Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare
On February 12, 1993, two-year-old James Bulger was out with his mother shopping for groceries at a shopping center in Bootle, England. Like all parents have experienced, she turned her back on her son for an instant, and he was gone. That momentary fear only got worse as after an immediate search, her son was no where to be found. The police were called to investigate a missing persons case. The investigation would have horrifying results.
Two ten-year-old boys were also out shopping that day. They were utilizing the five-finger-discount to pilfer some small toys and candy. As they wiled away the day they plotted a scheme to kidnap a kid. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables actually carried out this wild daydream.
The two took James Bulger right out from under his mother’s nose and led him out of the shopping center. They dragged him on a two-mile trek through the streets of Bootle and Walton. James was led in and out of several stores, being harassed and intimidated by his captors. Several people questioned the pair, but none intervened.
Eventually they brought James to a secluded section of railroad track and did unspeakable things to him. They threw paint on him, stuffed batteries in his mouth, and almost certainly sexually assaulted him. They then began to kick and punch him repeatedly. The violence grew until one of the boys picked up a piece of railroad track and beat James to death with it. His skull was fractured in 10 places.
The boys then placed their victim on the train tracks in an attempt to make the homicide appear like an accident. A passing train bisected the body, but did not hide the massive injures.
The police were working the missing persons case and were getting very concerned as blurry cctv video showed the two perps leading James from the shopping center. Initial canvasses did not locate the boy. It wasn’t until February 14th that the small mutilated body was found.
Police continued to find witnesses and released the cctv footage. On February 18th, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were identified and arrested. Although the boys denied the crime there was enough physical evidence to charge them. The legal quandaries that surrounded the arrest of ten-year-olds for murder were worked out and both boys were convicted. The two were the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th Century.
In 2001 the two were released after it was determined that they were no longer a threat to society. The notoriety of the crimes was so great that both were given new identities by the British Government to protect their safety. Robert Thompson new identity remains unknown to this day. Jon Venable has been arrested numerous times for possession of child porn and drugs. He was issued a new identity after his alias was released and spread on social media.
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