This is a Glassbox Media Podcast.

Why do you seem so scared?

All I wanted to do was play with you.

Please call and play with me.

I'm so lonely.

You're not afraid of the dust.

Are you?

Don't be afraid.

Come with me.

I will show you where I'll play hide and seek.

Do you want to play hide and seek?

You hide, and I'll find you.

In February 1993, two-year-old James Balger from Liverpool, England, was abducted, tortured, and murdered.

Britons were outraged and appalled by the crime itself, but what was even more shocking was the identities of the perpetrators.

This is an example of how, in rare cases, children are capable of committing some of the most atrocious crimes one would normally expect from adult offenders.

The guilty parties are John Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10 years old at the time, with their birthdays being two weeks apart.

This is the story of how they committed the crime that marked them for life.

February 12, 1993, John Venables was late for school.

It didn't make much of a difference since he planned on being ruined that day.

He went to some bushes to hide his school bag.

He met Robert Thompson at the top of the village by a church.

Robert was with his younger brother, Ryan.

...