Norwich bulletin., 1914-08-04
FAMOUS TRIALS
TRIAL OF JESSE PoMERoY.

One of the most remarkable crim : inal cases ever tried in the United States was that of the boy Jesse Pom eroy, who since 1874, when he was 14 years of age, has lived in solitary confinement in the Charleston (Mas5S.) jail. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to be hung, but this sentence was finally committed to life Imprisonment.
 The trial took place in September of that year, and very few of the men who sat in judgment on the young convict are now living. but Pomerey has grown old in his Charlestown cell.
 From degenerate boy, with little mental capacity, he has since placed behind the bars read thousands of books which have been his only com panions, has learned six languages and has acquired an excellent knewl- edge of the history of the world.
 Before he was Is years of age Jesse Pomeroy was arrested charged with the torturing of a boy companion. He was sent to the refermatory school in and was pardoned less than two years later.
 Not long after his release Pomerey murdered little year old girl and buried her body in the cellar of his mothers store. This was in Febru- dTY, 1914. SnOrIly aIIeEWaTQ ne Kill ed year old boy in Boston. He was sentenced to be hanged six months after his arrest 4 defense of insanity was made before the New England Supreme court and Gov. Rice after hearing a review of the exten- sentence to life imprisonment.
 Even after so many years have elapsed visitors to Charlestown jail are never allowed to go near his cell Inquiries about him long ago were met by such silence that finally no one went to inquire about him and he was practically forgotten. In 1907 an appeal was made by the Society for the Promotion of Criminal AnthFepei- egy that the prisoner be allowed eer- tain liberties, but this was refused by the governor.
 In. a statement written by the pris- oner in 1910, and widely published throughout the country, Pomeroy claims that public feeling swayed the course of justice to his prejudice at the trial. The judge told the jury ito bring in a verdict in the first de- gree or acquit for insanity" When the attorney general was summing up his case a member of the jury is re- ported to have interrupted him with Cease your invective"
 The verdict of the jury was Guilty Of murder in the first degree on the ground of atrocity; the prisoner is recommended to mercy on the ground of youth.
 Previous to the arrest of Pemeroy there was a regular epidemic of crime in ard about Boston in which little children figured as the victims. One day little girl by the name of Cur ran was sent by her mother to the store. which was kept by Pomeroy' s mother. The little girl never came back. The mother was frantic with grief Everybody became a detective. The months rolled by. One rainy day a deal mute pulled at a policeman,s s coat and indicated by signs that he wished the policeman to go along with him, which he did
 They went to the Dorchester marsh es where they found the murdered and mutilated body of little Horace Milan Iney took plaster of paris cast of the footprints, and then proceeded ato inc Pomeroy home, where they found Jesse in bed. His shoes exactly fitted the casts and he was arrested The mother moved away and the house was remodeled. and while workTnen were digging in the cellar they un- earth the little corpse of Hattie Cur ran.
 Jesse Pomery confessed that he had committed both murders When he was being tried a petition signed by thousands of mothers was sent to the 60tSAl6l PAdfltas ulul IO I1ng Jesse. Many efforts have been made to se- cure his release. On one occasion a numher of Virginia women appealed to g. Massachusetts governor to set Pomeroy free The governor wrote back
 If Pomeroy had committed his crimes in your state he would have been burned alive at the stake, and there would be no necessity for U pardon.'
 Yet it Is probably true that if science in 1875 had progressed as far as it has in 1914 in explaining tile pathological causes for such crimes al Pemeroy's he would have been sent, nat to solitary confinement in a state prison. but to an asylum for the crirn- tnal insane. But there is no doubt that Charlesfown jail, which has been the home of this criminal for forty years will lose him only when he is carried out dead,