8 Heinous Crimes Committed By Children

They were called fiendish youths in the 1800 and 1900s, but they were simply children who sadistically hurt and sometimes murdered other people, both children and adults. We read about these types of cases in today’s society, and many people comment that these terrible things never happened in the past. That is far from true. There are numerous accounts of violent children from over 100 years ago.

1. Planned the Murder

In 1890, 12-year-old John Wesley Elkins confessed to planning the murder of his parents.

“On the night of the murder, he took a rifle… and placed the gun within about two feet of his father’s face and fired. He then got a club and beat out his mother’s brains. Then he dressed the baby and leaving the house, told the neighbors that burglars had killed his parents.”

The boy was given a life sentence in the state of Iowa [1]

2. Held Faces to Burning Logs

It was winter, 1891, and 12-year-old Freddy Hackbreath and his friend, August Preise, were out ice skating in Milwaukee. As the two boys played, three older boys came along and grabbed them.

The older boys took the two 12-year-olds to a fire pit and took turns holding their faces to a burning log, saying they wanted to “make n___s of them.”

The children’s faces were badly burned, leaving them disfigured for life, and the older boys remained unknown. [2]

3. Lit a Fire Under Her

Catharine McCormick, 38-years-old, took a seat on a park bench in the Bronx as she waited for her train to arrive.

As she waited, a 15-year-old boy snuck up behind her with a handful of newspapers. He piled the newspapers beneath her seat and lit them. The boy ran from the scene as the fire rose up and Catharine’s gown caught on fire.

Catharine screamed and several men ran to her rescue, covering her with their coats to put out the fire.

“The woman was in pitiable condition. She was terribly blistered from head to foot. Her hair was scorched entirely away. She was just able to whisper her name and address. Dr. Stewart, the ambulance surgeon who rushed her to Fordham Hospital, said she would probably die.”

The boy who lit the woman on fire was spotted by one of the witnesses to the crime and he was quickly caught. [3]

4. Stripped and Hung

In Houston, 1883, young Harmon Adams was playing with a friend when he decided to do something terrible. He stripped his friend, stuck a lasso around the other boy’s neck, and hung him from a tree limb. According to the child, he wanted to see if the buzzards would eat his friend. [4]

5. Brutally Murdered and Sunk

In 1898, the body of a 5-year-old was discovered in a Philadelphia creek.

“The body of the child when found was weighted heavily by two stones, one about his neck and the other around his ankles. His skull was crushed in and there was a knife thrust just above his heart, and similar wounds on his breast, side and forehead, while on one side of his face was a long cut extending from below the eye to the chin.”

Fifteen-year-old Samuel Henderson was accused of murder and arrested. [5]

6. Disemboweled a Baby

Boys were not the only ones committing heinous crimes. In 1895, 14-year-old Anna Bell of South Carolina was arrested for murder.

According to one report, the girl was babysitting a 3-month-old baby and a 6-year-old boy. For some unknown reason, the girl disemboweled the baby and then hung the boy over the well and burned him with a hot poker in order to get him to say that he had killed the baby. The girl then retrieved the parents and claimed that the boy had murdered the baby.

However, the girl had a bad history. Two months previous to this incident, she had been caught digging up a dead body and stealing its breast pin. Also, when she was 11-years-old, the girl had been accused of killing a different baby, but never faced charges because of her young age. [6]

7. Fed Baby Broken Glass

All too often in the past, babies were the victims of crimes committed by other children. For example, in Virginia, 1904, 12-year-old Willie White had to help take care of his baby half-brother. The boy resented the baby and his step-mother, and one day he fed the baby broken glass. The baby died shortly afterwards.

When questioned by the police, the boy said that he wanted to poison his entire family, but was unable to get a hold of any poison. [7]

8. Poured Gasoline Over Another Boy

In 1905, Charles Christian, 11-years-old, was playing in the Chicago streets with a bunch of other boys when another boy, McLain, walked up to him. McLain was carrying a can of gasoline and threatened to pour it on Charles.

No one knows what the disagreement was about, but McLain followed through on his threat and poured the gasoline on Charles. He then lit a match.

“Before the unfortunate lad could get away, he touched a lighted match to his trousers, which were soaked with the fluid. Instantly the boy was enveloped in flames. He fell to the ground screaming in agony and fighting the fire. Many persons ran to his rescue and succeeded in extinguishing the flames. Every stitch of clothing was burned from young Christian’s back. The boy will die.” [8]