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

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