#’Black Widow’ Barbara Kogan free after 12 years for husband’s murder

“Black Widow” Barbara Kogan, the convicted mastermind behind her wealthy husband’s 1990 murder, enjoyed her first taste of freedom in 12 years Thursday, when she was released from an upstate prison on parole, The Post has learned.

Kogan, who earned her “Black Widow” nickname for the pricey dark clothing she wore during her trial, notoriously had her hair done while her husband George Kogan died in the hospital after a hitman she hired gunned him down on Oct. 23, 1990, outside his mistress’ Upper East Side apartment.

For the next 20 years, Kogan, now 77, evaded justice living in Puerto Rico and spending her hubby’s $4.3 million life insurance policy, until she was arrested in 2008.

She pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to commit murder and grand larceny, and was sent to Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills.

She was granted parole in July — despite pleas from George Kogan’s mistress, who was just 28 when she watched her lover die on an East 69th Street sidewalk with the groceries he was carrying back to her apartment scattered around him.

After her release, Kogan was back in Manhattan no less than 24 hours later.

Instead of a fancy hair salon, it was her parole officer she had an appointment with.

She is under the supervision of the state’s New York County parole division, and reported there as required within a day of her release, a correction official confirmed.

“She’s an animal,” George Kogan’s mistress Mary-Louise Hawkins told The Post in October. “Barbara is extremely good at manipulating people — even parole officers.”