18 Years Later, Informant May Get Away With Murder

Federal prosecutors thought they had a pretty good handle on John Burke when they talked the tough guy from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown into ratting out his brother and friends for a deadly armored-car robbery.

They didn’t realize they may have helped Burke get away with murder.

After striking a deal last November in which he got immunity from prosecution and a lesser sentence in return for his testimony, Burke admitted to prosecutors that he had gunned down a man in a driveway 18 years ago.

Burke, 43, told a jury in New Hampshire the same thing days later as he testified about a string of robberies, including a 1992 holdup in which two armored car guards were killed.

David Vicinanzo, the assistant U.S. attorney in New Hampshire who prosecuted the robbers, said he didn’t expect a murder confession.

But once Burke told prosecutors about the 1980 shooting, it too became protected under an agreement that said his statements in the armored car trial could not be used against him.

In Massachusetts, Suffolk County prosecutors can charge him only if they can show Burke was a suspect before he admitted the killing. “The fact is, the only reason that they would have known John Burke was even connected to that homicide is if he opened his mouth,” Vicinanzo said.

Boston police said the case is still open. They would not say whether Burke has ever been a suspect.

Burke admitted killing 27-year-old Stephen R. Hughes, who was gunned down outside his apartment while unloading groceries.

According to news accounts at the time, two men pulled up in a black Camaro and shot Hughes five times. His pregnant wife, Carolyn, found her husband dead in a pool of blood. She went into labor and gave birth prematurely the following morning. She could not be located for comment on this story.

Burke testified that he shot Hughes in self-defense because Hughes was a hit man who was trying to kill him: “I had to eliminate him before he eliminated me.”

Burke’s testimony broke the “code of silence” in Charlestown, a tough Irish neighborhood where a gang of criminals often escaped prosecution because neighbors were too scared to open their mouths. Between 1975 and 1994, 49 people were killed in Charlestown. Arrests occurred in only 26 cases.

Burke testified against his 42-year-old brother, Stephen, and four other Charlestown cohorts about a string of armored car robberies and bank heists, including one in Hudson, N.H., in which two guards were killed.

Burke was not accused of taking part in that robbery, but he pleaded guilty to a Seabrook, N.H., robbery and faces up to 20 years in prison. He has not yet been sentenced and is still cooperating with authorities.

Burke detailed to the jury how the gang planned and pulled off some of its heists. Burke said his younger brother was the ringleader and provided the clothing, weapons and masks.

All five were convicted, and three were sentenced to life in prison Friday. Another got 30 years; the fifth has not been sentenced.

Although Burke may get away with a killing, his testimony helped get many “of the worst people out there” off the streets, Vicinanzo said.