THE DARK SIDE OF NEBRASKA
Darren McCracken
#45879
photo courtesy NDCS
Full Name: Darren J. McCracken
DOB: December 1, 1979
Charge: 1st degree murder
County: Gosper
City: Smithfield
Current Status: Tecumseh State Correctional Institution
Date of Crime: July 1, 1993
Victim: Vicky Bray
DOB: December 1, 1979
Charge: 1st degree murder
County: Gosper
City: Smithfield
Current Status: Tecumseh State Correctional Institution
Date of Crime: July 1, 1993
Victim: Vicky Bray
On July 1, 1993, then 13-year old Darren McCracken went into the bedroom of his mother, Vicky Bray, retrieved a handgun that was kept in that room; loaded the gun; and fired two shots at Vicky who was sleeping on a sofa in the downstairs family room.
The slaying stunned those in tiny Smithfield, Nebraska, who knew the chubby teenager. Darren was an unhappy and troubled kid. His brother bullied him and pushed him around on the vacant lot where kids gathered to play football. When a neighbor handed out ice cream, the brother would take some and say Darren didn't want any. Away from his brother, Darren could be friendly and chatty. He'd follow around the cook at Tuffy's tavern and sit on porches with local widows who fed him homemade cookies.
The town eventually learned from trial testimony that Darren not only had been beaten but sexually abused by his older brother for years. His divorced mother, a heavy drinker with a sharp tongue, had done little to intervene.
Fed up, Darren ran away from home. Then, in what a psychologist described as the twisted logic of someone suffering from post traumatic stress, he returned home and shot his mother. Darren was the youngest Nebraskan ever to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The slaying stunned those in tiny Smithfield, Nebraska, who knew the chubby teenager. Darren was an unhappy and troubled kid. His brother bullied him and pushed him around on the vacant lot where kids gathered to play football. When a neighbor handed out ice cream, the brother would take some and say Darren didn't want any. Away from his brother, Darren could be friendly and chatty. He'd follow around the cook at Tuffy's tavern and sit on porches with local widows who fed him homemade cookies.
The town eventually learned from trial testimony that Darren not only had been beaten but sexually abused by his older brother for years. His divorced mother, a heavy drinker with a sharp tongue, had done little to intervene.
Fed up, Darren ran away from home. Then, in what a psychologist described as the twisted logic of someone suffering from post traumatic stress, he returned home and shot his mother. Darren was the youngest Nebraskan ever to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Source: Paul Hammel, The Kearney Hub