Children Who Kill: Profiles of Pre-Teen and Teenage Killers (11 page)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 end 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.