Welcome to Freaky Friday. Today we’re going to look at another early American serial killer, Jesse Harding Pomeroy.
Jesse Pomeroy’s case is unusual for two reasons:
- He had only two known victims.
- He was convicted of murder at the age of fourteen.
Jesse Pomeroy was not the first child who killed other children. British and German records document earlier cases of children who killed. Jesse Pomeroy is, however, the oldest documented American record of such a young murderer.
Jesse’s Grim Childhood
Jesse Harding Pomeroy was born in 1860 in Boston, Massachusetts. His family was lower middle class and lived in Boston’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Many people have sad childhoods and go on to be normal, productive citizens. Jesse Pomeroy’s childhood might have contributed to what he became, and it might not have. But it certainly didn’t help.
Jesse had two big strikes against him.
The Abuse
Jesse’s father was an mean drunk. He observed an odd ritual when punishing his children. He stripped the children naked before beating them.
Jesse, as the predator, would recreate his father’s punishments on his victims. He also masturbated during his attacks. This suggests Jesse had mentally tangled up his father’s bizarre punishments and sexuality.
His Appearance
The second strike against Jesse was his physical appearance.
He was blind in one eye. The blind eye was completely white with no iris or pupil. Jesse’s mother claimed the smallpox vaccine caused the deformity, but there are also claims that a childhood virus caused it.
Jesse odd appearance was exacerbated by a larger than normal head and features that were too large for his face. He rarely smiled, which added to the overall effect of his unusual appearance.
To make matters worse, Jesse suffered from bouts of uncontrollable episodes of shaking.
He was likely a target for neighborhood kids. This might have determined who Jesse chose as victims.
The Prey
The Pomeroy family was unable to keep pets. Each time they got a family pet, it ended up suffering a brutal fate.
Mrs. Ruth Pomeroy, Jesse’s mother, got a pair of birds. She later found them with their heads twisted off. Jesse was also caught torturing a neighbor’s kitten.
Eventually Jesse worked up to attacking humans. His first attacks did not end in murder, but the cruelty of them is shocking.
Jesse’s first known human victim was four-year-old William Paine. A pair of good samaritans found Young William hanging by his wrists in an outhouse.
The boy was naked, and his little body bore the marks of a severe beating. The poor boy was unable to help the police identify who did this horrible thing to him.
The Evil Continues
Jesse began attack young boys following a sixty to ninety day cycle. He lured his victims away from help using various ruses. He offered to show them something interesting or to pay them for some simple service.
As Jesse gained more experience, his attacks escalated in brutality. He threatened to cut off one boy’s penis. He threatened to kill another boy if he told who hurt him.
Police knew of the attacks but had no accurate description of Jesse. During this time, Ruth Pomeroy moved her family to another part of the city.
It didn’t take long for Jesse to start looking for more prey. His violence became more brutal than ever.
Jesse Pomeroy added biting and stabbing to his repertoire. He even attempted to cut off the penis of one victim but was interrupted. Amazingly, Jesse still had not committed a murder. All his victims so far had survived.
Police Close In
One of these victims, a boy named Robert Gould, was the first victim to give police an identifying characteristic of his attacker. Little Robert said the boy who cut him and beat him had one eye that looked like a white marble.
A few days after Robert’s attack, Jesse—for reasons unknown—sauntered into the very police station were Robert was answering more questions. Robert pointed out Jesse, and police chased the boy down.
Reform School for Jesse
Ruth Pomeroy’s swore that her Jesse would never do such awful things. Apparently, she’d forgotten about him killing her lovebirds.
When confronted, Jesse told police that he couldn’t help himself. He was sentenced to the House of Reformation in Westborough until he was eighteen. At the time he was taken into custody, Jesse would have been about twelve-years-old.
Jesse was apparently smarter than he looked. While at reform school, he was a model resident. He never got into any sort of trouble. The only weirdness he got into was asking boys who received corporal punishment to detail their experiences for him.
He was released after less than a year-and-a-half.
Back in Business
Once out of reform school, Jesse worked in his mother’s dressmaking shop. About six weeks after his release, he was faced with temptation.
A little girl named Katie Curran came into the shop looking to buy a notebook for school. Jesse lured her into the basement where he murdered her by slitting her throat. He then stabbed her repeatedly and hid the body under a pile of ashes.
Katie wasn’t found until much later when her body was very decomposed. It is unknown exactly what Jesse Pomeroy did to Katie. But it is interesting to note that her corpse was decapitated and the genital area was mutilated.
The Beginning of the End
Jesse revisited his old tricks of luring children into isolated areas so he could attack them without interruption. Most children refused Jesse’s offers.
Young Horace Fielding was too naive or inexperienced to know a monster when he saw one. Jesse lured Horace—who was only four-years-old—to a secluded area near Dorchester Bay. People who saw Jesse luring Horace to his death noted an expression of extreme excitement on Jesse’s face.
Once Jesse was confident he was alone with Horace, he slit Horace’s throat. When that didn’t kill Horace, Jesse stabbed the boy until he hit his windpipe. The coroner would find eighteen stab wounds to Horace’s chest.
Soon after the body was found, Jesse was a suspect. Police took him into custody.
The Fallout
Using techniques that would become the basis of forensic crime investigation, police linked Jesse to the crime scene using casts of his footprints. They matched the mud on his boots to the mud at the crime scene. Jesse’s knife was found to have blood on it, and he had scratches on his face from the attack.
When taken to view little Horace’s corpse at the funeral home, Jesse broke down and confessed. Jesse would later recant his confession. The press vilified Jesse. The public wanted to see blood.
Jesse’s mother and brother were ostracized and had to go out of business. When Ruth Pomeroy’s dressmaking shop was rented by a new tenant, Katie Curran’s badly decomposed corpse was found.
There was no doubt who killed the little girl, but whether Jesse’s mother and brother were accomplices came into question. Jesse eventually confessed to Katie Curran’s murder to clear his mother and brother. He said he killed her to see how she would act.
The Trial
Controversy erupted over Jesse’s sanity. He was examined by mental health professionals. They reached the conclusion that he knew right from wrong and that he would always be a threat to society. They concluded Jesse was insane.
The jury who heard Jesse’s case convicted him. At this time, such a conviction carried the death sentence. However, the state of Massachusetts had never executed such a young offender. Even the jury was horrified as the prospect of executing a child and begged the court for mercy.
At the time of his sentencing, Jesse was fourteen-years-old. During his sentencing, he appeared bored.
To Hang or Not To Hang
In order for an execution to be carried out, the Governor of Massachusetts had to sign the death warrant and set the date of execution. Governor William Gaston put off making a decision. The public was furious, and Gaston’s lack of action probably cost him the re-election.
Gaston’s replacement, a man named Alexander Rice, had promised to execute Jesse Pomeroy. By the time Rice was forced to take action, public outrage had died down. Rice was able to quietly commute Jesse’s sentence to life in prison, which was to be spent in solitary confinement.
Life in Prison for Jesse
Jesse finished growing up in prison with almost no human contact. His only visitor was his mother, Ruth, who was allowed to see Jesse once a month. After Ruth’s death, Jesse had no visitors.
He passed his time studying. Jesse eventually learned to write in several different languages. Because he had no human contact, other than with guards, he could only speak English. He wrote extensively.
Jesse enjoyed plotting escape plans. He tried to escape from prison numerous times. One escape included Jesse funneling gas into his cell and almost blowing himself up.
In 1917, Jesse was released from solitary confinement into the general prison population. He delighted in approaching younger prisoners and revealing his identity and crimes.
In 1929, he was moved to Bridgewater Prison Farm so he’d have access to better medical care. Two years later, he died. He requested that his body be cremated.
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy my fiction. Please take a moment to check it out either on my Looking For More? page or on my Amazon Author Page. I write both horror and paranormal mystery fiction. The topics I research for this blog serve as my inspiration.
Sources:
Jesse Harding Pomeroy by Mark Gribben
The Autobiography of Jesse Pomeroy, Introduction by Jarett Kobek
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Patricia Yager Delagrange said:
Appalling and disgusting. And to think he was so, so young when he committed these acts. I’m impressed with the forensics involved as well. We’ve all read about the connection between people who torture animals often end up as serial killers. Seems true in this case. What a terrible childhood – something Jesse couldn’t control. This just makes me very sad.
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Catie Rhodes said:
Just given his weird appearance, Jesse had to have had an AWFUL childhood. But so do a lot of people. I wonder if the people/kids who go on to commit acts such as these have some other factor that plays into it all. And, yes, it is sad.
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August McLaughlin said:
This post reminds me of my antagonist character studies–looking at how he/she ended up a bad egg. Thanks for highlighting the ‘why.’ I think that’s vital for crime prevention and for writing.
I played the mother of a child killer in “The Bad Seed” years ago. There is definitely something particularly creepy about kid murderers; the atrocities caused by the seemingly most innocent.
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Catie Rhodes said:
The “why” is very important for both reasons you mentioned. I got into the why because of my fiction writing. I quickly figured out that a good antagonist always had a why or at least a history.
How interesting that you played the mother in The Bad Seed. That’s an excellent movie about child psychopathy! One of the best out there, in my opinion. And, yes, there’s something especially creepy about kid murderers. I’ve seen kids do some incredibly cruel things, so I know the capability and heartlessness are there. However, it’s a weird contradiction because kids are considered–as you say–the most innocent.
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Shannon Esposito said:
On one hand, yes, children being capable of such horrors is shocking. But, on the other hand, children don’t really understand the permanance of death, they haven’t developed the empathy and compassion needed to understand the consquences of their actions fully. Especially if they grow up in such an abusive situation, like Jesse. I always feel a mixture of revulsion, sorrow and pity when I hear stories about children like this. I think everyone, including Jesse was a victim. That said, he should have never been let back out into society after the first tragedy.
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Catie Rhodes said:
I agree with you, Shannon. Children have not yet developed compassion and understanding of the consequences of their actions. This is why they can be so cruel.
As for Jesse being released back into society–young people who commit atrocities are often released back into society when they should not be. See the case of Edmund Kemper. He murdered his grandparents when he was a teenager in 1964. He was sent to a mental facility, which released him a few years later. He went on to murder something like 6 young women.
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Louise Behiel said:
amazing how the human mind can be twisted and perverted – whether by biology or life – to allow, almost seem to require the performance of such mean, disgusting acts. I do find it creepy. way more so than an adult doing this because we have a tendency to trust children.
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Catie Rhodes said:
I think you’ve hit on the scary part. We tend to trust children. We believe we should help them if needed. But what if one of them meant you harm? It would likely be too late before you realized their true intent.
Thanks for commenting.
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Emma said:
Crimes committed by children are much more disturbing. I always think of those 2 English boys who stoned a 2 year old child on a railway line. Horrific.
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Catie Rhodes said:
Oh gosh! I remember that. It was so sad. I felt so sorry for both the kid and his parents.
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alexlaybourne said:
Reblogged this on Official Site of Alex Laybourne – Author and commented:
Serial Killers fascinate me, what makes them tick, who they are… anyway, a nice little post about an early American Killer
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Catie Rhodes said:
Thanks for the reblog, Alex!
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Rhonda Hopkins said:
Children committing crimes like this are far creepier than adults. You know they have nothing but a horrible future ahead of them – as do those that come in contact with them at the wrong time. I wonder if he’d have turned out like he did without the abuse from his father? I feel sorry for the child that was beaten, but not for the one who committed these atrocities. I’m also confused as to how the little girl’s body wasn’t discovered until so much later. It had to smell once decomp set in. I think the mother knew but maybe didn’t want to acknowledge it.
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Catie Rhodes said:
I think without the abuse, Jesse would have been a normal kid. Ugly, yes. But that builds character. He was obviously smart. He probably would have done some interesting things with his life.
I wondered how the body didn’t stink, too. I attributed it to the different climate in Massachusetts. Maybe it was cold enough (or maybe the basement was cut off enough from the rest of the structure) that the odor is not what it would have been in Texas.
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susielindau said:
How incredibly scary! Wow…. You just never know ….
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Catie Rhodes said:
You don’t.
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Julie Glover said:
I agree with Rhonda that at some level, the mom knew something was amiss. And although he was a child, 12 years old is old enough to have a sense that you are doing something horribly wrong. Otherwise, why hide it? I agree that execution is too extreme for a minor, but I always ask myself in these situations how the victims’ families would feel. Can you even imagine your 4 year old suffering this kind of awful death? Oh, it makes me shudder, Catie. And I agree that child killers are far worse.
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Catie Rhodes said:
That mother HAD to know something was amiss. And I’ll tell you why. This didn’t make it into my blog post, but the mother never told the police about Jesse’s abuse of animals. I would guess that’s because she knew it would make him look even more guilty. Wouldn’t you think?
And the idea of a little 4 year old dying this death is horrible. In my research, I read that the little boy had clenched his hands into fists and gripped so tight that his fingernails had cut into his skin. He must have been in terrible pain. And he probably wondered why his parents did not come to help him. Poor thing.
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jmount43 said:
Great article! I read about Pomeroy a few years ago at crimelibrary.com. The only thing I don’t get is how he was classified as a serial killer. One of the definitions is three or more known victims; Pomeroy only killed two. But that doesn’t take away from the fact he was one sociopathic kid.
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Catie Rhodes said:
I don’t understand why he is classified as a serial killer either. And I’ve never really read anything that explained why. But you’re right. He was one disturbed kid. I think he had taste for what he did and that he’d have kept on doing it until he got caught or killed.
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jmount43 said:
I’ve wanted to do posts on various serial killers; but to be honest I wasn’t sure how the public would react to it. I’m going to be follow your blog from now on.
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Liz Jakes said:
VERY creepy–It makes you think about the nature of evil and innocence–we expect our children to be closer to purity and goodness, and shelter them from the ‘corrupting’ influences in the world. We don’t like to think of evil residing in a child, and having to protect the world from the child. It just reverses some fundamental hope inside the human heart. Great post, Catie!
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Catie Rhodes said:
Glad you enjoyed the post, Liz. I like what you said here: “It just reverses some fundamental hope inside the human heart.” It really does, doesn’t it?
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Donna Coe-Velleman said:
I have to agree with Liz. I also think we don’t want to realize we brought such evil, that is in a more innocent package, into the world.
Great Post, Catie
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Yer ol' pal Rich- said:
Catie,
Perhaps because most of us assume that childhood personalities are a reflection of an inherent goodness in all of us, we find it especially disturbing when a child exhibits a mindset of evil. And not just in your face, overtly defiant, indifferent, detached and narcissistic evil (usually reserved for those seeking political office), but intelligent, calculating, and diabolical evil with specific agenda. Very creepy.
Thank you for bring this story to our attention, but especially thank you for giving me the opportunity to use “diabolical” in a sentence! lol..
Rich-.
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Natalie Hartford said:
I agree, I find cases like this more shocking than that of adults. I think because we believe or hope that no matter the upbringing, children carry a certain sense of innocence about them. As well, I think when we consider someone who was abused like he was, we’d hope he’s actually be protective and never want to inflict the same pain on others. Shocking to say the least…