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    Fiend: The Shocking True Story Of America's Youngest Serial Killer
    Fiend: The Shocking True Story Of America's Youngest Serial Killer
    Fiend: The Shocking True Story Of America's Youngest Serial Killer
    Audiobook11 hours

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

    Written by Harold Schechter

    Narrated by Kyle Tait

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 compelling storytelling, brilliant insight, and fascinating historical documentation to Fiend-an unforgettable account from the annals of American crime.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 29, 2019
    ISBN9781977340580
    Fiend: The Shocking True Story Of America's Youngest Serial Killer
    Author

    Harold Schechter

    Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowned for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, and, with David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. He is also the author of Nevermore and The Hum Bug, the acclaimed historical novels featuring Edgar Allan Poe. He lives in New York State.

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    Reviews for Fiend

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    • 3/5
      For a work that ends on the topic of writers romanticizing the life of Jesse Pomeroy, there seems to be a recurring lack of self-critique by the writer on that very same subject. Some of the accounts are written in a detailed way that certainly pads out the biography but is clearly the invention of the author. This is a very small gripe, however, since the author's embellishments really do bring the story to life and humanize historical figures surrounding Pomeroy that likely have little to no surviving documentation about who they actually were. I just find it sort of strange that the book ends by identifying with the writer who claimed that we actually have no idea what Jesse Pomeroy thought of the world during his transfer and exposure to a new world when so much of the story prior to that fills in internal and external dialogue of Pomeroy that almost assuredly doesn't exist but is interspersed with documented facts to provide credibility. Overall, it is a very well researched and unbiased recount that very competently manages to bring relevance and interest to events from more than 100 years ago.
    • 4/5
      When Jesse Pomeroy was arrested in 1874, he was fourteen years old. When he was twelve he had abducted and tortured young boys, this lead to him being sent to reform school. He fooled people into believing he had changed, and was released. Returning to Boston, he went to work in his mother’s store, eventually killing two young children. He was dubbed “The Boston Boy Fiend”.This book covers the life of Jesse Pomeroy, as much as is known, the crimes, the details of the investigation, trial and Pomeroy’s eventual sentence. It is also a history lesson, detailing how life was at that time, how ‘the good old days’ were not always so good. And how juveniles committing crime is not a modern day phenomenon. I know some will take exception to Pomeroy being labeled a serial killer, because he only killed two people, however, if he hadn’t been caught he would surely have killed more. He fits all the other criteria.When reading Schechter, I have learned to carry a notebook with me, he has so much other interesting information in his books. This is another well written book that I have no problem recommending.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I found this book both chilling and interesting. I will start by saying that I would not recommend this to people who have a weak stomach, as some of the crimes are described in gruesome detail. There were times when even I had to put the book down for a time and return to it later. It is interesting that, despite people's complaints about violence in today's youth, America's youngest serial killer appeared in the nineteenth century. I was amused to note that the furor about the negative influence of the media is by no means a modern phenomenon. These days, it is violent movies and video games. Back then it was the Penny Papers. If there is any lesson we can take from this book it is this: that, while the media may expand a persons repertoire of possible methods, the innate ability and desire to commit terrible acts upon their fellow human beings must already be there.

      1 person found this helpful