A Judge Called Mary Bell A Monster When She Was Just 10 Years Old
Here’s what no one knew and she didn’t tell for 27 years.
Mary Bell was a monster at age 10. At least, that’s what adults said.
The judge said it. The prosecutor and doctor both said it. The jury said it. And most certainly the mothers of the two little boys she murdered said it.
A monster. Insane. Psychopath. Born evil, they said.
She murdered a four year old when she was 10. Enticed him into an abandoned building and squeezed her little hands around his neck until he was still. She was so little herself they couldn’t even tell how he died.
Police called his death a tragic accident, but a few days later, the little boy’s nursery school was vandalized. The vandals left notes to let police know it was murder. One note said “we did murder Martin Brown.”
The notes were written in Crayola. Crayon messages by a child. Investigators didn’t know if it was a sick joke or if they should take it seriously.
It was a rough and ugly neighborhood. Prostitution, poverty and drunks everywhere. Kids running wild. They wrote it off as an ugly prank.
But then, two months later, 3 year old Brian Howe went out to play and never came home.
He was found in a field strangled, with a letter M cut into his torso. But this time, the coroner told police the toddler was strangled by another child.
That’s when they started interrogating local children.
Friends, 11 and 13, on trial for murder…
Mary Bell and Norma Bell (unrelated) were best friends. Mary was 11, Norma 13. Norma said Mary killed both boys. Mary cried and said Norma was lying. They they each killed one, she insisted.
The coroner testified that the “M” cut into the boy’s torso was actually two separate cuts made hours apart. The initial cut was the letter N. Hours later, another slice was added to turn the N into an M.
Norma’s father said Norma was developmentally “slow” and followed Mary’s lead. Parents of neighborhood kids stepped forward to say Mary was always “choking” children, but if you told her to knock it off, she did.
Norma was found innocent. Mary was found guilty. They called her psychotic. Evil. Insane. She was sentenced to be incarcerated until authorities felt she was no longer a danger to the public.
For 27 years, no one knew what happened…
Gitta Sereny was a biographer, historian, and award winning investigative journalist who focused on Holocaust studies, child abuse and social issues.
She was the journalist who’d covered Mary Bell’s trial.
She’d never bought into the nonsense about Mary being evil. Children aren’t born evil, she said. There was more to the story. But no one knew it.
27 years later, Gitta finally got to hear the whole story.
A tabloid had tracked Mary down. There she was, on the front of the papers, running from her house with a child with sheets over their heads to hide from the press. The press doxed her. Broadcast where she was.
So Gitta reached out. Mary, talk to me, she said. Mary agreed.
Born into horrific abuse…
Mary Bell was born to 17 year old Betty Bell, a prostitute and dominatrix. When the nurse put the baby in her arms her mother yelled “get that thing away from me, I don’t want it.”
Just post-partum emotion, the doctors said. Bonding will come.
It didn’t.
An eye witness saw her mother throw Mary out a window. She suffered a traumatic brain injury but survived. Her mother fed her handfuls of sleeping pills, but she survived the overdoses, too.
She was left home alone for hours. Neglected. Battered. Abused.
Her mother’s specialty was BDSM. Mary‘s mom would make her watch while she served clients. Bondage, whipping and choking. It’s why Mary grew up choking other kids. It made her feel in control. Just like when men choked her mama and later her, too.
When Mary was four, her mother started selling her. Oral sex first, until she got a little older. Then whatever the men wanted and would pay for. She was a sex worker when her age was a single digit.
Her mother faked affection to cash out
When Mary was sentenced, she was too young for adult prison so they sent her to an approved reform school. She was so surprised when her mother started coming to visit. Excitedly, she’d draw pictures for her mommy.
In between visits, she wrote letters to her mom. She thought her mom was finally starting to care about her.
Then she learned her mom was selling her drawings and letters to the tabloids. Art by the murderer. Letters from the murderer.
They paid real well.
She was raped in reform school and no one cared
At the reform school, Mary was the only girl among 20 or more boys. It was an all boys school, except her. She was subjected to sexual abuse by one member of staff and fellow student inmates. The staff turned a blind eye.
She’s evil, they said. No one cared. No one listened or helped. They just let her get raped over and over. That’s just how life was for Mary Bell.
As she got older, she started pleading with her mother. Please mama, go to the courts, she would beg. Tell them what happened to me. Tell them about our home. What I saw. What I did. Please mama.
She thought if the courts knew what happened to her, they’d understand she wasn’t evil. Her mother refused. I guess she was too busy cashing out telling the tabloids about her screwed up psycho murderer kid.
Keep those letters coming, honey.
She was released on lifetime probation at 23
When Mary reached legal age, she’d been transferred to an adult facility. By 23, they said she wasn’t a danger to anyone. She had so much remorse. So much sadness for what she’d experienced as a child and what she did.
No risk to re-offend, they said and let her out on lifetime probation. They offered her anonymity. A new name and place, so she could start over. But she said no. She didn’t want to hide anymore. She’d take her lumps.
But two years later, she got pregnant.
In a bizarre twist of fate, she delivered her daughter on May 25. The same day she’d killed 4 year old Martin Brown. 16 years later to the day. It was a knife in the heart to both her and Martin Brown’s mother.
That’s when she asked the courts for anonymity. So she could keep her daughter safe from the people who hated and threatened her.
They disappeared for 14 years. Until the tabloids tracked her down.
After running from their house with sheets over their heads, Mary had to tell her daughter everything. Why they were running. What she’d done. The murders and everything that happened to her as a child.
All of it. And her child was only 14. Her daughter was devastated. In a heartbeat, she went from being a happy and well adjusted child to realizing she is the child of a murderer, chased by the tabloids.
So when Gitta called, Mary said yes. She would talk.
“I had to help her,” Sereny said later…
In 1998, Gitta Sereny published Cries Unheard: The Story of Mary Bell.
She offered Mary residuals from the sale of the book. That made the tabloids, too. British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a public statement saying he didn’t think she should “profit” from her crimes and would do everything he could to make sure she didn’t get a penny. But he failed.
They talked to Mary’s partner, too. He said Mary was no monster. Never had been. She was a brutally abused child from the minute she was born and everyone looked the other way. Social services and the police. They knew she was being horrifically abused and didn’t lift a finger to help her.
Thanks to residuals from the book, Mary and her child changed their names and disappeared again. To start over again. Rebuild their lives.
At 51, Mary Bell became a grandmother and went to court one last time. She begged the court to grant immunity to her daughter and grandchild for the remainder of their lives. So they won’t suffer for her crimes. It was granted.
All we know is they’re alive and well. Somewhere out there.
“I wanted to give her some of the money. . . because I could not use her, as everybody else has done.” — Gitta Sereny
Additional reading and references
— Child killer forced into hiding after tabloids track her down
— Meet Mary Bell: Britain’s Youngest Killer
— The Crimes Of Child Murderer Mary Bell
— The 11-Year-Old Serial Killer
— The Story Of Child Killer Mary Bell Is Heartbreaking
— What is Mary Bell up to now? Does she feel remorse?