered them to turn over their valuables. He then placed the end of his sawed-off shotgun against the back of Pigott's head and fired.
The next year, while awaiting trial in the Pigott case, Porter assaulted the head jailer at the Middlesex County jail in Cambridge while another inmate fatally shot the man.
Porter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in both cases, and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
But Porter also had a peaceful side, which won him support from prison officials and even from Gov. Michael Dukakis, who agreed to commute one of his two life sentences in 1975. Porter earned his high school diploma in prison as well as a degree from Boston University. He also started a prison radio station and newspaper.
Johnson testified against a commutation Porter sought on his second life sentence, and against his parole.
"He had charmed a lot of people, yet he was a very violent man," she said.
Now 65, Porter had been using the name Jacob "J.J." Jameson. In Chicago, where he is believed to have lived much of the past two decades, he was known as a poet and anti-war protester devoted to the city's Third Unitarian Church. He was named Chicagopoetry.com's poet of the month a year ago.
Porter appeared calm when he was arrested at the church.
"I've had a good 20-year run," Porter said as he was taken away, according to Illinois State Police Special Agent Todd Damasky, who helped arrest him.
Thomas Herman, a Boston lawyer Porter called after his arrest, said Porter seemed relieved.
"He said it was time to come home," said Herman.
Capt. Edward McGonagle of the Correction Department's fugitive apprehension unit, said the events that led to Porter's capture began Feb. 23 when Porter's fingerprints were matched to an arrest in Chicago in 1993, when Porter was charged with theft after a check he wrote to a handyman bounced.
Massachusetts authorities said they could not explain why the match took so long. Porter's fingerprints had been in the system since he was arrested in Massachusetts.
But McGonagle said authorities are thrilled to have captured one of the state's most wanted fugitives.
"It's clearly poetic justice that Norman will go back to prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence," McGonagle said.
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His remorse in completely underwhelming.
IS not "in"
Der!
He "had a good 20 year run", huh? Well, the victims of this murderous trash didn't. Thank God his admirer Dukakis was never elected President.
Amen to that! I hope they string him up by his unmentionables.
Oops wrong thread, thought this was about Kerry.
Amen also -- The quality of the Democrat candidates sure has been wanting in the last 30 years
Maybe he used the initials J.J. in Chicago because he could hide more easily with the other race baiters and shakedown artists that share those initials.
I would guess that most murderers are "peaceful" when they are not committing their crimes.
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