Bad Seed or Abused Boy?
R
emember the chilling movie, “The Bad Seed” starring the blonde, pigtailed Patty McCormack? She was a beautiful child but so devoid of feeling she randomly killed people she didn’t like.
Could that be what authorities in Arizona are facing with the 8 year old boy who confessed to killing his father and a family friend?
We’ve watched this story play out for about a month now and I’ve hesitated to write about it because I thought any day now we’d learn the awful truth behind what motivated this child. How does a young boy pick up a 22 caliber single action rifle and pump four bullets into his own father and then six more bullets into a man who rents a room in the family home?
Two dead and a little boy left squirming in a police interrogation room with no familiar face to guide him on how to answer the officer’s kind but relentless questions. Police say the boy’s step-mother gave them permission to question the child alone.
Everyone who’s even peripherally involved in law enforcement knows you don’t question a defenseless suspect without a lawyer present or at the very least, in the case of a child, without a parent in the room. It will only come back to bite you in the end. But let’s put aside the short-sightedness of those well meaning officers who were just trying to get at the truth.
The boy first told a story of finding both men nearly dead inside the house when he came home from school. Then he admitted he had shot them to “end their suffering” and as a child who had been taught the finer points of hunting by his Dad this seemed plausible. But something made the officers keep pushing and in less than an hour the tiny suspect in the chair began to crumble and he admitted the unthinkable.
The boy’s birth mother lives in Mississippi and so immediately after the deaths the child, who was not considered a suspect, was allowed to spend that awful night with his grandparents. Upon learning of his confession later in the week his grandmother was quoted in a court document as saying, “I knew this would happen! They were too hard on him,” a reference to the boy’s father and step-mother.
Indeed, the boy had told police he got in trouble “most of the time” and had been spanked “five times by his step-mother” the night before the fatal shooting. And there are reports that the boy told Child Protective Services that he’d kept a written tally of every single time he had been spanked. He reportedly decided that 1,000 spankings would be his limit and after that he vowed to do something. Interestingly, the Arizona Republic reports that the list of items taken from the boy’s home did not include any such tally page of spankings.
One thousand whacks might explain the boy’s explosive response, I suppose. But something tells me there’s more to the back story. Was the other man in the house – the boarder – responsible for some of the boy’s angst? Was their some sort of sexual activity going on in the home that prompted this deadly reaction? Might it have been a horrible attempt to get attention from his absentee mother?
Or maybe the kid is one of those ‘bad seeds’ we’ve heard about? A forensic psychiatrist pal of mine says, “No way.”
Dr. Keith Ablow has evaluated many killers and has testified as an expert witness countless times. He reminds us that other children of this young age have inexplicably confessed to murders they did not commit and the system should proceed carefully with this child. (It seems the system is. Multiple mental evaluations have been ordered for the boy before the courts decide exactly how to proceed.)
If the child is guilty, Dr. Ablow says, there could be physical reasons for what he did. Maybe he has a brain tumor or another medical problem, such as reaction to medication or an infection of the cerebrospinal fluid that coats the brain. But chances are, says Dr. Ablow, the trigger for the murders will be found somewhere in the boy’s emotional pathology.
“In sixteen years practicing psychiatry, I have never met a murderer who was born evil. In every case, I eventually learned the circumstances that extinguished that person’s empathy.”
So we are left wondering what could have happened to a boy in just 8 short years that would cause him to loose all empathy, become detached enough and desperate enough to pick up a rifle and pump ten bullets into two people.
I think it’s really important we learn the why of these murders – if only to help other hopeless children who see no other way out but violence.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree. It’s hard to imagine what must have happened to him to make him want to kill and actually do it.
Note: The book “The Bad Seed” was written by William March. It’s fiction but it was based on a real little girl from Mobile, AL.
I need to begin by relating a story that happened some twenty plus years ago. We had some friends we played cards with and my friend’s wife was with the child welfare department. We were at our Saturday night spades game when she got an emergency call and we all rode with her on the call. She had to remove two boys, aged 2 and 4, from their home that night. Both the young boys had cigarette burns on their arms and legs and it appears this was how the parents disciplined them. Of course I had to watch from a distance but the one thing I did notice it that the boys continued to cry for their parents as they were being taken away. These kids seems completely unaware that they were being abused. Had not some neighbors who noticed the problem and phoned authorities, who knows how long it could have gone on and what would have become of the boys.
I tend to believe that all behavior is a learned response from interaction with parents, friends, teachers, etc. Surely the possibility of medical reasons could be a factor, but I also believe that we are born with distinct personality traits also, so although rare, the possibility of being born a “bad seed” exists.
As related in my initial story, children have an inherent trust of their parents and other relatives, that is why so much abuse goes without being reported, the children do not understand. I believe that even if one is born a bad seed, that it would still take severe circumstances to turn a child into a cold blooded killer. Never hesitate to report suspected child abuse, even if an investigation turns out to be negative it is better than overlooking a potentially harmful situation.
If a child is born to parents that have a violent history, whether it be physical or emotional…would their children lean towards this?
I know that alot is learned behavior….but I also know that mental illness tendancies can be passed. Like alcoholism..the gene is passed..but it has to be acted on first…if you will….to open it up or get it started.
Has there been any other indication that there was trouble in this little boys life? Was he showing any violent tendancies before or acting out?
Hey – glad to see you on tv tonight with JVM – you need to be on tv more!
You bring up some good points Jan. I;ve been pondering this since I heard about it recently. So many questions but not enough answers. What I do not understand is why a boy of this age was taught how to shoot a gun…and ultimately used it to fire 10 shots to kill his own father and the other guy. That in itself is scary. I do not have children but I know I would not let my kids learn how to use a gun much less have access to one! Besides, I personally do not believe in guns…however that is because of my upbringing in a country where guns are banned.
This kid needs to be punished but how scary it was seeing him with those 2 police officers with NO lawyer present. I think that was totally wrong of the police. Maybe this kid was abused, maybe he was verbally abused..so many things could have happened. Was he a “bad seed”? Will we ever really know the answers to these questions? Eeveryone’s points above all make sense….this is one tough case that will be a nightmare for all involved. What is going to happen when this goes to trial??? Part of me is saying, blame the dad for letting him have access to a gun and the other part of me is saying..is this kid sick??? Whatever way we look at it, it;s horrendous what happened and hopefully this will teach parents a lesson on how to make sure their kids do not have access to guns, let alone teach them to use them. My blood is boiling just thinking of this.
Although I understand what you wrote Lyn, I have to tell you that both of my boys have shot guns. They were raised around them and know how to handle them. We keep them locked up and have trigger locks from the sherriff's department on them. They are not loaded.
Is is sad to think that a child at such a young age could have that much anger or fear in them to do such a terrible thing. Obviously the gun was easily available for the child to get ahold of. Which in itself is frightening. Still I wonder if there is some under-lying circumstance that is involved here.
I do not believe that a child is born evil. If so what is there to determine if a child is born evil or good?
Our lives are comprised of learned behavior just as abuse or domestic violence is learned. But we also make wrong decisions upon impulse .We were all born into a world of choices. I believe that something or "things" learned whether known or unknown to parents or society could have a major role to play in the choices that a child or adult makes based on learned responses. And… as great a role as parents play we are wrong to conclude that the parent is at fault for an individual's behavior. That individual might have seen another crime and it felt good to him/her and they explore it. A series of unfairness, hurts, wrongs, sights, rejections, or selfish desires that went wrong can lead an individual to making wrong choices that result in murder, robbery, rape, domestic violence….and the list goes on.
Albuquerque Journal Reader Dr. M. B. writes:
" Dear Diane, you write well but seem awfully naive to me. As a special education teacher of emotionally disturbed and behavior disordered children I taught 14 children who had murdered before they came to my special ed. class. The youngest murderer I taught at 5th grade had killed four people when he was only 5 by purposefully setting their house on fire. He hated them, and it was premeditated. Another boy purposefully drowned his cousin at the age of 7 by forcing his head under water. The cousin was six. Usually the murderers I taught were in their early teens, 12 or 13, but none of those crimes was an accident. I later taught at the Juvenile detention center, (jail for the hard core kids) most of whom had homicidal tendencies documented in their early year records.
You may wonder about individual motivation, abuse or other psychological factors, but the usual bottom line is a gun of some sort.
One student I know of shot his father with an arrow, broadhead of course, but that too was premeditated. We need to keep guns out of houses.
There is little or no treatment for children who murder. We cannot send them to jail, and psych. services are limited by insurance companies. There are "therapeutic foster homes" out here in Albuquerque for a limited number of kids, but basically the public is uninformed. Our society is unable to provide appropriate interventions, and these kids don't have a good outcome. But they are on the playground at schools, with sealed criminal records, and it is something you might want to investigate further.
Gee, Doc – I would LOVE to investigate this further. I know that in the past when I've wanted to get particulars on a case of a child I've been completely shut down by state officials who say they cannot discuss particular cases. suggestions? Let's dialog personally, please.
Jeff – I always enjoy your posts! And I couldn't agree more about reporting suspected child abuse. ~ DD
I can't find any reports of past bad behavior in this little boy's past. That doesn't mean he wasn't the victim of abuse. Maybe he just held it in so long THIS is how it exploded out. Maybe it was a false confession? Watch this space.
Lyn – you know the police dept. says it got the step-mother's permission to interview the boy without a lawyer. Hope they got that in writing, eh? Still, the cops should know to get a lawyer for the kid.
But, also – I have to tell you. As a kid growing up in Albuquerque I was taught to shoot a gun (and loved it!) As part of the teaching we were always instructed in safety and my uncle who taught us never left guns out for kids to stumble across. Its all about adult supervision, isn't it?
I guess it is Diane. I am very very much against guns…I know that sounds terribly naive of me…the kid from Britain where guns are banned..but guess what????? Britain's crime rate (re: guns) is incredibly low! Doesn;t that say something?? It does to me. I hate organizations like the NRA too..sorry Jan…just don;t see why kids should be taught to shoot guns, especially at a young age. Regarding this case though…I do wonder if there is alot more to this story than meets the eye. I can;t believe that he just got the gun and shot it…what made him do it? Something did.
Albuquerque Journal Reader Timothy B. writes:
“Genesis 4:8 is one place you could look to for a partial answer and then go to Romans 3:23 moving over to Genesis 38:21-31 and then look in on Deuteronomy 5:16. There are hundreds more that I could give that are written down in a book which so far I have just selected males, there are plenty that contain the female gender the most prominent two would be; 2Kings 9:30 and Genesis 19:26.
I have always enjoyed reading the articles that get published in the newspaper and haven’t been disappointed once because of you high level of education and experience and have thought of emailing you in the past yet I didn’t until this time. The damaging evidence of the human family is now getting near the end not because of the brutality done upon another nor upon oneself but it will be over because the experiment put before the creatures by the Creator needs to end. History has proved generation after generation failure after failure, ego after ego, double-dealing after double-dealing, confusing after confusing, battle after battle, anger after anger and the list goes on to include the rest of the alphabet but I won’t have to for you can get your own words. Because a coin has two flat sides, the one side negative and the other is positive, it really looks like the negative lands face up more often than the positive side.
You give ample reasons why he might have shot those two men and I won’t add any to it for the first two paragraphs do that, I do want you to know there is going go be more in the years that follow this year. Matthew 24 is the warning that most don’t want to because it reveals how terrible the world’s population will be. Can it be stopped? No, is my answer because in the fifty-seven years I’ve been a resident of earth life hasn’t gotten better, nothing will improve until the rot and rust is washed away. I will end this email with a powerful website that you probably won’t look at and that’s okay, it will be your decision to or not to. Go to http://www.pacinst.com and know what I know, get a little fear for the future it will be the healthiest thing you can do for yourself.”
Albuquerque Journal Reader Michele B, Phd. writes:
“Dr. Ablow may have never met a murderer who was “born evil” but that is really impossible to ascertain, as everyone has challenges growing up. But I have met two, both boys who seemed inherently evil. The real question should be, can a sociopath be rehabilitated? I think NOT! Those who murder and show some remorse should be afforded treatment, shorter sentences, and eventual release. The true sociopath, who has no capacity for empathy, should not be allowed into society, ever. This is a brain abnormality for sure, perhaps decreased frontal lobe development, from what I’ve seen. There is truly no ability to predict consequences other than immediate gratification.”