Miriam Van Waters Papers. Male Prisoner Correspondence, 1927-1971. Correspondence: K, 1954-1971. A-71, folder 600. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

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.