Well, you know Halloween season has arrived when stories of mass murderers, true crime real drama, are on offer. That was the case on October 6 when the Mattapoisett Museum hosted Chris Daley.
By day, a history teacher and by night, a researcher and author, Daley has specialized on researching the gory, bizarre and unexplainable details of mass murders in New England. For some 30 years, he has been providing crime-hungry seekers with what they want: details, horrific details of true crimes.
In this presentation, a Zoom audience heard the backstories of four infamous killers, one very well known in this area, Ms. Lizzie Borden, and the others less well known until now. There was “The Boy Fiend,” Jesse Pomeroy of Boston; “The Merry Widow,” Grayce Asquith and “The Angel of Death,” Jane Toppan.
Skipping to those murderers who might be lesser known locally, let’s first focus on The Boyfriend, Jesse Pomeroy. As one can guess, murderers have backstories, histories that one may find equal to the evil thrust upon the victims.
Pomeroy was an abused child, Daley said. He suffered beatings that were really a form of torture from an early age at the hands of his own father, an alcoholic. Pomeroy would display frightening behavior by today’s standards, killing animals for instance, but by the age of 12, as several young boys went missing and subsequently found dead in states too horrific to write here, Pomeroy was found to be the culprit.
Due to his young age, he wasn’t sent to jail but to the Westborough Reformatory where he excelled as a student and model resident. Within two years, he was released. Soon thereafter, the young Horace Millan was found dead. Pomeroy was soon fingered as the perpetrator. During the police interrogation, Pomeroy confessed to also killing Katie Curran, a missing little girl later found in the basement of the home that the killer shared with his mother.
Pomeroy was convicted and sentenced to life in solitary confinement. He spent 43 years alone and another 15 years at Bridgewater Hospital until his death in 1932.
Jane Toppan started life deprived of warm, nurturing parents. Her mother died when she was very young, leaving her to a father more interested in drinking than fathering. Jane Toppan would be placed in an orphanage by the age of six and then indentured to the Davis family, which by all accounts treated her well. Her relationship with the Davis family seemed the best solution, and she’d spend many years with them after her indentured status had ended. She called the Davis’ daughter her sister, so close was the relationship.
But unbeknownst to all, Toppan had been secretly mixing toxic medications together and injecting her charges at the old-age home where she worked as a nurse. Because of the age of the residents, no one thought their sudden deaths were suspicious, leaving Toppan to use their bodies for her sick and twisted experiments. She’d inject just enough anesthetics to keep them teetering at the edge of death before seeing through their demise.
Daley went on to share that when one of the Davis family members met Toppan at her home in Cambridge to collect summer rents owed, she served an innocent-looking cup of tea. The laced beverage did its job, killing off Mattie Davis. In a twisted sense of duty, Toppan accompanied the corpse back home to Cataumet. Within a short period of time, the remaining members of the Davis family would be dead.
After an investigation of wrongdoing championed by one of the Davis family friends, toxicology studies proved they had all died from strychnine. Toppan was found guilty by reason of insanity and committed to the Taunton State Hospital. Before her death in 1938, she would admit to killing 31 people before wiping out the Davis clan.
“The Merry Widow,” as dubbed by the press in the 1930s, was Grayce Asquith. Before sharing her tale, Daley said that Asquith by the 1930s standards was a bit of a wanton woman until she met her fiancé John Lyons. This is a story not really of serial killings but of a killing under mysterious circumstances and a disappearance that has never fully been solved.
Asquith would go missing, as would Lyons. When body parts began turning up in Whitman Pond and Boston Harbor, police were able to identify the victim as Asquith. Daley said she had very small feet, which was confirmed by her friend. An investigation of her home confirmed that a dismemberment had taken place there. Evidence at the scene clogging the bathroom pipes – well, better left to your imagination.
Police learned that at the home had been a visitor named Oscar Bartolini. At his apartment, police found the same materials that had been used to wrap up Asquith’s body parts. He would subsequently be found guilty of her murder and sentenced to death, which was commuted to life. He was released from custody in 1961 and summarily deported to Italy.
As for the case of Lizzie Borden, Daley reviewed known facts of the case and the public sentiment towards the accused at the time. The mystery remains: Even though Borden was found not guilty, did she do it and, if not, who?
To learn more, visit daleyhistory.com.
Mattapoisett Museum
By Marilou Newell