Shirley’s mood deteriorated further and she continued to be sent from one foster home to the next. Her self-esteem was so low that she was convinced her foster parents couldn’t love her so she went all out to make herself unlovable. She refused to speak and got into vicious fights with the neighbourhood children. She ran away and was soon returned to residential care.
By now, like many sexually abused children, she was very promiscuous. By age thirteen she was writing in her diary about boys she’d slept with and wondering if she was pregnant. Thankfully the answer was no.
Shirley was bored and lost. The days stretched ahead with very little to look forward to until her room-mate introduced her to Cindy Collier, who wanted someone to run away with. Shirley volunteered to run away with her and the two girls sloped off into the night.
The next day they tinted their hair and hung around by an outdoor pool and traded their desperately unhappy life stories. Within hours, fourteen-year-old Shirley was thinking of Cindy (who’d turned fifteen just two months before) as her best friend. Both girls had hitched lifts before, but now talked about how brilliant it would be to have a car of their own. They could go wherever they wanted, keep moving around the country. They could sleep in the car and seek shelter there whenever they wished. Each perhaps talking tough in front of the other, they decided that they’d steal themselves a vehicle – but that they’d have to kill the owner first.
The killing
The teenagers made their way to a nearby housing estate and started knocking on doors asking for glasses of water and to use the telephone. An elderly man pandered to both these requests but didn’t have a car and they duly left. Other residents turned them away as they looked so shifty and unkempt. The next person to let them in was an eighty-five-year-old woman called Anna Brackett. She gave them water to drink and all three chatted amicably for an hour.
Anna Brackett was a shy, sweet woman who loved to go dancing with her beloved friend Jim. He was terminally ill in hospital and she missed him and told the girls all about him. They told her anecdotes about their own lives and she told them about her children and grandchildren. They asked about her car and she told them she had an old brown Dodge.
Then Mrs Brackett answered her phone and explained that it was her son, who was coming round to take her out in twenty minutes. The girls looked at each other, each wondering if the other still wanted to carry out their cruel plan.
Cindy told Shirley to ‘do it’ – and it seems that Shirley was happy to oblige. She knocked the small woman to the floor and threw herself to the ground where she attempted to manually strangle her, an act which was clearly going to take some time. As the octogenarian gurgled and fought, Cindy raced into the kitchen for a weapon, finding a little potato-peeling knife. She dashed back and handed it to Shirley. Fearing that the neighbours were hearing the commotion and might ring at any moment, Cindy also ripped the phone from the wall.
Shirley proceeded to stab the old lady but she was surprisingly strong and managed to shake Shirley off and get to her knees. Cindy now added to the violence, grabbing a broom and battering it into the helpless woman’s face. She collapsed again and Shirley rained further knife blows into her blouse-clad frame, the blade puncturing her back almost thirty times. The woman was still making noises so they stuffed a cloth into her mouth.
During the stabbing the knife blade had buckled so Cindy fetched a second one with an eight inch blade and Shirley cut Anna Bracket’s throat. By now she was probably unconscious as the knife had done tremendous damage to one of her lungs and to her spleen. But she was still breathing so they cut her throat again. Blood oozed from the woman’s nose and mouth where the force of one of the blows had forced her dentures out. At last she lay silent and still.
Aftermath
Pleased that she was dead, the teenagers grabbed a bunch of keys and ran to Mrs Brackett’s car – but they’d brought the wrong keys and couldn’t get it to start. Flustered, they raced up the road and started hitchhiking. They were high on adrenalin and immediately talked about killing someone else. The male driver who gave them a lift worried about their safety and had no idea that he should have been fearing for his own.
By hitching and walking, the teenagers soon got back to Cindy’s house, where both girls spent the night. They told Cindy’s mum that they’d heard about an old woman being killed and clearly wanted to discuss the death in some detail. They also avidly watched the news.
Arrest
Cindy’s friends had seen her with Shirley in the vicinity of the murder – and local residents told the police that girls of the exact same description had asked to use their phones. Cindy had already done time in Juvenile Hall so the police knew just where to find her. They separated the teenagers to question them and Shirley almost immediately told the truth. She even showed the police her diary where she’d written that the killing ‘was lots of fun.’
Cindy denied everything – but couldn’t explain Shirley’s bloodstained clothing or the fact that they had Anna Brackett’s keys.
Folie a deux
At the police station it soon became clear that neither girl would have killed alone. Cindy liked to control other people, so she’d been in her element telling Shirley what to do. Shirley, in turn, was a follower who admitted that she’d have chickened out if she was on her own. Shirley had carried out the actual stabbing whilst Cindy directed, though she’d joined in to hit the woman with a broom.
When asked for a motive, the girls said that they’d needed to steal a car and couldn’t let the car owner live or else she’d identify them. To rational people, it seemed an incredibly flimsy reason to kill a stranger – but these teenagers had been shown over and over again that life was cheap. Unsurprisingly, given the level of abuse they’d both suffered, neither girl valued her own life. Both girls were seen as a suicide risk and Cindy actually vowed that she’d attempt suicide again.
Reality bites
The teenagers were returned to Juvenile Hall to await their trial. There, Shirley took her shower, went to bed and went to sleep. Cindy was showering when a care worker noticed some home-made tattoos on the girl’s skin. Gently, she wiped them off – and at this unexpected kindness Cindy started crying as if she was never going to stop. Back in her cell, she curled into the foetal position and went into shock. Shirley had more of a delayed reaction to taking a life, having such a bad nightmare later that week that her screams echoed through the hall.
The trial
There was little doubt even before the trial that the girls would be found guilty. Several of Mrs Brackett’s neighbours testified that Cindy and Shirley had come to their door. Mrs Brackett’s own son had seen them hitchhiking away from the murder scene as he drove towards his mother’s house. And within minutes of being questioned by the police, Shirley had admitted that they’d killed. Meanwhile, forensics showed that Anna Brackett’s blood was on Shirley’s clothing and Cindy’s fingerprints were on the telephone which she’d ripped from the wall.
At the trial, details of the girls’ horrendous childhoods were heard. Shirley at first pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, then she revoked this plea, then she tried to reinstate it. Meanwhile Lou Wolf told reporters that social workers were to blame for his daughter’s confused state of mind.
At visiting time, Lou would hold his daughter’s hands and kiss them whilst his wife stared blankly ahead. At other times Shirley played with his hair or lay with her head in his lap. She was doing what she’d been taught to do to win her father’s approval – or to at least avoid the worst excesses of his rage.
Cindy also reverted to type, trying to be brave whenever her mother visited. Cindy hugged her mother and was very protective towards her, blocking out the fact that her mother had failed to protect her throughout her life. (In fairness, her mother came from an impoverished family, had learning difficulties and had married at aged sixteen. She was a child raising children and simply didn’t know how to do this properly. All four of her children would e
nd up in jail by early adulthood.)
Shirley yet again withdrew the allegations of child abuse against her father – though witness after witness testified that Lou Wolf had behaved inappropriately towards her and towards other young girls. And Lou Wolf read out a statement which said he hoped God would remember the people who had said negative things about him. The press continued to say such negative things about him that he soon left the neighbourhood with his wife.
After due consideration, the judge sentenced the girls to incarceration until the age of twenty-seven. Both were sent to Ventura, run by the California Youth Authority.
Update
For the first few years, both teenagers had a difficult time behind bars. Shirley’s parents soon stopped visiting and she had few other visitors. She remained violent and turned increasingly to drugs.
Cindy’s mother visited her in the youth authority jail whenever she could. Cindy was fiercely loyal to her mother – and this made it impossible for her to tell the truth about her childhood in group therapy. She too continued to get into fights.
When Shirley was eighteen she stabbed a supervisor in the face and hand. She was given an additional nine years and transferred to the much tougher California Institute For Women, an adult prison. Whilst awaiting this transfer she broke a deputy’s wrist and was given another sixteen months. She’d had enough of being the victim and was determined to make her self the toughest inmate in the prison.
At around the same time, Cindy started to confide in a caring parole officer that she wanted the equivalent of her high school diploma. She worked hard and passed then went on to take further qualifications. By her twentieth year she’d passed several college courses. She went on to study law, tutored by law school attorneys, and was released on parole in 1992.
Shirley remained troubled and tried to break out of the prison grounds by driving a truck through the security fence. She failed and was sent to a maximum security prison. Here the distressed young woman got satanism, then she got religion. She eventually found comfort in another inmate’s arms. A beautiful young woman with a flair for creative writing and art, she was scheduled for release in 1994. Thereafter she disappears from the record books.
7 Save Me
Robert Thompson & Jon Venables
Robert was born on 23rd August 1982 to Ann and Robert Thompson. The couple already had four sons aged nine, seven, five and four. The seven of them lived in a modest terraced house in Liverpool where Robert worked as an electrician whilst Ann stayed at home.
It was not the happiest of homes. Robert Thompson senior was a heavy drinker who often beat Ann. She, in turn, would hit the children. She’d often been beaten with a belt during her own childhood and had married on her eighteenth birthday to escape her violent home. But there were some relaxing times, such as when the couple bought a caravan and took two-year-old Robert and his older brothers on weekend trips to Wales.
When Robert was a month shy of his second birthday, his parents provided him with yet another baby brother. He was initially protective towards this younger child.
Robert was a polite and timid little boy who liked to watch cartoons and play with the neighbourhood children. He was very concerned about his depressed and exhausted mother and did all that he could to give her support. But life was difficult for him, as he was now being hit by his elder brothers as well as by his mum and dad. His mother’s weight ballooned to eighteen stone and his father pointed out a house that he said was a home for disobedient children. He threatened to leave them all there.
Social workers became involved when one of the children, aged four, was found with a cigarette burn and bite marks. Another child would later have bite marks on him too. It was clear that there were multiple acts of violence going on in the household though no one was ever charged.
Then, when Robert was six, his father left to live with an older woman, a friend of the family. A week later the Thompsons’ home burned down and they were rehoused in a hostel for the next two months.
Robert’s brothers find safer homes
Ann turned to drink and soon spent much of her time at the pub. She’d later admit that she put a bottle of whisky under her pillow most nights and that she’d start drinking from it when she awoke in the morning. Later in the day she’d go to the local pub. Some of the men there called her a slag and said that she should be at home with her large family. She’d shout at them and hit them if they persisted in their remarks.
Robert’s oldest brother, a teenager, was unfairly left in charge. Unable to cope, he hit his siblings frequently and tied them up or locked them in the pigeon shed.
The six unparented boys became increasingly lost and unkempt. One of Robert’s brothers took him out on stealing binges. Another brother became an arsonist. One brother was investigated for molesting younger children but this couldn’t be proved so no charges were brought
In 1990, when Robert was eight, one of his older brothers was taken into care. Within months a second of his brothers went into care and eventually a third brother followed suit.
Yet another brother
Ann now entered into a new relationship and had another baby. She stopped drinking, but still had little cash as the family were all on welfare. Ann was too busy with the new baby to take the younger children to school so Robert continued to play truant. He also began to steal things for his baby half-brother and for his mum.
He’d just turned ten when Ann allegedly hit one of his older brothers with a cane. It was the last straw for the boy as he’d been trying to look after the family and get the others to school each morning. He asked to go into care and didn’t see much of his siblings after that.
In January 1993, Robert took his eight-year-old brother to the canal, kicked him and punched him and left him there. The child made his way to the nearby Strand shopping centre in a very distressed state. He told his teacher that his brothers all hit him, but that Robert hit him the most.
At this stage one of Robert’s older brothers tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of paracetamol. Another brother would later attempt suicide, just as his mother Ann had done in the early days of her marriage. The boys had their stomachs pumped out in hospital and they both survived.
Robert himself was clearly in distress. His nails were bitten away and he constantly sucked his thumb. At ten years old, he still sat on his mother’s lap and rocked back and forwards. By now he was often staying out until after midnight, wandering the streets and lighting fires on the railway to keep warm.
Robert kept asking other children to join him on the darkened streets – or keep him company when he played truant during the day – but none of them dared. Sometimes he’d give his eight-year-old brother a pound to stay with him, but his brother (an intelligent child who still enjoyed school) often told the teacher. So Robert was very pleased when a new boy called Jon Venables joined his class and soon agreed to truant with him.
Jon Venables
Jon was born on 13th August 1982 to Neil and Susan Venables. The couple already had a three-year-old son who’d had an operation for a cleft palate and who would later be diagnosed with learning difficulties.
The family lived in Liverpool, an area of high unemployment, so Neil often couldn’t find the work he was trained for, driving forklift trucks. Neil and Susan both had a history of serious depression and Susan’s own childhood had been very strict.
When Jon was one year old, his parents gave him a sister. All five of them lived in a nice terraced house with a little front lawn. But Susan felt lonely and isolated at home on her own during the day and her eldest child’s constant screaming drove her mad.
Divorce and para-suicide
The couple had an increasingly unhappy marriage and they divorced when Jon was three. At this stage Susan went back to her mother for three years, then she moved in with Neil. Later she got a council house of her own but she still spent much of her time at Neil’s home. He, in turn, lived with his father, before getting his own place
and finally moving back to his father’s house after his father died. Unsurprisingly, all of these changes caused the three children stress.
Susan found it particularly hard to cope – and social service reports would later allude to ‘two traumatic incidents.’ Reporting on these, author Blake Morrison says that they seem to have been suicide attempts.
By now, Jon’s older brother was attending a school for children with special needs. His younger sister was diagnosed with the same learning disorder and, in time, she also would attend the same school.
At five, Jon went to an ordinary school – but he was teased by the other children who wrongly called his siblings retarded. He started to ask if he could attend a special school too.
Violence and foster care
By the time Jon was six his older brother was becoming frustrated by the number of things he couldn’t do and was having tantrums. Social workers arranged for him to go to foster carers for one weekend each month to give his mother a break. Susan kept a nice home and Jon was well fed and clothed, but she was very controlling towards him. She hit the children, especially at night when they didn’t want to go to sleep. Jon found it particularly hard to sleep and had lots of cuddly animals to ‘guard’ him in bed. He often felt tired, bit his nails and had bad dreams. But he did what he could to please his mother, reading quietly in a corner when at home or attending church where he joined the choir.
Children Who Kill: Profiles of Pre-Teen and Teenage Killers Page 9
