Too Young to Kill

Praise for
Too Young to Kill

“Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.”

—
Allison Brennan,
New York Times
best-selling author of
Fear No Evil

Praise for
Kill for Me

“Phelps gets into the blood and guts of the story.”

—
Gregg Olsen,
New York Times
best-selling author

“Phelps infuses his investigative journalism with plenty of energized descriptions . . . interesting . . . [an] enormous effort.”

—Publishers Weekly

Praise for
Death Trap

“A chilling tale . . . a compelling journey . . . Fair warning: for three days I did little else but read this book.”

—
Harry N. MacLean,
New York Times
best-selling author

Praise for
I’ll Be Watching You

“Phelps has an unrelenting sense for detail that affirms his place, book by book, as one of our most engaging crime journalists.”

—
Dr. Katherine Ramsland, author of
The Human Predator

Praise for
If Looks Could Kill

“M. William Phelps, one of America’s finest true-crime writers, has written a compelling and gripping book.”

—
Vincent Bugliosi, author of
Helter Skelter
and
Reclaiming History

“Starts quickly and doesn’t slow down.... Phelps consistently ratchets up the dramatic tension.... Readers will feel the effects of Phelps’ skill from beginning to end.”

—
Stephen Singular, author of
Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer

“This gripping true story reads like a well-plotted crime novel and proves that truth is not only stranger, but more shocking, than fiction. Riveting.”

—
Allison Brennan,
New York Times
best-selling author of
Fear No Evil

Praise for
Murder in the Heartland

“The author has done significant research . . . his writing pulls the reader along.”

—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Phelps uses a unique combination of investigative skills and narrative insight to give readers an exclusive, insider’s look into this incredible, high-profile American tragedy . . . a compassionate, riveting true crime masterpiece.”

—
Anne Bremner, op-ed columnist and TV legal analyst

“Phelps expertly reminds us that when the darkest form of evil invades the quiet and safe outposts of rural America, the tragedy is greatly magnified. Get ready for some sleepless nights.”

—
Carlton Stowers, Edgar Award–winning author of
Careless Whispers

“This is the most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since Capote’s
In Cold Blood
.”

—
Gregg Olsen,
New York Times
best-selling author

“A crisp, no-nonsense account . . . masterful.”

—Bucks County Courier Times

“An unflinching investigation . . . Phelps explores this tragedy with courage, insight, and compassion.”

—Lima News

Praise for
Sleep in Heavenly Peace

“An exceptional book by an exceptional true crime writer. Phelps exposes long-hidden secrets and reveals disquieting truths.”

—
Kathryn Casey, author of
She Wanted It All

Praise for
Every Move You Make

“An insightful and fast-paced examination of the inner workings of a good cop and his bad informant, culminating in an unforgettable truth-is-stranger-than-fiction climax.”

—
Michael M. Baden, M.D., author of
Unnatural Death

“M. William Phelps is the rising star of the nonfiction crime genre, and his true tales of murderers and mayhem are scary-as-hell thrill rides into the dark heart of the inhuman condition.”

—
Douglas Clegg, author of
The Lady of Serpents

Praise for
Lethal Guardian

“An intense roller-coaster of a crime story . . . complex, with twists and turns worthy of any great detective mystery, and yet so well-laid out, so crisply written with such detail to character and place that it reads like a novel.”

—
Steve Jackson,
New York Times
best-selling author of
No Stone Unturned

Praise for
Perfect Poison

“A stunner from beginning to end . . . Phelps shockingly reveals that unimaginable evil sometimes comes in pretty packages.”

—
Gregg Olsen,
New York Times
best-selling author

“True crime at its best—compelling, gripping, an edge-of-the-seat thriller.”

—
Harvey Rachlin, author of
The Making of a Detective

“A compelling account of terror.”

—
Lowell Cauffiel, best-selling authorof
House of Secrets

“A blood-curdling page turner and a meticulously researched study of the inner recesses of the mind of a psychopathic narcissist.”

—
Sam Vaknin, author of
Malignant Self Love—Narcissism Revisited

Other books by M. William Phelps

PERFECT POISON
LETHAL GUARDIAN
EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE
SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE
MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND
BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME
IF LOOKS COULD KILL
I’LL BE WATCHING YOU
DEADLY SECRETS
CRUEL DEATH
DEATH TRAP
FAILURES OF THE PRESIDENTS (coauthor)

NATHAN HALE: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AMERICA’S FIRST SPY

THE DEVIL’S ROOMING HOUSE:
THE TRUE STORY OF AMERICA’S DEADLIEST
FEMALE SERIAL KILLER

KILL FOR ME

LOVE HER TO DEATH

TOO
YOUNG
TO
KILL

M. W
ILLIAM
P
HELPS

PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

For Matty,
Work hard.
Realize your dreams.

Table of Contents

Praise
Other books by M. William Phelps
Title Page
Dedication
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Epigraph
PART I - JUGGALO HOMIES

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

PART II - “LIKE SLAUGHTERING SHEEP”

23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45

PART III - BODY PARTS

46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56

PART IV - “I DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL HER”

57
58
59
60

PART V - PINKIE’S TIME

61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79

EPILOGUE
THANKS
NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN
Copyright Page
Notes

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Writing about teen violence is not something you do with a light heart. The brutality involved in this particular case was something I had never considered to be any more encompassing or taxing on the soul than the other murder books I’ve written. Yet, there is an implausible layer of malevolence involved in this story (surprisingly transparent if you do not know where to look), an innocence all kids possess that was egregiously neglected. This is, perhaps, an all too predictable and familiar American story; and yet the audacity and total lack of respect for human life still nagged at me from the beginning.

Part of my struggle was wrestling with the notion that
children
could commit such horrific, evil acts, and hate one another as much as this case proved. Another was coming to grips with how a sixteen-year-old boy could use a household saw to dismember one of his peers into seven pieces. Then, when asked why he did it, give such a nonplussed, casual, and cold answer, as he did. This boy cut up a girl with a miter saw that his grandfather likely had used to build toys and a tree house for him, and he didn’t think anything more of his behavior than the idea he was helping a few friends get away with murder.

Makes you wonder how high the bar has been set within our culture today.

In
Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill?
(an important book by Dr. Jonathan H. Pincus, chief of neurology at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.), Pincus claims there’s an “interaction of childhood abuse with neurological disturbances and psychiatric illnesses” in some people, which is directly related to an explanation of the murders these same individuals later commit. Pincus lays out his theory clearly, telling us that the “abuse” a person suffers in childhood “generates the violent urge.”

This comment is easy enough to understand: we are
taught
to use violence as a means to an end.

Yet, it’s the “neurological and psychiatric diseases of the brain”—I like the use of the word “diseases” here—that ultimately “damage the capacity” for a preordained violent person (a tendency, per se) to “check that urge.”

Keep Pincus’s theory in mind as you read this book; and when you’re finished, come back here and read it again. You’ll realize what I mean.