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A little warning before we get started. Please listen or read with care; this episode involves violence against a 2-year-old little boy.
In February 1993, the UK was forced to confront a crime so incredibly disturbing that it shattered everyone’s assumption about innocence & left scars that haven’t healed in more than three decades. When James Bulger was only 2-years-old, he vanished while he & his mother were running errands at a shopping center & the details of what followed will haunt you to the core.
James Patrick Bulger was born on March 16, 1990 in Kirkby, England to parents Ralph & Denise Bulger. His birth came after the couple tragically lost their baby girl, who was stillborn. James was a bundle of joy who had bright blue eyes, brown hair, a precious smile & a happy-go-lucky personality. He was a light in Ralph & Denise’s world, always smiling & making them laugh.
However, a routine run to the store about a month before James’ third birthday, ended in unimaginable tragedy, utterly ripping this young family apart. On Friday, February 12, 1993 Denise, James & her sister-in-law headed out in the late afternoon for their last stop of the day at the New Strand Shopping Center in Bootle, in northern England.
The trio popped into A.R.Tym’s butcher shop & while Denise was placing her order, she took her eyes off James for only a moment, but by the time she turned back, he was gone. She frantically rushed outside, searching for her son & as the minutes ticked by, Denise felt like she was stuck in her worst nightmare. Overhead announcements were made over the mall’s loudspeakers, but finding no sign of James, the police were contacted at 4:15 pm after the security team had been unable to find him.
Denise told the officers that James had been wearing a blue pull-over hooded jacket with a mustard-colored lining, silver track-suit bottoms & white gym shoes.
At 5:30 pm, the shopping center was closing up for the night as Denise was wracked with fear & the police launched a major search for the missing little boy.
As Friday night came to an end, James was still missing as staff & investigators searched the shopping center. Meanwhile, officers were combing over CCTV footage & found the footage of James leaving the butcher store nine hours after he went missing. Only moments later, his frantic mother could be seen following shortly behind.
Investigators felt a frigid chill run down their spines as they watched the grainy footage that depicted 2-year-old James being led away by two boys, one of which was holding his hand. Of course, the possibility of an abduction had entered their minds, but they only assumed that, had this been the case, James was abducted by an adult. However, the footage proved that the boys who led James away were kids themselves.
The footage made it clear that, rather than dealing with a missing child case, they were dealing with an abduction. While Denise frantically searched the ground floor of the shopping center, James could be seen on the top floor, following the two boys towards the exit & then in the direction of the Leeds Liverpool Canal. These were sadly the last recorded images of James alive.
By Sunday, February 14, 1993, Valentine’s Day, when James had been missing for two agonizing days, the police & his family were doing everything in their power to find him. Patrol cars combed the streets, utilizing loudspeakers while press conferences were held, appealing for the two boys seen in the footage with James to come forward. Searchers were combing over the nearby canals & wasteland areas.
Hope came crashing down that day when a young boy came rushing into the Walton Lane police station to say that a body was found on the train tracks. This was less than 150 yards from the back of the police station & 2 ½ miles from the mall. It was an unimaginable fact that James’ little body had been severed in two by a passing train.
As investigators began speaking with witnesses who had been in the area of the shopping center on the Friday James vanished, they came to find that a total of 38 people had seen three boys walking around the Merseyside area. While some of the witnesses indicated that James looked distressed, others disturbingly said they had even seen the older boys kick & punch the two-year-old. Sadly, most did nothing & those that did stop to question them soon let them go on their way, to ultimately murder the toddler. When confronted by some of the witnesses, the boys told various stories, including that James was their little brother or that he was lost & they were taking him to a local police station.
It wasn’t long before an anonymous caller reported to police that the two boys who were responsible were 10-year-old, seemingly ordinary boys, Robert Thompson & Jon Venables. When this information was reported to the public, residents of the UK were unable to comprehend what they were hearing. Not only did the caller indicate that both boys had been absent from school on the day of James’ disappearance, but that investigators might be able to find evidence on Jon Venables’ coat that tied him to the crime.
Five days after James vanished from the shopping center, Robert & Jon were arrested in their homes in the Liverpool area on Wednesday, February 18.
It turned out that after the boys skipped school that Friday, they spent much of their day at the shopping center where James & Denise were running errands. They went from store to store, stealing whatever they could, tossing their stolen goods down the escalators just for the fun of it.
For reasons no one can comprehend, even decades later, the two 10-year-olds decided to kidnap someone’s child. After they were arrested, they soon turned on one another, each blaming the other.
James had not been the only child the pair attempted to abduct that day as another child dodged his fate. Within a TJ Hughes department store, a woman was shopping with her children when she noticed two boys trying to get their attention. Only moments later, at about 12:30 pm, she realized that her 2-year-old son & 3-year-old daughter were missing.
After the mother quickly found her daughter, she was frantic, searching for her son. When she desperately asked her daughter where her brother was, she replied, Gone outside with the boy. As the woman bolted outside, calling out for her son, she found two young boys, Robert & Jon, urging him to follow them. As soon as she came upon them & told her son to go back inside, the two boys were suddenly gone.
After this aborted double-abduction, the boys loitered around a snack shop, hoping to steal candy when they noticed James Bulger standing by the door of the butcher shop. At the time, Denise was momentarily distracted as she paid for her items, so they beckoned the toddler to follow them as Jon took him by the hand.
As they walked through the mall, several shoppers later told investigators that they noticed the trio. Sometimes James ran ahead of the boys & witnesses recall them calling him back to them saying, Come on, baby.
According to surveillance video, they exited the shopping center at 3:42 pm, a time when Denise was panicking.
After the boys guided James from the mall, there were times the 2-year-old would cry out for his mom, these cries were ignored as they continued to guide him to a secluded area near a canal. Once here, they dropped the toddler on his head & left him on the ground, crying. A woman walked by during this time, but shockingly, she did absolutely nothing.
The boys continued on, urging James to continue to follow. Being so incredibly young & away from the safety of his mother, not knowing what else to do, he did as he was told. By this point, his forehead was bruised & cut, so Robert & Jon pulled the hood of his jacket up to conceal his injuries.
Regardless, passersbys could see his partially-covered forehead injury, while one witness described seeing a tear on the young boy’s cheek, yet no one did anything to help.
The older boys guided James past shops, buildings & parking lots until they walked down one of Liverpool’s busiest streets. Some people recalled seeing James laughing, while others said he was resisting & sometimes even screaming for his mom. One person saw Robert kick James in ribs when he resisted. When a woman saw Robert punch & shake James, she only closed her curtains so she could no longer see.
When an elderly woman noticed James crying & saw his injuries, she approached the trio to see what was going on. This was when Robert & Jon told her that they found the young boy at the bottom of the hill. Feeling satisfied with their answer, James’ glimmer of hope was extinguished. She walked away after instructing the boys to take him to the nearby Walton Lane Police Station. As they walked away, she called out to them, but they didn’t look back. James’ chance at safety was quickly dwindling as their walk changed from a populated area to one far more isolated.
The woman remained concerned, but another woman who was standing nearby reassured her that she’d heard James laughing moments before & assumed all was well. When one of the women happened to see on the news that night that James was missing, she called the police, expressing regret for not intervening.
Further down the street, another woman told the boys that she would take James to the police station herself, but when she asked another woman nearby to look after her daughter while she did so, the woman refused, saying that her dog didn’t like children. Once again, his chance of safety was tragically missed.
The trio walked into two different stores where they interacted with the shopkeepers, who, although later admitted that they felt unsettled by the situation, allowed them to continue on. When Robert & Jon came upon two older boys that they knew, they asked who the toddler was & Jon said that it was Robert’s brother & they were taking him home.
Once they arrived at the train tracks, the boys hesitated, possibly reconsidering what they were about to do as they briefly turned away from the embankment. Sadly, evil prevailed as they turned back toward the secluded railway. Sometime between 5:45 & 6:30 pm, the brutal torture & murder of sweet James occured.
Robert & Jon brought blue paint they’d stolen from the mall & splashed it into James’ left eye. They kicked him, pummeled him with bricks & stones & forced batteries into his mouth.
When the boys struck James in the head with a 22# iron bar, they caused 10 skull fractures. In total, he sustained 42 injuries to his tiny body. Because he was so badly injured, authorities later concluded that there was no way to even tell which injury led to his ultimate death.
After James was deceased, Robert & Jon placed his body across the train tracks. At only 10-years-old, they had the sick forethought that James’ death might appear to be an accident when his remains were found. They abandoned the scene before a train plowed through, severing the toddler’s body in two. He was found naked from the waist down.
Since an eyewitness reported seeing James & the boys near the canal, authorities searched this as well as surrounding areas, but they were unable to find him.
After the CCTV footage from the mall was found that depicted Robert & Jon leading James from the mall, Denise & Ralph actually felt a tremendous sense of relief, believing it would only be a matter of time before their son was safely found. Seeing such a young boy holding James’ hand while another walked ahead, they never fathomed that their son’s life would end, let alone in such a horrific way, at the hands of two children.
Two days after James walked through the exit of the mall, four children were playing along the train tracks when they came upon James’ body. All of the weapons Jon & Robert used to torture him were strewn around the area, each covered in sweet James’ blood. The stolen can of blue paint was also found nearby.
As police realized that James’ abductors were young boys, they visited area schools to see who had been absent on that day in question. This caused various boys to be questioned as potential killers while some parents even reported their own children as potentially guilty. One young boy was even arrested on Tuesday, February 16 & as people saw the police arrive, they jumped to conclusions, believing him to be guilty & a riot ensued. After the boy was ruled out, he & his family were forced to move.
When the anonymous phone call came through suggesting that Robert & Jon were responsible, the person not only told investigators that the boys had been absent from school on Friday, but they could also find blue paint on the sleeve of Jon’s jacket as well as blood on Robert’s shoes.
Despite this information, the boys weren’t initially considered authority’s prime suspects as they were focused on two other boys who already had violent records. Because the footage from the mall had been so grainy, police initially thought that the boys were 13 or 14 rather than the tender age of 10.
Over the course of several days, when Jon & Robert were brought in for questioning with their mothers present as well as legal representation, they immediately began turning on one another. Jon eventually confessed that they had been responsible during a time when he was alone with his parents & police were listening in. He said, I did kill him. What about his mum, will you tell her I’m sorry?
During his questioning, Jon mentioned that it was their intention to find a child & throw them into the path of a bus or a taxi on the road outside the shopping center. They planned to make the death appear as an accident.
According to Detective Phil Roberts when he spoke with Jon & Robert, he felt he was staring evil in the face & went on to say, They were a match made in hell. A freak of nature. They went out that day to kill – I truly believe that. And if they hadn’t been caught I fear they would have struck again.
On the other hand, Robert denied any responsibility & changed his story on five separate occasions over the course of two days of questioning. In the end, he incriminated himself when he was able to clearly say what James had been wearing on the day he went missing & was murdered. Investigators were stunned by just how cold & unfazed he was throughout his questioning. The media ultimately dubbed him, the boy who did not cry.
In the end, Robert confessed that he & Jon had taken James from the shopping center. By lunchtime on Friday, February 19, he admitted that they’d taken him to the train tracks. There was a chilling moment when he imitated a wailing James, who was asking for his mother.
Nine months later, in November 1993, the trial began after both Jon & Robert had each turned 11-years-old in August. Despite their confessions, they each pleaded not guilty. 300 people gathered outside the courthouse, some screaming, Kill the bastards! A life for a life! People were enraged to the point that a riot broke out & the trial ended up being relocated to the Preston Crown Court, an hour’s drive from Bootle. During this time, Jon & Robert were known only as Child A & Child B. It wasn’t until the trial concluded when their names were released by a judge.
During the timeframe of the trial, Denise & Ralph announced that they were expecting another child, but Denise refused to come to court, understandably unwilling to be in the presence of her son’s brutal killers. There are details she remains unaware of to this day.
While Jon had hysterical outbursts in comparison to Robert’s cold, remorseless behavior, disgust & horror only intensified. Because of this behavior, the assumption was made that Robert had been the ring leader even though court-appointed psychiatrists, who determined that the boys were not sociopaths & knew right from wrong, have been unable to understand their motives. To this day, their motive remains unclear.
Author Blake Morrison, who wrote, As If: A Crime, a Trial, a Question of Childhood, a book that details the trial, also suggests that Robert, who had a temper & had been known to lose control & do weird things, had likely been the instigator.
On November 24, 1993, after a three week trial at Preston Crown Court & six hours of jury deliberation, Robert Thompson & Jon Venables were found guilty of James’ death, making them the youngest convicted of murder in Britain in 250 years. As their verdict was read, the boys sat in an adult court dock that had to be modified in order for them to see over it.
Both boys were sentenced to serve at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, a legal & formal term in Commonwealth countries, meaning imprisonment for an indefinite period determined by the courts. Although this sentence has no maximum, it does have a minimum which is determined on a case-by-case basis. In this case, it was a mere eight years, meaning, the boys would be released when they were 18-years-old.
At this point they would be assessed & if they weren’t deemed a danger to society, they would be released. During their time in prison, they showed no violent tendencies & served their time quietly, thus, they were released on June 22, 2001 & given new identities due to the media attention around the case. They were also granted legal anonymity for life & moved to different parts of the country to maintain their safety. An injunction prevents the press from publishing any details about them.
Both Robert & Jon had rough early years of their lives; Robert, the fifth of seven children, was born on August 23, 1982 in Liverpool. As a young boy, his father abandoned his family, causing his depressed mother to turn to alcohol & attempt suicide. Not only had he been molested by his father, but he also witnessed his mother & siblings being subjected to severe physical & sexual violence at the hands of his father. After his father left, when his mom, Ann Thompson, turned to alcohol, the bullying & violence only continued after the brothers turned on one another.
At the time of James’ murder, Robert was living in Walton with his mom & two younger brothers after his four older brothers had all been taken into custody. As officers arrived to arrest him, they realized that his house wasn’t far from where James’ body had been recovered.
Jon was also born in Liverpool, only ten days before Robert, on August 13, 1982. Although his father was still in the picture, his parents divorced when he was 3 & shared custody of their three children. His mother Susan suffered from psychiatric issues & often complained about feeling overwhelmed with parenting. She was said to be a harsh disciplinarian who hopped from one man to the next. There were no reports that suggested he was subjected to bullying or violence during his childhood. If anything, he was known to bully his classmates.
When officers saw Jon come to the top of his staircase, they were stunned by how young he appeared & early on, they were convinced that they must have the wrong boys since they couldn’t fathom children that young being capable of something so violent.
In February 1993, the boys had been good friends who were known to break the rules & often skip school together. Although they had committed low-level crimes like stealing, they had never been violent before.
Jon served his time behind bars in the Red Bank Secure Children’s Home in Merseyside, telling his fellow inmates that he was there as a car thief. Meanwhile, Robert was at Barton Moss near Manchester, where he became interested in art & theater. He came close to meeting Denise in 2004 after she managed to track him down, but paralyzed with anger & hatred, she was unable to confront him.
Although Robert was the one that was said to be the leader of James’ murder, unlike Jon, he has not reoffended since his release. Little is known about his whereabouts, but he’s said to be in a stable relationship with a man who is fully aware of his past.
On the other hand, Jon was sent back to prison on multiple occasions, most notably for child pornography & a pedophile manual which was basically a how-to on abusing young girls in horrifying detail. His first child pornography offense was in July 2010 when he was 27-years-old, but he was released in 2013. He was once again arrested for the same thing at age 35 in 2017 & in 2018, he was sentenced to 40 months after he admitted to possessing more than 1,000 child abuse images as well as the pedophile manual.
His application for parole was rejected in 2020 following an assessment & a later bid in December 2023 failed after officers ruled he continued to pose a danger to children & was at risk for reoffending.
Ralph Bulger, James’ father, has been understandably outspoken in regards to him staying behind bars, saying, I believe the only way to prevent him from killing another baby like James is to keep him locked up for life. How can anyone say this monster is safe to live among us ever again?
In 2019 Ralph lost a legal challenge for Jon’s new identity to be made public.
A petition was signed by over 200,000 people who wanted to know why experts believed Jon had been rehabilitated when he was released in 2001 since he has gone on to commit more offenses. A member of parliament, Paula Barker, believed that James’ family should have been given more information as to why the boys were being released after 8 years in prison when they were only 18-years-old. Since their identities have been kept hidden, they know nothing about the lives of the two boys who changed their world forever. While Ralph & Denise will forever suffer from the loss of their son, Robert & Jon have been protected after serving only 8 years behind bars.
Sir George Howarth, another member of the parliament, also called for a public inquiry & suggested that the government’s response on how transparency of the Parole Board’s decisions could be improved as they have been very vague.
One month after Robert & Jon were found guilty, Denise gave birth to a baby boy, Michael James Bulger, who gave the couple a reason to continue to go on. Sadly, because their world was flipped upside down by what happened to James, they went on to divorce in 1994.
Denise remarried Stuart Fergus in 1998 & they have two sons together while Ralph also remarried & has three daughters with his second wife.
In 2011, when James would have turned 21, Denise wanted something positive to come out of her son’s death so she launched The James Bulger Memorial Trust. This is a UK charity with the mission of providing support & resources to children & families facing trauma, disadvantage, crime or loss. It also rewards those who have made positive contributions to the welfare of others & to society in general.
The level of brutality involved in 2-year-old James Bulger’s sadistic murder is far beyond what anyone could have imagined anyone being capable of, let alone two elementary school children. It’s no surprise that the word evil has been synonymous with Jon Venables & Robert Thompson’s names since February 1993.
Anyone familiar with this case is left to wonder what drove these two boys to such depravity. Were they born evil, had their upbringing been responsible or were other, unknown factors at play? It’s likely that a mixture of factors were at play, ones we’ll likely never fully understand.
References:
- BBC: Bulger killer Jon Venables set for parole review
- Ati: ‘A match made in hell’: How Robert Thompson & Jon Venables became killers at age 10
- Ati: James Bulger, the toddler who was tortured & murdered by two boys
- BBC: MPs urge government to ‘lay out facts’ in James Bulger case
- James Bulger Memorial Trust
- Crime & Investigation: The James Bulger case
- Crime & Investigation: What drove James Bulger’s young killers?
