Pomeroy, the 14 year old Psychopath

Despite the fact that many killers are generally characterized as middle aged men, there are few that defy this stereotype. For example, the story of Jesse Pomeroy, a young 14 year old boy from the Dorchester Bay, Boston area. Pomeroy who was connected to the murder of four year old Horace Millen in April 1874 had been previously reprimanded and sent to a special reform school two years earlier. The question is what exactly drives a young boy like Pomeroy to commit such crimes? According to http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/psychopath/1.html, “These children have a character disturbance. They devalue others and lack a sense of morality... In the research, these children are regarded as "fledgling psychopaths" who will become increasingly more dangerous as they get older. They might not become killers but they will learn how to manipulate, deceive and exploit others for their own gain. It is generally believed that they have failed to develop affectional bonds that allow them to empathize with another's pain. What they have developed are traits of arrogance, dishonesty, narcissism, shamelessness, and callousness… traits like fearlessness, aggressiveness, and sensation seeking, all of which contribute to antisocial behavior...” It is clear that children that lack affectional relationships with people in general not only parents will develop into a world where they don’t love anyone and don’t feel loved at all. The fact that they develop into such an isolated atmosphere plays a significant role in their later actions of killing others and failing to empathize with their pain. As regarded by the article, Pomeroy displayed the characteristics of dishonesty after he “pleaded innocence by way of insanity.”(Press 116) Pomeroy, later admitting to the crimes he committed which he chronicled in an autobiography, denied being conscious of his actions. After pleading innocence he is convicted and sentenced to death Also, he displayed “aggressiveness”, another characteristic of a child “psychopath” in the killings themselves. In the murder of Horace Millen for example, Pomeroy cut Millen’s throat and stabbed him no fewer then 15 times. Five weeks previous he had also killed nine year old Katie Curran who was found buried in the cellar of a shop. Even though the book did not mention any relationship between Pomeroy and his parents, it can be assumed that since he did show signs a child psychopath, he may have been abused by his parents or neglected. In the end, Pomeroy was sentenced to solitary confinement until his was 54 then sentenced to prison till his death on September 29, 1932.