John Cronin (convict) - History

History

Cronin was born in Edinburgh, the son of Michael Cronin (of Limerick, Ireland) and Jeanette Cronin (of East Lothian, Scotland). Cronin's early years were marked with frequent moves between East Lothian, Limerick, and the U.S. (where the elder Cronin was a member of the U.S. Army). In 1978, the Cronins moved back to East Lothian to care for Jeanette's father, who was ill. It was about this time they discovered that Cronin was in dire need of assistance.

By the age of three, he was already difficult for his parents to control, smashing lightbulbs and breaking various things in the home. At age five, he was enrolled in a private school, but was expelled shortly thereafter for disruptive behavior, including overturning desks, urinating on the floor and attacking teachers.

The remainder of his school years were said by Cronin to be filled with repeated difficulties; the exception to this pattern was between the ages six to eight, where he was educated by nuns at St. Margaret's convent in Edinburgh, where he developed a deep respect for the nuns. He went through several schools, where he built up a record for repeat offenses at the schools, from theft and assault to openly urinating and defaecating on school property.

Cronin finally obtained four O-grades at a boarding school in Newton Stewart in 1989. It was shortly after leaving the school that he committed his first criminal act, sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female classmate for which he would serve a three-month sentence.

Read more about this topic:  John Cronin (convict)

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.
    Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?
    Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)