Did Oldest do something extremely serious? He did something that got him convicted as an adult, but as we all know, our penal system is extremely fucked up about that and it doesn't actually tell you anything.
LW says he "spent fifteen years in and out of the penal system" "as a result of the accusation". It's hard to tell, but that doesn't sound like he got a fifteen-year sentence, that sounds to me like he got [some length of sentence possibly including probation] and the continued being in and out of jail possibly for other crimes and/or parole violations, which LW blames on the fact that he went to adult prison for the first time at 16 (And is likely right!) But the original accusation frankly could have been anything from murder to marijuana possession.
And it's possible given the letter that the accusations were false and youngest son has admitted it! It wouldn't be that hard for police to coerce a seven-year-old into saying "Yes, my brother had a gun when he left the house" or "I saw him put the marijuana in the bag", and even convince the seven-year-old they were telling the truth. They don't seem to be blaming each other for the crime or the prison sentence, just for making Mom's life harder, so it could be something like "It's your fault because you let the cops trick you into lying!" vs. "It's your fault because you kept getting back into trouble even after you were paroled!"
LW is still clearly siding with the older son, but if it's something like the above that might be more justified.
Or LW could be deliberately slanting stuff to hide the fact that older son actually did do something terrible to younger son and they all know it.
But we really don't know based on this letter, so LW, you should probably talk to someone you actually can share details with.
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LW says he "spent fifteen years in and out of the penal system" "as a result of the accusation". It's hard to tell, but that doesn't sound like he got a fifteen-year sentence, that sounds to me like he got [some length of sentence possibly including probation] and the continued being in and out of jail possibly for other crimes and/or parole violations, which LW blames on the fact that he went to adult prison for the first time at 16 (And is likely right!) But the original accusation frankly could have been anything from murder to marijuana possession.
And it's possible given the letter that the accusations were false and youngest son has admitted it! It wouldn't be that hard for police to coerce a seven-year-old into saying "Yes, my brother had a gun when he left the house" or "I saw him put the marijuana in the bag", and even convince the seven-year-old they were telling the truth. They don't seem to be blaming each other for the crime or the prison sentence, just for making Mom's life harder, so it could be something like "It's your fault because you let the cops trick you into lying!" vs. "It's your fault because you kept getting back into trouble even after you were paroled!"
LW is still clearly siding with the older son, but if it's something like the above that might be more justified.
Or LW could be deliberately slanting stuff to hide the fact that older son actually did do something terrible to younger son and they all know it.
But we really don't know based on this letter, so LW, you should probably talk to someone you actually can share details with.