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A BERKLEY BOOK 9 TM 757,375

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The young murderer doesn't come from a typical American family. The
average American parent doesn't need to fear being murdered.

Dr. Elissa P. Benedek, as quoted in

"Children Who Kill,"

New York Times, Oct. 11, 1983
 BOOK ONE

I

0.
On the Friday before Christmas vacation Sister Mary Symphorosa
informed the kindergarten class at Our Lady of Mercy School that there
was no Santa Claus, that the presents you found beside the Christmas
tree on Christmas morning were from your parents, and that it was pagan
and impious nonsense and a sin against the First Commandment to think
otherwise.

She made the same announcement every year, and at least one of the
children could always be counted on to have a temper tantrum or
otherwise show defiance. This year it was Billy Michaels, generally
such a quiet child, who threw himself on the floor and lay on his back
screaming and thrashing about and generally calling-attention to
himself.

Sister Symphorosa looked on, fingering the large wooden crucifix that
anchored her rosary beads to her full skirts. She was not particularly
alarmed. She even took a professional satisfaction in the boy's
hysterical behavior, as an exorcist might in having driven out a devil.
She considered this annual ritual of disillusionment a duty imposed
upon her as a defender of the faith. Children ought not to be brought
up to believe in something they will necessarily discover to be untrue,
an experience that can only blight the budding leaves of a true