The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case

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a b c d Scott, Shirley (29 August 2009). "Death of James Bulger: Pt 4, Ten-Year-Old Suspects". truTV.com. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008 . Retrieved 4 March 2010. a b Scott, Shirley (29 August 2009). "Death of James Bulger: Pt 1, The Video Tape". truTV.com. Archived from the original on 21 January 2009 . Retrieved 29 August 2009. a b Mikkelson, Barbara (21 July 2001). "Murder of Jamie Bulger". Snopes.com . Retrieved 26 May 2022. Coslett, Paul (25 November 1993). "Lessons of an avoidable tragedy". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Jon Venables jailed for two years over child porn". The Independent. London. 23 July 2010. Archived from the original on 25 July 2010 . Retrieved 24 July 2010.

Like anyone my age who was born in England, I grew up knowing about the Bulger murder and the national conversation/panic that it triggered. Reading this book was harder than I expected, and the very factual style of writing brought home not just the horror of the murder, but the terrible circumstances in which the two murderers (and their families) had been raised. Uncropped Mothercare CCTV still of the abduction, showing the timestamp at 15:42:32". Archived from the original on 6 March 2012 . Retrieved 15 January 2012. This book was first published in 1994 and was updated in 2011. Two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, had killed two-year-old, James Bulger, in February 1993. It was the most horrific and evil killing. It is immediately obvious, from the Preface, that the author is looking at why the two boys did what they did. What would make two 10-year-old boys do something like this? There must be a reason other than being just pure evil. This is not sensationalist tabloid fodder. He says ‘…Venables had seemed to me to be the more disturbed of the pair’. The teachers said that Robert was ‘…the dominant one in the friendship, and though he was quiet and seldom a problem in class…’ They carried on to say that he ‘was cunning and a liar’. City man defends decision to publish photos of Bulger killer". Express & Echo. 5 May 2011. Archived from the original on 8 May 2011 . Retrieved 6 May 2011.Bulger's father visits murder scene". BBC. 4 February 2003. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008.

Laing, Aislinn (10 March 2010). "Bulger killer Jon Venables posed 'trivial' risk to the public, said psychiatrist". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 13 March 2010 . Retrieved 10 March 2010. I did wonder about James' mum Denise though, the torture she would have endured not only with losing her son in such a terrible way, but in also losing her husband while he shut down and couldn't open up to her. So many mums have cheeky little kids who run off in the exciting atmosphere of a shopping centre, but you don't expect them to be abducted by other children. Firstly let me say, as a mother it is impossible for me to review this book without being emotional about it. This book is a true horror novel, and what is worse, it is a horror novel because it is a true story. On 24 November 1993 Thompson and Venables were found guilty, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. Sereny, Gitta (6 February 1994). "Re-examining the evidence". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 April 2010 . Retrieved 10 March 2010.However. As much as he tried to "pitch" for the boys, i did not buy it. I had finished reading Denise's book prior to this one and no way in hell I would look at these boys as victims of their circumstances. Obviously, I don't call for any lynching but I do believe they were let off way too easily. And yes, while they may not have wanted to murder James the way they did, I am convinced they wanted to murder him "somehow" and the way it happened was possibly just a coincidence. They had several opportunities to stop what they were doing and they never did. Edwards, Richard (4 March 2010). "James Bulger case: timeline of key quotations". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010 . Retrieved 15 April 2023. The most interesting part of this book was the way in which the author examines the demonization of Jon and Bobby by the media and their own community. David James Smith looks at the family dynamics of both boys as well as the social undercurrents of their community to try and explain why this crime was committed. Smith includes a chronological list of child murderers to disprove the notion that the murder of James Bulger was a singular event. Smith also discounts the idea that some children are 'born evil'. Instead, the author suggests, they are created through repeated cycles of abuse, humiliation and powerlessness. Spence, Alex (21 December 2010). "Profile: Mr Justice Bean". The Times. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016 . Retrieved 7 March 2016.