by Ray Black
Her first reaction on seeing Kimmy was to scowl and then she turned to her boyfriend, Aaron Straw, and hissed, ‘What is she doing here? You know I don’t like her.’
Most of the gang were ambivalent towards Kimmy, but two members were adamant that she couldn’t come along – Tracy and Jessica. It was left to Dawn to try and calm the situation as the tension mounted. The whole gang went into the house to watch Scream. Fifteen minutes into the movie, the den filled with shrieks as they watched Drew Barrymore’s character being hanged by a masked killer.
‘It’d be fun to hang someone,’ Jessica said to the others.
When the film was over, the gang went over to Tracy’s friend’s house. Her friend was 22-year-old Mike Jarrett, and they intended to use his blue Dodge van to get out of Clearfield. However, before he was prepared to leave, Mike said he needed to have a sleep before the long journey ahead. He drove the gang to the nearby town of Shiloh and dropped them off while he had a rest. Their plan was that he would sleep for a few hours while they broke into hunters’ campers to stock up on provisions for their excursion.
Kimmy just went along with the gang, helping them to break into a couple of trailers. They purloined some bottles of whisky, a few sparklers and Jessica stole a length of nylon rope.
Jessica and Tracy were starting to bond over their hatred of Kimmy, and they led the rest of their crew to Gallows Harbor, which was a clearing in the woods of Shiloh. It received its name from a 19th century lynching that took place there. Gallows Harbor was a popular place for the kids of Clearfield County to party and so Kimmy gladly followed her new friends deep into the woods.
THE INITIATION CEREMONY
When they arrived at the clearing Jessica proudly showed her friends the nylon rope that she had stolen.
Jessica ordered the 14-year-old Theresa Wolfe to make the rope into a noose, and then to place it around Kimmy’s neck. All of which she did. Jessica then grabbed the end of rope and yanked Kimmy around as hard as she could. The wretched girl lost her balance and fell to the muddy ground. Jessica dragged her through the sludge. By this time Kimmy was crying, but the rest of the gang were just standing by and laughing.
Jessica removed the rope from Kimmy’s neck and ordered Aaron to throw the end of the rope over a maple tree branch which was about 14 feet off the ground.
Tracy said that anyone who wanted to go to Florida had to put their head through the noose as part of an initiation ceremony. Theresa and Dawn’s boyfriend, 16-year-old Patrick Lucas, both volunteered to show that they weren’t scared. One other member, a Clearfield junior named Clint Canaway, also agreed.
Patrick was the first one to slip his head through the noose, laughing nervously as he did it. Both Jessica and Aaron tightly gripped the end of the rope, but they did not pull it. Then Theresa did the same, and again Jessica and Aaron did not tug. The next one up was Clint and by now everyone was starting to giggle. Again nothing happened and Tracy’s little game was becoming a good source of amusement.
‘See, Kimmy,’ Tracy said, ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of . . . Now it’s your turn.’
Trusting her friends Kimmy took her turn, but this time Jessica and Aaron pulled hard on the rope using all their strength. Kimmy was lifted off the ground and her hands instinctively grabbed to release the tightness of the rope around her neck. All the colour drained from her face, her legs kicked about erratically, and she started to convulse. Tracy, Jessica and Aaron were falling about with laughter, but the rest of the gang had fallen silent. They were uneasy and felt that the game was going too far . . .
Suddenly the gang were startled by the sound of a truck in the distance. They dropped the end of the rope and Kimmy fell to the ground with a loud, painful thud. She immediately curled up into a ball, crying and wheezing. Then, Jessica announced that she hadn’t finished with her yet. It was at this point that four of the gang – Clint, Dawn, Patrick and Tracy – left. Although none of them opposed the further torture of Kimmy, they all literally turned their backs and took a walk through the woods because they didn’t want to watch whatever Jessica had in store for Kimmy. It seemed they didn’t really care what happened to her, it was just that they didn’t want to watch.
While half the pack walked away from the scene, those remaining resumed their entertainment. Kimmy was hanged for a second time, and this time her face turned a deathly white, then blue. Her legs thrashed about so violently that she lost both her shoes. Once again she went into convulsions but still neither Jessica nor Aaron let go of the rope. Theresa just stood by and watched in silence as Kimmy Dott’s body stopped flailing and her body went limp. It was then that Jessica and Aaron let her fall to the ground.
Theresa walked over to the motionless body and checked for a pulse. There didn’t appear to be one. Aaron picked up a stick and poked Kimmy in the stomach to see if he got a response. There was none, Jessica had won, Kimmy was dead.
The three started to cover Kimmy’s body with brush, truly thinking she was dead, but then, unexpectedly, she twitched. Both Theresa and Aaron stepped back in shock as Kimmy started to cough and gasp for air. She was alive!
Jessica was not happy with that and when she saw her victim clinging to life, she picked up a large rock about the size of a basketball, stood over Kimmy, and dropped it on her face. She did this a few more times until Kimmy’s head resembled a smashed cantaloupe melon.
Theresa and Aaron were motionless, their mouths agape in total shock.
‘Why did you do that, Jessica? You killed her!’ Theresa exclaimed.
With cold, unfeeling eyes Jessica replied, ‘That’s what snitches get.’
Her killers left her battered body under a pile of twigs and branches and just walked away, vowing silence. As Theresa saw the rest of the gang walking towards them she cried, ‘I wouldn’t go back there, you guys. They just killed Kimmy.’
AFTERMATH
Within an hour of their horrific act, the gang was back in Mike Jarrett’s van heading for Kimmy’s home state. They didn’t mention anything about Kimmy to Mike or his friend John Appleton, who had decided to ride to Florida with them at the last minute.
The Clearfield gang were safely on their way out of the district and away from the scene of the crime. All that is, except Jessica, who for some unknown reason had changed her mind about leaving. She and the rest of the gang had made a pact on leaving Gallows Harbor that not one of them would ever breathe a word about what had happened on that fateful day. They all agreed to tell the same concocted story that they had last seen Kim on Sunday morning, May 10, when they dropped her off at Sheetz’s on their way down south.
On Monday, May 11, Jessica went to all her classes at Clearfield High as if nothing had ever happened. Meanwhile, Tracy, Clint, Dawn, Patrick, Aaron, Theresa, Mike Jarrett and John Appleton were halfway to Lakeland, Florida.
By this time the Dotts family were frantic and they posted ‘Have you seen this child?’ flyers all around the town.
On May 13, the remainder of the gang arrived in Lakeland. Appleton, Jarrett and Tracy Lewis dropped the teenagers off at one of their friend’s houses and then headed back to Clearfield. It was while they were driving back that Tracy confessed to the boys that they had killed Kimmy.
Nine days after Kimberly Dotts was reported missing, on May 19, 1998, John Appleton called the police. Searchers looking for the missing girl were then able to go and uncover the body.
Jessica and Tracy were immediately taken into custody, while Clint, Theresa, Dawn, Patrick and Aaron were all expedited from Florida.
Twelve jurors and three alternates were chosen in Bloomsburg, 105 miles east of Clearfield. They chose out-of-county jurors because Jessica’s lawyer argued that there was too much publicity in Clearfield.
THE CONVICTIONS
Patrick Lucas and Clint Canaway were convicted in August 1998. They each got six months in a juvenile facility for hindering apprehension, burglary (for breaking into the campers), and conspiracy.
In Septe
mber, after four months behind bars, Dawn Lanager and Theresa Wolfe were tried separately. Dawn, the girl who had actually lured Kimmy into the hands of death, got off with probation. She was released the same day as her trial. Theresa Wolfe, the one who fashioned the rope into a noose and stood by while Kimmy was lynched, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
Tracy Lewis, who was already on parole for punching her boyfriend’s six-year-old, was sentenced from five to twenty years for reckless endangerment and aggravated assault. With good behaviour, she could be free any day now.
Theresa, Clint, Dawn and Patrick are already free
However, Jessica Holtmeyer and Aaron Straw will be spending the rest of their lives behind bars, with no possibility of parole. Jessica Holtmeyer has the parents of the girl she killed to thank for not receiving the death penalty. Shortly after the jury found Holtmeyer guilty of first-degree murder in the brutal killing of Kimberly Jo Dotts, the father, said, ‘I believe everybody deserves a second chance.’
Hannah Ocuish
Hannah Ocuish was the youngest person to be hanged in America, she was twelve years and nine months old and described as a half-breed Italian girl. She was executed on December 20, 1786 for the murder of a six-year-old girl whom she had beaten to death following an argument.
Hannah was born on the east coast of the United States in 1774 into a very poor family. She grew up being bounced from foster home to foster home and was believed to be developmentally disabled. Her mother was a full-blooded Pequot Indian and an alcoholic. Her father abandoned the family when Hannah was only a toddler, and it is well known that she had an unstable home life.
Hannah was only six years old when she had her first run-in with the police. Although still very young she was crafty enough to concoct a plan that would get her family some much-needed money. Using her wily skills she managed to convince her eight-year-old brother to join her in a robbery. Their target was a small girl, who they beat badly and then stole her locket. But the unfortunate siblings were found out and the people of the town ordered that they were made to serve a life of servitude.
When Hannah was twelve she was serving as a slave to a rich lady who lived in New London, Connecticut. The lady was renowned for being a pre-teen terror and the children in her neighbourhood were said to have been scared of her overpowering nature.
In the summer of 1786 the fields of New London were full of beautiful ripe strawberries. Hannah’s mistress gave her permission to go picking one lovely sunny afternoon, in a strawberry patch quite near the slave’s quarters. This is where the tough little Hannah ran into a rather snooty, overindulged girl who was about half her age. The child’s name was Eunice Bolles and Hannah was determined to get her hands on her basket which was already full of lovely juicy berries. Little by little she browbeat Eunice into giving her the basket, for which Hannah was duly punished. Five weeks later – Miss Hannah Ocuish struck back!
HANNAH’S REVENGE
On her way back from school one morning, Eunice passed by the house where Hannah lived. On seeing the girl, Hannah grabbed a cloth from the kitchen and a rock from the garden. Eunice was about a hundred feet from the front porch, as Hannah ran up to meet her with a big false grin on her face. She cunningly lured the hapless Eunice into a secluded area behind a fence and proceeded to hit her a few dozen times by swinging the rock inside the kitchen cloth. With her victim already close to death, Hannah strangled Eunice with one of her shoelaces and then buried her under a pile of heavy stones. However, there is a possibility that the wretched Eunice was still alive at this point.
As soon as Eunice’s family realized that she was missing they alerted the police, who immediately started to scour the neighbourhood. Her body was found the very same day. She had been very badly maimed and Hannah was an immediate suspect. Hannah’s story was that she had seen four boys who she didn’t recognize trespassing in her master’s garden. She had shouted at the boys to leave and before they ran away she had heard the sound of crashing rocks. Eventually, however, she broke down and confessed to the murder.
She was sentenced to death by hanging, and still holds the record today for being the country’s youngest female executed at the age of twelve years and nine months. She was sent by Ezra Stiles, the president, to her execution on December 20, 1786.
Yale minister, Henry Channing, was invited to speak at Hannah’s execution. She was put on public display and reprimanded by the clergyman while the remainder of the community cheered. Revd. Channing then read a passage from the Bible as a terrified Hannah stepped up to the gallows to meet her gruesome fate.
‘Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell.’
(Proverbs 23:13,14)
Jon Venables And Robert Thompson
Although both Jon and Robert were considered to be delinquents, nothing in their past lives indicated that they could be so viciously cruel and to someone so young.
Venables and Thompson had both been playing truant from school one chilly afternoon in February 1993. The two schoolboys were close friends, as well as being disreputable troublemakers from broken homes.
Robert Thompson was the tough one, a purebred mischief-maker, with an appearance to match. He had a shaven head and was rather stocky in build. In comparison, Jon Venables was much thinner and rather fragile in appearance, and was far more sensitive and naive than his friend.
On the morning of Friday, February 12, Jon Venables left his Merseyside home for school. He had a note in his bag from his mother asking if he could take the class gerbils home so he could look after them during the school holidays. On his route to school he passed his friend Robert Thompson, who was hanging around with his younger brother. Both Jon and Robert disliked school intensely and felt like outcasts in the classroom. They had both been kept behind a grade, which only seemed to make the matter worse, probably due to the fact that they felt ashamed and different from their fellow classmates. As a result of this they became expert at being truants.
The pair of boys decided to spend the morning at the Bootle Strand shopping centre, with the sole intention of stealing. Sales assistants watched the pair carefully, as their school uniforms were a sure sign they were bunking off school, which usually meant they were looking for trouble. They lurked around the counters and waited until the salesperson turned away before stuffing anything they could into their pockets. They stole numerous items including batteries, enamel paint, pens and pencils, a Troll Doll, some fruit and sweets, make-up and other small trinkets. They usually threw away most of what they stole, for the stealing was the fun part.
After a couple of hours the boys became bored with their ‘shopping’ spree. They sat down and discussed what would make their outing more exciting and came upon the idea of stealing a ‘little person’. They considered that would be much more fun.
It was a little after 3.00 p.m., about the time they would normally leave school, when Venables and Thompson strolled nonchalantly through the shopping centre, looking for a small, unsupervised child. Perhaps in their poor, sick minds, they felt by doing this it would prove that they were no longer babies themselves.
While in the T J Hughes department store, a woman noticed that her three-year-old daughter and two-year-old son were playing with a couple of older boys. The boys, Jon and Robert, were kneeling down opening and closing purses, which held the younger children’s attention. She called them back but it wasn’t long before they strayed off again to join the older boys. When the woman had finished paying for her purchases, she found her daughter and asked her where her young brother had gone. ‘Gone outside with the boys,’ her daughter answered. In a state of panic, the woman rushed out of the shop calling her child’s name. She saw Jon and Robert encouraging her son to follow them, but when Jon saw the woman following them, they froze and sent the small boy back to his mother. Jon and Robert quickly disappeared from sight and pondered on what to
do next.
THE ABDUCTION
A little while later they found exactly what they were looking for, a small boy – James Bulger – playing alone with some cigarette butts in an ashtray outside a butcher’s shop in the centre. Baby James had only just wandered away from his mother’s side minutes before Jon and Robert approached him. Denise Bulger was normally a very vigilant mother, she had lost her first child during pregnancy and she didn’t want anything to happen to her precious son. But James was tired and had started to get fractious, and rather than have him squirming and whining in her arms, she felt it would be quite safe to leave him by the door of the butcher’s shop for a moment on his own.
Denise chatted quite happily to some people in the queue and momentarily her concentration was off her little boy. In fact it wasn’t until she had completed her purchase that Denise Bulger noticed her son had gone missing. She called out for him in the shop and asked all the strangers around her if they had seen a two-year-old with blond hair wearing a blue anorak. Denise became frantic and headed straight for the security office, who announced the disappearance of James Bulger over the loudspeakers. She made a careful description of the child saying that he was wearing a grey sweatshirt, a blue anorak, and his T-shirt had the word ‘Noddy’ printed on it. Initially the security guards were not too alarmed as it was quite normal for young children to get lost in the crowds at the shopping centre. But then when no one responded to their announcement, the alarm bells started to ring.
Denise and the guards searched for James throughout the centre until 4.15 p.m., at which time they called the police to report that he was missing. By the time the police arrived to interview Denise Bulger, Jon, Robert and James were already about a mile away from the shopping centre.
