Lattie Mcgee
On August 14, 1987, in a hot South Side Chicago apartment, police and paramedics found the tortured body of four-year-old Lattie McGee. Over the summer, when many inner-city children were outside enjoying splashing in the flow of spraying water hydrants, little Lattie was being systematically tortured by his mother and her boyfriend.
The then 28-year-old Alicia Abraham and her 40-year old boyfriend, Johnny Campbell, spent the summer beating the small boy with their fists, burning him with cigarettes and an iron, dunking his small legs into boiling water, depriving him of food and water, sticking him repeatedly with sewing needles and then wrapping a clothing line around his tiny raw ankles and hanging him upside down in the closet for the night. To muffle the innocent boy’s cries, the couple would sometimes stuff a rag in his mouth.
Campbell did not like the 4-year-olds “effeminate” voice so to toughen the young boy he would starve him then beat him if he complained. On the hot August night, Campbell and Alicia stuffed a rag into Lettie’s mouth, potato peels were placed on his eyes, his hands were bound, and he was hung by his feet in the closet. His complaints of having problems swallowing and that he was in pain from the broken collarbone and broken pelvis, were ignored.
Flesh Ripped Away
The next morning Alicia Abraham seemed more concerned with watching TV then getting Lattie down from the closet. It would not have mattered because he died sometime during the night. There was no more pleasure for her and her boyfriend to get from abusing this innocent child.
Pathologist said Lattie died of a severe blow to the head that slowly killed him, but they added, “His emaciated body, scarred from head to foot, was so infected from untreated wounds that he probably would have died a short time later.” When the paramedics and police lifted the boy’s shirt, they uncovered a chest of raw skin, his flesh ripped away from repeated abuse.
Not the Only Victim
There was another child in the home, six-year-old Cornelius Abraham, Lattie’s brother. With courage, the young boy testified against the Alicia and Campbell. He recounted all the episodes of abuse that he and Lattie suffered.
For their crimes, Johnny Campbell and Alicia Abraham were both sentenced to life in prison.
Remarkably, two years earlier in 1985, Alicia Abraham was being counseled for neglecting her children by state investigators, who incredibly concluded the situation had improved.
| Birth: | Dec. 29, 1982 Chicago Cook County Illinois, USA |
| Death: | Aug. 14, 1987 Chicago Cook County Illinois, USA |
 Murdered by his mother and live in boyfriend who tortured him to death. They are serving life terms with no parole because of their callous indifference which continues to this day. Lattie was buried in a pauper’s grave with no marker. Two stonecutters, Tom and James Gast, carved him a stone and the public donated money to help pay for it. It says “You Are Loved” with his name and dates of birth and death. |
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| Burial: Burr Oak Cemetery Alsip Cook County Illinois, USA |
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| Created by: Ash Montagu | |
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 Cemetery Photo |
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Susan Maree Jeavons Says:
I still have the newspaper repot and picture of Lattie from 1987. His story and the story of Tesslynn O’Cull inspired me to start writing on the topic of child abuse. I also have two poems about them if you would like top post them. Let me know.
God bless you for what you are doing for these innocent children.
Posted on October 2nd, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Susan Maree Jeavons Says:
Remembering Lattie
His name was Lattie McGee.
I never met him, and he never met me,
but he touched my life in a profound way
when I saw his face on the news one day.
His little body was bruised and battered,
every bone in this child was broken or shattered.
He was tortured to death at the age of four,
on the south side of Chicago, like a prisoner of war.
He was beaten, he was gagged, then hung upside down.
He was burned, he was starved, and then he was bound
inside a dark closet to hang there and die,
for no one heard the little boy cry, no one heard the little boy cry.
Thirty years to life, Johnny Campbell received.
He showed no remorse, he never even grieved
for the tiny boy named Lattie McGee
who died so young and so tragically.
If the time ever comes for Johnny to be free,
I pray the parole board will look at him and see
that no man who tortured a child that way,
should ever again see the light of day.
Let him suffer alone, let him rot in his cell!
For what he did to Lattie, may he burn in hell!
Before he takes his last breath, before he can state his case,
I hope that he sees Lattie’s innocent face.
May he look terror in the eyes, may he feel Lattie’s pain.
May he struggle to survive, but let it be in vain.
When the last light goes out before Johnny Campbell dies,
may he forever and ever, hear Lattie’s cries…
forever and ever, hear Lattie’s cries…
© 10-11-05 Susan Maree Jeavons-All Rights Reserved
Posted on November 12th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Beverly Says:
I’d never read Lattie’s story nor his brothers…how horrifying all these cases are..my heart actually aches for all these children
Posted on December 15th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Susan Jeavons Says:
Thank you for doing such a great job on Lattie’s story. I( hope others see it and change the pictures to reflect the correct names. Blessings, Susan Maree
Posted on June 6th, 2011 at 9:29 am
Natassja Phillips Says:
I heard this story and I was sick to my stomach, I’ve heard of child abuse but never a case like this. In year 1987 I wasn’t even born yet until 1988. I feel like this; a person like Johnny Campbell had no right or authority to put his hands on a child that was not his or in fact put his hands on the child even if Lattie was his son. The mother is just as sick in the head as he is, when I saw her on the Steve Wilkos special when he came to see her in prison she had no emotion and no guilt for the death of Lattie Mcgee. She and Johnny Campbell will both stand before God in the afterlife and God will ask them “What have they done for their fellow man?”, truely I don’t think they’ll have a true answer and that’s when God will have washed his hands of these two filthy souls and send them to hell to burn forever.
Posted on October 12th, 2011 at 10:49 pm