Eric Smith was just 13-years old when he committed murder. On the 2nd of August, 1993, Eric Smith
was riding his bike to a summer camp when he noticed 4-year old Derrick Robie walking
alone to that same summer camp. He approached Robie and lured him into the woods. Smith
strangled Robie, smashed a large rock on his head, undressed Robie and sodomized him with
a tree limb. Smith claimed in his 2014 parole hearing that he inserted the stick in order
to ensure death but Robie’s death was determined to be blunt trauma to the head with contributing
asphyxia. Eric Smith was arrested for his horrific crime and was convicted of second-degree
murder. He was sentenced to the maximum term then available for juvenile murderers – a
minimum of nine years to life in prison. He contributed his actions to having been bullied
by older children in high school and by his own father and sister. He confessed that he
took out his rage on Robie and was worried that Robie might tell on him so he killed
him. Smith is still in prison to this day.
On the 12th February, 1993, a two-year old toddler by the name of James Bulger was savagely
beaten to death by two 10-year old boys at the time, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.
This case caused great public outcry as Venables and Thompson became the youngest convicted
murderers in the UK. CCTV surveillance showed the two boys scouring and observing children,
apparently selecting a target. When they fixed their eyes on two-year old James Bulger, the
two boys took him out of the shopping centre while Bulger’s mother was momentarily distracted.
What followed next was a sickening beating. Venables and Thompson dropped Bulger on his
head early on their 2-and-a-half-mile journey. When the two boys arrived at the rail tracks
they began torturing James Bulger. The two boys threw paint in the toddler’s left eye,
kicked and stomped on him, threw bricks and stones at him and dropped an iron bar on his
head. Venables and Thompson then laid the beaten toddler across the railway tracks in
the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. A train
did hit Bulger and ripped his body in half. The abduction was seen by 38 witnesses but
none of them intervened. The two boys were imprisoned until they were 18. They were released
on parole under new identities.
David Brom grew up in Minnesota to a Catholic family and was only 16 years old when he committed
multiple murders. In February 1988, David Brom killed his parents, brother and sister
with an axe. It was believed that Brom’s motive for his killings stemmed from a fight
he had with his father over the songs he listened to. He recalled how he hit his dad with an
axe. He kept on hitting him with an axe and his dad kept on getting up. He then went into
his mother’s room and hit her with an axe and then went to his brother’s room. Lastly,
he saw his sister standing over their mother in the hallway, at which point he attacked
them both. These cold-hearted callous crimes resulted in Brom being convicted of first-degree
murder. He was given three consecutive life sentences which he is still serving to this
day.
At the age of just 15, Kipland Kinkel, a student in Thurston High School in Oregon was expelled
for being in possession of a loaded stolen handgun that he had bought of a friend. Kinkel
and his friend were arrested and released from police custody on charge of possession
of a stolen firearm. Kinkel was told by his father that he would be sent to military school
if he did not change his behaviour. After hearing this news, Kinkel proceeded to retrieve
his .22 rifle from his bedroom. He came back downstairs and went into the kitchen where
he father was sitting drinking coffee and he shot him in the back of the head. He waited
for his mother to come home and then shot her twice in the back of her head, three times
in the face and once in the heart after telling her that he loved her. Kinkel then rigged
the house with explosives. On the 21st of May 1998, the day after Kinkel’s expulsion
and murder of his parents, Kinkel who was fully armed approached Thurston High School
and started opening fire in the patio area and cafeteria. He killed 2 students and injured
25 others before seven students intervened and disarmed Kinkel while he was reloading.
He was arrested immediately by police and was sentenced to 111 years in prison with
no chance of parole.
As a teenager Edmund Kemper was already showing signs of a sociopath. He had an exceptionally
high IQ, an interest in torturing animals and a deeply troubling relationship with his
mother. At the age of just 15, Kemper fatality shot and killed both of his grandparents,
claiming later on that he only did this to see what it felt like to kill grandma. He
was sent to Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum-security facility for mentally ill convicts for his
heinous crimes. At the age of 21, he was released but his crimes did not stop there. Kemper
went on to murder eight women including his own mother, whom he decapitated and then used
her head as a dart board. He would often take his victims’ lifeless bodies back to his
home and would engage in necrophilia. He was branded as the “Co-ed Killer” and the
“Co-ed Butcher.” And due to his size and intelligence (standing at 6ft 9, weighing
over 300lbs and with an IQ of about 140) his victims didn’t stand a chance. Edmund Kemper
confessed to his crimes and turned himself in. He was charged with eight counts of first-degree
murder and received eight concurrent life sentences. When asked by the judge what he
thought his punishment should be, Kemper said that he should be tortured to death.