On October 13, 1994, five year old Eric Morse was thrown to his death from the 14th story window of an apartment in the Ida B. Wells housing project in Chicago. He was thrown by two boys who at the time were ten and eleven years old. Young reporters LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman have spent the last year on assignment for "All Things Considered", exploring this crime and its impact on the neighborhood. The first hour of our program today is devoted to this story. LeAlan and Lloyd live in the same neighborhood where Eric Morse died. Along with the head of the Chicago Housing Authority, they tour the building he was thrown from. The view from the 14th story is bleak, offering little hope to residents. The boys learn firsthand how difficult reporting can be when doors slam in their faces as they go around asking people to talk to them about Eric Morse's death. Prosecuting and defense attorneys involved in the case talk about the impact the Ida B. Wells neighborhood had on the boys who killed Eric Morse. The prosecuting attorney says she has not seen a crime this awful before - and the defense attorneys say it was bound to happen and may happen again if systematic problems are not addressed. We hear from kids in the neighborhood, and from young relatives. Eric Morse's young cousin talks about how much he misses Eric and about the fights he has had with the young killers. We hear from an adult who tried to help the killers when they were in elementary school. One of the killers brought crack cocaine to kindergarten. The father of one of the young killers, interviewed by LeAlan and Lloyd at a prison where he was incarcerated, says his son was a gentle boy. And in an exclusive interview, Eric Morse's mother and half brother (who watched him die, and tried to run down 14 flights of stairs to catch him), talk about Eric and how much they miss him, and how troubled his killers must have been. Through it all, reporters LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman wonder what has made them different, why they didn't end up as killers or dead themselves. (IN S
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