Killers come in all shapes and sizes, regardless of what the media might wish us to believe.

In the early 1980s, Ressler helped to organize the interviews of thirty-six incarcerated serial killers to find parallels between criminals' backgrounds and motives. Through his interviews, he discovered familiar patterns and childhood events that all serial killers have in common. All serial killers come from a home where there has been some form of trauma.  

The average age when they start killing is often in their early twenties to late thirties. However, these killers did not wait until later life to kill. Instead, they chose to become killers before they reached puberty.  

Craig Price

Craig Price was initially reported stalking and peeking around the neighbourhood. He went on to become one of the youngest serial killers in history. 

On July 27 1987, 13-year-old Craig snuck into the backyard of 27-year-old Rebecca Spencer. He stabbed her 58 times while she was asleep on her living room floor. The stab wounds were so intense that they punctured her heart, face, head and lungs. 

On being found by her brother that night, police searched her house and found no evidence.  

On September 1 1989, Price broke into the house of Joan Heaton, a mother of two underage girls. He attacked Joan and beat her to death. Price showed no mercy to the girls who were alerted by screams, and they were also killed using a kitchen knife. 

During this attack, he accidentally cut his hand, dropping a few drops of his blood. During the investigation of the case, Price was called in for questioning. Unfortunately, his story didn't convince the police, and he was arrested. He would later confess to the crimes.

He was only 15-years-old; when he was convicted, so Price was sent to a youth detention centre until he turned 21. Even then, he was involved in many assault cases. 

In April 2017, he stabbed a fellow inmate that added 25 years to his sentence. 

Mary Bell 

One of the youngest murderers in the UK is Mary Bell. She was eleven when she committed a double murder. Bell was convicted in 1968 and released with a new identity in 1980.

Bell was born to a seventeen-year-old prostitute. Her mother was always cruel to her and, on occasions, would rent her out to her customers. Witnesses say that her mother attempted to murder her several times during her early years. Once with an overdose of sleeping pills. A second time by throwing her out of a window, where she suffered brain damage. Whether this brain damage altered her reasoning and behaviour impulse has long been debated. She is said to exhibit classic signs of psychopathy.

When she was ten, she lured a four-year-old to an abandoned area and strangled him to death. This was not her first attempt at murdering another child. A month later, with her friend Norma Bell (no relation), she strangled a three-year-old boy to death. Mary was found guilty of both crimes whilst Norma was acquitted. Norma, although two years older, had learning difficulties and was deemed not responsible for her actions. Mary went to prison on an undisclosed order, which in the UK means that the judge and professionals will ascertain when she is ready to be released.

She was released in 1980 and granted a new identity; she was twenty-three. She went on to have a daughter of her own. Recently she was granted life anonymity for both herself, her daughter and her grandchild. As a child criminal, she went on to live an everyday family life. 

Critics will say that her victims were never afforded this luxury. In addition, her location in the UK is unknown. Could you be living next door to her?

James Fairweather

Fairweather’s first crime was when he robbed a local shop and bragged about it in front of his schoolmates. 

On March 29 2014, James Attfield was lying on the grass in a park. Fairweather approached and brutally stabbed him over 100 times. He claimed that he heard voices in his head. The voices had chosen Attfield as his victim. Attfield was found bleeding by the paramedics, who couldn't save his life.

In June, Fairweather waited in the bushes at Salary Brook Trail to find his next target. Nahid Almanea, a 31-year-old student, walked past him.  

She was stabbed 16 times in her abdomen and eyes. Fairweather claimed to have penetrated the eyes so she could not 'see evil.'

When he was planning his next murder in May 2015, he was suspected by a woman, who reported him to the police instantly. Police found him carrying rubber gloves and folding knives and arrested him.

Fairweather was found guilty in April 2016 to double murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment of a minimum of 27 years.

Amardeep Sada 

Amardeep Sada is the youngest serial killer in history. He was a young boy who enjoyed playing like normal children. However, his games took on a sinister turn when he started playing with his friend's lives.  

He was only 7-years-old when his mom gave birth to a daughter. Sometime later, his 6-year-old cousin also started living with Sada's family. Everything was good in the family until Sada's mother went to the market, leaving her older son to babysit both children.  

He started punching and slapping his cousin. With each slap, it was reported that Sada giggled with joy. He then went on to squeeze the neck of his cousin until he could virtually not breathe. After this, he took the boy to the woods and used a brick to smash his skull. Finally, he buried him under some grass.

When his mother returned and asked about the boy, Sada told her the truth without showing any sign of remorse or fear. Instead, the family trying to cover for Sada portrayed his cousin's as an accident.

However, Sada was not finished as his urge to kill again started. He picked up his 8-month-old sister while his parents were sleeping. He choked her to death and buried her with his cousin. His parents again wanted to save him, despite losing their daughter. 

People from the village had heard about the double murder; this did not stop the women from leaving their children unattended—a common practice in Indian villages. When a woman left her 6-month old daughter, Sada took his chance to abduct the baby and murder her in the same way as his first two victims. 

This was when the villagers reported him to the police, where he confessed everything. Under Indian law, anyone under 18 cannot be sentenced to life in prison. So Sada was held at a children's home until he came of legal age; nothing is known about what happened to him then.

Harvey Robinson

Harvey Robinson was 17 when he started his criminal career on August 5, 1992. He broke into the house of a 29-year-old nurse aide Joan Burkhardt. His initial intention was for burglary, as the victim reported missing $50 from her bedroom drawer. 

On August 9, Joan's neighbour reported to the police that the radio in Joan's house had been on for three days, and nobody answered the door. She claimed that she heard screams a few nights earlier but hadn't reported it. 

When the police arrived, they found Joan in the house. She had been raped and beaten to death; forensics stated this happened the same day she reported the theft. 

One year later, Robinson found his next victim. On June 9, 1993, 15-year-old Charlotte Schmoyer was found dead and buried under a pile of logs. She had been abducted, raped and stabbed over 22 times by Robinson.

Denise Sam-Cali, was home alone on June 28 when Robinson broke into her house. She heard the noise and tried to leave through the front yard. Robinson caught her and raped her; Sam-Cali fought back and bit his arm, screaming to alert the neighbours. Robinson escaped. 

Sam-Cali recovered and installed alarms within her house. The alarm triggered first on July 19 and later on July 31 when the police finally caught Robinson. He had killed one other woman before being apprehended. 

He was initially sentenced to death for his murders; however, because he was 17 when his first crime, authorities changed his sentence to life imprisonment.

The James Bulger case in Britain opened many people’s eyes to the fact that killers can be any age or size. Although killers amongst children are not common, it is more common than you might expect. Working in youth detention centres, I worked with many teenage killers. Some had killed accidentally, but a few had planned and executed a murder. Killers can evolve at any age, from any economic background, if events lead them to that position.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche