Despite all of the ghosts and ghouls, murderers and lunatics, and vengeful spirits in horror films, time and time again, the most horrifying things in these movies are little kids. From The Exorcist, to The Shining, to newer movies like Orphan, sometimes the most horrifying things come in the smallest packages. But even some of these onscreen terrors pale in comparison to the horrific crimes committed by the following real-life children.
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Eric Smith
"Instead of me being hurt, I was hurting someone else."
In 1993, when he was 13 years old, Eric Smith brutally murdered four year-old Derrick Robie. The boy was walking from his house to a recreation program a block away when Smith grabbed and dragged him to a nearby wooded area. He beat Robie rocks, sodomized him with a stick, and kept mutilating and abusing his body once he was dead. It was one of the most heinous acts committed - let alone by a child - that the United States had ever seen.
Smith is currently serving the maximum sentence for juvenile murderers, nine years to life in prison. He has been denied parole seven times since 2002, most recently in April 2014. One of the scariest details of the story is that everyone who has interviewed him since he committed the crime has said that they couldn't believe that they’re speaking with a murderer - he just seemed so normal and sincere.
Lionel Tate
Tate claimed that he had just been trying wrestling moves he’d seen on TV and that the girl's death was an accident. However, details of his story directly contradicted physical evidence, and he was convicted of first degree murder.
In 2004, the conviction was overturned on the grounds that Tate did not receive a fair trial due to not really understanding his charges. He was released with 10 years of probation and a guilty plea to second degree murder, rather than first.
Just one year later, he was sent back to prison for an armed robbery against a pizza delivery man. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced a 10-year sentence and an additional 30-year sentence for violating his probation.
Robert Thompson and Jon Venables
In 1993, these two 10 year-old boys did the unthinkable. When they saw three year-old James Bulger walking with his mother in the mall, they grabbed him and led him away. They did all sorts of terrifying things to him: beat him, threw bricks at him, piled stones on his head, sexually violated him with batteries... Then, when they finally killed him, they left Bulger's body on a set of train tracks to be cut in half. The poor boy had so many injuries that it could not be determined which was the cause of his death.
It’’s hard to imagine adults committing such a terrible crime, and yet Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were only 10 years old. They each, of course, blamed the other for the crimes and were eventually convicted. The were held for 8 years until their trial was deemed unfair. Then they were freed and granted lifetime anonymity so that they could not be tracked down by a vengeful public.
William York
“All he alleged was that the child fouled the bed in which they lay together, that she was sulky, and that he did not like her.”
In 1748, at 10 years old, William York was imprisoned for the murder of five year-old Susan Mayhew. A newspaper at the time actually published the grisly details of the crime along with an illustration of the murder.
York was convicted under a code of law that required the death penalty. It was warned that a failing to convict him could make other 10 year-old boys think that they could murder girls that they “did not like” and found “sulky."
But still, judges were not prepared to kill a small child, so they delayed the execution time after time until 1757. At that point, York was pardoned and admitted into the Royal Navy - which beats Great Britain’s old method of criminal disposal: dumping them in Australia.
Barry Dale Loukaitis
“This sure beats the hell out of Algebra.”
One cold February afternoon in 1996, 15 year-old Barry Dale Loukaitis walked into his algebra classroom dressed like a Wild West gunslinger. He was armed to the teeth and opened fire on his classmates. He killed two students and his Algebra teacher, saying in the panic, “This sure beats the hell out of algebra, doesn’t it?”
Loukaitis had planned to take one of the students hostage and to use him to get out of the school. Instead, a gym teacher heard the gunshots and offered to be the hostage when he stumbled upon the scene. The teacher then wrestled the gun from Loukaitis’s hands and subdued him until police arrived.
Loukaitis is currently serving two life sentences with an additional 205 years on top of that.
Jesse Pomeroy
When police found the victim and came to think of Pomeroy as a suspect, they questioned him. When asked if he killed the boy. His response was a cold, unfeeling “I suppose I did.”
Most people that heard about the case wanted the death penalty, and he was actually sentenced to hang. However, the governor refused to sign the death warrant, and Pomeroy's sentence was altered to life in prison and solitary confinement.
Mary Bell
“I murder so that I may come back.”
In May of 1968, the day before Mary Bell turned 11, she strangled a 4 year old boy named Martin Brown in an abandoned house. A short time later, she and a 13 year-old friend broke into an orphanage and smashed the place up. They left notes that claimed responsibility for Brown’s murder, but the police just assumed that it was a prank.
That July, the pair kidnapped and murdered 3 year-old Brian Howe and left his body on a nearby wasteland - but not before Mary mutilated him and carved an “M” into his stomach.
She was only convicted with two counts of manslaughter, both because of her young age and her psychiatric evaluation, in which she showed all the common signs of psychopathy. She was held until the age of 23 and then set free, which she remains to this day.
Alyssa Bustamonte
“I wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.”
In 2009, 15 year-old Alyssa Bustamonte used her little sister as bait to lure a nine year-old girl away from her home and into a secluded, wooded area. The girl, a neighbor named Elizabeth Olten, had come over to play with her sister, and Bustamonte “ran into her” while she was walking home.
She lured her into the woods and proceeded to brutally attack Olten. She stabbed the in the chest, strangled her, and sliced her throat - all because she wanted to know what killing someone felt like. She left the girl's body in a shallow grave she covered with leaves. She then wrote in her diary:
I just f*cking killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead. I don't know how to feel atm.
It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol.
Bustamonte later confessed to having dug two graves, which suggested that her twin brothers may have been the initial target. She is currently serving a life sentence.
Graham Young
“What I feel is the emptiness of my soul.”
Graham Young, aka the "teacup poisoner," was convicted of murdering his stepmother and poisoning several other members of his family in 1961 when he was 14. He was then sentenced to a mental hospital for a minimum of 14 years. There were instances of inmates being poisoned during his stay, but strangely, they were never connected to him.
When Young convinced his supervisors that he was “cured,” they released him at the age of 23. He proceeded to go on a poisoning rampage in the early 1970s, poisoning 70 other people. Two of his co-workers died, though the deaths were attributed to a virus "bug" as so many other people had gotten the illness as well. Finally, the lack of appreciation for his handiwork grew too much for Young to bear. He suggested that investigators look into thallium poisoning; after all, he was a bit of a toxic chemical hobbyist in his spare time. Only then did police uncover his criminal past - and later, his detailed diary.
Young was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of administering poison, though many more people had displayed symptoms. He received four life sentences and died in prison in 1990 at age 42.
Jasmine Richardson
“Never has a person affected me so much. Always will there be something missing without you with me. My lawyer tells me we're legends, ha, closer to immortality it would seem.”
At age 12, Jasmine Richardson was tried and convicted of murdering her mother, father, and 8 year-old brother. Her parents had recently forbid her to see her 23 year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, so the couple hatched a plan. In 2006, the boyfriend - who told friends he was a 300 year-old werewolf - came over to her house, and the two of them murdered her family together. The parents were downstairs, and Steinke killed them. Then he called Richardson up to her brother’s room and made her stab him in the chest.
The couple fled to a town 100 miles away, but were quickly caught and put on trial. They sent letters back and forth while incarcerated that only focused on their own relationship and showed no remorse for their actions.
Steinke is now serving three concurrent life sentences (now under the name Jackson May) while Richardson is finishing up her sentence in a mental institution and is reportedly sorry for her crimes.