The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-09-16
POmerOy, Human Fiend, Enters on
Another Year of Sentence.
GRIMES SHOCKED THE COUNTRY

One of the Most Notorious Prisoners
in the United States Serving Life
Sentence for TOrturing and Muir
dering Little Children. Is Not Re
quired to Work.
BOSTON, Mass.-Jesse Pomeroy,
one of the most notorious life pris-
oners in the United States, has en-
tered upon the thirty-second year of
his confinement behind the gray
walls of the famous state prison in
Charlestown. All of these years
have been passed in solitary confine-
ment
When he was fourteen years old
Pomeroy was sentenced to prison for
life for torturing and numbering lit
tie children He is now forty-eight
years old and looks to be much old
er. Despite his long Incarceration
he apparently still has hopes Of
pardon, though he has never been
given the slightest encouragement.
In the early seventies Jesse Pom
erOy and his crimes were discussed
from one end of the country to the
other Boston and vicinity were in
a state of terror, when one small
child after another was discovered
horribly beaten and no clew to the
perpetrator of the monstrous cruel |
ties could be found.
On the day after Christmas, 1871, !
a child named Paine, living IN Chel- !
sea, was found unconscious, tied to
a beam on Powder Horn Hill His
entirely nude body was covered with |
great welts When he recovered his |
irate father and the police learned |
that he had met an older boy, who |
had led him away from the public |
street, and had then, in spite of his
%eak protests, taken off his clothes |
and struck him again and again with !
a rope.
Before the general excitement over
this mysterious assault had died |
away another little boy, named Ira
cy Hayden, was found in an out of |
the way lot, stripped, tied by ropes |
to a board His front teeth were |
missing, the bridge of his nose was
broken, and on other parts of his
body were a score of bruises The |
child told a tale similar to that re-
lated by the first lad who had been
assaulted.
Second Assault.
This second dastardly assault in
famed the whole community 1t was
argued that no person of ordinary
criminal or vicious instincts could
have committed such wanton cruel
ties. The assaults were clearly the
work of a degenerate. Fathers
Chelsea and South Bos
ton wished to burn him at the stake.
Mothers, when their children were
long absent from home, became hys- |
terical.
For three months thereafter no
further assaults of this nature were |
reported. But one day in early July, |
1872, johnny Balch, a boy of five |
years, returned to his home in South |
Boston on the verge of delirium and |
commissions Two hours before, he |
said, he had met an older boy, who |
offered him candy, and then took |
him to a secluded spot where he
stripped him. tied him to a beam, |
and beat him until he tainted. This
fiendish assault stirred the two dis
tricts again, and the police worked
desperately to find the criminal.
Two months later Robert Gould.
another small boy, was found
stripped and tied to a telegraph pole.
The lads body was covered with
welts from a whip or a rope and his
head was badly cut. While the eX
'citement was still at fever heat four
year-old George Pratt of South Bos-
ton was found in the cabin of
yacht His body, which was quite
nude, was covered with revolving
bruises. Not content this time with
whipping his prey, the fiend had
punctured him with pins and needles.
Several More Assaults.
Several more assaults of the same
dastardly character followed in
quick succession. Finally one of the
little victims was able to furnish a
clew to the perpetrator of the crimes.