Jesse Harding Pomeroy was only 14 when he murdered two children in Boston, USA. But the murders weren’t Jesse’s first misdeeds as he had abused children for many years, some of which were downright terrifying.
In 1874, Jesse was convicted of both murders and sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Jesse is the youngest serial killer in US history.
But who was Jesse Pomerjoy?
Jesse Pomeroy
With a flaw in the eye
Jesse was born in Charleston, Massachusetts and was often very busy at home. Her father, Thomas, worked on a military base and her mother, Ruth, was a seamstress. He had an older brother, Charles.
As a child, he contracted an illness, no one knows exactly what illness, but after nearly recovering, Jesse had a thick white membrane in one eye. This led to him being bullied at school.
We’re still debating what’s behind Jesse’s actions. Some say his dad beat him naked with a whip, but others say Jesse and his brother had a very normal upbringing for working-class kids during those years.
But nothing explains the horror that Jesse was about to inflict on innocent children.
From animals to children
Jesse was just 5 years old when a neighbor claimed he stabbed and killed his cat. He then reportedly dumped the carcass in a nearby river. The teachers called him strange, not a bad student, but difficult to understand. His teachers and classmates learned early on that Jesse would throw a tantrum if he was corrected or criticized in any way and therefore ceased to have what can be called normal relations with him.
Jesse became lonely at an early age, but his mother Ruth spoiled him in every way.
Drawing of 14 year old Jesse. The disappearance of little Katie Curran was widely reported in the newspapers.
Jesse was 12 when he started abusing children and at 13 he started raping young boys. More and more children in Charlestown began to report being attacked by a big boy. He allegedly lured them to a deviant place with the promise of sweets, but then beat them with his fists and belts and raped them. Jesse walked around with knives and cut the children in the face and genitals and stuck needles in them.
There was a lot of anger in the community, but the police couldn’t find the attacker. There was one person who knew his name, however, and that was Ruth Pomeroy, who was well aware of her son’s guilt. She decided to move the family to South Boston, where no one knew Jesse.
But that didn’t change anything and Jesse started abusing children in Boston. The media picked up on the matter and the unknown yearling was called the Torture Boy or the Red Devil.
Katie and Horace
In August 1872, a boy was found lying naked on the beach, and he had been tortured. A few days later, another young boy was found tied to a telephone pole and had been beaten and raped. They both survived the attacks.
One of the victims said the attacker had an eye that looked like a white marble ball and police soon found 13-year-old Jesse. He was sentenced to six years in a reformatory, but it only took a few months for his mother, Ruth, to get Jesse released. With disastrous consequences.
Just a month after Jesse was released from rehab, ten-year-old Katie Curran went missing. She had last been seen in Ruth Pomerjoy’s sewing room, where Jesse worked. The police questioned him and searched the store, but without success. Jesse claimed to know nothing of Katie’s whereabouts.
Five weeks later, four-year-old Horace Millen was found dead on the beach. His head had almost been cut off. Next to the body was a distinct shoe, the result of a rough-soled boot, and officers recalled those they had seen wearing boots not too long ago.
Jesse Pomeroy.
Jesse in his thirties and about seventies.
Trial and judgment
The police were already at Ruth’s store where Jesse was with his hands scratched and his clothes bloody. Jesse Pomeroy was arrested on April 24, 1874 and confessed to murdering little Horace, as there was more than enough evidence.
Jesse in his old age
Ruth sold the sewing room in a flash to get money for a lawyer for Jesse. But the new owners were shocked to find Katie Curran’s decomposing body under a pile of junk in the basement.
And again, Jesse confessed to the murder.
Jesse’s trial began on December 9, 1874, just after his fifteenth birthday. The defense pleaded for clemency due to his young age, but the jury had no sympathy for Jesse, nor did the judge, and just 24 hours into the trial, Jesse Pomeroy was sentenced to death.
But the Massachusetts governor refused to sign the death warrant, repeatedly saying he was sending a 15-year-old boy to his death. Jesse was therefore sentenced to life in prison and that to solitary confinement.
The court considered the killings to be brutal and felt it was the only right thing to do in the situation. Jesse posed a great threat to the community.
Almost 60 years within the walls
Jesse attempted to escape from prison several times over the next fifty years and almost succeeded once. He had then managed to cause a bomb in a gas pipeline in his cell, but had not gone very far.
Jesse Pomeray died of a heart attack in 1932 and had spent 59 years in various state prisons, the longest of any inmate.
Ruth Pomeroy
He spent his time learning several languages, writing poetry and remarkably, investing in stocks and making a decent profit. Throughout these six decades, Jesse had only one visitor, his mother Ruth who came regularly until her death.
By the time Jesse died, the term serial killer had entered the language. And while the general rule is that a serial killer is someone who kills three or more people, there are other characteristics. Jesse Pomeray’s methods bore the hallmarks of a serial killer. He chose his victims, he created the conditions to reach them and tortured and murdered in the same way.
Besides, Jesse may well have killed more children. But no one knows today.
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