‘Killer Poet’ Norman Porter granted parole, will be released from prison

SHIRLEY, Mass. — A convicted murderer known as the “Killer Poet” will soon be a free man.

On Tuesday, a parole board granted Norman Porter’s release from prison.

Porter is serving a life sentence for the 1960 murder of 21-year-old store clerk John Pigott during a robbery in Saugus. He was also convicted for his role in the murder of Middlesex County jailmaster David Robinson during a violent escape the following year.

Dottie Johnson, Pigott’s cousin, feels Porter’s victims have been denied justice. Johnson was just 13 years old when Pigott was shot and killed by Porter in a clothing store on Rt. 1.

“Two people are dead,” Johnson said. “Two good people are dead, and never got the opportunity to live their lives.”

Porter never returned from a furlough in 1985. On the run for 20 years, he was known as the “other Whitey Bulger.”

Porter was ultimately caught in 2005 in Chicago, where he was living as a poet and activist under the name JJ Jameson.

The now-82-year-old had unsuccessfully filed for parole three times. He was most recently denied medical parole at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In granting Porter parole this time around, the board said he has “remained disciplinary report free and has remained in programming despite limitations from his health issues and COVID-19.” The board also cited his “significant support network,” which includes a former deputy commissioner of the Department of Correction and his home sponsor, a physician he has known for more than 50 years.

“In forming this opinion, the Board has taken into consideration Mr. Porter’s institutional behavior, as well as his participation in available work, educational, and treatment programs during the period of his incarceration,” the board wrote.

At a parole hearing in March, Porter said his health is failing but argued that he is a reformed man.

“I deeply regret my behavior, my actions,” Porter told the board. “To the families of John Pigott of Saugus and David Robinson of Cambridge, I deeply regret my behavior.”

The board agreed, writing that Porter is “rehabilitated and merits parole at this time.”

“He has great regrets,” Tom Herman, Porter’s longtime attorney, said. “He knows he can never make this right.”

For Johnson, however, the decision is defeating.

“Now we’re struck out. The game is over,” she said.

A release date for Porter has not yet been determined.

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