By Serial Killer Magazine
Jesse Pomeroy was fourteen when he was convicted of murdering four-year-old Horace Millen on the marshes at South Boston in 1874. The body of ten-year-old Katie Curran was found afterwards in the cellar of his mother’s shop. Before either killing he had abducted and tortured at least seven other children, which is why the case is read as one of the earliest documented American serial offenders rather than as a single juvenile murder.
His death sentence was commuted on condition of solitary confinement, and the condition was enforced with a literalness that became notorious. Ground glass in the windows so he could not see out. No contact with other prisoners. For decades, no visitors but his mother and his keepers.
In the spring of 1911 a legislative committee became the first such body ever to go and see him. He was in his early fifties and had been inside for thirty-five years. The few sentences that came out of that visit ran on the American wires and were reprinted around the English-speaking world.
He tells them he has become resigned. That the bright spots of his life are his mother’s visits. That he believes he has recovered from what he calls all the tendencies that made him dangerous. And he asks for a little more freedom inside the prison, and some work to do.
The chairman tells him the legislature cannot help him. Then the shutter in the cell door drops.
WHAT THIS IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT. This is not a journalist’s interview and it is not a transcript. It is a wire story reporting an exchange that took place between Pomeroy and members of a Massachusetts legislative committee inside his cell. THE REPORTER WAS NOT THERE. The article says so in its own words: "According to the committee members, Pomeroy seemed..." Everything attributed to him here reaches us at one remove, through committee members, through a wire service, through a compositor. It is preserved because it is the earliest recovered instance of Pomeroy speaking to anyone from outside the prison in thirty-five years, because the quoted passage is substantial, and because it is identical word for word across two independent printings on opposite sides of the world, which is good evidence the wire copy carried his speech intact. It must not be presented as a verbatim interview.
SOURCE AND RIGHTS. Public domain, verified by date: both printings are newspapers published in 1911. Printing A is The Detroit Times, Saturday 29 April 1911, page 1, second edition, held by the Library of Congress in Chronicling America, LCCN sn83016689. Printing B is The Sun of Sydney, New South Wales, Friday 7 July 1911, page 5, held by the National Library of Australia in Trove. Both were transcribed from OCR layers rather than from a visual reading of the page images. Trove’s OCR of the Sydney printing is poor and the restorations are documented in the research file. A third printing, the Burrangong Argus of 12 July 1911, was identified and not transcribed.
BOTH PRINTINGS RUN BELOW IN FULL. They descend from the same wire copy and they disagree about things that matter, including how old Pomeroy was when he killed and how many children he killed. They are given whole so the variants can be seen rather than quietly reconciled, and the disagreements are set out after them.
MAN IN PRISON 35 YEARS BREAKS HIS LONG SILENCE." PRINTING B - The Sun (Sydney, New South Wales), Friday 7 July 1911, page 5, Latest Edition. Headline: "A LIFETIME IN GAOL." Original Source: Unidentified American wire service despatch, Boston, 29 April 1911. The originating agency is named in neither printing. Archive/Alternate Source: A third printing was located and not transcribed: The Burrangong Argus (NSW), 12 July 1911, page 4, 504 words, substantially the same text as Printing B. URL or source reference: Printing A: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016689/1911-04-29/ed-2/?sp=1 (Library of Congress, Chronicling America, LCCN sn83016689) Printing B: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221539408 (Trove, National Library of Australia) Date Accessed: 19 September 2026 Source Type: Written - newspaper wire story Interview Status: REPORTED EXCHANGE, SECOND-HAND. Complete as to both articles. Not a transcript. Source Verification: Verified primary sources. Both digitised newspaper pages were retrieved and read in this session - Printing A as Library of Congress OCR, Printing B as Trove article text. Rights/Copyright Status: PUBLIC DOMAIN - VERIFIED (by date). Both are newspapers published in 1911. Rights Holder: None subsisting. RESEARCH ARCHIVE STATUS: COLLECTED PUBLICATION RIGHTS: CLEAR on copyright grounds.
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VERBATIM TEXT
[BEGIN PRINTING A - THE DETROIT TIMES, 29 APRIL 1911, PAGE 1]
[Transcribed from the Library of Congress OCR layer of the page scan. The scan image was not viewed; the image host was unreachable from this research environment. Obvious scanning artefacts have been conservatively normalised where the intended word is unambiguous. Uncertain readings are marked.]
MAN IN PRISON 35 YEARS BREAKS HIS LONG SILENCE
Jesse Pomeroy Is Allowed to Speak to Visitor From Outside World First Time in Over 35 Years.
BOSTON, April 29. - For the first time in 36 years, Jesse Pomeroy, whose incarceration in Charlestown prison rivals that of [the man in] the Iron Mask" has spoken to any one from the outside world, save his keeper and his aged mother. Calmly and with no touch of rancor this man, doomed to spend his life in the strictest solitary confinement, told members of the first legislative committee that ever visited him, that he has at last become resigned to his fate.
According to the committee members, Pomeroy seemed both physically and mentally healthy, and spoke as a man of education and refinement, giving no hint of the impulse that caused him when 14 years old to butcher a playmate. Ground glass windows prevent Pomeroy from gazing on the outer world.
Asked if he minded the solitude, Pomeroy said:
"Yes, but I appreciate the little liberty I have. The bright spots in my life are the visits of my mother. She is the only person I am permitted to see, you know. The prison has become my life and I have become used to it. I feel I have recovered from all the tendencies that made me dangerous, and I would be glad if the legislature would make it possible for me to have a little more freedom in prison and a little work to do."
"I am sorry, but the legislature cannot aid you," said the chairman of the committee.
The shutter in the cell door was dropped and with a sigh of resignation, Pomeroy dropped back into the solitude from which he will probably never again emerge.
A LIFETIME IN GAOL." Original Source: Unidentified American wire service despatch, Boston, 29 April 1911. The originating agency is named in neither printing. Archive/Alternate Source: A third printing was located and not transcribed: The Burrangong Argus (NSW), 12 July 1911, page 4, 504 words, substantially the same text as Printing B. URL or source reference: Printing A: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016689/1911-04-29/ed-2/?sp=1 (Library of Congress, Chronicling America, LCCN sn83016689) Printing B: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221539408 (Trove, National Library of Australia) Date Accessed: 19 September 2026 Source Type: Written - newspaper wire story Interview Status: REPORTED EXCHANGE, SECOND-HAND. Complete as to both articles. Not a transcript. Source Verification: Verified primary sources. Both digitised newspaper pages were retrieved and read in this session - Printing A as Library of Congress OCR, Printing B as Trove article text. Rights/Copyright Status: PUBLIC DOMAIN - VERIFIED (by date). Both are newspapers published in 1911. Rights Holder: None subsisting. RESEARCH ARCHIVE STATUS: COLLECTED PUBLICATION RIGHTS: CLEAR on copyright grounds.
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VERBATIM TEXT
[BEGIN PRINTING A - THE DETROIT TIMES, 29 APRIL 1911, PAGE 1]
[Transcribed from the Library of Congress OCR layer of the page scan. The scan image was not viewed; the image host was unreachable from this research environment. Obvious scanning artefacts have been conservatively normalised where the intended word is unambiguous. Uncertain readings are marked.]
MAN IN PRISON 35 YEARS BREAKS HIS LONG SILENCE
Jesse Pomeroy Is Allowed to Speak to Visitor From Outside World First Time in Over 35 Years.
BOSTON, April 29. - For the first time in 36 years, Jesse Pomeroy, whose incarceration in Charlestown prison rivals that of [the man in] the Iron Mask" has spoken to any one from the outside world, save his keeper and his aged mother. Calmly and with no touch of rancor this man, doomed to spend his life in the strictest solitary confinement, told members of the first legislative committee that ever visited him, that he has at last become resigned to his fate.
According to the committee members, Pomeroy seemed both physically and mentally healthy, and spoke as a man of education and refinement, giving no hint of the impulse that caused him when 14 years old to butcher a playmate. Ground glass windows prevent Pomeroy from gazing on the outer world.
Asked if he minded the solitude, Pomeroy said:
"Yes, but I appreciate the little liberty I have. The bright spots in my life are the visits of my mother. She is the only person I am permitted to see, you know. The prison has become my life and I have become used to it. I feel I have recovered from all the tendencies that made me dangerous, and I would be glad if the legislature would make it possible for me to have a little more freedom in prison and a little work to do."
"I am sorry, but the legislature cannot aid you," said the chairman of the committee.
The shutter in the cell door was dropped and with a sigh of resignation, Pomeroy dropped back into the solitude from which he will probably never again emerge.
[END PRINTING A]
[BEGIN PRINTING B - THE SUN, SYDNEY, 7 JULY 1911, PAGE 5]
[Transcribed from the Trove article text, which is itself an OCR layer over the original scan and is visibly rougher than Printing A. Where the OCR has plainly mangled a word the intended reading has been restored and the mangling recorded in the notes below. Nothing has been added.]
A LIFETIME IN GAOL
CASE OF JESSE POMEROY. THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IMPRISONED. CRIME COMMITTED WHEN 13.
For the first time in thirty-five years Jesse Pomeroy, Massachusetts' famous prisoner and one whose incarceration in Charlestown prison rivals that of "the man with the Iron mask," has spoken to someone from the outside world save his keeper and his aged mother. Calmly and with no touch of rancour this man, doomed to spend his life in the strictest solitary confinement, told members of the first legislative committee that ever visited him that he has at last become resigned to his fate.
According to members of the committee Pomeroy seemed physically and mentally healthful and spoke as a man of education and refinement, giving no hint of the impulse that caused him, when 13 years old, to kill several children. Ground glass windows prevent Pomeroy from gazing on the outer world.
Asked if he minded the solitude Pomeroy said: "Yes, but I appreciate the little liberty I have. The bright spots in my life are the visits of my mother. She is the only person I am permitted to see, you know. The prison has become my life and I have become used to it. I feel that I have recovered from all the tendencies that made me dangerous, and I would be glad if the Legislature would make it possible for me to have a little more freedom in prison and a little work to do."
"I am sorry, but the Legislature cannot aid you," said the chairman of the committee.
The shutter in the cell door dropped, and with a sigh of resignation Pomeroy dropped back into the solitude from which he will probably never again emerge.
Jesse Pomeroy was sent to the penitentiary when 13 years old, after being convicted of a series of the most brutal crimes in the history of the country. It was proved at the trial that the boy murdered several small children, taking their lives by slow torture. In spite of his extreme youth he was convicted of murder, the jury insisting that he be made a special prisoner and kept in solitary confinement, away from other convicts, and not even permitted to see the outside world through the windows of his cell. Although he has been absolutely a model prisoner, the sentence of the court has been carried out to the letter. No living being except his mother and the guards has seen Jesse Pomeroy in the thirty-five years during which he has grown from boyhood to middle age in the prison.
Numerous attempts to secure a pardon [have been] made but have always failed.
Although it is generally conceded that the prisoner has outgrown the youthful homicidal tendencies that made him a famous criminal, the political feeling over the case [is] so great as to deter governors and Legislatures from interfering.
Pomeroy’s own speech is identical in both, word for word. Every difference is in the reporting around it.
LENGTH OF CONFINEMENT. Detroit says thirty-six years. Sydney says thirty-five, twice. Sydney is right on the arithmetic: imprisoned 1876, visited 1911.
HIS AGE AT THE CRIMES. Detroit says fourteen. Sydney says thirteen, in both its subheading and its text. DETROIT IS RIGHT. Pomeroy was fourteen when he killed Horace Millen in April 1874.
HOW MANY HE KILLED. Detroit says he butchered a playmate, singular. Sydney says he killed several children, and adds that he murdered several small children by slow torture. SYDNEY IS WRONG, AND IT IS THE MORE DANGEROUS ERROR. He was convicted of one murder and a second body was found afterwards. Two, not several. The several almost certainly conflates the killings with the seven or more children he abducted and tortured without killing, and a writer taking the Sydney printing at face value would overstate the count.
HIS AGE ON ENTERING PRISON. Sydney says he was sent to the penitentiary at thirteen. The same newspaper, four months later, says he entered state prison at sixteen, which is right: he was held in the county jail and at the reformatory before the transfer to Charlestown in 1876. Sydney contradicts itself across two issues.
AND THE SHAPE. Sydney carries five paragraphs of case background that Detroit omits entirely. Detroit carries a Boston dateline that Sydney drops.
For the quotation, either printing will do. For the facts around it, neither without checking. Detroit is right on his age and the victim count; Sydney is right on the length of the confinement and is the fuller story.
He was moved to Bridgewater in 1929 and died in 1932, having served fifty-six years.