State's Oldest Inmate, 89, Denied Parole

ALBANY — The oldest inmate in the New York state prison system was denied parole a week after his 89th birthday. Charles Friedgood was a well-to-do Long Island heart surgeon convicted in 1976 of injecting his ailing wife Sophie with a fatal dose of the painkiller Demerol. He was arrested at Kennedy International Airport as he was trying to flee the country with more than $450,000 in cash, securities, and valuables from his wife's estate to be with his girlfriend in Europe. A parole board that met with him Tuesday determined his release would undermine respect for the law and be "incompatible with the welfare of society."