The similarities in the lives of this father and son are uncanny. I will look at the murders committed by both Butch and Willie. They both committed two murders. I will look at the correlation between the two men and the murders they committed. I will touch on their lives and their treatment at home. In addition, how that eventually affected them and the eventual murders they both committed. Their mother has sent them both away. They were both sent to the same juvenile detention centers at different times. This affected both men differently. The psychologists gave them the same diagnosis at different times, but no one realized this at the time. It is astonishing that there was no connection made between the two men. There was bound to be tragedy in their lives given the history in this family. Butch and Willie both committed heinous crimes, but for different reasons. I will look at why I think they killed and what sentences I believe they should have gotten for killing.
When Butch was nine years old, his mother sent him away with a quarter and told him never to come back. He rode the subway for days, until he was picked up by the police and taken to court. This was in August 1950, he was sent to the Children’s Center. It would be the beginning of a lifetime of institutions for Butch. Butch had to learn at a young age to defend himself. To be the toughest kid in the institution. He had to strike first or he would get hurt. He was all he had. His mother did not want him. He learned early “that a willingness to fight was essential to survival.” (1) Butch became hard to handle at the Children’s Center. He was then sent to Wiltwyck, another institution for boys. “Wiltwick had become nationally renowned school, officiall...
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...ner, more respected person on the streets. All it did was make him an uncaring, ruthless killer in the end. The sentences that I have set forth for these two men are just. Butch was showing he could make something of himself. Willie would never be the man his father was.
Works Sited
1 - Butterfield, All God’s Children, 1995, pg 92
2 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 93
3 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 87
4 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 89
5 - James Alan Fox, Jack Levin, Kenna Quinet, The Will to kill. Making Sense of Senseless
Murder, 2008. pg 31
6 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 114
7 - http://www.nationalyouth.com/conductdisorder.html
8 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 149
9 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 210
10 - Butterfield, 1995 pg 211
11- Butterfield pg, 1995 211
12 - http://www.abanet.org/publiced/features/DYJfull.pdf pg 10
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