Jesse Pomeroy

Jesse Pomeroy was born in 1860. He was considered a natural born fiend. His crimes made this identification not unreasonable. He was raised by his mother in South Boston. Not very much is known about his life before he was eleven years old. Thats when he started to torture other children. Between the winter/fall of 1871, Jesse trapped and attacked seven other younger boys. He'd take them to a hidden spot where he would strip them and tie them up. He severely beat some of the earlier victims, then he started to use a knife and even poked pins into ones flesh.

Pomeroy had a cleft lip and a completely white eye, so identifying him would be pretty easy. After being caught he was sent to a reform school and was supposed to be there till he was twenty-one. He understood the idea that if he was good, he'd get let out early. He was released after only a year and a half. Now instead of just wanting to inflict pain on others, he was homicidal. In March of 1874 he kidnapped a little girl and killed her, a month later he done the same to a four year old, but he was so severe on the boy that he nearly decapitated him. The police placed Jesse as the apparent killer. When they asked him if he killed the little boy (his body was the first to be found) Jesse replied "I suppose I did." Pomeroy was only 14 at the time of this.

Most people wanted him killed, but the governor wouldn't go for it. He instead decided on giving him a lifelong sentence in solitary confinement. He spent forty-one years in solitary, before getting some contact with other inmates. He died in 1932 at the age of seventy-two.