National Affairs: Butcher's Butcher

A grizzled old man of 71 walked slowly down the steps of Charlestown (Mass.) State Prison, looking neither right nor left at staring crowds. He wore a grey baggy suit, a flannel shirt, a soft cap, carried a small paper package. His face was set in hard, unhappy lines. He spoke to no one, as he climbed into a Ford sedan, cringed down in its back seat. The car carried him out of the prison yard for the first time in 43 years.

Thus last week did Jesse Harding Pomeroy, long ago killer of little...

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