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Jesse Pomeroy- The Murderous Schoolboy Fiend of 19th Century Boston
A young adolescent was responsible for terrorizing children in Boston during the 1870s
In the 1870s, Boston was gripped by terror as a series of young children were found brutally tortured, and in some cases tortured and killed, around the community. A monster of a human being was believed to be on the loose, but nothing could have prepared the city for when the perpetrator was captured. It turned out that the villain was a 14-year-old boy with a marble in place of an eye, named Jesse Pomeroy. The ensuing investigation and trial of the “Boston Boy Fiend” became a shocking revelation of the troubled youth’s life.
Pomeroy faced a lifetime of challenges from the moment he was born due to infantile cataracts in his right eye. His disfigured eye, which was eventually removed and replaced with a marble, made him a constant target of derision, ranging from other children, to his father, who was reputed to have loathed his son. He would frequently beat him with a belt at the slightest provocation.
Although Pomeroy was considered intelligent and social, he was also troubled. He quickly developed a reputation for skipping school, stealing money from his mother, and even being cruel to animals, like popping the heads of family pet…
