Omaha daily bee., 1906-05-20

Z
OF the crimes 10 forgOtten-serve to inSs-
trate the relations between vigorous pub
lie opinion and the execution OF justice.
thinking 50 strongly Of Pomeroy's crimes,
the public little cared that he was a mere
boy fourteen years old and was salts
fed when a jury brought upon him the
verdict to be hanged by the neck until
dead But this public did not know the
whole story. with the pictures OF reeking
outrages in their eyes, the individuals
who made UP that public cared not for
causes and psychological explanations.
the Governor and the Governors Council,
however, knew these details and spared
the state the spectacle of hanging a child
Yet II was an unusual case and the pub
lie demanded unusual vengeance. From
TINS fact may be explained why the pris-
oner Is now living under conditions more
| familiar to the days OF the Bastile and
In the unhappy fiction OF Dumas and Bal
zac With such circumstances born OF
nigh public feeling. Il Is little vonder
therefore. that officials who have this case
! thrust upon them discourage any min
lioity that will keep the subject ranklIns
In public opinion
Poneroy Is a survival The tudgas who
tried him. the Attorney General and tha
District Attorney who prosecuted him ths
lawyer who defended him and the dov.
ernor who spared his life-all have been
dead many years. New Governors nau,
keepers year after year becoming respon-
slble for his care, have inherited from
their predecessors traditions teVardInz
him. 1t is custom, almost a secret com
pact, that so far as the public is concarnaa
Pomeroy died thirty years ago. That he
lives where the public is protected from
| him and where he is protected from the
public Is to official thinking a professional
matter, legal formallty and a detail OF
prison routine exclusively the business Of
proper officials.
Inaccurate Stories.
Such officlals, with the exception Of Pom.
erey's heart broken relatives, monopolizs
the personal facts Of his existence The
relatives also bitterly oppose any pub
litity. In recent petition to the Gov
ernor asking for a pardon the following
statement was made-
THE sun never shines on his head: he
cannot 60 to chapel; he Is denied associ-
; alton with human beings The prisoner
has had no opportunity here. and has been
Handicapped by the unfounded but per.
$ sistent newspaper notoriety in the case.
n The handicap of this publicity can justll
d be attributed only to the inaccuracy o
! public Information and to the lack Of
o presentation of the complete facts. II tn
= world really knew that Pomeroy's crime
q came from a nalady over which he had n
cci troll and really knew what 1t mean
for a human being to be shut in a SINAI
cell without human association for thlrtI
years public opinion would probably asl
q executive authority to extend to the prls
= oner at least few harmless privileges
;, His only hope IL publicity of actual facts
d II he has been handicapped or has suf
fered more severely than he has deserves
y the only remedy Is publicity. II the publ
i could actually understand Pomero
y through accurate publicity It is probab.
: that instead Of being hated ne would b
g pitied, and that his declining years woul
- an
= more merciful.
81 TO explain what he is to-day II IL nee
!, essary first to rehearse briefly the back
- grounds of his life. Since September
1875. when he was seventeen years old
n he has been denied the association even o
4 other prison ers. He will be forty-seVe
years old on next November ~. He wa
= not yet thirteen years old when he wa
~ first taken into custody. Upon his con
= fess.on of torturing and mutilAting Roy
!. Of four to six years Of age he was sent I
n the Reform School in Westboro, Septem
N Der 90 lS7a He was pardoned from thi
"A school on February Q, 1874. Very 500
- after he killed and buried in the celia
" of his fathers store, little girl five year
ts old.
4 On the following April q, the blaokes
l. day in his history, he was arrested
N charged with the atrocious slaughter 0
" a ive-year-old boy in South Boston. II
& September he was convicted and sentence,
Is TO be hanged. He was not yet tfteei
l. years old The Supreme Court withou
l. avail reviewed his defence Of insanity
n On August 81, 1876, after the Governor
le council had listened to q review Of ex
n tenuating circumstances In his behalf
Governor Rice COMMITTED the sentence
" The document under which Pomeroy 4
J. held reads
e 1--WE do. by and with the advice Of oui
II council. grant to him, the said Jesse Hard
ing Pomeroy, a Communication OF the pun