What Happened to Johnnie Jordan? The Story of a Child Turning Violent
Publisher: Free Press
Published: February 5, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780684855585
Subjects: Murder - General; Violence in children; Services For Children; Jordan, Johnnie,; Murder; Sociology; Social Science; True Crime / Espionage; Ohio; Murderers; Abuse - General; Children's Studies; Current Events / General; Biography; Sociology - General; Criminology; 1980-; Foster children
First sentence: The glory of the winter's setting sun flashed red and pink across northwestern Ohio's frozen horizon as Charles Johnson drove his tired green Chevrolet home from Sears with a space heater he hoped would save him from his wife's icy feet in bed.
Description: "On an icy night five years ago, Johnnie Jordan - just fourteen years old - brutally murdered his elderly foster care mother, leaving the state of Ohio shocked and outraged. He could not tell police why he did it or even how it made him feel; all he knew was that something inside him made him kill.

At the time, few people predicted the swift emergence of a class of young so-called "super-predators" - criminals like Johnnie who injure and kill without conscience, personified to the nation by the Littleton, Colorado, tragedy in 1999.".

"In What Happened to Johnnie Jordan? journalist Jennifer Toth, author of The Mole People and Orphans of the Living once again takes a look at the people in our society whom we so often discard and altogether ignore. As Toth investigates Johnnie's crime and life, she unravels the mysteries of a child murderer unable to identify his emotions even after they converge in acts of fury and rage.

In the course of her research, Johnnie grows dangerously into a young man who "will probably kill again," he says, "though I don't want to." Yet he also demonstrates great kindness and caring when treated as more than just a case number, when treated as a human. Through Johnnie's harrowing story, Toth examines how some children manage to overcome tragic beginnings, while others turn their pain, anger, and loss on innocents."--BOOK JACKET.