James Perry was known to childhood friends as Jaime. He was a popular kid who played pee-wee football and went to a nondenominational church every Sunday, Phil Perry said. But as a juvenile, he was nabbed for aggravated burglary and grand theft. He dropped out of Franklin High School after his sophomore year.
"He kept getting suspended," his father said. "He got so far behind he just quit."
His parents have learned more about their son's troubled past following his arrest in Stoughton in February. In letters from jail, James Perry claims he was sexually molested as a child by two relatives and a family friend, Phil Perry said. As a 15-year-old incarcerated in an adult prison, he claims he was sexually assaulted by fellow inmates.
"He was a little blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. He was meat to them," Phil Perry said.
James Perry also reveals in his letters that he was haunted as a child by his mother's reported rape by two strangers in 1977, when he was 7. The family thought it had shielded him from knowing about the rape, Phil Perry said.
Brenda Perry said she was pushed into a van outside a bar, knocked out, raped and beaten. They dumped her outside a Franklin bowling alley, she said. No arrests were made in the case.
"When he was 8 or 9, he'd sneak out at night and go to that bowling alley and sit there and cry," his father said.
The State Journal typically does not name the victims of sex crimes. Brenda Perry said she wanted the information made public because it speaks to her son's mindset.
Phil Perry said he doesn't know what caused his son's problems.
"I don't think it's any one particular thing. I think it's a combination of many things."
In conversations since February, James Perry has told his father he will come clean about other crimes he committed, although he has not told his father whether he is indeed the so-called mall rapist.
"He will admit to the stuff he did, but he's not going to plead out things he didn't do," Phil Perry said. "That wouldn't be fair to those victims if there's still (a perpetrator) out there."
Article comments
1 - RJ
This is some of the sickest shit I've ever heard. Why don't we have the death penalty for scum like this?
2 - Eric Olsen
I am opposed to the death penalty but am in favor of severe measures like the sexual disabling of repeat sex offenders, including prison rapists