Nathaniel Bar-Jonah

Nathaniel Benjamin Levi Bar-Jonah (born David Paul Brown; February 15, 1957 – April 13, 2008) was an American convicted child molester and suspected cannibalistic serial killer who was sentenced to 130 years in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of the kidnapping, aggravated assault, and sexual assault of various children.

Bar-Jonah was born as David Paul Brown in Worcester, Massachusetts, at Fairlawn Hospital on February 15, 1957, to aircraft mechanic Phillip Brown and housewife Tyra Brown, the youngest of three children.

When Tyra was three months pregnant with Bar-Jonah, she was involved in a serious vehicular accident when another driver slammed into the back of her car while she was sitting at a red light which resulted in her having to wear a neck brace for the last six months of her pregnancy.

As an infant, he was described as being inactive and having an insatiable appetite, which resulted in him crying incessantly when he was not otherwise being fed.

This caused him to gain so much weight as a baby that he became practically immobile due to his undeveloped muscle tone, and his parents struggled to carry him.

Later in life, he told biographers; "I just love to eat, I can't get enough food, I'm always hungry that's why I’m fat."

He also appeared to be strongly averse to being touched, and at 3 weeks old experienced hydrocephalus.

Brown and his family moved to Lantana, Florida and stayed there for six years when his father worked for McDonnell Douglas Aviation.

In 1964, the Brown family moved back to Worcester, Massachusetts when Phillip became a heavy equipment mechanic at a local construction firm.

According to Brown, he was frequently beaten as a child by his strict disciplinarian father with a thick leather belt, due to Phillip's fear that his son would grow up to be 'queer' and because he was a kleptomaniac who frequently stole from his siblings and other children.

In late July 1964, before moving back to Massachusetts, a then 7-year-old Brown lured a 5-year-old female neighbor into his basement, telling her that he had received a Ouija board for his birthday that could predict the future.

Once in his basement, Brown attempted to choke the young girl, but her screams attracted the attention of Brown's mother, who came to her rescue, but Bar-Jonah got off with little to no punishment.

In 1973, at age 15, Brown cut letters and words out of magazines and composed a note that he used to attempt to entice two young boys from Webster to a cemetery, offering them $20 and a surprise.

In that case, the mother of the two boys declined to press charges against Brown.

She thought it would be best if he received psychiatric help, and felt that he would not receive it through the criminal justice system.

In May 1974, in Woodstock, Connecticut, Mary Patrone, 10, was abducted, raped and was released by Bar-Jonah.

In late-March 1975, a then 18-year-old Brown, impersonating a police officer, abducted 8-year-old Richard O'Conner while he was on his way to school, then proceeded to sexually assault and choke him.

A neighbour, looking out of her window, observed the abduction and notified authorities, who began searching for the boy.

A patrol car later observed a vehicle matching that used in the abduction parked far away from others in a parking lot, and after calling for backup, ordered Brown out of the car.

O'Conner was found in the car bloodied, having defecated and urinated on himself from the sexual assault, and near the point of death.

A few days before his high school graduation, Brown drove to nearby Hartford, Connecticut, and, again impersonating a police officer, abducted a 9-year-old girl.

However, after the child began vomiting and convulsing from the assault, he drove up to a sidewalk and threw the girl out of the car.

A nearby witness saw the incident and got Brown's license plate, leading to his arrest.

This assault never got back to Brown's probation officer, and he was released from parole in May 1976 for his earlier abduction and sexual assault of O'Conner.

When Brown's probationary period was over, he received a letter thanking him for his "co-operation."

On September 24, 1977, Brown, claiming to be an undercover FBI agent, convinced two boys coming out of the White City Cinemas in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, to enter his vehicle.

He then transported the boys to a secluded area, where he handcuffed and then tortured them.

After jumping repeatedly on the chest of one of the boys, the 375 lb Brown believed he had killed him, then drove off with the other still alive in his trunk.

However, the first boy regained consciousness and managed to find help, leading shortly thereafter to Brown's arrest; the other boy was found, still alive, in the trunk.

For this crime, Brown was convicted of attempted murder and received the maximum sentence of eighteen to twenty years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Concord but was later transferred and sent for observation to the Bridgewater State Hospital which was a state-operated treatment center for sexually dangerous offenders because of sexual fantasies that he had shared with a prison psychologist.

At the conclusion of the observation period, he was sentenced to an indefinite term at Bridgewater.

On March 22, 1984, Brown changed his name to Nathaniel Benjamin Levi Bar-Jonah.

He gave several reasons for changing his name; he told friends and relatives that he wanted to know what it was like to be discriminated against and persecuted as a Jew.

Superior Court Judge Walter Steele ruled that Massachusetts had failed to prove that Bar-Jonah was dangerous, and ordered him released on February 12, 1991.

Administrative issues prevented Bar-Jonah's release until July of that year.

During this time, Bar-Jonah confided in his psychiatrists that he fantasized about abducting, murdering, and cannibalizing children.

A psychiatrist at Bridgewater was apparently informed by Brown that his interest in torture had long existed and that his primary means of sexual arousal came from the violent thoughts he entertained.

During a later 2008 interview with Dr. Michael H. Stone for the television show Most Evil, he claimed he was Jewish and wanted his name to reflect that.

In fact, his ethnic ancestry was Scandinavian and his parents were both active in the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal movement, and he did not pursue any further connection to Judaism other than the name change.

Later in the same year, Bar-Jonah, along with two psychologists that had evaluated him, won a parole hearing after the two psychologists testified that Bar-Jonah was no longer a threat to society.