Death of Eric Morse - Stephanie Hofer

This entire book is really compelling but the death of Eric Morse really sticks with me the most throughout this book. Eric was only 5 years old when he was killed but not only that the horrific way in which he was killed really haunts you the rest of the book. It's so hard to understand the mentality the boys who killed him had, they were young too about 10 and 11 from what I recall reading. I don't want to blame the city and housing projects for what these boys did to Eric but obviously their environment played a role in their behavior. Having heard stories from my Dad over the years, I understand that you can't just blame the city for actions taken by people. You also can't just blame the parents, it's a combination of things that causes the city to lose control of people. I searched online about the boys who killed Eric and the article was from the Chicago Tribune written in 2006 it stated that one of the boys (Jesse) was out of prison. Those two boys grew up in prison, what they did was horrific. But their lives were permanently tainted by their immature juvenile actions.

Also found this picture of Eric: