Sentenced to death at age 13

“Past criminal tendencies” convinces a Boston judge in 1837 to hand down the extreme sentence

Cambridge Almshouse, c. 1900. Wikimedia image

IN EARLY JUNE OF 1837, two orphan boys who lived at the almshouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were tried for the crime of arson.

Thirteen-year-old Michael Monohon and 10-year-old Michael Whaylan were both charged with setting fire to…