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Summary: Another Great One from Harold Schechter
Review: I'm from the Boston area, and while my whole family is in Chelsea (the site of much of the action) I had only heard about Jesse Pomeroy while reading The Alienist by Caleb Carr. I was quite excited to find out about Schechter's new book (thanks Amazon!). I actually became interested in true crime after the Columbine shootings, and have been reading about children who kill. From Mary Bell to the Liverpool boys who killed a toddler, to the Florida kids who killed the local bully, this subject has been endlessly facinating to me. Ok, so maybe it is a bit gruesome too. But I will say that with this book, Schechter hits the nail on the head. Children who kill other children have been with us for a long time, and we continue to give the same lame excuses: the media (for Jesse that was dime novels, for our recent murders its the movies and video games that are blamed), single mothers, and just plain evil. This book does not answer the question of why, but we get a glimpse into the mind of one of these child killers. It is quite chilling. Schechter's research is awesome and his writing style is engaging and his message is clear (and frightening) the next fiend could be living next door, playing in the sandbox! If this book and subject matter are of interest to you, I also highly recommend Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill; The Story of Mary Bell.
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Summary: Excellent, could not put this book down!
Review: If you like well researched true crime, read this. I hung on every word and was not disappointed.
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Summary: Chilling.
Review: It's nice to know that youthful murderers are not just a recent phenomenon. Jesse Pomeroy makes Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold seem like choirboys. Since Jesse was only fourteen, the governor commuted his sentence from death to life in solitary without parole. Doesn't sound like much of a commutation, does it? Harold Schechter's descriptions of Jesse's crimes were haunting. I particularly liked the last two sections -- Jesse's letters to Willie Baxter, and the account of his life in prison and many escape attempts. (Not that I blame him for trying.) I like learning about lesser-known murderers instead of everything Ted Bundy all the time. Yet another good book from Harold Schechter!
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Summary: Not bad....
Review: It's no scholarly look at juvenile crime, and the cover is a design atrocity, but this account of a little-known member of the confraternity of youthful murderers does fill in an unfortunate gap in the public's collective memory. The negatives: very little by way of footnotes, or indeed any other means by which the interested researcher can check up on the author's facts. An intrusive tendency (noted in another review below) to ascribe feelings and thoughts that could not possibly be known to characters who are long dead. The positives: a fascintating and timely (without being faddish) subject, a writing style that transcends the cruder illiteracies often encountered in popular nonfiction, and tantalizing hints of context (including the murders of the Joyce siblings and Mabel Young) that are extremely helpful.
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Summary: At last, a definitive account of this little-known monster.
Review: To most people, the name Jesse Harding Pomeroy means nothing. But to the people of Massachussetts from the mid-1870s to the mid-1920s, and even beyond, it was the name of a monster. Jesse Pomeroy was one of the youngest people ever sentenced to death, and when his sentence was commuted, it was to solitary confinement for over forty years. His record of time in solitary is only equalled by the Birdman of Alcatraz. Still, when one considers the appalling cruelty and sadism of his crimes, including two particularly shocking murders of young children, it's very difficult to feel sorry for him. Pomeroy made a cameo appearance in Caleb Carr's _The Alienist,_ but Carr changed a few facts---for starters, Pomeroy was never, ever in Sing Sing, but served his sentence mostly at Charlestown Prison in Greater Boston. At a time when many people sigh for an imaginary lost Utopia in the past, when all children were good, it's salutary to see that so little has changed. Were Pomeroy to appear today and be caught, the terms of the controversies that would swirl around his head would hardly differ from those that actually did, back in the days of President Ulysses S. Grant. Serial killers, even child serial killers, are, unfortunately, nothing new, and neither are the scapegoats blamed, such as lurid popular entertainment. I have to say that if Pomeroy had been hanged, even at fourteen, the world would have been a bit better, cleaner place. Even hardened bleeding-hearts would have difficulty sympathizing with him much.
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Summary: A book from today's headlines
Review: Today, a 14-year-old boy was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the death of a young girl whom he killed while practicing wrestling moves, according to his defense. This harsh sentence is strikingly similar to the one Jesse Pomeroy received over a century ago. Pomeroy spent over 50 years in prison for two heinous murders committed when he was 14. Of those years in prison, over 40 of them were in solitary confinement. To me, his survival of his punishment is more astounding than his crimes. I wish Schechter had devoted more space to Pomeroy's prison years than he did. I found the descriptions of Pomeroy's ceaseless attempts at escape both somewhat humorous and highly pathetic, as this man, hated across the US, constantly tried a variety of escape methods, even into his 70's. Where he would have gone had his attempts succeeded is an interesting question. The book, while well-written, fails in its attempt to prove that things are no different now than they were in the 1870s. Yes, Jesse's crimes were terrible, but the main difference between then and now is the number of crimes committed by children. The very reason Jesse was so hated was the unique brutality of his crimes. Today, we hear of similarly brutal acts by children every day, to the extent that we simply shake our heads and then go on with our lives. I disagree with Schechter's repeated premise that today's society has not influenced more children to violence than did the dime novels of the past. Given that, "Fiend" is still an excellent account of a crime that shocked the nation--and of a punishment that SHOULD shock people everywhere even today. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in crimes and criminals.
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