Mike Gowan, an FBI undercover coordinator, had no idea what was in store for him when he penetrated Everett resident Joseph Burke’s life. It’s interesting to note that after gaining Joseph’s trust, the latter was willing to talk about his financial difficulties and even said he was willing to become a hitman if it would prevent him from becoming bankrupt. The incident is detailed and the investigation that eventually resulted in Joseph’s arrest is followed in Paramount+’s ‘FBI True: The Hitman’. Let’s investigate the case’s specifics and determine Joseph Burke’s current whereabouts, shall we?
Who Is Joseph Burke?
While nothing is known about Joseph Burke’s early years, sources do mention his extensive criminal history. In 1988, Joseph was arrested after being charged with robbery, which was his first legal run-in. Joseph was ultimately found guilty of robbery and received a 5-year, 3-month prison term in the same year due to the overwhelming evidence against him. Unfortunately, Joseph Burke was unable to stay away from crime even after his release, as he was detained again in 1993 on suspicion of drug-related offences.
Joseph naturally pleaded not guilty to the allegations made against him, but a jury found him guilty of one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. As a result, the judge gave him a 10-year prison term in light of his prior criminal history. Similar to this, when the FBI started looking into Joseph, he was also charged with a different, unconnected offence while he was on probation. In 2015, police started to suspect Joseph Burke of being involved in a murder-for-hire plan since he was a former prisoner and had long been on their radar.
In addition, a number of people who knew Joseph said that he was willing to kill someone on contract for a small sum if someone needed to get rid of their spouse. Due to this, the FBI took over the investigation, and soon after, Mike McGowan, an FBI undercover coordinator, started penetrating Joseph’s inner circle. After identifying himself as a businessman, Mike made friends with a number of Joseph’s colleagues and over time gained the former criminal’s trust. In time, Joseph gained the confidence to confide in Mike, telling him about the financial difficulties he had experienced throughout his life.
Joseph further asserted that if the money was sufficient to keep him from going bankrupt, he was willing to work as a hired killer. Mike quickly approached Joseph with an offer, pleading with the suspect to murder a businessman in Manhattan because he was determined to move the case along. Additionally, Joseph received a mask and a gun for the task from the FBI’s undercover coordinator. The authorities secretly recorded every word of the chat, and they discovered how Joseph intended to murder his target at a Manhattan office on October 17, 2015, while the hired killer was unaware. Agents from the FBI detained Joseph Burke for his role in the murder-for-hire scheme as a result of having sufficient evidence to support an arrest.
Where Is Joseph Burke Now?
Despite the fact that Joseph Burke was in jail, police were unable to find a gun in either the residence of the suspect or his wife, Lisa Pino. On the other hand, even though Pino was never thought to have been a part of the crime, the FBI discovered that he and Joseph had wed a couple of days prior to the arrest. Nevertheless, Joseph Burke was eventually brought before the court and entered a not guilty plea to the allegations against him since there was sufficient evidence for the trial. The jury, however, found the defendant guilty of murder for hire, and in 2017, the court gave him a 7 and a half-year prison term. As a result, Joseph is still imprisoned at Residential Reentry Management Philadelphia and won’t be freed until 2024.
