(seq. 116)

Boston Globe 28 March 1977
John Kerrigan, in Walpole's death row 10 years dies

Photo, Page 1
By Alexander Hawes Jr.
Globe Staff
John Kerrigan, the man who spent
more time than any other person on
death row in Massachusetts history,
died of cancer yeaterday at Lemuel
Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain. He
was 57.
Kerrigan was convicted in 1961 of
the Labor Day 1960 shooting death of
Cambridge Patrolman Lawrence
Gorman during a restaurant burglary.
He was sentenced to death by
Middlesex Superior Court Judge
Charles Fairhurst after the jury failed
to recommend clemency.
During the next 10 years, Kerrigan
was granted nine stays of execution.
Then, in 1971 after 10 years on death
row in Walpole state prison, he was
population shortly before the US
Supreme Court invalidated existing
provisions for sentencing persons to
death.

During his confinement in Walpole,
Kerrigan filed three motions for a new
trial and each was denied.

In the last months of his life, he was
working with another Walpole inmate
and his attorney, Peter DeGelleke, in
efforts to obtain a writ of haveas corpus
from the Federal courts. If granted, the
action would have effectively reversed
his conviction.

DeGelleke said last night the writ
would have argued that Kerrigan has
not received a fair trial. "The trial was
a mockery of justice," DeGelleke said
last night. "It's incredible...that the
courts in this state did not reverse it."

DeGelleke described Kerrigan as "a
very strong person and very concerned
with what was going on in the
Correction Department. He did a lot to
quell disturbances in the prison."

While at Walpole, Kerrigan was
involved in prison politics and was
elected president of the National
Prisoners Reform Assn.

In the dawn of Sept. 3, 1960, two
men huddled in an alleyway at the rear

of Symmes Restaurant in Kendall
Square. One carried a cloth bag and the
other a .38 caliber revolver. As they
pried open a door to the restaurent,
Patrolman Groman appeared at the
mouth of the alleyway and pointer his
revolver at the two men.

In the next instant, Gorman was
shot, but as he fell, he fired and
wounded one of the men. Degar Cook,
42 staggered two blocks and collasped.
The other man fled.

Nine months later, Kerrigan was
charged with being Cooks accomplice.
He later argued that he has refused
Cook's offer to join him in the burglary
and instead was at his sister's home
when the shooting occured. Cook later
commited suicide.

Kerrigan's stays of execution and
his motions for new trials gained
widespread publicity.

His prison record dated to the early
1930s. Then, in 1946, he was convicted
of the armed robbery of the Liggett
Drug Store near Park Street Church
downtown and sentenced to 18-20 years
in state prison.

In 1949 and again in 1953, Kerrigan
tried unsuccessfully to escape from the
old Chalestown state prison.

Kerrigan leaves two sisters, Anna
Hill and Rita Mills, of Hyde Park, and a
brother, Francis Kerrigan of Quincy.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.