by Ray Black
HIS VICTIMS
His first known victim was four-year-old William Paine. In December 1871, two men were climbing up Powder Horn Hill near the Chelsea Creek in South Boston. As they passed a small cabin they heard a whimper. On approaching the cabin, the sound grew louder and they discovered it was coming from a small child. They went inside the cabin and were completely sickened by what they saw. Billy was hanging by his wrists from a rope tied to the centre beam of the cabin. He was half-naked and only semi-conscious. The weather was very cold at the time and his skin was very pale and his lips had turned a horrible shade of blue. Due to the blood trapped by the bindings, his hands were a deep purple, in stark contrast to the rest of his body. The men quickly cut the young boy down, and were even more horrified when they saw that his back was covered in red, ugly welts. Billy was not in a fit state to give any evidence as to the identity of his attacker, and the police were hopeful that it was just an isolated incident. Unfortunately, for the children of Chelsea and South Boston, this was not to be the case.
The next victim of Jesse Pomeroy was seven-year-old Tracy Hayden. In February of 1872, Jesse apparently lured Tracy to Powder Horn Hill with the promise of ‘going to see some soldiers’. Once the two boys were on their own, Jesse set upon the hapless boy and tortured him mercilessly. Tracy’s front teeth were knocked out, his eyes blackened and his nose broken by the incensed Pomeroy. Just like Billy Paine, Tracy was stripped and whipped, leaving bloody welts on his back. The only description Tracy was able to give to the police was that his attacker had brown hair and that he had threatened to cut off his penis. With nothing more than a description of a teenage boy with brown hair, the police felt they were powerless to stop any further assaults.
In early spring 1872 Jesse struck again – this time it was eight-year-old Robert Maier. This time Jesse lured Robert across the fens with the promise of a trip to see Barnum’s circus. Once again his attack followed the same pattern, forcing the young boy to strip and then beating his naked body with a stick. This time he forced his victim to repeat swear words throughout the attack, and Robert later told the police that his attacker was fondling himself throughout the gruelling ordeal. Apparently obtaining sexual satisfaction at the height of Robert’s suffering, Jesse then let the youth go and threatened him with death if he told anyone what had happened.
By now the residents of Boston were both angry and scared for the safety of their children. They took their frustrations to the local police who immediately started a massive manhunt. Hundreds of brown-haired teenage boys from the vicinity were questioned, but they came up with no conclusive evidence. Parents of young boys became very vigilant and watched their movements, warning them not to talk to any strange boys. As the word spread, just like Chinese whispers, the boy’s description changed dramatically. The new assailant took on a devilish appearance, with red hair and a wispy red beard – very different from the real monster, Jesse Pomeroy, who was still only twelve and had skin as smooth as that of a young girl.
Jesse’s next attack came in mid-July of 1872, and a 60- to 90-day cycle seemed to be emerging. This time he persuaded an unwary seven-year-old to go with him to the outhouse on Powder Horn Hill, luring him with the promise of giving him money if he would run an errand for him. The assault was similar to the previous ones in that the boy was stripped, whipped and beaten until Jesse achieved an orgasm. Jesse then fled to the swamps, but not before threatening to kill the boy if he left the outhouse.
The offer of a $500 reward prompted vigilantes to begin patrolling the streets of Chelsea in an effort to track down the evildoer who was torturing their young boys.
THE MOVE TO CHELSEA CREEK
As the hunt for ‘the fiend’ started to hot up, Ruth Pomeroy decided to move her family from Chelsea to the less expensive area across the Chelsea Creek in South Boston. Although it is possible that she suspected her younger son was connected with the assaults, Ruth Pomeroy was fiercely loyal to Jesse throughout her life. In her heart she must have wanted to believe that her child was not capable of such monstrous acts. However, when she saw that the boy torturer had moved his operations from Chelsea to South Boston at the same time her family relocated, she must have been more than a little suspicious.
George Pratt, a sickly seven-year-old, was wandering along the South Boston shoreline when he was approached by an older boy who offered him some money if he would help him with an errand. The young boy, tempted by the offer of money to buy some sweets, accompanied Jesse where, like the others, he was stripped, bound and tortured. This time, however, Jesse’s attack became even more violent. After beating him with a leather belt, he bit a chunk out of the boy’s cheek and tore at his young body with his fingernails. Apparently not yet satisfied, Jesse then took a long sewing needle and repeatedly stabbed the child’s body. Finally, he tried prying open the boy’s eyelid to stick the needle into his eye, but Pratt managed to roll over onto his stomach. By now his sexual appetite satiated, Jesse left the youngster alone and fled, but not before biting another piece of flesh, this time from George’s buttocks.
It was clear by now that these attacks had been carried out by someone with a very demented mind and the police rounded up any youth in the area that fitted the description, but none of the victims could pick out their attacker. Local anger escalated, and the vigilantes stepped up their patrols of the streets.
Pomeroy’s next two attacks showed just how depraved he had become. It was less than a month since he had molested George Pratt when Jesse kidnapped and assaulted a six-year-old boy named Harry Austin. The pattern of the assault was the same as before, after beating the boy with his belt, Jesse bound him and stabbed him under each arm with a pocket knife, and then between his shoulders. But this time it did not end there, for as Austin lay wriggling beneath him, Jesse knelt down and attempted to cut off the boy’s penis. Luckily, Jesse was disturbed during the assault and ran before he was able to complete his mission.
The attacks now increased in both frequency and ferocity, despite the intense investigations carried out by the police. Just six days after Austin was attacked, Jesse lured seven-year-old Joseph Kennedy to the marshes and beat him savagely. Once again he was attacked with a knife and this time Jesse forced his victim to kneel down and recite obscenities. When Kennedy protested, Jesse slashed his face with the knife and then dragged him to the waterfront to bathe his face in salt water.
Six days later a five-year-old boy was discovered tied to the railway tracks in South Boston. His story was that he had been lured to a remote area by an older boy who had promised that he would show him some soldiers. Once again, when the pair were on their own, the boy was stripped, beaten and slashed about the head with a knife. As Jesse held the knife to the boy’s throat, he was disturbed by some railway workers, causing him to flee the scene. The boy, whose name was Robert Gould, gave the police their first positive clue in the case. He described his attacker as a large boy with an eye like a white marble. With this information to hand, the police were now convinced that it would only be a matter of time before the assailant would be apprehended.
THE ARREST
On September 21, 1872, the police arrived at Jesse Pomeroy’s school with one of his victims, Joe Kennedy, and started a room-to-room search. Kennedy, however, was unable to identify his attacker and Jesse narrowly avoided detection.
But then there was a strange twist in the story. For some unknown reason, on his way home from school that same day, Jesse Pomeroy walked into the South Boston police station where detectives were once more questioning Joe Kennedy. Whether Jesse was just playing a game with the police, or whether in fact he wanted to be caught no one will ever really be sure. When Jesse saw Joe Kennedy he quickly turned around and ran out of the door, but this time it was too late. Kennedy had already seen Pomeroy from across the room and excitedly pointed him out to the police. The police chased after Jesse and caught him before he had gone more than half a block.
They locked Jesse up in a cell and t
he police started to question him. After several hours of tough and intimidating interrogation, Jesse still stuck to his claim of innocence. The police then left him alone to think about his fate and went off to contact his mother. The police left Jesse on his own until after midnight, at which time they woke him up to try and force a confession out of him. They threatened him with a 100-year jail sentence unless he admitted to his crimes. The threats worked and Jesse broke down and confessed to the crimes.
The next day Jesse was taken to the main Boston jail where his victims each confirmed that he was the boy who had molested them. Jesse was bought before the magistrate in the afternoon, and again each of his victims recounted their story. Jesse’s mother, Ruth, took the stand and wept, saying that he was a good boy who was both obedient and hardworking, but omitted to tell the magistrate about the incidents with the animals.
All Jesse had to say in his defence was that ‘he couldn’t help himself’, and hung his head in shame.
HIS PUNISHMENT
The preferred method of dealing with juvenile delinquents in the late 1800s, was hard work, discipline and vocational training. The Westborough House of Reformation was the place where reprobate boys of all ages were sent if they were convicted of a crime. It was also a place where parents would send their boys if they found them too hard to handle at home.
Westborough was a cruel place where the strong preyed on the weak. The discipline was very harsh, and the inmates were expected to work the majority of the day on tasks such as brass nail making, chair caning and silverplating, on top of which they were expected to attend a four-hour school day. The discipline was along military lines and a smart, cruel boy like Jesse Pomeroy, flourished in such an environment. Most of the boys who had been sent to Westborough were non-violent offenders, their crimes usually being shoplifting, breaking and entering and the vague conviction of ‘stubbornness’. Jesse soon learned that if he were to leave Westborough before his eighteenth birthday, he would need to show the authorities that he had reformed his ways. The records show that he was a model inmate, who avoided floggings and corporal punishment which were given for even the smallest of violations. Although Jesse was mainly left alone during his stay at Westborough, he was teased by some of the older boys and given a wide berth by the younger boys who all knew why he had been sent there.
His obedience and hard work did not go unnoticed, and it wasn’t long before Jesse was taken out of his work at the chair shop and assigned as a hall monitor. He loved the position of authority, and took great pleasure in dishing out orders in his dormitory. Jesse was still a model inmate and did not even join a gang of boys when they tried to escape, taking full of advantage of the fact that someone had forgotten to lock a door.
Although outwardly it appeared that Jesse had reformed, one incident that happened towards the end of 1873 showed that he still had a sick and perverse streak inside him. He was approached by one of the teachers to help kill a snake that she had seen outside. Eager to help, Jesse snatched up a stick and followed her into the back garden. After a brief search he found the snake and began to strike it again and again, working himself up into a kind of frenzy as he reduced the writhing snake to an awful, oozing pulp.
KATIE CURRAN
All the time her son was incarcerated, Ruth Pomeroy, kept up a constant campaign to free her son, whom she still considered to be innocent of all the charges. Her argument was that he was too young to be the perpetrator of such horrendous acts, stating that the police had arrested the wrong boy. She wrote letters to the board of Westborough and to anyone else she felt might listen or, alternatively, be able to help her case.
But despite her fervent efforts, it wasn’t his mother’s pleas that eventually freed Jesse, it was Jesse himself. An investigator from the state had visited his home and found Mrs Pomeroy to be a hardworking, honest and very caring woman. Charles Pomeroy, Jesse’s brother, was also considered to be an upstanding citizen who ran a newspaper stand outside his mother’s dress shop. The Pomeroys promised to take control of Jesse and to put him to work in both the newsstand and the dress shop. Ruth was determined to keep a much closer eye on her young son, who had previously drifted around very much of his own will. Even the Boston police who, despite the severity of his crimes, were willing to give him a chance to redeem himself.
And so it was that just a year-and-a-half after his arrest, Jesse Pomeroy was released from Westborough and set loose on an unsuspecting public once again. The authorities didn’t even bother to warn any of the neighbours that he had been released, and most of them thought that he had been locked away safe and sound until he was at least eighteen years old. This ignorance would turn out to have tragic consequences for the parents of two youngsters.
On March 18, 1874, only six weeks after Jesse was paroled from Westborough, he was opening up his mother’s shop and brother’s newsstand. It was around 8 a.m. when most children were getting ready for school. As Jesse finished sweeping the store, he started to speak with Rudolph Kohr. Rudolph was a boy around the same age as Jesse, who earned some pocket money by running errands for the Pomeroys. While the two lads chatted away, ten-year-old Katie Curran, came into the shop. She was wearing a black and green check dress, a ragged overcoat and a scarf, and she asked Jesse if he had any notebooks. Katie was looking forward to getting to school as she had a new teacher in her class. As soon as she had finished her breakfast, Katie asked for permission from her mother to go and look for a new notebook. Katie was allowed to go as long as she was back home by 8.30 a.m. so that she could take her younger sister to school.
Jesse told Katie that he did have one notebook left, but that it was a little soiled by an ink spot in one corner of the cover. ‘I’ll let you have it for two cents less,’ he said, giving Katie a good look up and down as they spoke. Jesse asked Rudolph if he would run to the butcher’s shop for a few scraps to feed the cats, and taking a few coins from Jesse the boy left them alone in the shop.
Jesse told Katie that there was a storeroom downstairs and that there might be another notebook there, perhaps she would like to go with him and have a look. Katie naively agreed and they started to go down the cellar stairs. As she reached the bottom couple of steps into the cellar she realized that she had been tricked, but by then it was too late. Jesse put his arm around her neck, covered her mouth with his hand, and cut her throat with a knife. Then he dragged her behind the outside toilet and covered the body with some stones and ashes.
When he had finished, hearing his brother coming into the store, Jesse washed his hands and ran upstairs. Jesse carried on with his work just as if nothing had happened.
Within an hour of Katie’s disappearance, her mother, Mary, was out in the streets frantically searching for her daughter. She went to Tobin’s General Store where the proprietor told her that he had sent her over to the Pomeroy’s store because he didn’t have any notebooks. This news almost caused Mary to faint, because she had heard all about Jesse Pomeroy and she started to fear the worst. The man at the store reassured Mary that Jesse would not be a threat to her little girl, because he came out of rehabilitation a completely reformed character. ‘Besides, he only hurt little boys. He never attacked a girl.’
The police advised Mary Curran to go home, saying that her daughter had probably only got lost and that the authorities would soon be bringing her home. However, a day passed and the news spread of Katie’s disappearance. It was then that Rudolph Kohr came forward and told Mary that he had seen Katie in the Pomeroy’s store. Again Mary went to the police.
Once more the police told Mary Curran not to worry because the Kohr boy was known to be a liar, but he would send Detective Adams to the shop to have a look around. Adams was met by a very unfriendly Ruth Pomeroy, who of course knew nothing of the body in the basement of her shop. Angry that her son was being accused once more, she begrudgingly allowed the policeman to search her shop. As he expected, Adams found nothing amiss.
As the weeks passed by, the police continue
d their investigations and even speculated that Katie’s father had shipped the girl off to a convent. She was the product of a Protestant-Catholic marriage, and in a Protestant town like Boston, anti-Catholic feelings ran deep. When a tenable witness came forward who swore he had seen Katie being lured into a wagon, the police allegedly closed their investigation with the conclusion that the unfortunate girl had been kidnapped.
MORE BLOODLUST
Completely oblivious to the danger of being caught, Jesse Pomeroy continued in his efforts to lure young children into the fens and deserted buildings of South Boston. Most of the children were smart enough not to fall for his ploys, but one small five-year-old came very close to falling into his trap.
Jesse approached the youngster and asked if he knew where Vernon Street was. When Harry Field told Jesse that he did know where it was, Jesse offered him five cents to take him there. They walked off down the street hand-in-hand, Jesse clutching a broom handle in his free hand. When they arrived at Vernon Street, Harry asked for his money, but instead Jesse pulled him into a doorway and ordered him to keep quiet. He then led Harry through a maze of streets in search of a quiet spot to carry out his perverse crime. Luckily though, fate was to be on Harry’s side that day. As the two boys turned a corner, they came across another boy from the same neighbourhood who knew of Jesse’s reputation. As the two boys started arguing, Harry managed to pull his hand free and ran home to his mother. Undoubtedly, the anonymous youth who came along just at the right moment, saved young Harry Field’s life, but the next boy Jesse lured was not to be so lucky.