Welcome to Top10Archive! The mind of a killer is truly a complicated concept to understand
- but when that killer is a young child, the aurora seems much more sinister. In this
installment, we're counting down 10 more children who murdered.
10. Edmund Kemper Also known as The Co-ed Butcher, or The Co-ed
Killer, Edmund Emil Kemper III is an American serial killer and necrophile who was active
in California in the early 1970s. He started by murdering his grandparents when he was
15 years old, where he was sentenced to a 5 year term as a juvenile. He would be released
as an adult where he would go on to kill and dismember six female hitchhikers in the Santa
Cruz area, also murdering his mother and one of her friends before turning himself in to
authorities. Kemper used his imposing size and I.Q., which was estimated to be in the
140's, to overcome his victims. At his trial, Edmund pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity,
but would be found guilty in November 1973 of eight counts of murder. Edmund asked for
the death penalty, but capital punishment was suspended at the time, and instead received
life imprisonment. 9. Joshua Phillips
Joshua Phillps is an American from Jacksonville, Florida, who was convicted of murdering an
8 year old neighbor, Maddie Clifton, in November of 1998 when he was 14. Phillips claims the
incident occurred when Maddie came over to his house looking to play. Despite not being
allowed to have people over when his parents weren't home, he did so anyway. While playing
baseball, Joshua hit a ball that struck Maddie in the eye, causing her to bleed. Fearing
his father's temper and knowing he would be home soon, he panicked, dragged Maddie to
his room and proceeded to strangle her with a phone cord, followed by hitting her with
a baseball bat, and stabbing her 11 times. Joshua was charged with first degree murder,
and sentenced to life in prison, without the chance of parole. Since he was under the age
of 16, he was not eligible for the death penalty under Florida's law at the time and is currently
still appealing his case. 8. Michael Hernandez
Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay, Florida gained headlines on February 3rd, 2004 when
eighth grader Jaime Rodrigo Gough, 14, was stabbed 42 times in a second floor bathroom
by classmate Michael Hernandez, also 14. Hernandez was diagnosed by defense mental health experts
and concluded he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and possible delusions. Hernandez described
in his journal his fixation on becoming a serial killer, even listing people he desired
to murder. Michael Hernandez confessed in cold, clinical detail how he lured Gough into
the school bathroom and the stabbing, but claimed he was not guilty because of insanity.
The court found Hernandez competent, charging him with first degree murder and was sentenced
to life imprisonment. Due to legal changes in the law, Hernandez'a sentence was thrown
out and will be re-sentenced under the new law changes.
7. Girl A Dubbed the "Sasebo Slashing", Satomi Mitarai,
a twelve year old Japanese schoolgirl, was murdered by an eleven year old classmate for
whom the Japanese police referred to as "Girl A" due to Japanese legal procedures prohibiting
identification of juvenile offenders. The murder occurred June 1st, 2004 at Okubo elementary
school in Sasebo, Japan within an empty room during lunch hour where Girl A slit the arms
and throat of Satomi with a utility knife. After a teacher found the body and called
the authorities, Girl A was taken into custody where she eventually confessed that she killed
Satomi over a quarrel they had on the internet where Satomi slandered Girl A by commenting
on her weight and calling her a "goody-goody." On September 15th, 2004, a Japanese Family
Court ruled to institutionalize Girl A due to the severity of the crime, and was sent
to a reformatory in Tochigi prefecture where she served four years.
6. Jesse Pomeroy The youngest person convicted of first degree
murder in the history of Massachusetts, Jesse Harding Pomeroy assaulted several children
in 1871 and 1872. The attacks were noteworthy due to their brutality, leaving some of the
children scarred for life. In 1872, Pomeroy was found guilty and sentenced to the Lyman
School for Boys in Westborough, Massachusetts, but paroled in February 1874 at the age of
14 and sent back to his mother and brother in South Boston. In March of 1874, a 10-year
old girl, Katie Curran, went missing, and a month later on April 24th, the mutilated
body of 4-year old Horace Millen was found in the marsh of Dorchester Bay. Later, Katie
Curran's body would be found in the cellar of Pomeroy's mother's dressmaking shop, and
Pomeroy was pronounced guilty on December 10th, 1874 for both murders. Two governors
refused to sign the death warrant due to Pomeroy's young age, but was eventually transferred
to the State Prison at Charlestown, where he remained in solitary until 1929, where
he then was taken to Bridgewater Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and died in 1932.
5. Amarjeet Sada Described as India's youngest serial killer,
Amarjeet Sada, 8, was charged by police in Bihar, one of India's poorest states, for
the murder of 3 infant children, which included his sister and cousin. The first two murders
perpetrated by Sada were hidden by members of his family, but his third could not be
swept under the rug. Chunchun Devi became panicked when she couldn't find her six month
old daughter, Khushboo, where she had laid him to sleep at a school in Musahari Village.
When confronted, Sada admitted to the crime, took police to where he buried the child,
and described how he dispatched the infant with a rock or brick, depending on sources.
Amarjeet was diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, and has been placed in a remand home in a
nearby town of Munger. Under India's law, the child cannot be sentenced to death or
sent to prison, but he can be detained at a children's home until he reaches the age
of 18. 4. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson
Two boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10 years of age, were skipping school
when they abducted, tortured and murdered 2 year old James Patrick Bulger. CCTV evidence
from the New Strand Shopping Center in Bootle, England, where Bulger was taken from on Feburary
12th, 1993, showed the two boys casually observing children, carefully selecting their target.
The boys eventually chose Bulger, taking him from the shopping center where they lead him
on a walk 2.5-miles or 4-kilometers away to Walton, Liverpool, and perpetrated their heinous
crime, then dumped his body on a railway line. The pair were found guilty on November 24th,
1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in English history. They were both sentenced
into custody until they reached adulthood and were released with new identities in 2001.
In 2010, Venables was sent to prison for violating his terms, but was released on parole again
in 2013. 3. Jasmine Richardson
Jasmine Richardson, the 12 year old daughter of the victims, orchestrated the murder of
her brother and parents with her 23 year old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, now going by the
name Jackson May, in April of 2006. Occurring in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada due to arguments
with her parents over the age difference of her boyfriend, the murders seemed to be inspired
by the film Natural Born Killers. On July 9th, 2007, Jasmine was found guilty of three
counts of murder, becoming the youngest person convicted of multiple murders in Canada. She
was given the maximum penalty of ten years, where she had to spend 4 years in a psychiatric
institution and 4 1/2 years under conditional supervision in the community. In 2011, she
began attending classes at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, and was released from
her sentence. Jeremy Steinke would be charged with 3 counts of first degree murder, and
was sentenced to three life sentences. 2. Craig Price
Nicknamed the Warwick Slasher, 15 year old American serial killer, Craig Price, committed
several crimes in Warwick, Rhode Island. Price was arrested in 1989 for four murders: a woman
and her two daughters in 1989, and the murder of another woman in 1987. Price committed
his first murder when he was 13 years old on July, 27th, 1987, where he broke into a
home two houses down from his own, taking a knife from the kitchen, stabbing 27 year
old Rebecca Spencer 58 times. Two years later Price murdered three other neighbors while
high on LSD. The victims, 39 year old Joan Heaton, was stabbed 57 times, 10 year old
Jennifer Heaton was stabbed 62 times, and 8 year old Melissa Heaton had her skull crushed.
He was tried as a minor, which meant he was eligible for release on his 21st birthday,
but due to other crimes perpetrated while in prison, he gained an additional 10-25 years.
He was denied parole in 2009, and his current release date is May 2020.
1. Brenda Ann Spencer A chilling scenario took place at Cleveland
Elementary School on January 29th, 1979 in San Diego, California when Brenda Ann Spencer,
a 16 year old girl, brandished a rifle and opened fire from her home across the street.
Spencer lived with her father in extreme poverty, where they slept on a single mattress on the
living room floor, and empty alcohol bottles throughout the house. The principal and custodian
were killed, and eight children and a police officer were injured. A reporter managed to
get in touch with her during the shooting spree, where she confessed, "I just did it
for the fun... I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." She eventually surrendered
after a seven hour standoff with police, and was tried as an adult, where she pleaded guilty
to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. She was sentenced to 25 years
to life, and currently resides in prison where she won't be eligible for parole again until
2019.