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Killers By 10: The Murder of James Bulger · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Discretion is advised. This is ten minute murder. John Venables and Robert Thompson
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were released from a British detention facility in two thousand and one, when they
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were both eighteen years old. A High Court judge in London ruled that the
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media were not allowed to reveal where Venables and Thompson would be living once they
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were released. They would more than likely be living under aliases and those names
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could not be published. Also, the media was forbidden to publish photos of
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the two that were taken from nineteen ninety three until two thousand and one,
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and they were forbidden to release where the two were living. Venables and Thompson
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were living in secrecy. Why In nineteen ninety three, John Vinibles and Robert
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Thompson committed a murder, A murder carried out when they were both ten years
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old. Their victim was James Bulger and he was only two years old.
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Venibles and Thompson kidnapped James from a shopping center at random. Britain and the
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rest of the world were shocked and outraged by the crime. Venables and Thompson
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had been incarcerated for roughly eight years. When released, they were free However,
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the High Court judge understood that both Venibles and Thompson were marked men.
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Their release was not a popular decision, especially with the parents of James Bolger.
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There was no secret that there were people willing to find Venables and Thompson
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and avenge the murder of James. Ralph Bulger, the father of James,
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did at one time vow to find them and kill them. One of the
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most horrific cases in British history was committed by children, and their victim was
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an innocent child who was barely shy of three years old. Denise Fergus was
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born and raised in Liverpool, England. She always wanted to be a mother.
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She gave birth to James Bulger in March of nineteen ninety He was remembered
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by her as being a wonderful child. It was Friday February twelfth, nineteen
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ninety three, when she decided to go on a trip with James to the
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Strand shopping center, which is outside of Liverpool. Denise would later tell a
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reporter that it was the worst decision that she ever made in her life.
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Denise and James stopped by a butcher's shop at the Strand Denise recalled that James
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was at her side when she stopped to pay for some food. When she
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looked back down at her son, he was gone. She panicked, afraid
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that he had wandered off into the shopping center. Police arrived forty minutes later
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after James vanished. A search where the toddler began, and all hands were
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on deck searching for him. Four hours after he vanished, the Criminal Investigation
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Division was called in to work the case. They would soon have a lead.
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A witness claimed to have seen a child crying by a canal that was
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right next to the strand. This was especially terrifying at the time because it
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was possible that James wandered away from his mother and could have fallen into the
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canal by accident. Investigators decided to check the CCTV system at the strand.
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The quality of the video was not perfect, because it never is, but
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they painstakingly reviewed the footage. Something caught their attention. James was seen walking
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hand in hand with one boy while another walked ahead of them. They were
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leading him somewhere. Investigators were surprised to see James walking away with two boys.
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Due to the poor film quality, investigators could only guess the ages of
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the two boys. They were possibly teens. Maybe. It took roughly ninety
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seconds for the two to lead James from one end of the strand to the
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exit. Investigators were dealing with children who had abducted a child. It was
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unbelievable and where did they go. Early on, investigators were trying to figure
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out why the two young boys had taken James. They wondered if it was
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some kind of prank. An investigator involved in the case remembered being relieved that
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James was taken from the strand by young boys because they didn't think anything sinister
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would happen. Images from the CCTV footage were released to the public. Police
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were fielding calls for tips and they were searching the Liverpool area for James.
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Nearly forty hours after James Bulger went missing, police received word that a body
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had been discovered. It was on a railway line a few miles from the
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strand. The police were absolutely horrified with what they discovered. The victim had
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been hit by a train and what the police saw was too upsetting to share
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with the public. Bulger was discovered some two hundred yards from a police station.
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And one thing they were sure of when they found James was that the
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train was not responsible for his death. During their investigation, the police were
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certain the two boys walked with James from the strand to the railway. They
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wanted to piece together a route that would have been traveled. A local business
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along the way to the rail yard had a security camera and the police were
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hoping it would capture something anything it showed James and the two boys. However,
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that footage also was not great and the police became even more frustrated.
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The police were hoping for a break, and it happened. Days after James
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Bulger's remains were discovered. Someone had called the police and said they knew two
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local boys, John Venables and Robert Thompson, had skipped school on Friday.
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The caller noted that one of the boys had blue paint on their coat,
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and this was an important clue for the police because blue paint was on the
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body of James. Police contacted the school where the boys were enrolled and learned
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that the two were not at school the day that James went missing, and
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it was also not unusual for them to skip school. Most importantly, both
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Venibles and Thompson lived close to where the body was discovered. Both John Venables
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and Robert Thompson were arrested by the police and brought in for questioning. The
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police were surprised at the ages of the two boys. They didn't expect them
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to be so young, and they also didn't expect the two little boys to
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be behind one of the worst crimes in British history. Police separated the two
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for questioning and they were easy on them during the interrogations. It was uncharted
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waters for the police because they had no explivariance in interrogating suspects this young.
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One officer that interviewed the boys recalled that one of them masks if you could
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get fingerprints off of skin, fingerprints placed the boys near the Strand. A
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shop owner near the Strand recalled both Venibles and Thompson hanging out in front of
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their shop and had their hands on the glass. The police removed that glass
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from the shop to get Prince and they got a match on Venables. Venables
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initially told police that he was nowhere near the Strand on the day Bulger went
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missing. Thompson's interview was different. He admitted to being at the Strand with
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Venables and Thompson admitted the two of them taking James Bulger. Investigators are called
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Thompson would cry during their interview, but it was strange because Thompson never had
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tears when he cried, and they were convinced that it was all an act.
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Venables did eventually admit to being at the strands with Thompson, and Venables
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then admitted that it was Thompson to kill Bulger, and he also admitted his
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own guilt in the killing. Another thing he told police was that the plan
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was for the two boys to toss James into the canal near the strand.
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When James wouldn't get close enough to the edge of the walkway near the canal,
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Robert Thompson got angry. He picked James up and dropped him on his
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head. The police were able to get the entire story from both of the
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boys, in all of its horrible detail. Vinable and Thompson did indeed murder
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James Bulger. The two were sent to court on murder charges. The boys
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were found guilty, and they were each eleven years old at the time they
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were convicted. Next was the sentencing. How long would these two be in
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prison for their crimes. At first, the two were told by the judge
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that they would spend a long time in prison for what they did, but
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a few weeks later they were sentenced to eight years in detention facility. Denise
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Fergus, the mother of James Sames, was dumbfounded by the decision. Both
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Venibles and Thompson served time at a children's home until their release in two thousand
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and one. Robert Thompson took on a new life with a new identity.
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He's never been arrested since, but the same cannot be said about John Vennibles.
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Since two thousand and one, Venables has been arrested multiple times and served
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time in prison. He was sentenced to two years in prison in twenty ten
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for making and distributing indecent images of children. It was twenty seventeen when he
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was arrested again again. He was in possession of indecent images, but was
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involved in a disturbing scheme in chat rooms. He posed as a thirty five
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year old mother bragging about abusing her own eight year old daughter. He was
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trying to solicit more photos from the people he was chatting with, more indecent
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images of children. In twenty twenty, he was up for parole but denied.
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Denise Fergus had the difficult task of moving on in life and did so
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with her husband, Ralph Boulger, but they eventually divorced. The two remarried
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and started new families. They are still in the spotlight today when the case
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is mentioned in the news. The James Bolger story is one where it's extremely
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difficult to find any silver lining. Today. Fergus has boxes in her home
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of letters that she received from all over the world from people who wanted to
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send their condolences. Letters have trickled in over the years, and the memory
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of James Bulger still lives in the hearts and minds of millions of people.
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That's ten minute Murder for today, brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe
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