Evening star., 1953-08-02
Boy Killers SenseIess Attacks
Shocked Boston in 1906
BY the Assoeioted Press

Oy HlS SNSSSSi0tSo V'SSS
BOSTON, Aug. 1.-Two-year
memories. Of series of savage
torture attacks on children were
beginning to fade from the minds
Of Bostonians in the spring Of
1874
Fear no longer caused mothers
to keep their children in their
own yards. or prevented parents
from sending them on errands.
Then came a eliminating
horror: The finding on April %
1874, of the still warm body of a
4-year-old boy dead in the grass
in a South Boston marsh,
hideously wounded and mutt
lated.
The strange, senselesS success
sion of crimes, which caused
Boston newspapers of the era to
say that a monster" was loose
in the community, began IN the
winter of 1871.
Greater Boston residents we're
shocked to read that December
that a young boy had been
stripped and whipped in sub
burban Chelsea. He blamed an
unidentified older boy. In Febru-
ary another boy was similarly
beaten and tortured by an older
boy, who thrust pins into him.
In August came another such
attack.
Scenes of Attacks Shift.
Suddenly, the scene of the
crimes shifted to the South Bos-
ton area.
Young boys were lured to de-
serted places. They were beaten
until they were a mass of welts
and bruises and otherwise tor
tured and abused. They were
cut, sometimes to the point of
being MANNED. They were found
found tied to telegraph poles.
Always, the attacker was an
older boy, a complete stranger.
Sometimes he forced his victim
to repeat profanities and OBJ
scenities. The attacks revealed
sex pattern and a growing
tendency to become more savage.
Once the attacker danced around
a bleeding victim.
Available evidence indicates
that at least 10 children were
attacked. Most were eight to 10
years old. A partial list included
the names Robert E. Maier. 8:
Joseph w. Kennedy, 9: John
Balch, 10; George E. Pratt. 9;
Tracy P. Hayden, 8, and an
other boy named Austin.
Police swarmed over the area.
questioned children at home anc
in school. Victims told of being
offered money or candy to go
on an errand. At last, one con-
tributed a real clue. Young Ken
nedy, staggering home; described
an older boy with a bad eye"
Eyes Bore Sears.
Police picked up Jesse Hard
ing Pomeroy, II years and 10
months old. His eyes, one in par
ticular, bore corneal scars from
an early illness. Victims identi-
fed him. He pleaded guilty to
assault charges. Over fearful
protests of his mother, Mrs. Ruth
A. Pomeroy, he was sent to a
State reform school.
Investigation showed that the
geographical shift of attacks
came after the Pomeroy family
moved from Charlestown-Where
Jesse was born-to South Boston.
With Jesse away in reform school
the epidemic of crimes ceased
for II months.
Then 11-year-old Catherine
Curran disappeared on an er-
rand. Some thought she had
been kidnapped. Police and
neighbors failed to find her.
The sun was dropping low on
the afternoon of April % when
two boys crossing a South Boston
marsh found the partly stripped
body of a little boy.
Police found a victim of dread
full tortures. There were wounds
on head, hands and parts of the
torso, and his throat had been
slashed
He was identified as Horace
H. Millen, four years and three
months old.
Lifted Over Pools.
Detectives found child foot
prints with others of man-size.
At pools, the child's footprints
ceased, indicating he had been
lifted over them.
officers took casts of the larger
footprints. Strange indentations
indicated they were caused by
uppers breaking away from the
shoe soles.
Police recalled the crimes of
Jesse Pomeroy two year before.
A swift check showed that six
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