James Bulger

James Patrick Bulger

     On March 16th, 1990 a boy named James Bulger was born in Liverpool England to mom Denise Fergus and to dad Ralph.  On Friday, February 12th, 1993 the family was living in Kirkby Merseyside when Denise and James went to the New Strand Shopping Center. Denise had taken her eyes off of James for only a moment to purchase what they had gotten from the butcher shop, but when she looked again James was gone.  Two hours after James went missing Newly promoted detective Jim Fitzsimmons was the led detective on the case and found the CCTV footage. In the footage, you can see a younger guy walking with James out of the store. The officers also saw that it was not just one guy, on some of the other footage that they have there are two young guys. And they are not just at the shopping center to shop, they were skipping school, and stealing things. The detectives notice something else as well. The two boys were looking around at other children, not just James. The two guys had tried to take a different two-year-old but the mother of the child had seen what was going on and stopped them before they could leave. The detectives were hoping that it was just a couple of teen boys playing a very rude joke and they believed that James would come home safe in a couple of days. But that never happened. 

    Two days after James went missing from the shopping center his body was found on a railway line by a 13-year-old boy and his brother. When the detectives got there they found a sight that they would never forget, There on the tracks was little two-year-old James. Not only was he beat up really bad but a train had cam through and cut him in half. The Pathologist for the case was Alan Williams, He said that James had suffered so many injures that he could not determine what injuries caused his death.  Altogether James had 42 injuries. Among those 42 injuries he had 10 skull fractures and the foreskin on his penis was forcibly pulled back.  As the police were doing all they could to try and find the two young men behind this a Woman was at home watching the news, A image of one of the boys and recognized him. She recognized him as 10-year-old Jon Venables and she knew that Jon and his friend Robert Thompson were skipping school that day so she called the police.  The officers wasted no time with this tip, just six days after James was brutally murdered the police were on their way to the boy's house, and by this time they had already talked to over 60 kids. But none of the officers were ready when they pulled into the houses. Phil Roberts was leading the team that was going over to Robert Thompson's house. When they got there Robert was all ready for school, the detective sat him down and told him that he was there because of a little boy. Robert said I know, Then the detective said that he thought that he had something to do with it he started to cry, but no tears came out, he was scared. Robert only lived a few hundred yards from where James had been found.  They arrested Robert and him and his mother went to Walton lane police station. 

   While Phil Roberts team was talking to Robert another team was on their way to Jon Venables house a few miles away. They arrested Jon and took him to the lower lane police station.  At first, both boys were saying that they had nothing to do with it and that they were not even at the shopping center.  In the second interview with Robert, Robert admitted that both he and Jon took James, but he said that it was all Jons fault and that he did not kill him.  Jon on the other hand was not as helpful for four interviews he lied to the officers, he was telling them that he was not at the shopping center. But halfway through day two of being questioned the detectives decided to tell Jon that Robert had said that they were at the shopping center that day.  Jon said, " but honestly mum we never grabbed a kid." 

  Very slowly the truth would come out. at first, it was like a game of cat and mouse, the boys would not tell the truth at first but eventually, they would. The police found out that from the shopping center the boys walked to a canal where the boys said they made him look into the water hoping that he would drown. But James did not fall into the water so the boys kept walking. Over 30 people had seen the three boys walking, not only were they walking but James was crying and all of those people did nothing. Soon after the canal, the boys made it to the train tracks. They had thrown bricks at James, hit him with a metal bar, and he had been kicked in the face.  

  The public was very angry so angry that the first time the boys were in court there was almost a riot. The public hated the two 10-year-olds, but 9 months after the killing of James the trial began. The prosecution did not have to prove that Jon and Robert had killed James, what they had to prove was that they knew the difference between right and wrong and if they knew what they did was bad. The jury found them guilty and they were given the maximum which is being detained until her majesty pleasure. Jon and Robert were let out when they turned 18 and the court has given them new identities to keep them protected. And that's the last we know about the two men.  

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/20/james-bulger-murder-25-years-on-mother-denise-fergus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrkQe4tyJnQ

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/detective-who-led-james-bulger-23625053