Free BORN TO BE KILLERS (True Crime) by Ray Black

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 September, 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