Peter's Lullaby by Jeanne Fowler

Tortured for the first 18 years of her life, Jeanne Fowler wrote "Peter's Lullaby" to show people what abuse is like through the eyes of an abused child. The book describes her memories of the beatings and abuse she received while growing up. The book has been compiled from her memories, police, court, medical and autopsy reports, as well as interviews with family members of the people involved in her life.

"Peter's Lullaby" is drawn from the tragic events in Fowler's life. On July 28, 1953, police officers were called to an apartment on Chicago's south side, which was occupied by Veronica and Peter Burowsky Sr. There, the officers found three-year-old Peter Jr., who weighed only 24 pounds. He was beaten to death. In the same apartment were little Peter's three siblings.

Taken from their biological parents, who had abused these children for years, the Burowsky children were then placed in foster care. The foster children, sent to families that were considered pillars of the community, learned that they were just there to work. Jeanne worked like a slave, while the beatings continued. In 1964, after 18 years of torture and abuse, she finally escaped the nightmare, keeping her stories of abuse quiet, afraid that the cycle would continue. It was at this time that she decided that she would become a survivor and not a victim of abuse.

This book is a real-life depiction of her early life and the special bond that she clung to nightly, and eventually lost at the hand of abuse - Peter's soft lullaby.

An excerpt from "Peter's Lullaby"

---

My mom always called my three-year-old brother Peter, "The Bum."

I was a sensitive young girl of six she called "George."

Every day we were beaten and tied standing against the wall in our own waste.

We would sob for hours.

Later that year, mom began stuffing rags soaked in scalding hot water into our mouths to muffle our screams.

Peter began to softly chant a mantra of his own creation.

His nightly lullabies comforted me greatly.

Eventually, my brother was tortured to death, and I wound up in abusive foster homes.

At one foster home, my social workers did something so shocking that I vowed to never speak to them again.

I maintained my vow of silence even when I was frequently beaten with a rubber hose.

At night, I found that the only way I could get to sleep was to gaze at the stars through my tears and softly sing Peter's Lullaby.