Children Who Kill: Profiles of Pre-Teen and Teenage Killers Read Online Free PDF

the increasingly nauseous and swollen Cathleen so Cheryl went back into the marital bedroom to keep the peace.
    James became increasingly jealous of Cheryl, punching her in the mouth when he discovered that she’d written a boy at school a Valentine card. He also punched her in the face for putting a pretty sash around her waist to brighten up her school uniform. Unfortunately it’s quite usual for authoritarian parents to try to control a teenager’s sexuality in this way. He started listening in to her phone calls, just as he’d oncelistened in to her mother’s phone calls – and she often had to end phone conversations with female friends because her father wanted her to take a nap with him.

James is hurt
    When Cheryl was fourteen, her father badly damaged his legs in a work-related fall and it was feared he’d never walk again. Cheryl now had to take care of him and Cathleen and be a surrogate mother to six- year-old JoAnn.
    Frightened and in pain, James became even more difficult to live with and his need for control increased. He told his son Jimmy what type of haircut to get, what to wear and what occupation he should be following . Jimmy turned eighteen and left, vowing never to return. But he continued to see his dying mother, though both hid these meetings from his father. Cheryl also saw her brother occasionally and admitted that she missed him a lot.

I’ll be watching you
    James now installed an elaborate security system so that he could see into every room and corridor of the bungalow. He also hid a gun – including one submachine gun – in every room.
    Cheryl tried harder and harder to please her dad. Visitors to the house noted that he’d punch her andpull her hair in supposed play, but that his actions clearly hurt her. The abuse would end when Cheryl hugged him and said ‘Daddy, I love you.’ He’d then rub her chest or entwine his fingers through her hair. Various people saw Cheryl lying on top of her father – and one relative was perturbed to find them lying like this, fully dressed, under a sheet on the marital bed.
    One of Cheryl’s schoolfriends told a school counsellor that she thought Cheryl was being abused by her dad – but the counsellor said that Cheryl would have to come and see her. Like all abused children, Cheryl would have feared both her father’s revenge and her own public humiliation, so she didn’t approach the counsellor. (At least a dozen adults strongly suspected that Cheryl was being abused by her father – but this young girl was the only one who had the courage to go to the authorities.)
    Cheryl’s world remained very small. She wasn’t allowed to date or to wear nail varnish or make-up. If she went to see a film with a friend, her father would follow her and sit a few rows behind.

Stunted development
    Unable to grow up, Cheryl remained immature. Friends noticed that she often looked frightened. Her father constantly warned her not to talk to boys at school – and if she went over to a friend’s house to get her hair cut, he would time her so that she didn’t stay out too long. Cheryl was virtually running the Piersonhousehold but James still found fault with her and a visitor was shocked to hear him refer to his daughter as ‘a little cunt.’

Motherless
    In February 1985 Cathleen finally died. Now Cheryl and JoAnn were left alone with their grieving father. Cheryl had to do all the cooking and cleaning every night when she came home from class though kindly neighbours sometimes helped by supplying the family with meals. But love at last entered her life when one of the boys at her school, Rob Cuccio, comforted her over the loss of her mum.

Rob Cuccio
    Rob was the son of a retired detective and a bank clerkess. They were a religious family who taught catechism at church.
    James Pierson was very unhappy at the prospect of Cheryl dating Rob. He made up lots of reasons why the young lovers shouldn’t see each other and finally insisted they sat in his