A fixture in the Chicago Poetry scene for over a decade, a guy I spent a lot of time with at Puddin’ Head Books in the early 90s, an author who signed a copy of his book to my as-yet-to-be-born first son when it was published, was arrested yesterday.
Poetic Justice Served To Fugitive On Run
Murderer Arrested In ChicagoBOSTON — He’s been a fugitive 10 years longer than James "Whitey" Bulger, and on the state’s most wanted poster he has been No. 1.
NewsCenter 5’s David Boeri reported that serving two life sentences for murder, Norman Porter didn’t break out, he walked out of a state prison in 1985. Porter’s 20-year run was put to an end in Chicago Tuesday with a certain amount of poetry.
In Chicago, where he has been named poet of the month, J.J. Jameson is a man about town, frequently appearing in front of microphones as reader or master of ceremonies. You can even hear him reading his own poems on the web.
But fingerprints recently analyzed by the FBI indicated that J.J. Jameson is none other than Porter, the notorious Massachusetts fugitive and a violent killer.
Porter, 65, has apparently been living under the alias of Jameson for a number of years in Chicago, where he was arrested Tuesday by the fugitive team of the Massachusetts State Police and the Department of Corrections.
When he escaped from the Norfolk Pre-Release Center 20 years ago, Porter was serving two life sentences for murder. As a violent young robber, he had not so poetically put a shotgun to the back of a store clerk’s head and pulled the trigger. Then, while awaiting trial, he escaped the Middlesex Jail by killing the superintendent with a smuggled gun.
Though he was serving time for two murders, he was considered a model prisoner. He was allowed numerous furloughs from this prison without walls. Then, one day in September 1985, he signed himself out for a walk. He still hasn’t returned.
Porter’s arrest resulted from fingerprints taken after a suspect identifying himself as Jameson was arrested in Chicago in 1993 on charges of theft. But for some reason there was no match made at the time with those fingerprints.
State police were unaware of the arrest, the alias or his presence in Chicago until they were recently notified that someone matching Porter’s fingerprints had been arrested 12 years ago.
Following an intensive search of public records and the Internet, they zeroed in on Chicago’s poet of the month. The fugitive squad found Porter at a Unitarian Church where he’s been a congregation leader and historian.
According to police, after the initial shock, he said, "I’ve had a good 20 years."
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