The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-25
CHILD SLAYER'S
FORTY-0NE YEARS
SOLITUDE At END
Jesse Pomeroy, Committed
When Boy, Now May Mingle
With Others.

Boston,, Jan. 25-After forty-one
years, the ban of solitary confinement
in the State Prison at Charlestown
has been lifted from Jesse Pomeroy,
who, for strange, hideous crimes, Gull
minating in murder and committed in
his boyhood, was sentenced to life
Imprisonment in September, 1875.
The State Prison Executive Com
mittee yesterday granted Pomeroy
equal privileges with the other prison
ers at Charlestown.
In 1876 he entered the prison a
sturdy, red-cheeked, black haired,
and, but for a cast in one of his eyes
the big boy with the white eye
as many of his little victims described
him-a decidedly good-looking lad.
Today there will come out of the cell
in which he has been penned for the
greater pant Of his life a half-blind
salIow, bald-headed man nearly fifty
six years old, with a, wrinkled face
and a shyness of manner that has
grown on him in his solitary cell.
Children were yPomeroy's prey.
Outwardly normal, bright and gen.
tie boy, he was innately fiend. Time
and again he obeyed impulses that
caused him to denude children and
beat them with ropes until their flesh
was scared and they became uncon-
scious From that he passed to
slashing his little victims with knives,
and finally numbering them.
Cr;,,,cc Roran Tn 1871
His crimes began in 1871. His
father, Civil War veteran, worked
in an abbatoir; his mother kept a
small dressmaking shop. They were
thrifty, respectable folk. Later, 1T
was RECALLED, that his mothers in the
months preceding his birth, she often
visited her husband at the abbatoir
and NItched him in his work Of kill
ing sheep and hogs.
In all the years he has had only
one explanation-the same that ne
made as boy he has made as man.
of a mind to enable him to acquire
eight Languages, to read every one OF
| 900 books in the prison library with
appreciation, to write letters of re-
markahle interest. :. 81 never knew
why I did such things. I just couldn't
help it,"
In 1871 a small boy named Paine
was found tied to a beam in barn,
his naked body encrimsoned from the
raw wounds of a rope.
Shortly afterwards Tracy Hayden
was found tied to board in vacant
lot in South Boston. He was nude,
had been frightfully beaten with a
rope and his teeth knocked out.
In July, 1872, Pomeroy enticed
Johnny ,Blach to a marsh, stripped
him, beat him and the little fellow
awakened to find Jesse rubbing salt
into his wounds.
Next, little Bobby Gould was found
tied to railroad tracks, his body COW
cred with welts, a big wound in his
scalp.
Four-year-old George Pratt was
found in the cabin of an old yacht,
nude, his body slashed with pen
knife and pins and needles stuck into
his flesh.
Three-year-ol Harry Austin was
found next, bearing similar Injuries.
Victim Named Pomeroy.
None of these boys knew their as
sailant. Most of them were delirious
when found. But when workmen
found little Joe Kennedy in similar
plight, and the little boy was revived,
he saiS positively:
"A boy named Pomeroy did it. He
works in a store on Broadway"
Parents and children had been ter
rif1ed so long that mobs appeared out
side police headquarters while Jesse
was being cross-examined and the
crowds prepared to lynch the boy He
confessed only after few hours
grill He was sent to the State Re-
formatory, but after II months there,
without a black mark against him,
friends sof his family secured his re-
lease.
Less than a month afterward, little
Katie. Curran disappeared. It was
thought she was drowned. A month
after that, FIVE -year-old Horace Mil
len was found laying in the marshes,
with his throat sgashed. On the scene
were prints Of the feet, OF larger
boy.
The police arrested Jesse Pomeroy.
For hours he withstood a third de-
gree in which the police held his
face forcibly within a fews inches of
the dead face of the Millen boy. But
when he did confess, he cleared also
the mystery Of the disappearance of
Katie Curran. He had murdered her
by cutting her throat in the cellar of
her mothers store, and hid the corpse
under pile of ashes.
With the community tremendously
aroused against him, he was tried and
convicted in three days, and sentenced
to be hanged. His tender years and
the pity felt for his mother saved
him. The executive council finally
voted to 3 for Communication to life
imprisonment, in solitary confinement.
Since that time. only his keeper and
his mother have seen him. She was
allowed monthly visits. She died two
years ago, fighting for his pardon.
In his new surroundings, Pomeroy
will have cell, whose window will
give him view of the street and
passersby. He will take his meals
with the other convicts, and be per-
mitted the use of knife, fork and
spoon, hitherto denied him.