We never go a day without hearing or reading about some horrific news. You can read about a horrible assault in the morning newspaper and then hear about another bizarre incident on the evening news. We are constantly assaulted with this type of news, as the media picks up on practically everything.
It seemed to be getting worse by the day. What’s more frightening is the number of young people is making the headlines for their wicked deeds. Society sees children as innocent and pure, devoid of malice. But, every now and then, the unthinkable occurs. Can you imagine what it’s like to have a child that’s psychopathic? It can be fairly difficult. Although a majority of psychopaths are not violent, a small percentage of them, however, become child murderers. So here’s one for instance.
In 1993, a pair of 10-year-old boys abducted and brutally murdered three-year-old James Bulger, which shocked millions of people around the world. Thompson and Venables are seen on CCTV footage from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle on February 12, 1993, monitoring children and looking for a target.
Denise, James’ mother, had driven him to the shopping center when she was distracted at a butcher’s shop and noticed her son had vanished. James was taken to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal by Thompson and Venables, where he was dropped on his head and received facial injuries. 38 people witnessed the three boys together, but the majority did nothing and departed after Thompson and Venables claimed they were all brothers.
Soon after, they took James to a railway line in Walton and began torturing him. The pain was thrown in his eyes, bricks were thrown at him, he was kicked and batteries were placed in his mouth. After the boys dropped a 10kg iron bar on his head, James sustained ten skull fractures and died as a result of his injuries.
Thompson and Venables dumped James’ body on the tracks, burying his head in rubble, hoping that a train would hit him and make his death appear accidental. His body was ripped in half by a train after they fled the site and was discovered two days later. Besides lots of physical evidence that tied them to the crime scene, the boys were identified when a woman recognized Venables from CCTV footage shared by the police.
On 24 February 1993, they were both charged with the murder of James and were known as the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. The boys were then sentenced to a minimum of eight years in a juvenile detention center.
Scary isn’t it! Who would have thought sweet, innocent children would become notorious murderers!
Sources: All That Is Interesting, List 25, Bizarrepedia, iNews, TikTok Muhd Hafizuddin