Children Who Kill: Profiles of Pre-Teen and Teenage Killers (3 page)

Now that Jesse had been captured, the local people and the press looked for an explanation. They didn’t
understand the significance of the violence he’d suffered at his father’s hands.

Instead they blamed Jesse’s sadism on the pulp
fiction
that he read, with its themes of sailors being
brutalised
by violent pirates or of Redskins torturing their prisoners. In reality, most of these novels had print runs of over sixty-thousand so if truly corrupting one would have expected them to produce sixty-thousand boy torturers – but there was only one.

Jesse read ferociously in jail whilst awaiting trial, though presumably the ostensibly-dangerous pulp novels weren’t on offer. He spent the rest of his time writing notes to the youth in the next cell, asking him about his school floggings and telling the boy that he couldn’t get thoughts of his own childhood beatings out of his head. He also wrote frequently to his mother and to his brother Charles.

His mother sold her dressmaking shop to a
neighbour
– and to everyone’s horror they found Katie Curran’s decaying corpse in the cellar. As usual, Jesse alternately admitted and denied having anything to do with the crime.

He remained in jail until 8th December 1874 when his trial began. Witness after witness described seeing him leading Horace away. Others had seen Katie entering Ruth Pomeroy’s little shop. Even Jesse’s own defence lawyer suggested that Jesse was often overpowered by the need to hurt. These were superstitious times so the defence added that Jesse might have been born with evil powers.

Harsh discipline was only mentioned when one of his teachers said that he sometimes whispered to other children in class and that she ‘had to’ cane him for this. No one made the connection between Jesse being
victimised
by his father and then going on to victimise other boys. Jesse himself admitted that his sole interest was in hurting young males. The murder of Katie Curran appears to have been one of sexual curiosity and ongoing blood lust rather than intense desire.

The trial took place over three days and the verdict was guilty of first degree murder. The sentence was life imprisonment. Ironically, the local paper suggested the crimes wouldn’t have happened if Jesse had received parental discipline.

In prison, Jesse was put into solitary confinement,
living
in a small cell with his meals pushed through a slot in the door. This was best for the other prisoners as he
would undoubtedly have tortured them. But it was bad for his own mental health – isolated prisoners often go mad. He was to spent forty-one years in such enforced solitude, with the exception of visits from the prison clergy and, twice a month, from his mother.

His sanity did seem to crumble during these years as he made numerous wildly-improbable escape attempts, some of which suggested a death wish. On one occasion he used a makeshift tool to bore through his cell and cut into a gas pipe, hoping to blast his way to freedom. He was knocked unconscious by the blast but made a full recovery.

Jesse wrote simple rhymes for the prison magazine during those years. He continued to read everything that he could get his hands on. His mother brought him snacks – and he was pleased to receive them but showed no pleasure at seeing her. They often
discussed
the letters requesting his freedom that she was still writing to the governors.

It was said that during these years he paid other prisoners to catch rats for him, which he then skinned alive – but these tales are undoubtedly apocryphal. After all, he was kept apart from other prisoners for most of his life. Then, as now, other prisoners and guards would have sold stories to reporters who were hungry for sensational information about high profile criminals. Then, as now, they doubtless made wild
stories
up.

After forty-one years alone in his cell, Jesse was given leave to go to religious services and take exercise with the other prisoners. He used his infamy and his
machismo to inspire respect in them – but they were unafraid as he was becoming physically weak. Twelve more years passed in this way and Jesse didn’t make any close friends.

By the 1920’s, humanitarian reformers began to
suggest
that Jesse be allowed to live out his final months in a less punitive setting. Eventually the governor agreed. At first, like a battery chicken, Jesse Pomeroy resisted this, saying that his entire life was his cell. But over time he clearly rethought the situation and agreed to be moved to Bridgewater, the prison’s mental hospital.

In the summer of 1929 he was finally transferred to Bridgewater, having spent more than fifty years in Charlestown prison. By then he was almost seventy and had muscle wastage through spending so many years cooped up in a tiny cell. He was also partially blind and increasingly lame.

He remained surly after his transfer to Bridgewater and none of the staff managed to create a rapport with him. Some said that they never saw him smile. He often threatened to make escape attempts but it was clear that, given his growing number of infirmities, he wouldn’t get very far. He continued to protest his
innocence
until his death – the result of a heart attack – on 29th September 1932 when he was almost
seventy-three
.

Jesse Pomeroy committed the early tortures and later torture-murders out of an overwhelming sense of bloodlust. Like many people from highly abusive backgrounds, he’d made a strong connection between sexual satisfaction and extreme sadism. These desires would remain throughout his life.

Jesse’s strongest stimulus for years (though he’d hated such floggings at the time) had been as a victim of severe beatings accompanied by verbal taunting. Watching a boy writhe and squeal as he flogged him and threatened him was much more exciting than a lover’s caress.

Early criminologists suggested that Jesse’s crimes were merely acts of violence, that they weren’t sex crimes because the victims weren’t sexually assaulted or raped. This shows a misunderstanding of sexual sadism. In sadistic attacks, the orgasm isn’t triggered by sexual intercourse but by inflicting pain on
someone
else.

Indeed, many sadists avoid coitus. If penis-based activity does take place it is often forced sodomy
followed
by forced oral sex, both of which further demean or hurt the victim. But as a callow youth Jesse Pomeroy may not have been aware of these optional extras. He orgasmed during the flagellation or the stabbing attacks, after which his sadistic urge was spent.

Jesse’s attacks began at twelve, the age when his libido awoke. He was undoubtedly homosexual so
chose males as his lust objects. He chose small boys rather than boys his own age as they were easier to lure away from safe locations. They were also easier to restrain and were soon completely in his increasingly murderous power.

The pre-teen killer profiled in the last chapter came from a violent American home – but several years earlier in Britain, William Newton Allnutt was born into a British household that was equally
damaging
.

William was born in 1835 to a farmer and his wife. He came into the world to find that he already had five siblings. His mother was deeply distressed at the time of his birth as she’d borne the brunt of her
husband’s
temper for many years. But she was used to raised voices and fists as her father had also been a violent and tyrannical man.

William was a low-weight baby who was often ill. Several of his brothers and sisters were also poorly. Nevertheless his mother went on to have another two children after his birth.

When William was eighteen months old he fell against a ploughshare and the resultant injury was so severe that the doctor warned there might be brain damage. No such mental change was noted during these pre-school years but the abused little boy understandably became an increasingly sad and sullen one.

His father had by now become an alcoholic who kept terrorising his wife and all eight of his children. As a result, William sleepwalked and had terrible nightmares. The household was religious so sometimes
these nightmares were filled with religious imagery.

He was an intelligent and articulate child who did well in his schoolwork and achieved a high standard of literacy. But he showed the disturbed behaviour that children from violent households invariably show – everything from fighting to truancy – so his teachers were often upset with him.

When William was nine years old his father became so cruel that he was considered insane. Mrs Allnutt at last found the courage to leave him. She sent all eight children away to boarding school or to stay with friends. (Within a year of their separation, her husband had developed epilepsy and within three years, at the age of thirty-seven, he would die.)

She now moved in with her father, Samuel Nelme, and his second wife who were both in their
seventies
. They had a palatial home in the Hackney district of London with its own grounds. Samuel had been a successful merchant in the city so the family were able to afford a live-in maid.

Unfortunately William’s ill health continued, and his boarding school decided to send him home. And so the small, pale boy came to live with his mother in his grandfather’s deeply religious and all-adult household. It was a cheerless life without his siblings or schoolfriends for company. Samuel Nelme had
always been quick to anger – and this anger was now often directed at William when he got up to
everyday
boyish pranks.

In September 1847 William committed a more
serious
act, stealing ten sovereigns from his house. His grandfather thrashed him and lectured him
endlessly
about the importance of honesty.

By now William – like many beaten children – was fantasising about killing his tormentor. If his
grandfather
died he, William, would be safe for the very first time. The cause of the twelve-year-old’s
nightmares
would be over and he would be able to relax during the day with his mother. He would have a childhood at last.

William had been taught all his life that people should use violence to get their own way. After all, he’d regularly watched his father hit him, his mother and his siblings. And now he was living in a second household where the man of the house solved
disputes
with a weapon or with his fists.

Deciding to kill his grandfather, William
somehow
acquired a pistol. The next time they were
walking
in the garden he lagged behind and aimed the weapon at his grandfather’s head. The bullet missed and William immediately dropped the gun into the bushes. He blamed the incident on a passerby, though no such man could be found.

William continued to suffer at his grandfather’s hands. The old man found the twelve-year-old boy untruthful – but William was presumably afraid to tell the truth in case it led to further verbal or
physical
abuse.

One day his grandfather struck him so hard that he went flying and hit his head on a table. The pain was terrible. Worse, his grandfather said that he would almost kill him next time. The underweight and undersized boy was no match for the well built adult and may well have feared for his life.

He watched the household’s rats being poisoned by arsenic and realised he could use this to get rid of his batterer. He added the white powder to the sugar bowl, knowing that his grandfather craved sweet foods.

Over the ensuing week, every adult in the
household
became increasingly ill, vomiting violently. Samuel Nelme was the worst affected as he added sugar to so many of his drinks and meals. For the next six days his stomach and bowels voided their contents over and over. The doctor who was
summoned
found him writhing in bed and suspected he was suffering from English cholera. Ironically, each time he felt slightly better his daughter would give him some sweetened gruel to tempt his appetite. After six days spent in increasing agony, he died.

An autopsy showed that Samuel Nelme had
ingested
arsenic on several occasions. The police were called in to question the family and his mother admitted that her son had asked her about how arsenic worked. More damningly, he’d told the maidservant that he thought his grandfather would die very soon.

William refused to admit that he’d put arsenic in the sugar so was initially arrested for stealing his grandfather’s watch. But whilst in Newgate Jail he was visited by a Chaplain who suggested he admit his guilt to save his soul.

The twelve-year-old then wrote a letter to his mother saying that he deserved to be ‘sent to Hell.’ The child clearly had no inkling that the violence he’d suffered for so many years had, in turn, made him violent. Instead he said that he wished he’d
listened
to his mother’s religious teachings and that ‘Satan got so much power’ over him that he’d killed the elderly man.

On 15th December 1847 he was tried before a jury at the Old Bailey. The counsel offered an insanity defence and four doctors testified that William’s head injuries and a hereditary taint had driven him to madness. His mother testified that the boy heard voices telling him to steal.

But the judge said that the child was sane and found him guilty of murder. At this, the twelve-
year-old
almost collapsed and the wardens had to hold
him up. The judge sentenced him to death but the sentence was almost immediately lifted, after which William Allnutt disappears from the record books. He may have been transported or given life
imprisonment
as young prisoners were treated very
harshly
in those unenlightened times.