José Padilha's documentary examines the incident, reconstructing the hijacker's wretched childhood.

Ms. Craigie was born in Derbyshire to a Scottish father and a Russian emigre mother and had, by her own estimation, a wretched childhood.

Ellen herself is the survivor of a wretched childhood in Ireland, which she served as the keeper of her insane mother, whom her father abandoned.

A high school dropout with a truly wretched childhood, he is the lone contemporary comedian with a pedigree to match the geniuses in Mr. Allen's pantheon.

His wretched childhood scarred him deeply.

Ms. Morgan goes on, scattershot, about her wretched childhood (when she lived in a trailer park), three bad marriages and her failure as a mother.

One doesn't wish to indicate any lack of sympathy for what sounds like a truly wretched and brutal childhood.

Felix's wretched childhood drove him out into the streets, then into the ring.

"A wretched childhood like that," Mark continued, "and I never had a clue."

After all, as the prosecution would point out, not everyone who has a wretched childhood kills.