This set off a frantic hunt for Pomeroy, who was now proclaimed America's youngest serial killer. Sixteen months later, Jesse was released in the care of his mother, and within months a ten-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy went missing, their mutilated bodies later discovered by police. Little thought was given to the danger he might pose to society, despite victims' chilling reports of this affectless Boy Torturer. Finally, when the police apprehended Jesse Pomeroy for the crimes, he, like any twelve-year-old, was sent off to reform school.
And after the Great Boston Fire of 1872 reduced much of downtown to rubble, the city had more pressing concerns. The police were skeptical-these children were from poor families, so their testimony was easily discounted. The few who returned told desperate tales of being taken to the woods and tortured by a boy not much older than themselves. At its heart is a great American city divided by class-a chasm that widens in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1872.Īn enthralling tale of madness and murder, set against the backdrop of Boston's Great Fire and America's Gilded Age In 1871, young children were disappearing from Boston's working- class neighborhoods. The Wilderness of Ruin is a riveting tale of gruesome murder and depravity.