Family of victim to speak out against parole for 'killer poet' Norman Porter

(MyFoxBoston.com) -- His name is Norman Porter: Many know him as the killer poet. He was convicted in the murders of two men, and he's once again trying to win his freedom.

His case made national headlines, and he was a fugitive for 20 years. Some call him the "other Whitey Bulger."

Norman Porter is up for parole, trying to get out of prison legally this time, and he might do it. But families of his victims tell FOX 25's Bob Ward they will do everything they can, to keep him locked up forever.

Five years ago, Porter, one of the state's most notorious inmates, was denied parole. But in January, the two-time convicted killer and a Mass. Most Wanted fugitive for 20 years, will appear before the parole board, and try again.

Dottie Johnson, murder victim Jackie Pigott's cousin, will be at Porter's parole hearing too.

"If you look in the dictionary for con artist, you'll find Norman Porter's name," she said. "No, I don't trust him. Do you?

Norman Porter is a career criminal. He was convicted and sentenced for the murders of two men in the early 1960's.
   
In prison, Porter was a model inmate. In 1975, then-Governor Michael Dukakis commuted one of  Porter's murder sentences, the murder of a Middlesex County jailer.
   
But a decade later, two days before Christmas, 1985, Porter simply walked away from a minimum security prison in Norfolk when he learned he wouldn't get a second commutation.

Porter was gone for 20 years, finally found in Chicago, using the name J.J. Jameson. He called himself a street poet.
   
His arrest made national headlines.

Porter got three years in jail for the escape. He is only held now on the second degree murder conviction of Dottie's cousin, Jackie Pigott.

"There is an absence in our lives, and every time I get a letter from the parole board, I think my blood pressure goes up."
   
Dottie Johnson told Bob Ward that because of her cousin, there's is no way she will miss Porter's parole hearing.

'If I can do anything in honor of his memory, to make this world a better place, a safer place, that is what I'm called to do. No matter how long it takes," she said.

Norman Porter's parole hearing will take place on Jan. 13 in Natick.
   
Also among the people who will argue against Porter's release Robert Pigott, Jackie's brother. He has never before spoken out about his brother's murder.

Cox Media Group