Childhood normally is considered a time to eat, play, read story book and cause petty nuisance. Sometimes that nuisance – if not kept under close observance – can take extremely ugly turns.
The number of child killers is increasing every year. Their crimes are not as petty as stealing candy or toy but abduction and murder even sexual assault. Can a child commit such crimes? Here is a list that will change your scepticism into belief – the horrific children who were killers:
10. George Stinney (Born – 1929)
On June 16, 1944, when 14 years old young George Stinney was executed the US set a record of the youngest person to be legally executed during the twentieth century. Stinney had murder of two girls named Betty June Binnicker (11 years old) and Mary Emma Thames (8 years old). Their bodies were found in a hole full of mud.
The girls had severe fractured skulls, which were supposedly inflicted by a railroad spike found at some distance from the town. In his confession Stinney said that he intended to have s.x with Betty but somehow ended up killing the girls. He was put up for and was immediately sentenced to death by the electric chair.
Interesting Fact: There was no physical evidence to convict him of the murder; his execution was passed off based on circumstantial evidence in a trial of only 2 hour long. More importantly the sole evidence of Stinner’s crime was that the girls had spoken with Stinney and his sister shortly before they were murdered. Stinney was an African-American belonging to a poor working class family. In this light the case was later criticized as “suspicious at best and a miscarriage of justice at worst”.
9. Lionel Tate (Born – 1987)
Mother Kathleen Grossett-Tate was babysitting Tiffany when one day she left the baby with her son Lionel (14 years old) who was watching the television while she went upstairs. At one time she heard the children screaming and yelled back at them to be quiet, but didn’t go downstairs to check what the commotion was all about. An hour later Lionel called to his mother and told her that they were wrestling and he had slammed baby Tiffany’s head on the table; the girl was not breathing.
Medical examination reported the cause of death was sharp stomping that lacerated Tiffany’s liver. The girl also suffered from brain-swelling and fractured skull & rib from a beating that lasted from one to five minutes, and 35 other injuries.
Tate later said that he had jumped on her from the staircase. In 2001 Tate was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without parole, but his sentence was overturned as his mental competency was not tested before or during the trial. He was released in 2004 with on one year’s house arrest and 10 years’ probation.
8. Barry Dale Loukaitis (born – 1981)
In 1996, the Frontier Middle School witnessed the death of two students and a teacher in the algebra class. 14-year-old boy Barry Dale Loukaitis, suffering delusional and messianic thoughts went on a shooting spree. He was dressed up like a gunslinger from the Wild West in a black duster, and armed with as many as 3 guns (a .30-30 caliber rifle, a .357 caliber pistol and a .25 caliber pistol) all of which belongs to his father. The students in the class were held hostage for 10 minutes before a gym coach outwitted Loukaitis.
It was also reported that when Loukaitis saw his classmates panic he said “This sure beats algebra, doesn’t it?” The quote is from Stephen King’s novel – Rage, in which the protagonist kills two teachers and takes his algebra class hostage. Barry was convicted to two life sentences, and in addition to that 205 more years in prison.
7. Craig Price (Born – 1974)
In 1989 Price was charged with the murder of Joan Heaton (39), her two daughters, Jennifer (10) and Melissa (8), at their home. He had stabbed the 8 year old so fiercely that the knife broke off in Melissa’s neck. Joan was stabbed about 60 times while the girls had 30 stab wound inflicted on them. Initially the authorities suspected a burglar and looked around the neighborhood for cut or wound in the hand of any man. They found Craig Price with a wound in his wrist.
On investigating Craig’s room they found the knife, gloves and other items with blood dry on them. He admitted his crime and of another murder for which he had been a suspect for two years. Craig was tried and convicted of murder before his 16th birthday.
6. Joshua Phillip (Born – 1984)
One day, after Joshua Phillips left for school, his mother went to clean his room. While cleaning she noticed a wet spot under her son’s bed and imagined it was probably a leak from his waterbed. So she dug deep and found electrical tape holding the frame together. Then she removed enough tape to discover the body of an 8 year-old girl hidden inside the pedestal of Phillips’s waterbed. It was the dead body of Maddie Clifton, a neighbour girl who had been missing for the past 7 days.
People were quiet shocked because Phillips was one of the neighbors who had volunteered to search for the missing girl. He said he accidentally hit her in the eye with a baseball bat, and then dragged her to his room where he stabbed her 11 times and clubbed with a baseball bat out of panic. Because he was under 16, Phillips could not be sent for death penalty. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
5. Eric Smith (Born – 1980)
At 13, Eric Smith was subjected to bullying for of his thick glasses, freckles, long red hair, and his elongated ears. These were supposedly the side effect of a medicine his mother had taken for her epilepsy when she was pregnant. One day Smith was charged for the murder of a 4 year-old boy, Derrick Robie. Smith had strangled the boy and had smashed his head by large stones, and after all this had even sexual assaulted the corpse.
For some reason Smith could not give a definite answer as to why he had committed the crime. A psychiatrist diagnosed Smith and found out the answer, he was suffering from intermittent explosive disorder (a dangerous condition where a person loses control of the inner rage). Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sent to prison.
4. Graham Young (Born – 1947)
Graham Young, from an early age was fascinated with chemistry, especially poison. He idolized murderers such as Adolf Hitler, William Palmer, Dr. Hawley Crippen, among others. Young began experimenting with poisons at the age of 14 and started buying chemicals in the name of school experiment. His family and friends were his victims. His father suddenly on day becomes ill, next the wife and then the daughter. All of them suffered from continuous vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pains. In 1962, Young kills his grandmother via poison.
Suspicious about the odd experiments, a teacher inspected Young’s desk after school and found poisons, essays about famous prisoners, and sketches of dying men. Young was sent to hospital where he started poisoning hospital staff and fellow inmates even causing a death. At the age of 23 Young was released and he went to live with his sister. But his old urge remained and he started poisoning people again. Young was sent back to prison where he eventually died many years later.
3. Jon Venables And Robert Thompson (Both Born – 1982)
Jon and Robert found a little boy – James Bulger, waiting for his mother and the idea of the little boy getting knocked over by a vehicle thrilled them. They took the little boy and started walking while punching, kicking him all the way. They picked little James up and dropped him on his head. Then they took him to the local railway and flung paint in his left eye beat him with bricks, and hit him with an iron bar and finally laid James’s body on the railroad track. James reportedly died sometime before the train hit him.
2. Jesse Pomeroy (Born – 1859)
Pomeroy showed cruel streaks at the age 11. He had once trapped seven children and tied and tortured them using a knife or pins. He was soon caught and sent to a reform school, where he was to stay until he was 21, but was released after a year on accounts of good behaviour.
After three years he reportedly kidnapped and killed a 10 year old girl, named Katie Curran. He was also accused of murdering a 4 year old boy, whose mutilated body was found in a Bay. Jesse Pomeroy was sentenced to life imprisonment making him the youngest human convicted of first degree murder, in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
1. Mary Bell (Born – 1957)
3 year old Brian Howe had been strangled by 11 year old Mary Bell. His hair was cut, his thighs were gull of punch marks, his genitals were partially skinned and the letter “M” had been imprinted on his stomach.
Mary such behaviour can be reason with the terrible life she was born in. She, for some reason grew up believing her father (Billy Bell) was a criminal who had been earlier arrested for armed robbery. No one really knows her biological father’s identity. Mary at the age of 4 was forced into engagements with men by her prostitute mother. After her trial Mary- on account of her generousness- was sent to all-boys facility.