Nathaniel Bar-Jonah was born David Paul Brown in 1957 to Phillip and Tyra Brown. He grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Nathaniel was known for being quite an oddball during his childhood. One of his disturbing habits was picking at his scabs and then sucking on them. This behavior prompted multiple calls from concerned teachers to his mother.
At seven years old, Nathaniel invited his five-year-old neighbor to his basement, telling her that he had just gotten an Ouija board and wanted to test it out with her.
When his little neighbor got down to the basement, Nathaniel tried to strangle her.
His mom heard the girl screaming and ran downstairs to rescue her.
Still, Tyra assumed her son wasn’t really aware of what he was doing and brushed it off.
It turns out that Nathaniel must have known what he was doing because he kept doing stuff like that over and over again.
At age 15, Nathaniel Bar-Jonah crafted a ransom-style note by cutting letters and words out of magazines, using it to try and lure two young boys from Webster to a cemetery with the promise of $20 and a surprise. Their mother, though concerned, chose not to press charges, hoping psychiatric treatment would help him.
