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The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case
Friday, 12th February, 1993. Two outwardly unremarkable ten-year-old boys began the day by playing truant and ended it running an errand for the local video shop. In between they abducted and killed a two-year-old boy, James Bulger. In search of an explanation, award-winning journalist David James Smith looks behind the misinformation, misunderstanding and sensational reporting to an exact account of the events of that day. A sensitive and definitive account, The Sleep of Reason achieves a unique understanding of the James Bulger case, and comes as close as may ever be possible to explaining how two ten-year-olds could kill.
318 pages, Paperback
First published April 27, 1994
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About the author
David James Smith
26 books24 followersDavid James Smith is the author of six acclaimed non-fiction books and is an award-wining journalist for The Sunday Times Magazine of London. His latest book LET US PREY - A TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND DECEPTION is an Audible Original, available exclusively on Audible read by the author. It is an account of the Maids Moreton case. His first book, THE SLEEP OF REASON - THE JAMES BULGER CASE is in a new edition from Faber (2017) and remains the definitive account of the 1993 murder of a child by two ten year old boys. David has a close interest in criminal justice and served five years (2013-2018) as a Commissioner at The Criminal Cases Review Commission, appointed by HM The Queen to oversee investigations into miscarriages of justice. He was a local newspaper reporter and wrote for the monthly magazine Esquire before joining The Sunday Times Magazine, for whom he travelled around the world writing cover stories, investigative articles, reportage and profiles. It was an article for the Magazine that led to his second book, ALL ABOUT JILL: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JILL DANDO, which was published by Little Brown in 2002. Barry George was convicted and later acquitted of the infamous 1999 shooting of the television presenter on the doorstep of her London home. SUPPER WITH THE CRIPPENS, about the notorious Edwardian crime was published by Orion in 2005 and is currently in development as a drama series for television. ONE MORNING IN SARAJEVO made a gripping non-fiction thriller out of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in June, 1914: it was published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 2008. YOUNG MANDELA is the story of the early life of the iconic South African activist and leader who died in 2013. The biography was published in 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK and Little Brown in the US. David’s research involved interviews with most of Mandela’s close family and comrades, including Winnie Madikezela-Mandela, and culminated in a meeting with Nelson Mandela himself.
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October 20, 2013
FOUR CHILDREN, TWO CRIMES
Two crimes have hypnotised the British public in the last 20 years above all others, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in May 2007 (this made actual headlines only this past week) and the murder of James Bulger in February 1993. It’s not hard to see why. They represent parents’ worst nightmare : that if you turn your back for a moment your children will be stolen away and murdered. We’re horribly well acquainted with the idea that adults may well want to abduct children or teenagers, so that is why the James Bulger case is the more alarming of the two, and the hardest to think about.
A TWO HOUR WALK
The facts are very easily stated. One day a mother and her friend went shopping in a big mall in Bootle, Merseyside. She took her almost three year old along. He was toddling around the shops with her. She was buying meat for the Sunday roast and when she looked round, he was gone. He was there one minute, playing at the shop entrance, and gone the next. That was the last she saw of him. Two ten year old boys, truanting from school, had led him away from the shop, away from his mother, and away from the shopping mall. Here’s the famous CCTV image, discovered by the police some hours later.
(Jon Venables leads James Bulger, aged 2 and 11 months, away. His friend Bobby Thompson is just in front of the two.)
The boys took the kid on a rambling two and a half mile walk through the town lasting a couple of hours. They were seen by dozens of people, most of whom thought the little kid was their brother. When anyone asked, because the kid was crying a lot, they would say they were taking him home. They dragged him on to a railway embankment, opposite Walton Police Station, and there they threw bricks at him, stamped on him and dropped a metal bar on his head. He died from multiple skull fractures.
The CCTV images were given saturation coverage and in a few days a woman thought one of the kids looked like her mother’s friend’s son, and she was right. The cops made two arrests:
They were put on trial, found guilty, and became Britain’s youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century (the youngest for 300 years).
We say “they” but when they were interviewed by the police, each blamed the other. Wasn’t me, it was him. He threw all the bricks. As to why they took a little kid away from his mother like that, the answer was I don’t know. We just did.
MURDER CAN BE NORMAL
The reason why this case is compelling is that it’s like an experiment in the aetiology of evil.
We have seen from the studies of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, for example in Christopher Browning’s brilliant Ordinary Men , how murder can be normalised, so guys can think that shooting a village full of men, women and children is an unpleasant but reasonable thing to do, given the circumstances. You know, a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. That was the pathology of a lot of German murderers during the Third Reich. It was group think. It was people abdicating responsibility upwards. Hitler, he knows what he’s doing. Everything is happening just like he said it would. We’re not psychopaths, we’re doing good work here, building a great future for our children.
Well, I don’t say it’s easy to accept that human beings have such a slender grasp on basic morality as that, but it kinda looks that way. You pump up the propaganda enough and you can get results like Rwanda and Stalin’s purges and Democratic Kampuchea.
INTENTION
None of that was happening to Jon Venables and Bobby Thompson, the two truanting ten year olds. They were little kids, and they decided to murder a littler kid. Might it have been some kind of crazy adventure (let’s play kidnap) gone wrong? Doesn’t look like that – why not just abandon the kid next to the police station? The two year old didn’t know their names, he couldn’t have said who they were so they wouldn’t have got in trouble. So did they really mean to kill him? If so, where did that horror come from? That’s what we all wanted to know.
Towards the end of this book the author tries to fathom intent. Surely this is the heart of the matter. When they lured James away what was their intention? Smith says :
It does not seem to have been much of a plan, and in this context, it is hard to accept that they knew they were going to kill a child. One of the two boys must have first introduced the idea that led to taking James… “Let’s get a kid…let’s get a kid lost…”. It probably did not go much further than that to begin with. … A proper, artfully conceived plan would not have involved so much casual idling, messing around and wandering in and out of shops, nor offered so many opportunities to be caught in their encounters with adults.
Smith then describes the escalating violence against James and it’s at this point that the question of intention arises. It took two hours to get from the shopping mall to the railway tracks where they killed James. When did the idea of actual murder appear in their minds? Perhaps it never did. Perhaps they just enjoyed the cruelty they appeared to be allowed to inflict and it just got worse. And then it was what have we done? Shove him on the railway track and when a train hits him they’ll think that’s what killed him.
These kids came from the underclass. Their families were chaotic, were from the ranks of the lowliest Scouser uneducated unemployed petty crime alcoholic ducking and diving black economy class. They were failing badly at school, they weren’t the brightest of kids, they were dreadfully rowdy and they had a mean bullying streak, and Jon Venables, he was strange, sometimes he’d throw things around and lay on the floor in class and refuse to get up. Smith includes what is almost a stand-alone impassioned essay at the end of this book saying that this is where to look for the motive, that evil is no longer a functioning concept.
It may be that every murder is symbolic and these two kids from such miserable backgrounds were given this tragic opportunity to direct their anguish and hatred of their own situations, their own powerlessness, onto the two year old, one of the few creatures even more powerless than themselves. James becomes a scapegoat, and the scapegoat was killed. In this reading, we are complex, soft machines, and if you put violence and abuse in at one end, you get violence and abuse coming out at the other end.
He acknowledges that his argument is always – well, many kids are brought up in families as bad or worse than these two, and they never killed a two year old. He then mutters darkly about how much we never found out about the boys’ families, and how two such boys who became friends created a folie a deux.
I think it’s valuable to meditate on the moments when the situation turns from something ordinary to something murderous – the months before the Rwandan massacres, the balmy years before 1939, the two hour walk of Jon, Bobby and James.
There are three types of true crime books – absolute classics like Homicide by David Simon or The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer; there is complete trash like Body Dump by Fred Rosen; and there are the decent thorough accounts like Defending Gary by Mark Prothero. This book is in the top half of division two.
AFTERTHOUGHT
Coincidentally, I'm reading about the boyhoods of some other scousers who grew up a few miles away from Thompson and Venables. One came from a family background you could describe as difficult, another from a family he himself later described as alcoholic; but those boys turned into The Beatles.
SONG OF THE DAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yCcX...
March 14, 2019
Much of this book is a somewhat dry recounting of the events leading up to and surrounding the 1993 abduction and torture/murder of 2-year-old James Bulger. There are facts and transcripts galore here so the author obviously did his research, which is why the book garnered two stars from me instead of just one. Had David James Smith just stuck to the factual retelling, I'd have had no issue. But by the latter half of the book, his obvious bias in favor of James's murderers was just too much for me to stomach.
Giving no attention or sympathy for the suffering of James and his family, Smith’s primary aim here seems to be a concerted effort to drum up sympathy for James’s murderers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. I found the author's concern for the boys' anxiety about going to trial and his speculation as to abuse they may have suffered (without an iota of supporting evidence) just ridiculous. Frankly, they SHOULD have been scared since the forensic and other evidence against them was so overwhelming as to leave zero doubt about their guilt. They were thieves and miscreants prior to February 12, 1993 and they not only lied repeatedly about their involvement during police interviews, but also tried to hide their crime and even attempted to kidnap and murder another 2-year-old shortly before abducting, torturing, and beating James to death.
As we know, the jury did ultimately find both Thompson and Venables guilty, yet neither has ever spent a single day in jail for this crime. Rather, they've enjoyed years of state-funded education and training, free housing and care, shopping trips, and new identities (3 or 4 times now for their protection) at considerable taxpayer expense. They and their families also received significant governmental help and support while Ralph Bulger, Denise Fergus, and James’s other surviving family members have received next to none (see "My James" by Ralph Bulger). The entire situation is one of the most outrageous and grossest miscarriages of justice I’ve ever seen—particularly when Venables has been a repeat offender found in possession of drugs and 1160 files of child abuse images and videos, including 400 categorized as “depraved.”
The bottom line is that James's family members have awaited some semblance of justice for 25 YEARS now. For David James Smith to add insult to injury by attempting to elicit sympathy for such pedophile murderers should be deeply offensive to any decent-minded person.
Giving no attention or sympathy for the suffering of James and his family, Smith’s primary aim here seems to be a concerted effort to drum up sympathy for James’s murderers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. I found the author's concern for the boys' anxiety about going to trial and his speculation as to abuse they may have suffered (without an iota of supporting evidence) just ridiculous. Frankly, they SHOULD have been scared since the forensic and other evidence against them was so overwhelming as to leave zero doubt about their guilt. They were thieves and miscreants prior to February 12, 1993 and they not only lied repeatedly about their involvement during police interviews, but also tried to hide their crime and even attempted to kidnap and murder another 2-year-old shortly before abducting, torturing, and beating James to death.
As we know, the jury did ultimately find both Thompson and Venables guilty, yet neither has ever spent a single day in jail for this crime. Rather, they've enjoyed years of state-funded education and training, free housing and care, shopping trips, and new identities (3 or 4 times now for their protection) at considerable taxpayer expense. They and their families also received significant governmental help and support while Ralph Bulger, Denise Fergus, and James’s other surviving family members have received next to none (see "My James" by Ralph Bulger). The entire situation is one of the most outrageous and grossest miscarriages of justice I’ve ever seen—particularly when Venables has been a repeat offender found in possession of drugs and 1160 files of child abuse images and videos, including 400 categorized as “depraved.”
The bottom line is that James's family members have awaited some semblance of justice for 25 YEARS now. For David James Smith to add insult to injury by attempting to elicit sympathy for such pedophile murderers should be deeply offensive to any decent-minded person.
June 26, 2020
This book was first published in 1994 and was updated in 2011. Two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, had killed two-year-old, James Bulger, in February 1993. It was the most horrific and evil killing. It is immediately obvious, from the Preface, that the author is looking at why the two boys did what they did. What would make two 10-year-old boys do something like this? There must be a reason other than being just pure evil. This is not sensationalist tabloid fodder. He says ‘…Venables had seemed to me to be the more disturbed of the pair’. The teachers said that Robert was ‘…the dominant one in the friendship, and though he was quiet and seldom a problem in class…’ They carried on to say that he ‘was cunning and a liar’.
Smith writes, ‘Such limited research as exists in this area suggests that most young people who commit serious crimes – murder, manslaughter, rape, arson – have one thing in common. They have been abused physically or sexually, or both, and emotionally, in childhood. Not all young people who commit serious crimes have been abused. And not all young people who have been abused commit serious crimes. But the pattern is there.’
He proves that child murderers are not as unique as we believe by citing historical cases from Victorian times to present day, 1992. This was really an area I knew nothing about so was surprising. The actual abduction of James is chilling. It is very hard to read but the research and detail makes this book skip along at a fast pace.
From there he looks into the background of both the boys sets of parents. There was real trouble in both households with depression and violence. Home life was chaotic for sure, especially the Thompson's. I remember at the time that there was a lot of emphasis in the media about a film called Child’s Play. It is true that Jon’s father had rented Child’s Play 3 just before James was killed. There is far more to it than this film being the trigger but the judge even mentions violent films in his summation.
I cannot say if this book is the one to read on the Bulger case as it is the first one I have read. I can say that in no part is it sensationalist. It is a rational detailing of the events and I expect it is different from others by the way it looks at Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Smith writes, ‘Such limited research as exists in this area suggests that most young people who commit serious crimes – murder, manslaughter, rape, arson – have one thing in common. They have been abused physically or sexually, or both, and emotionally, in childhood. Not all young people who commit serious crimes have been abused. And not all young people who have been abused commit serious crimes. But the pattern is there.’
He proves that child murderers are not as unique as we believe by citing historical cases from Victorian times to present day, 1992. This was really an area I knew nothing about so was surprising. The actual abduction of James is chilling. It is very hard to read but the research and detail makes this book skip along at a fast pace.
From there he looks into the background of both the boys sets of parents. There was real trouble in both households with depression and violence. Home life was chaotic for sure, especially the Thompson's. I remember at the time that there was a lot of emphasis in the media about a film called Child’s Play. It is true that Jon’s father had rented Child’s Play 3 just before James was killed. There is far more to it than this film being the trigger but the judge even mentions violent films in his summation.
I cannot say if this book is the one to read on the Bulger case as it is the first one I have read. I can say that in no part is it sensationalist. It is a rational detailing of the events and I expect it is different from others by the way it looks at Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
March 29, 2019
A well researched account of the abduction and murder of two year old James Bulger by two ten year old boys in the early nineties in northern England.
Having already read quite extensively about this case, I felt there was little new to be learnt but found in actual fact the detail of this book to be thorough enough for me to take something away. This crime was horrific, and as the mother of a young son myself, all the more shocking.
The author has detailed well the events leading up to the murder, as well as the aftermath and the court case itself. The only main issue I had reading this book was how little was focused on the Bulger family and how they coped - and are still coping - with the murder of their little boy.
I highly recommend the book “I Let Him Go” by James’ mother Denise if this more factual angle isn’t appealing to other readers.
Having already read quite extensively about this case, I felt there was little new to be learnt but found in actual fact the detail of this book to be thorough enough for me to take something away. This crime was horrific, and as the mother of a young son myself, all the more shocking.
The author has detailed well the events leading up to the murder, as well as the aftermath and the court case itself. The only main issue I had reading this book was how little was focused on the Bulger family and how they coped - and are still coping - with the murder of their little boy.
I highly recommend the book “I Let Him Go” by James’ mother Denise if this more factual angle isn’t appealing to other readers.
January 5, 2025
3 Stars = Okay. Don't regret reading it.
The author says he is only retelling the facts, and won't be displaying any bias. I'm not so sure he accomplished that.
The formatting of the police interviews with the boys was very choppy, and made reading it a struggle. I'm sure a much more 'reader friendly' method could have been used.
In the final section of the book (the update) the author comes forward with his opinions, if you're at all interested.
The author says he is only retelling the facts, and won't be displaying any bias. I'm not so sure he accomplished that.
The formatting of the police interviews with the boys was very choppy, and made reading it a struggle. I'm sure a much more 'reader friendly' method could have been used.
In the final section of the book (the update) the author comes forward with his opinions, if you're at all interested.
October 29, 2019
This account of the horrific murder of James Bulger felt more like a gross attempt to make excuses for his killers (who don’t deserve to be name checked).
If you have come for the gruesome details, you can get them just as easily off the internet.
Ralph Bulger and Denise Fergus are merely afterthoughts in this account, while the mothers and fathers of the killers are given in-depth biographies. When it came to the epilogue, the author arrogantly writes “nothing will ever convince me that they were born to kill”
Maybe. Just maybe, they were. Children in their peer group had similar upbringings in that area of Liverpool and none of them carried out the unspeakable act of murdering a toddler.
If you have come for the gruesome details, you can get them just as easily off the internet.
Ralph Bulger and Denise Fergus are merely afterthoughts in this account, while the mothers and fathers of the killers are given in-depth biographies. When it came to the epilogue, the author arrogantly writes “nothing will ever convince me that they were born to kill”
Maybe. Just maybe, they were. Children in their peer group had similar upbringings in that area of Liverpool and none of them carried out the unspeakable act of murdering a toddler.
June 18, 2016
This is not bedtime reading. It took me over a month to get through simply because it's not the right thing to read if one is in any kind of low mood.
I remember the headlines at the time, the "MONSTERS" the "DEVILS" who killed a young child. No one seemed to set the tragedy of James Bulger's death against the fact that these criminals (who "should be hanged") were just 10 years old. No one seemed to question what would make two young children abduct and murder a toddler - they were painted as pure evil, with no one stopping to think about their backgrounds, and what they might have experienced, or how their families may have functioned. I wish I could make everyone still baying for the blood of those two boys read this book.
I remember the headlines at the time, the "MONSTERS" the "DEVILS" who killed a young child. No one seemed to set the tragedy of James Bulger's death against the fact that these criminals (who "should be hanged") were just 10 years old. No one seemed to question what would make two young children abduct and murder a toddler - they were painted as pure evil, with no one stopping to think about their backgrounds, and what they might have experienced, or how their families may have functioned. I wish I could make everyone still baying for the blood of those two boys read this book.
January 3, 2020
The book was of course difficult to read but I did read it extremely quickly I felt it was a book you want to clear your diary for and get it over with.i am glad I read it as I knew very little of the case (just read headlines prev).As with everything I feel knowing the facts is the only way to form a balanced opinion- of course I have only read the 1 book so perhaps there are areas I have missed. I don’t believe in ‘evil’ I am very much a believer in nurture over nature. Jon Venables & Robert Thompson came from very unstable, violent backgrounds which I feel reflects society’s need to invest more in the ‘poor’, both boys lacked self worth and esteem & looking at the history in particular Jon, they were unlikely to grow up and not get into further ‘trouble’.They lacked appropriate adult supervision & proper role models.The fact their paths crossed & they became friends was tragic - I’m sure they wouldn’t have done this murder themselves without each other.
It was very reflective of the classic book ’Lord of the Flies’ where one weak/vulnerable character is murdered by the group of children. The book also opens with a series of cases where children have murdered- it has happened before. The trial or at least the way the book told it - didn’t really seem to focus much on the why or give any sort of attention to this. Oddly the judge gave a random closing statement about how violent videos were perhaps the catalyst. I don’t agree the boys should have been in the court for the full length of the case, listening to all the evidence or their identities released. I feel rehabilitation was always going to be difficult perhaps even impossible given Venables has been in/out of prison since.i feel the boys did have an ongoing loose plan to abduct a child and perhaps cause ‘trouble/harm’ caused by their anger/control issues but I don’t feel - looking at the route they took etc that their end goal was to murder in such a gory way. I think it was more like a snowball affect... they were 10 and although I feel they knew it was wrong I’m not sure the understood the finality of it all ... I feel awful for the witnesses that had passed the boys in the street and of course James’ mother - we have all had those moments where we have dropped our little ones hand ...it will be a book that will stay with me.
It was very reflective of the classic book ’Lord of the Flies’ where one weak/vulnerable character is murdered by the group of children. The book also opens with a series of cases where children have murdered- it has happened before. The trial or at least the way the book told it - didn’t really seem to focus much on the why or give any sort of attention to this. Oddly the judge gave a random closing statement about how violent videos were perhaps the catalyst. I don’t agree the boys should have been in the court for the full length of the case, listening to all the evidence or their identities released. I feel rehabilitation was always going to be difficult perhaps even impossible given Venables has been in/out of prison since.i feel the boys did have an ongoing loose plan to abduct a child and perhaps cause ‘trouble/harm’ caused by their anger/control issues but I don’t feel - looking at the route they took etc that their end goal was to murder in such a gory way. I think it was more like a snowball affect... they were 10 and although I feel they knew it was wrong I’m not sure the understood the finality of it all ... I feel awful for the witnesses that had passed the boys in the street and of course James’ mother - we have all had those moments where we have dropped our little ones hand ...it will be a book that will stay with me.
March 18, 2019
Tough subject matter. This is a very thorough telling of the facts of this case. It's written by a journalist, but it does not read like a newspaper article. It seems to be meant for a British reader, as it is full of British slang, references to local places (without any descriptions) and references to acronyms (without any explanation). So, very difficult to follow sometimes. It is extremely detailed, which is good if you're looking for the facts, but I'm not sure the public needed to know all the details about little James' death, the condition of his tiny body when it was found, or even the minute excruciating details of Robert's and Jon's parents' childhoods and lives. I just finished "The Road Out of Hell" about Stanford Clark and Gordon Stewart Northcott and it was also a horrific story, but managed to give the reader a thorough background and idea of what went on without all the ultra-detail.
May 5, 2018
Largely this book is a recollection of events from the day that two year old James Bulger was abducted and killed by two ten year olds, Jon Venables and Bobby Thompson, starting with the two older boys 'sagging' school and ending with them returning home in the evening, their crime undetected. Details of the discovery of James, the investigation and the trial follow. These details will be familiar to anyone who has seen media coverage of the case.
The most interesting part of this book was the way in which the author examines the demonization of Jon and Bobby by the media and their own community. David James Smith looks at the family dynamics of both boys as well as the social undercurrents of their community to try and explain why this crime was committed. Smith includes a chronological list of child murderers to disprove the notion that the murder of James Bulger was a singular event. Smith also discounts the idea that some children are 'born evil'. Instead, the author suggests, they are created through repeated cycles of abuse, humiliation and powerlessness.
I gave this book two stars because the majority was information that is already widely available. In parts the formatting was weird which made reading the dialogue of police interviews difficult. The author's heavy use of local slang also made parts difficult to understand. This could have been easily corrected with implementation of footnotes. Overall, this book was very very depressing.
The most interesting part of this book was the way in which the author examines the demonization of Jon and Bobby by the media and their own community. David James Smith looks at the family dynamics of both boys as well as the social undercurrents of their community to try and explain why this crime was committed. Smith includes a chronological list of child murderers to disprove the notion that the murder of James Bulger was a singular event. Smith also discounts the idea that some children are 'born evil'. Instead, the author suggests, they are created through repeated cycles of abuse, humiliation and powerlessness.
I gave this book two stars because the majority was information that is already widely available. In parts the formatting was weird which made reading the dialogue of police interviews difficult. The author's heavy use of local slang also made parts difficult to understand. This could have been easily corrected with implementation of footnotes. Overall, this book was very very depressing.
August 8, 2019
Like anyone my age who was born in England, I grew up knowing about the Bulger murder and the national conversation/panic that it triggered. Reading this book was harder than I expected, and the very factual style of writing brought home not just the horror of the murder, but the terrible circumstances in which the two murderers (and their families) had been raised.
The author does a very good job in charting how the murder was fundamentally one of opportunism rather than of ingrained evil, although I thought he was on weaker ground with his wider critique of the judicial/police handling of the case (as if there was a good way for the state to handle a case this horrendous?). Recommended both on its own terms and for anyone interested in the wider cultural forces (including the desire to blame violent videos...) which were prevalent in the early 1990s in the UK.
The author does a very good job in charting how the murder was fundamentally one of opportunism rather than of ingrained evil, although I thought he was on weaker ground with his wider critique of the judicial/police handling of the case (as if there was a good way for the state to handle a case this horrendous?). Recommended both on its own terms and for anyone interested in the wider cultural forces (including the desire to blame violent videos...) which were prevalent in the early 1990s in the UK.
February 26, 2018
So recently I have been seeing programmes on TV surrounding this case. I was too young to know what happened and only know about it because of people talking about it over the years. In school, I studied GCSE law and one of the examples that was used to define the age of criminal responsibility was this case.
This book is an astonishing read. As someone who is indifferent to what happened (mainly because of my age), this book offered a powerful insight in to the atrocity of the case. Interesting, compelling and informative, this book offers a detailed insight into the crime - if not a somewhat emotional read.
This book is an astonishing read. As someone who is indifferent to what happened (mainly because of my age), this book offered a powerful insight in to the atrocity of the case. Interesting, compelling and informative, this book offers a detailed insight into the crime - if not a somewhat emotional read.
February 19, 2023
This book was very informative. But this author clearly has a lot of sympathy for these two little monsters yeah I said monsters cause that’s what they are! I have read about this case from the moment it happened the authors pathetic explanation at the end of the book as to why these two tortured and murdered an innocent two year old boy is weak.
The horrific murder of James bulger is one of those events that stands out in human history and author is wrong when he states there is no such thing as evil people the darkness that exists in this world was strong the day these too no doubt budding psychopaths met each other. The inhumanity these two monsters showed to James bulger is the definition of evil and can’t be explained away by a subpar childhood.
Yes they were poor and came from broken families so what! This author barely mentions the bulger family and largely concentrates on the life’s and families of there two monsters and why we should have sympathy for them his comment “bobby and Jon are human just like James bulger”is insulting.
These two so called humans lead little a baby away from his mother dragged him 2 and a half miles as they continued to assault him brought to train track and proceeded to batter him with brick,steel pipe,rocks,a metal plate. Threw paint in his eyes screamed at him to say down as he tried to stand up as called out for his mother in pain and bewilderment. They than covered him with bricks and put him on the train tracks to be sliced in half to author I say what part of any of that is human.
This story is heartbreaking and I feel the bulger family had no voice in this book I pray that what is now 30 years since their beautiful baby was taken they have some sense of peace. Which would be hard to get knowing that the state has provided nothing but opportunities money and resources at Robert Thompson and Jon venables their life’s after the murder of James got better they were provided with new names and spent only eight years in what can only be described as orphanage not one day spent in jail for the murder of James bulger.
Jon venables would go on to reoffend and is still jail as we speak for child pornography offences for the second time yet he is still protected under yet another assumed name!
I can only hope that every night when these two evil so called human beings close their eyes they are forever haunted by the pain they inflicted on James bulger. This case will never be forgotten because it is a reminder that true evil exist does in this world. While true justice was not given to the bulger family I hope they know that around the world people still think of their beautiful baby boy as a light against evil.
The horrific murder of James bulger is one of those events that stands out in human history and author is wrong when he states there is no such thing as evil people the darkness that exists in this world was strong the day these too no doubt budding psychopaths met each other. The inhumanity these two monsters showed to James bulger is the definition of evil and can’t be explained away by a subpar childhood.
Yes they were poor and came from broken families so what! This author barely mentions the bulger family and largely concentrates on the life’s and families of there two monsters and why we should have sympathy for them his comment “bobby and Jon are human just like James bulger”is insulting.
These two so called humans lead little a baby away from his mother dragged him 2 and a half miles as they continued to assault him brought to train track and proceeded to batter him with brick,steel pipe,rocks,a metal plate. Threw paint in his eyes screamed at him to say down as he tried to stand up as called out for his mother in pain and bewilderment. They than covered him with bricks and put him on the train tracks to be sliced in half to author I say what part of any of that is human.
This story is heartbreaking and I feel the bulger family had no voice in this book I pray that what is now 30 years since their beautiful baby was taken they have some sense of peace. Which would be hard to get knowing that the state has provided nothing but opportunities money and resources at Robert Thompson and Jon venables their life’s after the murder of James got better they were provided with new names and spent only eight years in what can only be described as orphanage not one day spent in jail for the murder of James bulger.
Jon venables would go on to reoffend and is still jail as we speak for child pornography offences for the second time yet he is still protected under yet another assumed name!
I can only hope that every night when these two evil so called human beings close their eyes they are forever haunted by the pain they inflicted on James bulger. This case will never be forgotten because it is a reminder that true evil exist does in this world. While true justice was not given to the bulger family I hope they know that around the world people still think of their beautiful baby boy as a light against evil.
April 5, 2024
A chore to read. I didn't really care about the backgrounds of the police; I just wanted to know about the victim and his family, and the perpetrators and their families. Very little information was given about the victim, and while it's interesting to examine killer kids, I think James Bulger and his family were given the short stick here in the narrative.
You are better off reading Denise Bulger's memoir, I Let Him Go. It's not going to get into the details of the murderers's home lives as much, but it gives a more honest portrayal of their characters--especially since it mentions that Venables and Thompson's lives in the system and Venables' subsequent troubles with the law (though part of this is because Denise wrote her book after the two were released, and this book was written while the two were still incarcerated).
You are better off reading Denise Bulger's memoir, I Let Him Go. It's not going to get into the details of the murderers's home lives as much, but it gives a more honest portrayal of their characters--especially since it mentions that Venables and Thompson's lives in the system and Venables' subsequent troubles with the law (though part of this is because Denise wrote her book after the two were released, and this book was written while the two were still incarcerated).
November 9, 2013
I am really in two minds about this book. For me, as a person who has done a fair amount of research into the case, i found the first half of the book informative but nothing that i didn't already know. The second half did reveal a fair amount of information that i did not know.
There seems to be a leaning towards both Venables and Thompson in this book, with very little attention paid to the Bulgers. While this is a interesting stance to take, and i particularly enjoyed his reasoning behind why the crimes where committed, i found there to be a bias towards them.
Overall this is a great report into this highly emotive case, by someone who was there from the beginning. It's just a shame we will never know why or what truly happened to that poor boy on that day.
Well done Mr Smith.
There seems to be a leaning towards both Venables and Thompson in this book, with very little attention paid to the Bulgers. While this is a interesting stance to take, and i particularly enjoyed his reasoning behind why the crimes where committed, i found there to be a bias towards them.
Overall this is a great report into this highly emotive case, by someone who was there from the beginning. It's just a shame we will never know why or what truly happened to that poor boy on that day.
Well done Mr Smith.
September 21, 2022
I was hoping this was going to be more analytical and less about mining as much minutiae detail as possible
April 11, 2013
Parts of this book are a very difficult read but this is only to be expected. It is so well written and gives a really good insight in to not only what happened on the day but how the 2 boys were interviewed by the police and consequently convicted.
March 8, 2019
A detailed and impartial account of the James Bulger Case.
This is a great example of how true crime accounts should be written, as it was not dramatised by the author and there was no clear agenda or injection of their personal emotion into the facts.
This is a great example of how true crime accounts should be written, as it was not dramatised by the author and there was no clear agenda or injection of their personal emotion into the facts.
March 18, 2021
Terrible writing style. The interviews were written without quotations and it was confusing. Much too much rambling. Terrible crime and well researched but not well written unfortunately. I did learn about other children who committed murder which I didn’t know.
June 28, 2008
Two seemingly innocent ten years in Britain abduct a little boy from a shopping mall and kill him. It's really quite hard to wrap your head around how two young boys could do something like this.
December 6, 2022
This was...interesting.
Several years back I read and reviewed a book called AS IF by Blake Morrison, which is also about the James Bulger murder. I seem to have been a bit tepid in my rating of it, or maybe my memory has gone a bit rosy on me, but either way I kept thinking about that book while I was reading this one, and it compared favourably. Now, maybe that's because AS IF was my first deep dive into the case, so the impact it had was harder, I don't know. THE SLEEP OF REASON is a more than capably written study of the murder of young James and the arrest of his 10-year-old killers. But I came away feeling like it was missing something. Reading about what was done to this child is still incredibly difficult, and I don't expect it's something that gets easier the more you study it...and yet I didn't find myself emotionally engaged for much of this one. Maybe that's a blessing.
If you're newer to the case than I am, David James Smith will do a great job of bringing you up to speed on it. It covers most of the important facts in a fairly straightforward way.
One of the things I noticed in many of the reviews here is the distaste a lot of people have with how Smith gets weirdly defensive of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. I actually kind of agree. The last chapter was where it finally rubbed me the wrong way. While it's perfectly reasonable for a journalist to look into the lives and circumstances of a couple of kids who perpetuated some of the most inhumane things on a three year old boy, it felt like Smith went a few steps beyond that and was campaigning for sympathy for them. Unlike AS IF, however, this book was published well after all of the heinous stuff that happened after the parole hearings came and went, and yet it didn’t touch on any of that. Which surprises me, really, because how are we meant to feel any pity for the monster that is Venables? After what he’s done? And this is stuff he did after torturing a toddler!
Anyway, as I said, it’s a well crafted book, and it does a fine job relating the facts. I just felt like the spotlight was pointed in the wrong direction, and I felt an emotional disconnect most of the way through. I certainly didn’t come out of it feeling sorry for the murderers. If you want to read about this case with a more intriguing emotional bent to it, try the Blake Morrison book instead.
Several years back I read and reviewed a book called AS IF by Blake Morrison, which is also about the James Bulger murder. I seem to have been a bit tepid in my rating of it, or maybe my memory has gone a bit rosy on me, but either way I kept thinking about that book while I was reading this one, and it compared favourably. Now, maybe that's because AS IF was my first deep dive into the case, so the impact it had was harder, I don't know. THE SLEEP OF REASON is a more than capably written study of the murder of young James and the arrest of his 10-year-old killers. But I came away feeling like it was missing something. Reading about what was done to this child is still incredibly difficult, and I don't expect it's something that gets easier the more you study it...and yet I didn't find myself emotionally engaged for much of this one. Maybe that's a blessing.
If you're newer to the case than I am, David James Smith will do a great job of bringing you up to speed on it. It covers most of the important facts in a fairly straightforward way.
One of the things I noticed in many of the reviews here is the distaste a lot of people have with how Smith gets weirdly defensive of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. I actually kind of agree. The last chapter was where it finally rubbed me the wrong way. While it's perfectly reasonable for a journalist to look into the lives and circumstances of a couple of kids who perpetuated some of the most inhumane things on a three year old boy, it felt like Smith went a few steps beyond that and was campaigning for sympathy for them. Unlike AS IF, however, this book was published well after all of the heinous stuff that happened after the parole hearings came and went, and yet it didn’t touch on any of that. Which surprises me, really, because how are we meant to feel any pity for the monster that is Venables? After what he’s done? And this is stuff he did after torturing a toddler!
Anyway, as I said, it’s a well crafted book, and it does a fine job relating the facts. I just felt like the spotlight was pointed in the wrong direction, and I felt an emotional disconnect most of the way through. I certainly didn’t come out of it feeling sorry for the murderers. If you want to read about this case with a more intriguing emotional bent to it, try the Blake Morrison book instead.
December 2, 2020
It is so hard to rate books based on facts, especially when those facts are based around an appalling death. In this case, the tragic little James Bulger who must have had a terrifying last few hours of his brief life.
The Sleep Of Reason (I'm not sure what this title actually refers to) gives us the whole sad story about how, why (is there really a why??), when, etc of the abduction, torture and death of James by two 10 year old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Do we look at the two boys as just little shits or look at them from the aspect of their home lives and the surroundings in which they have grown up? Of course how you grow up and what happens in your childhood has a huge impact on who you become, BUT it is one thing to steal and play truant from school, and quite another to abduct, torture and kill another living thing, be it animal or human. It is also one thing to know right from wrong and still another thing to be part of a pack mentality. But does 2 signify a "pack"? I personally do not believe so - 2 is a number still low enough for one half to say No or STOP. In this case nobody seemed to say Stop. Of course both boys blamed the other and we probably will never know who really did start the sequence of events - one wonders if over the years the boys themselves would even know now or if they have completely convinced themselves that "the other one did it".
The second part of this awful story is whether the two boys responsible for James' death, should have had their identities kept under wraps and given new names so they would never have to face the wrath and hatred of the rest of society. I suppose it is hard to try and regain control of your life when everyone knows who you are, but then hidden identities of not, it didn't appear to help rehabilitate Venables who has been in and out of jail because of child pornography found on his computer. This of course makes him look to be the worst of the two and maybe the ringleader? On the other hand, Robert Thompson has seemingly led a problem free life since his incarceration. What does that say? That he was the "follower"? But maybe he is just more clever and manipulative than Venables?
On a side note, there were one hell of a lot of errors, spelling etc in my ebook.
The Sleep Of Reason (I'm not sure what this title actually refers to) gives us the whole sad story about how, why (is there really a why??), when, etc of the abduction, torture and death of James by two 10 year old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Do we look at the two boys as just little shits or look at them from the aspect of their home lives and the surroundings in which they have grown up? Of course how you grow up and what happens in your childhood has a huge impact on who you become, BUT it is one thing to steal and play truant from school, and quite another to abduct, torture and kill another living thing, be it animal or human. It is also one thing to know right from wrong and still another thing to be part of a pack mentality. But does 2 signify a "pack"? I personally do not believe so - 2 is a number still low enough for one half to say No or STOP. In this case nobody seemed to say Stop. Of course both boys blamed the other and we probably will never know who really did start the sequence of events - one wonders if over the years the boys themselves would even know now or if they have completely convinced themselves that "the other one did it".
The second part of this awful story is whether the two boys responsible for James' death, should have had their identities kept under wraps and given new names so they would never have to face the wrath and hatred of the rest of society. I suppose it is hard to try and regain control of your life when everyone knows who you are, but then hidden identities of not, it didn't appear to help rehabilitate Venables who has been in and out of jail because of child pornography found on his computer. This of course makes him look to be the worst of the two and maybe the ringleader? On the other hand, Robert Thompson has seemingly led a problem free life since his incarceration. What does that say? That he was the "follower"? But maybe he is just more clever and manipulative than Venables?
On a side note, there were one hell of a lot of errors, spelling etc in my ebook.
January 30, 2018
David Smith has clearly spent a lot of time on this case and he does an admirable job of delving beyond the trite 'demon,' 'monster,' 'beyond evil' trope that is thrown around by the gutter press.
Clearly recognising that there is a strong need to explain, not excuse or justify, but to figure why this dreadful crime took place, Smith has covered all bases.
He gives a very detailed explanation of events of that day, unfortunately this explanation cant follow the boys too closely once they reach the railway line as, in their interviews, both Venables and Thompson vacillated, blaming each other, offering alternative narratives and, sadly a thorough picture of what occurred has ever been gained.
Interestingly Smith goes through the motions of the crime, the enquiry, the subsequent arrest, the legal systems difficulties in prosecuting such young children and the aftermath. He never resorts to cheap shots, something that would be so easy to do. There are sections of the book where the perpetrators are visited by psychiatrists and in-depth analysis of both boys takes place. I can imagine that it would have been easier to cry foul that two murderers have such unfettered access to services that most people struggle to get a hold of.
The last section is perhaps most interesting, we are given backstory as to the upbringing of the two perpetrators and Smith offers a non-sensationalised theory as to why they did it and what happened on the railway line. His remarks resonate and seem to hold a deeper truth that most works covering crimes of this type lack.
I think Smith should have made more mention of the fact that there were two perpetrators, this is known to be a strong disinhibitor and I imagine that, for two children giving each other encouragement and normalising each step of this crime, this would have been a powerful factor. I think this area should have had more coverage.
All told, this is a powerful read, Smith does not go for banner headlines or cheap blows, he narrates the facts simply and without too much colour, a story like this speaks for itself, it does not need writing akin to the gutter press.
An essential read.
Clearly recognising that there is a strong need to explain, not excuse or justify, but to figure why this dreadful crime took place, Smith has covered all bases.
He gives a very detailed explanation of events of that day, unfortunately this explanation cant follow the boys too closely once they reach the railway line as, in their interviews, both Venables and Thompson vacillated, blaming each other, offering alternative narratives and, sadly a thorough picture of what occurred has ever been gained.
Interestingly Smith goes through the motions of the crime, the enquiry, the subsequent arrest, the legal systems difficulties in prosecuting such young children and the aftermath. He never resorts to cheap shots, something that would be so easy to do. There are sections of the book where the perpetrators are visited by psychiatrists and in-depth analysis of both boys takes place. I can imagine that it would have been easier to cry foul that two murderers have such unfettered access to services that most people struggle to get a hold of.
The last section is perhaps most interesting, we are given backstory as to the upbringing of the two perpetrators and Smith offers a non-sensationalised theory as to why they did it and what happened on the railway line. His remarks resonate and seem to hold a deeper truth that most works covering crimes of this type lack.
I think Smith should have made more mention of the fact that there were two perpetrators, this is known to be a strong disinhibitor and I imagine that, for two children giving each other encouragement and normalising each step of this crime, this would have been a powerful factor. I think this area should have had more coverage.
All told, this is a powerful read, Smith does not go for banner headlines or cheap blows, he narrates the facts simply and without too much colour, a story like this speaks for itself, it does not need writing akin to the gutter press.
An essential read.
August 26, 2017
Whoa, that was a harrowing read. I'm glad the writer decided to attach the extra chapter with his own thoughts, mainly because while reading my mind kept returning to how the "sleep of reason" alluded to in the title had so far only been connected to the passage from Rousseau that precedes the book and refers to young children supposedly not having developed independent thought yet. I couldn't help thinking about these boys and their behaviour being a product of a whole complex vicious circle of long-term unemployment, financial instability, domestic violence, etc. And moreover, how the "sleep of reason" - which "produces monsters" - is possibly the state that the government is in (and had been for a while, cf. Thatcherism and Smith's list of similar crimes perpetrated in the Victorian era, which implies connections on the basis of how the working class is being treated). In my view, the system's failure to understand and/or provide for actual people, especially working class individuals, is at the heart of this vicious circle. The backstories of the two families (and the implications for many more in similar circumstances) were, for me, a much more harrowing reading experience than the murder itself - which is never really described (and which gives me reason to believe that the details of what really happened were never brought up, even afterwards).
I admit I had a brief look at the Wikipedia entry of this case after finishing the book, and I was really shocked at some of the later developments. It seems that Smith's assumptions in his final chapter (which he repeatedly stated couldn't be proven) might not have been very far from the truth. But again: from the outside, these things cannot be understood - and even the people involved may not have much insight themselves. I can only say that John Major's 1993 declaration that "we must condemn a little more, and understand a little less" (p. 2) is cruel and counterproductive and puts British politics in an even worse light.
I admit I had a brief look at the Wikipedia entry of this case after finishing the book, and I was really shocked at some of the later developments. It seems that Smith's assumptions in his final chapter (which he repeatedly stated couldn't be proven) might not have been very far from the truth. But again: from the outside, these things cannot be understood - and even the people involved may not have much insight themselves. I can only say that John Major's 1993 declaration that "we must condemn a little more, and understand a little less" (p. 2) is cruel and counterproductive and puts British politics in an even worse light.
April 21, 2025
Be warned: this book contains horrific details. Not many of them, but you will not forget them.
Enough people have summarised the case here, so I will just give my thoughts.
I grew up in Liverpool. Both myself and my brother were mentally ill, and viciously bullied at school. In later years, my brother was attacked and there were attacks on his house due to his disability. "Just lads having a laugh like," - I'm sure that that's how they and their parents saw it.
I read this book partly hoping to get some insight into why bullies behave this way. I got none.
Both of the murderers had bad childhoods but I don't think that explained it.
I think there are section of people in all classes of society who were just vicious. I know the author wants you to think there's more to it than that but I don't agree.
I believe those kids would have been doing "lesser" assaults to other children for years to finally got on to this. Do this, do this, go a little bit further...
The unspeakable arrogance of one of the murderers' mothers in saying that it wouldn't have happened if James Bulger had been on leading reins will stay with me as perhaps the ultimate horror of this book.
One of the boys is now in prison as a paedophile.
He should not ever be released.
There is a hand-wringing epilogue: no child is born evil, etc. He seems to think there's anybody who thinks these children were evil must be a Sun reader. Well I detest the Sun but I think the middle class liberalism of the Guardian is also a problem. Middle class liberals (which in the UK means centre-right people) love to see the working class as hapless victims. They are interested in the violent but never the victims. They project their views on to places of which they know nothing. For instance, the writer thinks Scottie Road is a bustling thoroughfare with many pubs. That's the problem with using out of date sources: it's been a motorway since the 1960s. That's emblematic of his approach.
I am sick of those who only care about the violent.
Enough people have summarised the case here, so I will just give my thoughts.
I grew up in Liverpool. Both myself and my brother were mentally ill, and viciously bullied at school. In later years, my brother was attacked and there were attacks on his house due to his disability. "Just lads having a laugh like," - I'm sure that that's how they and their parents saw it.
I read this book partly hoping to get some insight into why bullies behave this way. I got none.
Both of the murderers had bad childhoods but I don't think that explained it.
I think there are section of people in all classes of society who were just vicious. I know the author wants you to think there's more to it than that but I don't agree.
I believe those kids would have been doing "lesser" assaults to other children for years to finally got on to this. Do this, do this, go a little bit further...
The unspeakable arrogance of one of the murderers' mothers in saying that it wouldn't have happened if James Bulger had been on leading reins will stay with me as perhaps the ultimate horror of this book.
One of the boys is now in prison as a paedophile.
He should not ever be released.
There is a hand-wringing epilogue: no child is born evil, etc. He seems to think there's anybody who thinks these children were evil must be a Sun reader. Well I detest the Sun but I think the middle class liberalism of the Guardian is also a problem. Middle class liberals (which in the UK means centre-right people) love to see the working class as hapless victims. They are interested in the violent but never the victims. They project their views on to places of which they know nothing. For instance, the writer thinks Scottie Road is a bustling thoroughfare with many pubs. That's the problem with using out of date sources: it's been a motorway since the 1960s. That's emblematic of his approach.
I am sick of those who only care about the violent.
March 22, 2018
"Two outwardly unremarkable ten-year-old boys began the day by playing truant and ended it running an errand for the local video shop. In between they abducted and killed a two-year-old boy, James Bulger."
Reading about child abuse is something that always bothers me, so I was worried if I should get this or not, but deciding that I wanted to know more about the case that I find interesting, I decided to check it out of the library. At first, I had to put it down because of the descriptions of the abuse Robert Thompson and Jon Venables did to James Bulger. A few days past and today I managed to finish the book, with reading the majority of it in pretty much one sitting.
I will say it's a good book for someone looking to widen their knowledge of the case, however, the author did go into a lot of details that I felt were unnecessary. He would go into backgrounds of police officers, prosecutors and psychiatrists and I felt that it was unneeded. I was there to read about the murder of James Bulger and the sentencing of two eleven-year-old boys. I didn't need to know that the head police officer's wife had ill health. It carried nothing for the book.
Another thing, I felt like the book focused a lot on the truanting, now I don't know if this was because they were truanting the day of the killing but it started to feel like this was being used as an excuse at one point. Robert was brought up by a single mother, Robert's mother was an alcoholic, Robert truants from school, this is why he's done this. It was exhausting!
The worst thing about this book was the last chapter, I stopped reading like three times, I reach page 312 and scrolled through Tumblr, by 316 I was fighting to continue. I reached the last page and threw a party for myself! I just don't think it should have been put in because it's just the author's speculations on the case. It wasn't that important in my opinion.
Reading about child abuse is something that always bothers me, so I was worried if I should get this or not, but deciding that I wanted to know more about the case that I find interesting, I decided to check it out of the library. At first, I had to put it down because of the descriptions of the abuse Robert Thompson and Jon Venables did to James Bulger. A few days past and today I managed to finish the book, with reading the majority of it in pretty much one sitting.
I will say it's a good book for someone looking to widen their knowledge of the case, however, the author did go into a lot of details that I felt were unnecessary. He would go into backgrounds of police officers, prosecutors and psychiatrists and I felt that it was unneeded. I was there to read about the murder of James Bulger and the sentencing of two eleven-year-old boys. I didn't need to know that the head police officer's wife had ill health. It carried nothing for the book.
Another thing, I felt like the book focused a lot on the truanting, now I don't know if this was because they were truanting the day of the killing but it started to feel like this was being used as an excuse at one point. Robert was brought up by a single mother, Robert's mother was an alcoholic, Robert truants from school, this is why he's done this. It was exhausting!
The worst thing about this book was the last chapter, I stopped reading like three times, I reach page 312 and scrolled through Tumblr, by 316 I was fighting to continue. I reached the last page and threw a party for myself! I just don't think it should have been put in because it's just the author's speculations on the case. It wasn't that important in my opinion.
March 27, 2018
Review: The Sleep of Reason by David James Smith. 03/24/2018
This was an earlier-reviews book and I found it interesting with a few changes from the original book in 1993. The preface is new and at the end the author comments his theories on the murder case. The book is harrowing, sensitive and some knowing accounts of the James Bulger Murder Case where two ten years old boys did the emotional crime in 1993.
I myself don’t believe it was preplanned but Robert Thompson and Jon Venables skip school and started their day doing boy things like walking around, causing mischief and than headed for the mall where they played different antics on the merchants of the store and even stole some things. I felt Bobby was more street wise than Jon. At first Jon seemed more of a follower but later throughout the story both boys showed their true colors.
At the malls entrance the security video showed that the two boys were coaxing the two- years-old toddler to follow them outside the mall. At that time the boys were only taking him away and leaving James stranded without his mother. However, Bobby and Jon walked him around town, down by the river and they ended up on the railroad tracks behind the police station. Little James kept saying he wanted his mommy but the older boys were in their own little world and really didn’t know what to do with the toddler. They never planned on taking him over two miles through town where some people seen them dragging and abusing James and did nothing except a couple of comments of taking him to the police.
When they got to the railroad tracks is when they started abusing and use some torture toward James until he died. It was so sad and disturbing what they did to the toddler. There is really no answer to why they did it but they got caught on the video and taken into custody, had a court trial and than sentenced. There are so many red flags in the story so as the reader I am mystified why the crime happened.
This was an earlier-reviews book and I found it interesting with a few changes from the original book in 1993. The preface is new and at the end the author comments his theories on the murder case. The book is harrowing, sensitive and some knowing accounts of the James Bulger Murder Case where two ten years old boys did the emotional crime in 1993.
I myself don’t believe it was preplanned but Robert Thompson and Jon Venables skip school and started their day doing boy things like walking around, causing mischief and than headed for the mall where they played different antics on the merchants of the store and even stole some things. I felt Bobby was more street wise than Jon. At first Jon seemed more of a follower but later throughout the story both boys showed their true colors.
At the malls entrance the security video showed that the two boys were coaxing the two- years-old toddler to follow them outside the mall. At that time the boys were only taking him away and leaving James stranded without his mother. However, Bobby and Jon walked him around town, down by the river and they ended up on the railroad tracks behind the police station. Little James kept saying he wanted his mommy but the older boys were in their own little world and really didn’t know what to do with the toddler. They never planned on taking him over two miles through town where some people seen them dragging and abusing James and did nothing except a couple of comments of taking him to the police.
When they got to the railroad tracks is when they started abusing and use some torture toward James until he died. It was so sad and disturbing what they did to the toddler. There is really no answer to why they did it but they got caught on the video and taken into custody, had a court trial and than sentenced. There are so many red flags in the story so as the reader I am mystified why the crime happened.
June 4, 2018
One of those books, where you have to remind yourself to rate the book according to its quality and not the opinions of the author. So overall, the book is high quality research, Smith crossed all his t's and dotted his i's. The reason why I took off one star is because i didn't like the amount of "slang" in it, which I am sure made it difficult to understand in parts for anyone who is not from the Liverpool area. Also, in parts the book seemedd to jump from describing Venables to describing Thompson without clear "break". But i had an ebook so maybe the paperformat doesn't have this issue.
However. As much as he tried to "pitch" for the boys, i did not buy it. I had finished reading Denise's book prior to this one and no way in hell I would look at these boys as victims of their circumstances. Obviously, I don't call for any lynching but I do believe they were let off way too easily. And yes, while they may not have wanted to murder James the way they did, I am convinced they wanted to murder him "somehow" and the way it happened was possibly just a coincidence. They had several opportunities to stop what they were doing and they never did.
What i personally struggle with is how to view the post traumatic stress they developed as a result of murdering James. Because they did this awful thing, which gave them PTSD and this PTSD should be taken into account when judging them....isn't that walking in circles a little bit?
My heart goes out to Denise, who - of course apart from James - is the number one victim that had to deal with the most severe consequences - unlike Thompson and Venables.
However. As much as he tried to "pitch" for the boys, i did not buy it. I had finished reading Denise's book prior to this one and no way in hell I would look at these boys as victims of their circumstances. Obviously, I don't call for any lynching but I do believe they were let off way too easily. And yes, while they may not have wanted to murder James the way they did, I am convinced they wanted to murder him "somehow" and the way it happened was possibly just a coincidence. They had several opportunities to stop what they were doing and they never did.
What i personally struggle with is how to view the post traumatic stress they developed as a result of murdering James. Because they did this awful thing, which gave them PTSD and this PTSD should be taken into account when judging them....isn't that walking in circles a little bit?
My heart goes out to Denise, who - of course apart from James - is the number one victim that had to deal with the most severe consequences - unlike Thompson and Venables.
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August 10, 2021Hard to put any stars on this because it seems sensationalist to do so. You wouldn't say this is a great read and I'd find it hard to recommend it, even though I read it in its entirety I did find I was asking myself why I wanted to read this or continue reading it.
It came down to the simple fact that I have heard about James Bulger all my life as a fear mongering tactic to stay close when out with my own parents. I didn't know enough about the crime even though I've grown up listening to this tragedy, besides the heartbreak of the crime reading this book allowed me to know the real facts, not the rumours I had been led to believe were true about certain parts of this case.
It's harrowing and not an easy read at all. There are many moments I had to stop reading and literally take a walk, cuddle my cat or just take a breather. Its not that I'm naive to the abhorrent crimes of human beings at all - it was just simply awful to take in, it puts a heartbreaking image in your mind of a helpless 2 year old boy crying for his mum whilst reading. I can't possibly begin to imagine what any parent would feel reading this, or james's parents who lived this nightmare.
The detailing as to what went on, lead to and after the murder is captured thoroughly in this book, mostly unemotionally too. The final chapters were not needed in my opinion, it made me feel like the author was sympathetic to the two boys who murdered James, due to their own age, upbringing etc. It left a sour taste to put such a questionable opinion on the why of the crimes, after being so unemotional for 99% of the book.
Absolutely devasting read.
It came down to the simple fact that I have heard about James Bulger all my life as a fear mongering tactic to stay close when out with my own parents. I didn't know enough about the crime even though I've grown up listening to this tragedy, besides the heartbreak of the crime reading this book allowed me to know the real facts, not the rumours I had been led to believe were true about certain parts of this case.
It's harrowing and not an easy read at all. There are many moments I had to stop reading and literally take a walk, cuddle my cat or just take a breather. Its not that I'm naive to the abhorrent crimes of human beings at all - it was just simply awful to take in, it puts a heartbreaking image in your mind of a helpless 2 year old boy crying for his mum whilst reading. I can't possibly begin to imagine what any parent would feel reading this, or james's parents who lived this nightmare.
The detailing as to what went on, lead to and after the murder is captured thoroughly in this book, mostly unemotionally too. The final chapters were not needed in my opinion, it made me feel like the author was sympathetic to the two boys who murdered James, due to their own age, upbringing etc. It left a sour taste to put such a questionable opinion on the why of the crimes, after being so unemotional for 99% of the book.
Absolutely devasting read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2023
Even for people who have a professional background in law enforcement or the courts, like myself, "The Sleep of Reason" is a tough read. Although I have been confronted with countless serious crimes in my professional life, it was one of the most difficult books I have read. This book is difficult to read not only because it is about an extremely gruesome act against a completely defenceless and unsuspecting toddler, but also because the reader is hit with the full force of the senselessness behind this act. James could have been a brother. The perpetrators could have been playing with him, bringing him home ... in another life.
We will never really know what drove these two schoolboys to commit this horrific act. And even if we did know exactly, that would not guarantee that we could understand it. Although the book describes the details of the police investigation, the trial and the history of the families involved in great detail, it must leave the reader with many questions at the end. Because even the book cannot do what not even the police investigation or the trial have brought to light: An answer to the "why?". What drives two boys of primary school age to murder a small child?
In a chapter added later, the author once again sheds light on the family background of the perpetrators and attempts to shed light on the psychological background that led to this crime. Unlike other readers, I don't see this as an attempt to explain the crime or absolve the perpetrators of their guilt. In my opinion, it is an attempt to shed light on possible causes so that these can be recognized earlier and better in other cases and appropriate countermeasures can be taken.
We will never really know what drove these two schoolboys to commit this horrific act. And even if we did know exactly, that would not guarantee that we could understand it. Although the book describes the details of the police investigation, the trial and the history of the families involved in great detail, it must leave the reader with many questions at the end. Because even the book cannot do what not even the police investigation or the trial have brought to light: An answer to the "why?". What drives two boys of primary school age to murder a small child?
In a chapter added later, the author once again sheds light on the family background of the perpetrators and attempts to shed light on the psychological background that led to this crime. Unlike other readers, I don't see this as an attempt to explain the crime or absolve the perpetrators of their guilt. In my opinion, it is an attempt to shed light on possible causes so that these can be recognized earlier and better in other cases and appropriate countermeasures can be taken.
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