Wikipedia excerpt: Ruth Pelke was a 78-year-old American from Gary, Indiana, who was murdered by Paula Cooper (August 25, 1969 – May 26, 2015), aged 15, on May 14, 1985. Cooper stabbed Pelke 33 times with a butcher knife before stealing ten dollars and her car. A year later, Cooper was sentenced to death on July 11, 1986.
Cooper's age and sentence attracted an international uproar,
especially in Europe, including a condemnation from Pope John Paul II. In 1989,
her sentence was commuted to 60 years in prison. On June 17, 2013, Cooper was
released from Rockville Correctional Facility. She died on May 26, 2015,
following an apparent suicide.
According to police, Cooper skipped school with three
friends (Denise Thomas, aged 14; Karen Corder, aged 16; and April Beverly, aged
15), drank alcohol, and smoked marijuana before visiting Pelke, a neighbor,
ostensibly to ask about Bible lessons. One of the girls struck Pelke with a
vase, and cut her arms and legs. Cooper stabbed Pelke 33 times in the chest and
stomach with a foot-long (30 cm) butcher knife. Cooper and her friends
then searched the house for jewelry, and stole ten dollars and the keys to
Pelke's 1976 Plymouth.
Cooper's lawyers described her as a victim of sexual abuse
who had attended ten different schools by the time of the murder. She had a
prior record as a runaway and for burglary. However, there was little question
of her guilt in the case. She was considered to be the ringleader of the group
of girls, aged 14 to 16, who were all given sentences of 25 to 60 years for
their roles in the crime. According to authorities, Cooper attacked guards in
the juvenile center after her arrest and had to be moved to the County Jail.
There, it was reported that she bragged about her crime and had said she would
do it again.
[611-1/23/21]
***
No comments:
Post a Comment