James Patrick Bulger

James Patrick Bulger

March 16, 1990 - February 12, 1993

James Patrick Bugler was born on March 16, 1990. He was a very happy little boy. On February 12, 1993, James went to New Strand Shopping Centre with his mother, Denise. While inside of the Centre, Denise went inside the butcher's shop. She momentarily let her son, James, out of her sight while she placed her order for lamb chops. James wandered around the doors of the store and was found by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both ten years old.

The boys were playing truant from their school, and they had been causing trouble all day. Throughout the day, the boys were seen stealing candy, a troll doll, paint, and batteries. After the boys saw James, they approached him and spoke to him briefly. Then they took him by his hand and lead him out of the store. This was captured on the store's security camera. 

The ten year old boys took James on a two and a half mile long walk. They ended up at a canal where they dropped James on his head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked with each other about pushing James into the canal. James now had a bump on his head, and he was crying. During this time, James and the boys were seen by thirty-eight people. Only two people questioned the older boys about why James was injured and crying. The boys told one person that James was their little brother. They told the other person that he was lost and they were taking him to the police station. 

At one point, Jon and Robert took James into a pet shop, but the owner kicked them out. Eventually, they reached another town. The boys were very close to the police station, and they were afraid that the police would question them. They lead James up a steep bank and to the railroad. This is where they began torturing him.

One of the boys threw a can of blue paint at James. The paint got in his eye. This was the paint that the boys had stolen earlier in the day. They kicked James, and stomped on him. They also threw bricks and stones at him. They put batteries in his mouth, and put batteries in his anus. They also dropped an iron bar onto him. He suffered ten skull fractures from the iron bar.

When the body of James was found, his shoes, socks, trousers, and underpants were removed. This made police believe that there was a sexual element to the crime, though the boys both denied this. It was later found that James's foreskin was forcibly retracted. Before the boys left James's body, they laid him across the railroad tracks, weighing his head down with pebbles. They wanted a train to hit him so his death looked like an accident. A train did come by and hit his body, severely damaging it, but investigators were still able to detect foul play.