Paris Bennett, Psychopath

Being a single parent is hard enough. Imagine being the single parent to a psychopath. That’s where Charity Lee found herself in 2007 when her 13-year-old son, Paris Bennett, killed his 4-year-old sister.

Charity Lee was born into a very wealthy family. Unfortunately, when she was just six years old, her father died, leaving her with a cold and distant mother. No matter how hard she tried to make her mother proud of her, there was nothing she could do that was good enough.

Despite her academic successes, even graduating from school early, Charity fell into a deep depression and became addicted to heroin. When she was just 17, her mother had had enough. She gave her $100, and told her to leave, adding that she could use the money to straighten her life out, or buy drugs and find a place to overdose. Charity chose life.

She wound up in a halfway house, and managed to get clean. However, she could not escape the depression that gripped her and she was ready to give up. That’s about when she discovered that she was pregnant. 

Charity gave birth to her son, Paris Bennett on October 10, 1993. His father didn’t stick around long, leaving Charity to raise her son on her own.

Paris was a relatively normal boy. He was very talented and enjoyed drawing, starting when he was just three. In addition to being creative, he was exceptionally intelligent, with a reported IQ of 141, making him a genius.

When he was just eight, Charity became pregnant again. Children generally have 1 of 2 reactions to this sort of news. Excited for a new sibling, or angry because they won’t be the only child any longer. Paris was the latter. Whenever there was talk of a new baby, he became upset and would even leave the room.

Baby Ella was born on April 12, 2002, and everything changed. Paris was no longer angry. It was like a switch had been flipped inside him and he loved his new sister. 

Unfortunately, just as Paris’ father had, Ella’s father left, leaving Charity a single mom to two. 

Ella had a big personality, and loved her big brother. The two played together all the time, even as they grew older. The three of them were the perfect little family. That is, until about the time when Paris was eleven.

Charity had been working long hours and was stressed all the time. She relapsed and began taking cocaine. Paris hated this side of his mother, and lost trust in her. An anger began to build inside of him. 

After just six months, Charity was able to get clean once again. But now, they were moving from one home to another frequently, which further disrupted their lives. Eventually, they ended up moving in with Charity’s mother, Kyla.

As it had been for Charity as a child, the environment in her mother’s home was toxic. The tension was thick and Paris began to act out. 

One day, Paris broke one of Ella’s toys while the two were playing together. It is not clear whether he did it on purpose or on accident, regardless the result was the same. Ella was upset and Charity scolded and punished her son. 

Paris didn’t respond well, however, and picked up a kitchen knife and began waving it around. He ran out of the house with the knife with his mother and grandmother chasing him. Paris’ response was to stop and begin waving the knife at them. Though it was scary, they were able to pin him down and get the knife away from him.

Knowing this was not normal behavior for a child, Charity checked him in to a psychiatric facility. About a week later, Paris was discharged. Interestingly, the hospital never provided Charity any information about her son, other than saying he was fine. 

What they did not divulge was that there was a report in which it was written that Paris was obsessed with shooting and killing. He also had homicidal and suicidal ideations. 

Also worth noting, Paris was known to bang his head against the wall until it would bleed. There was even video footage of him making threatening gestures toward Ella.

When they were finally able to leave Kyla’s house, the three of them moved to Abilene, Texas

Charity got a job working at Buffalo Wild Wings, and on February 4, 2007 she left her children with a babysitter and went to work. It was a pretty normal night, until police arrived at around 12:30am the next morning and told her that her daughter had been hurt.

Charity told the police to take her to her daughter, but their response would change her life forever. “You can’t go, she’s dead.”

She quickly inquired about her son, and was told that they had him.

So what happened?

Charity had a babysitter come to take care of her children while she went to work. At home, Paris, now thirteen, somehow convinced the babysitter that she could leave, which she did around 10pm. 

Paris then went to his little sister Ella’s room, who was now just 4-years-old. There he proceeded to stab her 17 times with a knife he took from the kitchen. 

Then Paris calmly called one of his friends from school whom he chatted with for about 6 minutes before finally calling 911.

“I accidentally killed somebody,” Paris said.
“You think you killed somebody?”
Paris replied,  “No I KNOW I did. I woke up and I was hallucinating.”
“You’re hallucinating?”
“Yes, and I thought my sister was a demon and I killed her.”
“I want you to perform CPR, okay?”
“No, I know for a fact that she’s definitely dead.”
“Do you want to go ahead and try? It might still help, okay?”
“No, I-I don’t think that’ll help because…”
“Come on Paris, work with me. I want you to put your hands on her chest…”
“Mhm.”
“…and I want you to push 30 times. I want you to count.”
“One… two… three… four… five… six…”

When police arrived on scene, they could tell that Paris had not actually attempted CPR. He was just pretending to be for the operator.

Police arrested 13-year-old Paris Bennett

In the interview room, Paris maintained his story, that he was hallucinating and thought Ella was a demon. This time he added that he had been sleeping next to her before waking up terrified. He claimed he saw Ella covered in flames and she was laughing at him, provoking his next action.

The police did not believe his story, knowing that he had already lied about the CPR. They also noticed that he was trying to cry, but no tears were coming. 

When the autopsy report came back, it served as further evidence that Paris had been lying. Not only had Ella been stabbed, but she had been beaten and strangled. Even worse, they found Paris’ semen in Ella’s bed and in the shorts that Paris was wearing at the time of the murder.

Investigators discovered that Paris had been watching violent porn including “S&M,” “bondage,” and “sadism.” They even discovered that he had searched for snuff films just hours before he killed his sister.

Charity could no longer deny that her son had killed Ella on purpose. That his story was just that – a story. She confronted him and his demeanor changed; he went quiet. When he did finally speak, he said, “Well it took you fucking long enough.”

When she confronted him about the semen, Paris lost control. He flipped a table and punched a wall before walking away.

Paris later admitted that he had planned the attack on Ella. He not only wanted to kill his sister, he wanted his mom to suffer. His goal was to take both of her children away. By killing his sister, he did just that. 

With his confession, Paris was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

When Charity visited him, he said, “You’re right. I did kill her,” and continues to say things like, “By the way, I enjoy watching your pain.”

During another visit to the prison, Charity realized that Paris would kill her if given the opportunity. She wrote in her journal, “He slammed the table into me, pinning me against the concrete wall behind me. He cut off my air. I was in shock, paralyzed. I thought I was going to die there. Then he pulled the table back, I caught my breath, and he slammed it into me again.”

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Paris Bennett admitted that initially he wanted to kill his mother, but then decided to kill Ella, noting it would be the worst punishment he could give her.

“For many years, there was just this hot, flaming ball of wrath in the pit of my stomach, and it was directed at my mother. And one of the reasons why I chose to kill my sister and not someone else is because I knew that by doing that I could hurt my mother in the worst possible way, because I had always known, as a child, that the most devastating thing to my mother would be the loss of one of her children, and I found a way to take away both her children in one fell swoop.”

During a documentary called, The Family I Had, Paris said, “I chose to do my crime and I take full responsibility for my crime. And I wouldn’t say there was a predisposition to what happened. I’m not insane, and I don’t suffer from any mental illness.”

Paris Bennett is currently incarcerated at the Ferguson Unit Texas State Prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2027.

Interested in child killers. How about this story about Mary Bell.