Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America's Youngest Serial Killer

by Schechter, Harold

Description

New York: Pocket Books; Simon & Schuster, 2000 308 pp., [8] pp. of plates, illus.; 24 cm. Tight, clean copy. Age toning. Remainder mark/tail edge. "A MONSTER PREYED UPON THE CHILDREN OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY BOSTON. HIS CRIMES WERE APPALLING -- AND YET HE WAS LITTLE MORE THAN A CHILD HIMSELF. When fourteen-year-old Jesse Pomeroy was arrested in 1874, a nightmarish reign of terror over an unsuspecting city came to an end. 'The Boston Boy Fiend' was imprisoned at last. But the complex questions sparked by his ghastly crime spree--the hows and whys of vicious juvenile crime--were as relevant in the so-called Age of Innocence as they are today. Jesse Pomeroy was outwardly repellent in appearance, with a gruesome 'dead' eye inside, he was deformed beyond imagining. A sexual sadist of disturbing precocity, he satisfied his atrocious appetites by abducting and torturing his child victims. But soon, the teenager's bloodlust gave way to another obsession: murder. Harold Schechter, whose true-crime masterpieces are 'well-documented nightmares for anyone who dares to look' (Peoria Journal Star), brings his acclaimed mix of page-turning storytelling, brilliant insight, and fascinating historical documentation to Fiend--an unforgettable account from the annals of American crime. / Harold Schechter is a professor at Queens College, the City University of New York, where he teaches courses in American literature and culture. Renowned for his true-crime writing, he is the author of five nonfiction books: Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, and, with David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. He is also the author of Nevermore, an acclaimed historical novel featuring Edgar Allan Poe." - Publisher.. Trade Paperback. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.