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Mary Bell, A 10 Year Old Girl Who Killed Children

Warning: Iff you are very sensitive or emotional I would recommend you not to read this thread or check the link I will provide.

I was checking this story and really got me so amazed...I could not believe a little girl would commit such terribles crimes!!!!.
Mary Bell was 10 years old when she was accused of murdering several children, the most creepy part is not only her actions but the way she enjoyed torturing the family of the victims, she would go and laugh at them and even attended the children's funeral and laugh. This is what caught the attention of the Police...I would recommend to read the WHOLE story, it is long but worth of it. It really make you wonder what kind of people are around. This happened in 1968. Mary is now on her 40's, she was out of prison at age 23, has a teenage daughter and in 1998 was granted Lifelong Anonymity.

https://crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/...x_1.html?sect=7

Children Killed Girl Year Bell Mary

I often wonder if people can really be rehabilitated from such experiences especially when it is acted out and executed by them. Knowing she has anonymity is fine if it is that she really is cured, but for me, in all truth, I would still want to know if she were my next door neighbor.

Mary Bell, A 10 Year Old Girl Who Killed Children History & Civil Business Politics

She cannot be cured because she suffers of several mental problems and she rejected almost all psychological help. She never told any details about her childhood, she totally rejected the idea of telling how her life was, she did it recently and did not share all of it. She says her whole life changed after the birth of her daughter and that then she started feeling remorse for the things she has done in life but the author of the book about her, called 'Cries Unheard' doubted of the truthfulness and sincerity of her words, psychopats are known to fake the fact that they feel guilty and remorseful when in fact, they still the same inside....

Children Killed Girl Year Bell Mary

Then I really have to wonder who are the crazy people that let her out and become anonymous... they should be the ones locked up!

Exactly, and if this one refuses help who knows what is on the inside!

Children Killed Girl Year Bell Mary

She did had psychological help ALL the time she spent on prison but no one is sure whether she could have been 'cured' because of her truly evil personality, only after the birth of her daughters she confesses feeling 'some' remorse for what she has done. I mean, we are talking about a little girl that killed because she said 'she enjojed it'!. She even tortured and killed a toddler and laugh at his funeral. Her friends said that because she was always a 'show off' when she used to shout she was a 'murderer' and laugh and that she has killed several children, nobody believed her. Her best friend Norma and her would spend hours talking about comitting horrible murders and escape to a nearby country. She was extremely intelligent for a 10 years old and she would answer the questions of the police like a real professional.
One of her famous quotes talking about one of her victims ""Brian Howe had no mother, so he won't be missed." She would actually lead some of the relatives of the victims to find the dead bodies just to see their faces and enjoy how shocking was for them the discovery.
One of the police officers who was present at one of the children's funeral remembers: "Mary Bell was standing in front of the Howe's house when the coffin was brought out. I was, of course, watching her. And it was when I saw her there that I knew I did not dare risk another day. She stood there, laughing. Laughing and rubbing her hands. I thought, My God, I've got to bring her in, she'll do another one."
One of the relatives of the victims says the following about Mary and her best friend and accomplice Norma "They kept asking me, 'Do you miss Martin?' and 'Do you cry for him?' and 'Does June miss him?' and they were always grinning. In the end I could stand it no more and told them to get out and not to come back."
Martin's mother June Brown was also bothered by the girls. After hearing a knock, June opened the front door to find Mary standing there. "Mary smiled and asked to see Martin. I said, 'No, pet, Martin is dead.' She turned round and said, 'Oh, I know he's dead. I wanted to see him in his coffin,' and she was still grinning. I was just speechless that such a young child should want to see a dead baby and I just slammed the door on her."

About her pyschological state one of the doctors said that she exhibited the classic symptoms of psychopathology (or sociopathology) by her lack of feeling toward others. "She showed no remorse whatsoever, no tears and no anxiety. She was completely unemotional about the whole affair and merely resentful at her detention,". I could see no real criminal motivation."

She certainly showed no signs of being satiated after murdering one of the boys. She was violent toward animals, a chronic bed wetter until her adult years, and while she hadn't set fires, she did destroy property in her brief career as a murderer. Those familiar with these "triad" of symptoms that characterize serial killers will also recognize that she probably wouldn't have stopped killing if unapprehended. Can you imagine a 10 year old serial killer??? My goodness!.

Medical experts do not believe that sociopaths can be "cured." They are generally resistant to therapy, which Mary had proven to be throughout her incarceration. Some do speculate that aggressive tendencies quiet down with age. Perhaps Mary is better. We cannot know for sure.

Only when she became an adult and the book about her came to light, her daughter discovered who her mom really was, she did not know until that instance.


Now the question is why she did the things she did?. Well, there are very good reasons.

Mary's brief childhood was a nightmare of abandonment and drug overdoses. Betty (her mother) was anxious to get rid of her daughter -- she would drop her off with relatives, yet would always come back despite the family's pleas to let them keep her. In 1960 Betty brought Mary to an adoption agency, giving her to a distraught woman who wasn't allowed to adopt as she was moving to Australia. "I brought this one in to be adopted. You have her," Betty Bell said, leaving Mary with the stranger. Her sister Isa had followed Betty, and soon found the woman, who had already bought new dresses for Mary.

At two years old, Mary was refusing to bond with others -- she was already behaving in a cold and detached manner. Mary never cried when hurt, and began lashing out violently, smashing uncle's nose with a toy.

In 1961, Mary started kindergarten. "She was almost always naughty," said her teacher, who once saw Mary putting her hands around the neck of another child. When told not to do that, Mary said, "Why? Can it kill him?"

The most disturbing abuses came from Mary's frequent drug overdoses, which were likely administered by her own mother!!!!. When Mary was one year old, she nearly overdosed after taking some pills that were hidden in a narrow nook inside a gramophone. It seemed impossible that the baby could reach the pills, and strange that she would eat so many of the "acid-tasting" medication.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy, if true, are Betty's use of Mary during her prostitution. In what she calls "one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse I have ever encountered," Sereny recounts the horrors that Mary had to endure as her mother's sexual prop. No other relatives, including Mary's younger brother, were aware of this abuse, or would confirm it. Yet this would certainly help to explain Mary's erratic behavior.

Now as a pychopath she could have perfectly exagerated these abuses to look for simpathy but since her mother is dead now, there is no way she can testify if these things are true or not.

When the book came out and the profits of her book started coming out and she was paid for her 'efforts', Tony Blair was so angry that publicly decried her pay. Laws were written to prevent others, including serial killers from doing the same.

Why they gave her and her daughter longlife anonymity? because they tried to make a normal life but everytime the neighboors would hear it was Mary Bell at their neighboorhood, they would started to complain and shout 'We do not want murders here', so basically it was impossible for them to make a normal life although everyone agrees that the decision of the judge last year, was not a common move in this kind of cases although I believe the case of those two english boys who were caught in camera some years ago kidnapping a toddler and then killing him were also granted longlife anonymity.

Mary Bell, A 10 Year Old Girl Who Killed Children

What worries me about this girl (who is now a middle aged adult) is the fact that she was given complete anonymity, and I don't believe that anybody who killed children like this could be fully cured. Somebody, somewhere is probably living next door to this woman totally unaware of what her true identity is!
It's worrying to think that she's probably living as a 'trusted neighbor' to children!

Mary Bell 10 Year Girl Killed Children

That is just it, is there such a thing as a 'trusted' neighbor? To be honest we only allowed someone to watch Felipe a couple of times and then after that we decided no one but us will watch our kids, not because anything happened with Felipe, but such stories as this and others within this Board has made us more aware that even if the risk is small it is not a risk worth taking.

Mary Bell 10 Year Girl Killed Children Politics Business Civil & History

You know after researching this case for a couple of years now, I fully understand the need of small children to be protected because it is obvious Mary had/has big and serious issues. At the same time, my heart literally BREAKS to know some of the things this woman went through to become the monster she became:

1. Her mother, a drug-user used to drugged her since she was a small little baby (frequently, since she was only one year old).

2. Put her for adoption because she just did not want her.

3. Her mother (who was also a prostitute) used little Mary at her "job" and Mary went through a horrible sexual abuse for years.


Can some of these things caused someone to become a serial killer? No doubt on my mind. I am not justifying at all these murders neither her anonymity (which I do not agree) but just pointing out some of the reasons that caused this woman to be this "beast".