As explained by ListVerse, Bobby Joe Long was born on October 14, 1953, in Kenova, West Virginia, to parents Joe and Louetta Long, who divorced when he was only 2 years old. During his childhood, which he largely spent with his mother in Miami, Bobby Joe dealt with physical trauma at an early age, having nearly drowned at a beach in 1957 — he would blame this on his mother, whom he claimed was too busy checking out men instead of paying attention to her young son. He then suffered head injuries when he fell off a swing in 1958 and crashed his bicycle into a parked vehicle one year later. According to Murderpedia, Long injured his head again when he was 7 years old and he fell from the pony he was riding, resulting in dizziness and nausea for several weeks.
Most notably, however, Long was born with an extra X chromosome, which prevented his body from developing as much testosterone as it should. Conversely, his glands were also producing large amounts of estrogen, and this caused him to develop breasts in puberty — a condition that made him a frequent target for bullies. He then underwent surgery to remove six pounds of excess tissue from his chest, but Murderpedia noted that Long still dealt with confusion over his gender identity. This, as speculated, might have been related to another dysfunctional aspect of his childhood.
