Cops Nab Murderer Turned Poet

In Massachusetts, he is a twice-convicted murderer who vanished after escaping from prison. But in Illinois, he is a poet and anti-war protester devoted to his local Unitarian church.

The two lives of Norman Porter crumbled in Chicago on Tuesday, when undercover police investigators arrested the man who 20 years ago fled from justice here and built a new life in Chicago.

Porter waived extradition at a hearing Wednesday morning in Cook County Circuit Court and was expected to return to Massachusetts by the end of the day.

Porter's whereabouts have been a mystery to police since he walked away from a prerelease center in Walpole in December 1985, CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports. Ever since his escape, he has been at the top of the Massachusetts State Police's "Most Wanted" list.

"We never let go of this, it was always important to us. We continue to look for people anywhere in the world," Capt. Edward McGonagle of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections told Bowers.

In 1960, at age 21, Porter shot and killed John Pigott, a 22-year-old clerk, during a robbery of a clothing store.

Claire Wilcox, then the 19-year-old fiancé of Pigott, says Porter altered the paths of many lives when he pulled the trigger that night.

"All these people have had to live 45 years, knowing this guy was out there. He's had twenty years of playtime. It's time he finished his sentence," she said.

While he was awaiting trial, Porter and another inmate escaped from jail. They overpowered the jail master, David S. Robinson, then shot and killed him with a smuggled gun.

Porter, who wasn't accused of pulling the trigger in Robinson's killing, eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in both cases and was sentenced to consecutive life terms. However, in 1975, then-Gov. Michael Dukakis commuted one of those sentences.

During his 26 years behind bars, Porter earned his high school diploma and was working toward a college degree. He escaped in 1985 after he was transferred to a minimum-security prison.

Porter's friends in Chicago said Jacob "J.J." Jameson — as they know him — has been living in the city for the past 20 years. Porter, 65, was arrested in the Third Unitarian Church.

As Bowers reports, investigators finally tracked down Porter via an Internet search lead to C.J. Laity's poetry website.

Laity said he broke out in goose bumps when he heard about the arrest.

"It was just startling, it was J.J. Jameson, a man you thought you knew," Laity told Bowers. "At first you didn't want to believe it but then you find out its true: He blew a guy's head off with a shotgun, and you invited him into your home, it's very scary."

Another acquaintance of the "poet," Charles Paidock, who met Porter more than a decade ago at a forum on free speech and other social issues, said: "I've always known him to be a perfect gentleman, quite active in the community."

Paidock, who was working on a play with Porter, said he never saw anything in his friend to suggest a violent past. "This is absolutely a complete and total shock," he said.

"This is a huge one," said Chicago poet Marc Smith to the Chicago Sun-Times. "It will be shocking to everybody and a little disconcerting. That's pretty wild."

About a month ago, a tipster reportedly told Massachusetts police that Porter was living in the Chicago area. Investigators matched Porter's fingerprints to his 1993 arrest on theft charges in Chicago, in which he used the Jameson alias. An Internet search then lead to friend C.J. Laity's poetry website.

"To find he's not who you thought he was and somebody like that was walking among you, it's just scary," said Laity to CBS Station WBBM.

"I felt like I was going to faint and burst into tears at my computer, at my office," added Maggie Rubin, another friend of Porter.

Porter acknowledged his real identity when police arrested him, saying, "I had a good 20 years," according to Detective Lt. Kevin Horton of the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension unit.