April 14, 2021Reprints The cover of the summary report of a parole review hearing for Joseph Messere, known as Cement Head, provided by his attorney, David Apfel.
Kayana Szymczak for STAT
During his 39 years in prison, the closest Joseph Messere ever came to walking free was when he was intubated, unconscious, and dying of Covid-19. The opportunity pinged onto his attorney’s phone just before Christmas, in a series of voicemails from the Massachusetts Parole Board. “This is Michelle Wetherbee, chief of the transitional services unit,” said one, from 12:31 p.m. on Dec. 23, 2020. She sounded like she was in a rush, swallowing syllables, garbling Messere’s name. But one thing she made very clear was that this couldn’t wait. “Can you please call me back” she gave her number “as soon as possible? We’d really like … your client released as soon as possible.” It was the fourth message her office had left in six days. A little over an hour lat
John Stote, convicted in murder of Springfield restaurant owner John ‘Jackie’ Regan, gets rare medical parole after contracting COVID in prison
Updated Jan 30, 2021;
Posted Jan 30, 2021
John E. Stote talks with his attorney during a hearing Hampden Superior Court in Springfield in June 1997.The Republican file
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A free man in a hospital bed on a ventilator, after contracting COVID-19 in state prison.
A former used car salesman, cocaine dealer and fraudster, Stote was in 1997 convicted of the brutal murder of John “Jackie” Regan, a restaurant owner who got in a dispute with Stote over the sale of a bar. By his own admission, Stote stabbed Regan many times, then wrapped him in a set of green sheets. He weighted Regan’s body with dumbbells and dumped it in the Connecticut River on his way to a wedding on Cape Cod. Regan remained missing for months until two canoeists found his body in a marshy area near South Windsor.