On his eighth birthday, Robert Middleton was tied to a tree, doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Middleton, who suffered burns over 99 percent of his body, said the perpetrator was Don Collins, a 13-year-old who had raped him weeks earlier. Collins was never charged, but more than a decade later Middleton’s parents sued him in Texas state court for the pain and suffering he inflicted on everyone. Middleton died on April 29, 2011, at the age of 20, after being diagnosed with a skin cancer linked to the burns.
