Little Jamie
Photo of James Bulger realeased by the parents to the police
November 24, 1993: Jon Venables and Robert Thompson are found guilty of the murder of James Bulger. Two-year-old Jamie was at the mall with his mother when she left him standing outside a shop for a few minutes. Jon and Robert, both ten, took his hand and walked him from the mall. This was caught on closed circuit TV timed at 3:39 PM. The three boys walked 2.5 miles to an isolated railway bed.
On the way, the group stopped at a canal where Jamie was dropped and sustained injuries to his face and head. The group walked on passing an incredible 38 people on the way. Some stopped them and were told that the older boys were babysitting a younger brother, some were told that the small boy was lost and the group was on the way to the police. Some claimed the child looked happy while others noted the injuries and said he looked distressed. All let the boys carry on.
The older boys threw blue paint in Jamie’s face. They kicked him and struck him repeatedly with bricks, stones, and a 22 pound iron rod. After he was dead, they placed his body over the railroad tracks and weighed down his head. They thought that if a train ran over him that traces of violence would be thought to be from the accident. The pathologist was not fooled.
At their trial it was stated that both boys were from violent families plagued by alcoholism and abuse. It was also brought forth that they had been watching violent movies. They did not take the stand in their own defense. They were found guilty and sentenced to a young offenders institution at Her Majesty’s Pleasure rather than a life sentence. The minimum term to be served was eight years. Both young men were released after spending eight years in prison with life license, meaning that they will be sent back to prison if they break the terms of their release. The British government has spent about £4 million helping the young men build their lives and hide their identities after their release. Jamie’s mother received £7,500 criminal compensation from the government.
“Ah! Happy years! Once more who would not be a boy?” – Lord Byron
“We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We are the world / We are the children / We are the ones / To make a better day.” – Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie
“Oh, a devil of a childhood, rich only in dreams; frightful and loveless in realities.” – George Bernard Shaw
Also on this day, in 1971 Dan or D.B. Cooper jumped from a plane after collecting ransom money.
Little Bits of History 
‘Jamie’s mother received £7,500 criminal compensation from the government.’
You are forgetting the hundreds of thousands she has made from TV/tabloid interviews. For every interview she does with the Daily Mail/ITV, she is (very handsomely) paid. She even has a PR agent (the repulsive Chris Johnson) who deals with her media appearances. This PR agent also owns the copyright to all four pictures we have of the boys (the two school pictures and the two custody pictures) so also has a vested financial interest.
The case has become a money-making enterprise. And the victim’s mother is no angelic saint.
I didn’t “forget about” the money she has made – I didn’t know about it. Thank you for filling in more of the story.
Do you know if her income surpassed the four million pounds spent by the British government on the perpetrators?
Not sure, but she went from being of relatively modest means to being pretty wealthy very fast. (She also features in lots of women’s magazines such as Hello and others).
As for the money spent on the perpetrators, I think this is irrelevant. The money certainly didn’t benefit Venables financially – when he was arrested in a very meagre flat, he was being chased by his landlord for rent arrears and by the local authority for council tax and was by all accounts on the breadline. And people forget that had they been in prison all this time; the cost would have been far higher.
Anonymity was necessary because of vengeful vigilante lunatics who would, if not search them out and kill or harm them (itself a real possibility) but certainly make them incapable of living any kind of life.
There is no way that we should pass judgment on this grieving mother. She made a horrible mistake but nothing can replace a child not money nothing. These boys did a terrible thing and should never had been released, or at the very least not after only eight years. They did a horrendous thing to an innocent baby and they knew it was wrong or they wouldn’t have tried to cover it up. What happened to consequences for such actions? I just pray and hope that they realize the horror of their actions one day if they haven’t already. God bless Denise and Ralph for they are strong parents and in no way will I condemn them for any money they got after the tragedy. Given the choice I believe they give every penny back if they could get James back and protect him from the horror that so cruelly took his life. Even if she’s no saint like someone pointed out it doesn’t mean that these kids should have been released so soon and given new identities rather than face the consequences for their actions.
i think them boys sure be lock up for what there did to that little boy .
I feel for James bulgars mother he was such a perfect child and he had he life so cruely taken away from him not matter how much money she’s made all the hurt and pain she’s had to deal with throughtout the years no one can put there self in her shoes cause nobody had been though the though of what she been put through shes an amazing women and deserve every bit of money and support she gets r.i.p James you so sadly missed xxxx
I am so sorry for your loss! That is so tragic! I wish that you did not have to go through that! i know that if anything like that would happen to my 2 year old little girl that I would kill who ever did it! NO parent deserves to go through that and no child deserves to be treated like that! Once again I am so sorry! I will be praying for him and for your family! I know that i don’t know you all but I just found it when I was looking at Kayla Young’s page and i just wanted to know what happend! I will keep you all in my prayers! God bless you and little James! 😦
Every child needs a loving and rescue-ing parent, under the conditions of complete dependency and isolation, the child endures the dependance of mercy of forgiveness and of even unrelented hate, in order to just survive, just to stay alive. Just to be given the small right to “breathe” any air at all if any…
. That is how desperate it can be for them.
Locked in wardrobes that you and me don’t even want to hear about….left locked into the horror of utter despair while you and I walk to to keep our dogs “fit” or “healthy”…but the real horror is walking past these doors while we “suspect” something is “so wrong”..and we say nothing to no-one, yep…..everybody talks about in the local gossip.
“Ohh did you hear about that one”…..”ohh god those poor kids” we stay still when we should act, we stay silent when we should talk, we look down at the ground when we should look up, we grieve in our dreams when we should have done something….anything…well anything really..at least some bloody thing for God’s sake.
But we hide behind our personnal fears, we take comfort in the silenced world we have created for ourselves…maybe just..maybe…we have our reason’s for that.
somehow, I have come to understand that, I hope you will forgive yourself for that, you have every right to ignore, become indifferent, dissociate from that…we are not all Batman’s you know.
I can only pray that you can forgive yourself if this has happened to you, because for God’s sake, we know all to well what happens to people who can’t forgive….at least accept to be human…forgive yourslef first, then all the rest will fall into line.
And maybe, just maybe….you just might, one day feel at peace….and be happy again.
Maybe it just might be worth the risk…who knows ?
see the last one people !