Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-01-10
Jesse POmerOy.

The BOY Murderer a: 30 Years Old---
His Personal AppeHrHnce---How He
spends His Time In Prison.
Jesse Pomeroy, the "boy murderer" is
now SO years old. Nineteen years of life
sentence imposed for his crimes, which
were committed in Boston, and the recol-
lection of which is still fresh in the minds
of most readers, have been passed by him
in solitary confinement in the Charestown,
Mass, state prison. When but little more
than ii years of age he had brutally muir.
dered two young children, one a boy of
four, whose body he left on the Dorchester
marshes, horribly mutilated, and the other
a little girl of six or seven. His boyish
record previous to his fourteenth year had
been black and murderous. One little
child after another would be found terribly
cut and bleeding, and these butcheries
were traced home to young Pomeroy.
Pomeroy is about five feet four inches in
height, with broad shoulders and deep
chest. He is strong and muscular, and
during all the years of his confinement has
never been i'll single day.
His eyes are peculiar The left one is a
light, steely blue, while the right eye is
nearly white, and its pupil turns in toward
the nose. lie may have had this white
eye from birth, but it appears rather the
result of some childish injury. The sight
is perfect. 1t is hard to describe the ex-
preston of Pomeroy's eyes, for he aims to
make them expressionless. This very
effort, however, gives the blue eye a look
of animal cunning, and the white eye
seems always following the cue given to it
by the blue. In the same way, when talk
ing, he tries to hide every indication of in
tellect, and to bring into his face the un-
concern and innocence of a child. This
enhances the look of slow, animal cunning
and gives a shifting, uneasy appearance to
what would otherwise be bold eye.
His talk is always about himself, usually
a complaint or request for something
different in his cell or in his daily life. He
is governed entirely by his moods in the
matter of talking. Often he is sulen and
logged for months at a time, and will
hardly answer the merest question. Then
his mood changes and he seeks every pos
sble opportunity to talk with either officer
or warden.
Pomeroy's sentence, as pronounced so
many years ago, was SOLITARY imprson-
ment at hard labor in the state prison DIR
ing his natural life" He has lad the soli-
| For several years previous to the appoint
ment of the present warden work was with
held from Pomeroy as a matter of safety.
Earlier he had been employed at brush
making but the tools and small wire used
! in making the brushes gave him the means
of nearly effecting his escape. One kind
of work after another has been tried, but
always with the same result. He is mar
velously ingenious, and fashions weapons
out of any bit of steel, old knife, piece of
! iron or stone. Besides this, he hates near
| ly every kind of work, and unless he sees
in it some possible tool for digging his way
out of his cell, either refuses 10 do it or is
sullen and logged about it. Warden
Bridges has, however, succeeded in inter-
esting him in making rattan chairs. This
| is easy work and Pomeroy accomplishes
about one-sixth as much in a day as a man
ordinarily does in the shops. All his work
| is done in his own cell. But already he is
firing of the chair weaving, for no tools are
used that he can turn to effect in securing
his liberty.
Pomeroy reads during the long hours
when not working or planning an escape.
He has the use of the prison library. Du:-
| ing the earlier years of his Imprisonment
he read novels, and his taste was for good
! ones. Later he made excursions into gen.
eral literature, generally choosing history
or biography, and studied languages. He
writes very fair French or German letter,
has studied Greek and Latin to some ex-
tent, and is a good mathematician. He
expresses little interest in the books he
reads or in any outside matter. AS the
years pass on and every attempt to escape
fails he becomes more and more absorbed
| in himself.
His present cell is extremely neat and
clean, and is almost commodious. 1t is
about Is feet by 10, and has very high
ceiling. The walls, as well as the floor,
are smooth and hard, and the furniture
suggests comfort. The bed is unusually
wide and has a soft, bright bordered blanket
folded over it in such way as to show
both bright borders. 1t hangs nearly to
the floor in front, thus taking away the
usual look of barrenness. There is a bright
electric light at the side of the cell door,
shaded by a small white porcelain shade.
Directly under the light is large canvas
back rocker. A small table stands near,
with one or two books on it, plate, pretty
cup and saucer, knife and fork, and pepper
and salt boxes. There is a second wooden
chair, and strip of carpeting runs through
the middle of the floor.
The room-it is really room--is well
lighted during the day from two windows
built into the sloping roof. These are two
long, narrow openings, giving light and
ventilation, but no chance of escape.
The theory that outdoor exercise is nee
essary to perfect health is exploded in the
case of Pomeroy. He absolutely refuses to
go into the yard unless allowed to go at the
same hours as the other prisoners and to
mingle with them. His only exercise is
walking back and forth in his cell. War
den Bridges has argued this matter of out
door exercise, but the answer always is
"Unless l can go with the other men and
do as they do prefer to stay here"
Pomeroy has made many attempts to es-
cape and in several of them he has shown
extraordinary ingenuity, patience and cum
ming. Once he cut off the iron bars of his
cell window with saw made, of a case
knife, filling in the track made by the saw
with soap stained the color of the iron. At
another time he worked for months cutting
off the heads of the big bolts or rivets, an
inch in diameter, which fasteEed together
the plates of boiler iron in the end of his
cell. He then dug away the mortar be-
tween two big stones behind the plates.
From the wire used in brush making he
formed chain and fastened this into one
of the stone blocks, but when he finally
tried TO swing the block out of place he
discovered that the precaution had been
taken to weld the stones together on the
outside with strong iron clamps. That he