Small Boy Slays Father

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 November 1927, Page 9

Small Boy Slays Father

JUVENILE MURDER EPIDEMIC

“THE MIMICRY OF CRIME”

A strange epidemic of murders by boys of between ten and twelve broke out in Germany recently. _ The most recent case occurred at Roitzsch, between Leipzig and Bitterfeld. A miner had just returned a’om his work when his 12-year-old son approached him stealthily from behind and plunged a butcher’s knife nto his back with such force that the point m the weapon came out through his wounded man died shortly after reaching hospital. The boy ran away, but was soon caught. In the Milage th dead man had a very good repu.ntion. There were dissensions in the family, but report lays the responsibility for them on the wife. ' This was the third case, of its hind in Germany within as many weeks. In the first, which occurred in -he Saar region, the slayer was also a .mnei s son and only 11 years of age. From a window he was the witness of an altercation between .-his mother and an elderly workman, wao ultimately struck her. . . The boy immediately fetched us father’s revolver and fired at his mother's assailant with such accuracy that the man expired very soon aftei - "ln d ail probability two later murders by boys of this age, were cases oi the “mimicry, of crime.”