Chicago Tribune editor Bill O''Connell O''Connell explores one of the most heinous but least publicized crimes in Illinois history: the 1968 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of fourteen-year-old David Stukel by fourteen-year-old bullies Billy Rose Sprinkle and James Perruquet.
O''Connell-David Stukel''s Little League teammate-recalls the victim''s idyllic childhood and takes readers into the minds of the murderers and inside the homes, hearts, and photo albums of the victim''s family, whose grief is palpable a generation after the crime. His research includes parole interviews, inmate psychological reports and conversations with the families of the murderers and the family of the victim.
Fourteen is a masterfully crafted, thoroughly insightful account of the years leading up to, and the four decades since, the unconscionable and unprovoked slaying of an innocent ninety-five-pound high school freshman.