The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-03-28
HAS NOT SMILED FOR 80 YEARS

old, and was satlslied when 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 explana-
tions. The governor and the COVER
nor's council, however, knew these de-
tails and spared the state the spec
tacle of hanging the child. Yet it
was an unusual case and the public
demanded unusual vengeance. From
this fact may be explained why the
prisoner is now living under condi-
tions more familiar to the days of the
bastile and the unhappy fiction of Du-
mas and Balzac. With such circum-
stances born of high public feeling, it
is little wonder, therefore, that the
officials who have this case thrust
| upon them discourage any publicity
| that will keep the subject ranking in
| public opinion.
Pomeroy is a survival. The judges
who tried him, the attorney general
and the district attorney who prose-
cuted him, the lawyer who defended
him and the governor who spared his
life-all have been dead for many
years New governors, new keepers,
year after year becoming responsible
for his care, have inherited from their
predecessors traditions regarding him.
1t is a custom, almost secret COM
pact, that so far as the people is
concerned, Pomeroy died 33 years ago
That he lives where the public is pro-
tected from him, and where he is pro-
tected from the public is to official
thinking a professional matter, a legal
formality and a detail of prison rou-
tine exclusively the business of proper
officials.
Such officials, with the exception of
Pomeroy's heartbroken relatives, mo-
nopolize the personal facts of his eX-
istence. The relatives also bitterly OPP
pose any publicity. In recent petit
ton to the governor asking for a par
don the following statement was
made:
1.-THE sun never shines on his head;
he cannot go to the chapel; he is de-
MED association with human beings. |
The prisoner has had no opportunity |
here. and has been handicapped by the !!
unfounded but persistent newspaper /
nOtoriety in the case"
The handicap Of this publicity can
justly be attributed only to the ac-
curacy Of public information and to |
lack of the presentation of the COM
plete facts. If the world really knew
that PmOreOy's crimes came from a
malady over which he had no control
and really knew what it means for a
human being to be shut in a small
cell without human association for 33
years. public opinion would probably
ask executive authority tosextend to
the prisoner at least a few harmless
privileges. His only hope is publicity
of actual facts If he has been han
dicapped or has suffered more severely
than he has deserved, the only remedy
is publicity. If the public could ac-
tually understand Pomeroy through ac-
curate knowledge, it is probable that
insead of being hated he would be
pitied and that his declining years
would end under restrictions more hu-
name and more mberciful.
To explain what he is today it is
necessary first to rehearse briefly the
backgrounds of his life. Since Sep
TENDER 7, 1876, when he was II years
old, he has been denied the associa-
ton even of other prisoners. He will
De on years on next November ~.
He was not yet Is years old when he
was first taken into custody. Upon
his confession of torturing and mu-
tilating boys of and 6 years of age
he was sent to the reform school in
Westboro, September 20, 1872. He
was pardoned and released from this
school on February 6, 1874. Very soon
after he killed and buried in the Gel
lar of his fathers store a little girl
years old.
On the following April %, the black ,
est day in his history, he was arrested I
charged with the atrocious slaughter
Of 5year old boy in South Boston.
In September he was convicted and {
sentenced to be hanged. He was not {
yet Is years old The supreme court {
without avail reviewed his defense of {
On August g., 1876, after