Escaped Killer Hid as Poet in Chicago

CHICAGO —  As J.J. Jameson, he was a popular poet. As Norman A. Porter Jr., he was a convicted murderer who had escaped 20 years ago from a Massachusetts prison.

On Wednesday, the two personas merged.

Porter, 65, appeared before Judge Kevin Sheehan in Cook County Circuit Court, a day after he was arrested at the Unitarian church where he worshiped and worked as a handyman.

Porter waived extradition and was ordered back to Massachusetts to face a felony indictment for prison escape.

That charge could add 10 years to the life sentence he walked away from in 1985.

His name has topped Massachusetts’ most-wanted list ever since.

“It’s been a good 20-year run,” he said to the Illinois state policeman who arrested him. Then he asked for a cigarette.

Porter told the officer that he had expected his past would catch up with him. Massachusetts authorities got a tip about a month ago that Porter was living in the Chicago area.

C.J. Laity, the publisher of ChicagoPoetry.com, said he had known “Jameson” for a decade. Last week, Laity said, the poet was among 33 who performed at a “Poetry Cram.” When Jameson’s name was announced, Laity said, the crowd cheered.

“He was one of my regular poets, a poet and a friend,” Laity said Wednesday. “What I am discovering now is I never knew him that well at all.”

Porter was 21 when he shot and killed a clothing store clerk during a 1960 robbery. While awaiting trial, he and another inmate tried to escape, overpowering their jailer and killing him with a smuggled gun.

Porter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in both cases and was sentenced to consecutive life terms.

In 1975, then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis commuted one of Porter’s life sentences.

While in prison, Porter earned a high school diploma. He also started a prison newspaper and radio station. His Boston lawyer, Gordon T. Walker, said Porter took up poetry while incarcerated.

“He was quite talented,” Walker said.

Porter was working toward a college degree when he escaped in 1985 from a minimum-security facility.

He had eluded capture once, when he was arrested in Chicago on theft charges in 1993. He told police his name was J.J. Jameson, and his fingerprints somehow were not matched with the outstanding warrant for his arrest.

The charges against him were dropped.

Porter was living in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood -- one of the city’s most violent. He helped his neighbors run a food pantry. He served as the historian for the Third Unitarian Church on Chicago’s West Side.

Jessie Selvy, who lived across the street from Porter’s tiny second-floor apartment, said “J.J.” was active in a community organization whose meetings routinely were attended by police officers.

“He was just a regular guy. No way did he seem dangerous to anyone,” Selvy said. “I am shocked. It is unbelievable that he could blend into the community.”

Over the years, Porter occasionally called his lawyer, but he never revealed where he was living or that he had assumed a new identity. Porter called again Tuesday night.

“He sounded relieved and resigned,” Walker said. “He didn’t sound upset or surprised.”

As Jameson, his poetry covered many topics, including the penal system. One work, called “Thoreau’s Grave,” is read by Porter on the e-poets.net website.

“His grave is outside a walled prison,” the poet recites. “His grave, his grave, wrapped around a prison.”

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Beckham reported from Chicago and Mehren from Boston.