Killer kids: The most notorious children murderers

Norman A. Sylvia/Journal-Bulletin/AP Photo

Back in 1989, 15-year-old Rhode Island teen Craig Price brutally stabbed and killed 39-year-old Joan Heaton and her two daughters, 10-year-old Jennifer and 8-year-old Melissa. Price was already a suspect in a previous murder investigation and when police came to question him, he was found with wounds on his body and the murder weapons in his room with dried blood. Before his 16th birthday, Craig was convicted on 4 counts of murder as a minor which meant he would be released by the age of 21. However, he was sentenced to an additional 10-25 years in prison thanks to a group called Citizens Opposed to the Release of Craig Price.

New York Daily News

Notorious killer Willie Bosket was troubled from the moment he was born as his father was also a murderer serving life in prison in Milwaukee. Bosket committed dozens of crimes around New York City and eventually his first murder by the time he was 15-years-old. He first shot and killed two men during separate robbery attempts back in 1978. He also killed a transit employee before getting caught. Bosket pleaded guilty to the murders but since he was only 15, he was tried as a minor and received 5 years in a youth facility. His light sentence would bring about historic change as New York would become the first state to change juvenile laws to allow kids as young as 13 to be tried as adults. It was called the Willie Bosket law. Upon being released, Bosket continued a life of crime going in and out of jail until finally receiving a life sentence in 1989.

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In the winter of 1993, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10-years-old at the time, became the youngest convicted murderers in England. On Feb. 12, 1993, the boys abducted 2-year-old James Bulger from a local shopping mall. The boys brought him to a local railroad track where they brutally beat the boy before using an iron bar to do most of the damage. They finally left him to die on the railroad tracks. Somehow despite the grisly murder, both boys were released from prison in 2001 when they turned 18-years-old and now live under new identities.

Cole County Sheriff's Department/AP Photo

15-year-old Missouri teen Alyssa Bustamante, showed all the signs of a troubled teen from cutting herself to attempting suicide. With her depression and deeply-rooted mental issues unresolved, the emotions grew into anger one day in 2009. Bustamante lured her neighbor, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten into the woods where she strangled her before slitting her neck and wrists. She buried Olten in the ground in one of two holes she prepared earlier in the week. Alyssa would eventually plead guilty to the murder claiming that she wanted to know what it was like to kill someone. Alyssa was charged with first-degree murder and tried as an adult getting a life imprisonment sentence.

Daily News archives

Beginning in 1871, when he was only 11-years-old, James Pomeroy began luring younger boys into remote areas where he would torture them by beating them or cutting them with a knife. As Pomeroy's family moved around Massachusetts, James continued his attacks on young boys. He was eventually arrested and tried in juvenile court where he was sentenced and sent to a reform school. When he turned 14, James was sent to live with his mother in South Boston when soon after he murdered 10-year-old girl Katie Curran in March of 1874. Pomeroy was sentenced to death but it was would be overturned and changed to life in prison shortly after.

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On July 28, 1999, Lionel Tate's mother was babysitting 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick when she decided to go upstairs to watch television. Once she left the room, 13-year-old Lionel began abusing the young girl mostly by stomping on her. After nearly 45 minutes with the girl, Lionel went to get his mom after she stopped breathing and blamed it on a wrestling accident. Tate was sentenced to life in prison, becoming the youngest American ever to face the charge. He's seen here after receiving his sentence as his defense team comforts him. Since mental competency was not conducted before the trial, the charge was overturned as Tate was released from prison only 3 years later with one year house arrest and 10 year?s probation.