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The Mary Bell Case

On 25 May 1968, the day before her 11th birthday, Mary Flora Bell strangled four-year-old Martin Brown. She was believed to have committed this crime alone. Between that time and the second killing, she and her friend Norma Joyce Bell (no relation), age thirteen, broke into and vandalised a nursery in Scotswood, leaving notes that claimed responsibility for the Brown killing. The Newcastle police dismissed this incident as a ‘prank’.

On 31 July 1968, the two took part in the death, again by strangulation, of three-year-old Brian Howe. Police reports concluded that Mary Bell had gone back after killing him to carve an “N” into his stomach with a razor; this was then changed using the same razor but with a different hand to an “M”. Mary Bell also used a pair of scissors to cut off bits of Brian Howe’s hair and to mutilate his genitals. As the girls were so young and their testimonies contradicted each other, what happened has never been entirely clear. Martin Brown’s death was initially ruled an accident as there was no evidence of foul play. Eventually, his death was linked with Brian Howe’s killing and in August, the two girls were charged with two counts of manslaughter.

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  1. Horrific incidence I must admit. Poor Souls Get a needful peace now! Tronologic

  2. Bless her , I hope her second chance at life is giving her everything that her disgusting mother didn’t,
    All the best Mary Bell x

  3. Mary was a victim of horrific abuse from her mother and others at a young age. Then she went on to abuse others who were smaller than her. It’s a horrific cycle and I hope she was able to break it with her own family.
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  4. anyone know who narrated this?

  5. One thing about Mary is that she has done everything she can to protect her own children and grandchildren throughout their lives, unlike that so called filthy mother of hers.
    That’s not to take away from the suffering of those baby boys and their mothers either

  6. Give me a break! That woman isn’t afraid enough to talk about being supposedly strangled, but she’s terrified to talk about the sand? I’m sorry but we will never know if these things actually happened to all of the people who are claiming it did. But I’m not buying what this woman is selling.

  7. ok video, but a lot of information seem to be missing, why no mention of pitta sereny’s books on her

    richard

  8. little evil child at least she should have admitted killing those 2 innocent little boys! How sad.
    I personally blamed her mother what a bitch not carrying for her daughter at all why bother having children if they are not gona love and care for them a lot of fucking women like it. They should never have had become MOTHERS in the first place… Grrr it makes me pretty upset.

  9. While I am pleased she has recovered, I think people need to be less “black or white” on this issue. Seriously, some people are too far from the line to rehab (for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger John Venables was “rehabilitated” and ended up a child pornography distributor.) However, she did well. We need to gauge the kids before we make a call one way or the other. Look at the remorse, the possibilities, everything.

  10. Seriously I am a spychopath.And I did a lot of things let just say it happened for a reason. I dont know why people judge others.God said I shall not judge…So the one that are judging are the one that will go to hell…God will forgive you if you want to be forgiven…Sometime you need total darkness to finally see the light…Thats what happen there…When I’m turning mad I dont care what I’ll do everything happens for a reason so shut the fuck up when you dont know what your talking about…Now I use medications to keep me sane Im out of the institute…I know whats right from wrong but do you???And no I’m not Mary Flora Bell..I’m only someone that beleive someone can change with proper guidance…Because I did change I just need to manage my anger toward other peoples and everything will be all right…peace out and stop judging…

  11. Seriously I am a spychopath.And I did a lot of things let just say it happened for a reason. I dont know why people judge others.God said I shall not judge…So the one that are judging are the one that will go to hell…God will forgive you if you want to be forgiven…Sometime you need total darkness to finally see the light…Thats what happen there…When I’m turning mad I dont care what I’ll do everything happens for a reason so shut the fuck up when you dont know what your talking about…Now I use medications to keep me sane Im out of the institute…I know whats right from wrong but do you???And no I’m not Mary Flora Bell..I’m only someone that beleive someone can change with proper guidance…Because I did change I just need to manage my anger toward other peoples and everything will be all right…peace out and stop judging…

  12. As a child care worker and former forensic scientist i have to say it’s a tough issue to discuss because it pertains children in this case.
    When children are not cared for in a loving and safe environment and are exposed to violence of all kinds it’s most likely will have a devastating effect on the child.

    True, this child has to be monitored for the duration of her life but i don’t really think she is the psychopath they claim her to be..

    It’s very rare that child killers like Mary and the two boy’s who murdered little Jaime Bulger will ever kill again.
    With the proper care and extensive therapy and guidance they will be okay.

  13. I believe one of ye is Mary Bell because I can’t believe any sane person would defend this Devil-Child….She is exceptionally intelligent….She seduced the childish innocents into a false sense of security by a well orchestrated plan of choking her victims and then antagonised the mother of the child….From viewing many docs about serial killers they all seem to have the same attributes and play the same games…..She treated the killings as a game and I doubt a sick mind like that could ever really be healed…..

    Also I wonder does the husband know who the fuck she really is?????

    He is probably wondering why she loves S+M and why he always wakes up with scissors marks in his legs and his hair cut up every morning……

    That woman should have not been allowed have kids…….Growing an army of OMEN CHILDREN…….Devils red brigade….

    • Her husband and child know about her past. And that girl is a typical case of aquired sociopathy (sociopathy cased by severe brain injury). Her mother tried many time to make her O.D. when she was a baby (causing brain damadge. Plus before calling her a devil-child you should know that from age 4 her mother sold her to pedophiles and force her to engage in sexual practices with clients.

    • Totally agree with you.

  14. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1110123/Child-killer-Mary-Bell-grandmother-51-But-I-left-grief-says-victims-mother.html
    unbelievable that she was allowed to have children!! what a fantastic family tree bedtime story she can tell her grandkids hey

  15. There is crime in England? Poverty? Child abuse? Prostitution? Alert Mr. Theroux!

  16. Raises a interesting question, are psychopaths born or made ?

    • Apparently many people are born with a genetic propensity to be psychopaths, but only a very small percentage of those have that propensity triggered (usually in childhood via some kind of trauma).

  17. What they don’t tell you here is that her mother tried to kill her on several occasions, and from the age of 4 pimped her out to various men.

  18. So sad and an amazing story I have never heard about, she was so beautiful but was a bad apple from a bad tree. The poor darling childen killed

  19. She has been out of prison for many years and now has a daughter and a husband and a job – there is a book written by her psychiatrist who says as yet, May has to tell herself that she did not really understand that they would die to live with herself but is working on accepting what she has done. She stopped being violent as soon as she was in a secure children’s home where no-one was abusing her or trying to kill her.

    • I read this book. Mary Bell claims that she didn’t realize that dead meant forever. However, she visited the little boys dead body many times over the next few days…really? She didn’t get it? Also, she visited the mother of the little boy, asked to see him in his coffin, and laughed and was really excited. She’s full of it. I remember being eleven, and I knew that if you squeezed the life out of something, that it would die. And that meant forever.

    • And I suppose you’d let her babysit your kids ?

  20. They should never have released her from prison. She is clearly a psychopath who likes to kill, and she will always remain incredibly dangerous. Nothing anyone can do about it, no amount of therapy will ‘fix’ her. A case of lock up and throw away the key.

    • dude that is just a horrible thing to say

    • you are a horrible person she has changed idiot

    • Actually, as a “Psychopath” who has attempted to kill various times before, I can say from first hand experience that therapy helps. alot. You are an uneducated assumptious moron who knows nothing about how traumatic abuse can deeply scar a child.

    • Moron. She recovered and never commited violent crimes again. People like you are the ones that should be locked up. You are the psychopath.

    • Moron. She recovered and never commited violent crimes again. People like you are the ones that should be locked up. You are the psychopath.

    • Moron. She recovered and never commited violent crimes again. People like you are the ones that should be locked up. You are the psychopath.

      • How do you know she never comitted a crime again? She has a different name now. And fyi: there is no such thing as a recovered psychopathic murder. Do your homework.

        • I think you should perhaps look at her absolutely tragic circumstances. She was ritually sexually, mentally and physically assaulted. Her mother used to hang her bed sheets out when sh had wet herself so that the neighbors could bully her. She was raped by countless men who her mother pimped her out to to fund her addictions. Her own mother attempted to kill her numerous times. It’s not unsurprising that she suffered huge mental scaring and formed an incredibly warped view of the world. I am not condoning what she did but equally I do not condone punishing a very damaged child for their entire life when it is possible to help and educate her into a successful, law abiding and loving individual. It is possible through nurture to help repair some mental damage, especially if the child is young. She never committed any crimes ever again! She also has publicly shown huge remorse for what she did as a young and warped child. Perhaps you should check your facts and not judge people when you cannot relate to any of their terrible and horrific life experiences. 

          • A lot of people go through abuse – thank goodness they don’t all torture and kill little children! Many people who go through abuse actually become a lot kinder and gentler because they know what happened was wrong. Eleven years old is old enough to know what is right and wrong. I guarantee that if she killed your little boy, you would not be so quick to defend her.

          • First of all, its ironic how you tell me not to judge when ‘I cannot relate’. You DO NOT know me, do you now, or know if I can relate, so how are you yourself not judgemental? Second of all, I don’t disagree with you in the sense that the horrible things that happened to her are indeed very sad and made her what she is, and that those things are most certainly not her fault. I do believe (based on ‘homework) that she was indeed born a psychopath (also not her fault), but she could have developed into a succesfull (albeit psychopatic) adult. The things that happened to her, abuse and such, are eventually what shaped her into a murderer, and several studies on the subject show that a psychotic person who has been shaped by those kind of horrific things never, ever ever grow up to be a normal functioning person. They just don’t. It’s like: the floodgates were opened, they can’t just be closed again. Why? Because first of all: she would need a conscience, a sense of remorse. People like her just do not have that, and that is what sets us apart from psychopaths. I realise that everyone, including myself actually, would like to believe that a child who goes through what she had gone through could be ok someday, but studies show otherwise. Maybe she never will kill again, but the chances that she will do something like it again are much larger than the chances of you and I doing it. Also, the fact she apparantly has a child and a grandchild frightens the shit out of me. I hope they were offered therapy also…

        • Well, for your information, you know-it-all wanker – the police and media release details of her progress, even if she has changed her name. And they did, and she is doing fine and hasn’t re-offended. You have no idea what you are talking about, so why opt to act like a random wanker who does know? You should do your own homework on how to research things, and how not to be a toss pot.

          • You are such an ass. And so aggressive! Not everybody in life is going to agree with you. Get used to it.

          • Sorry, but I don’t really mind. It is not my problem that people cannot accept the simple concept that a child can grow up, and change into another person – let alone the simple, checkable facts about the subject themselves. If I choose to mock such people, then so be it. Ignorance is not a crime until it causes someone harm. And when it does – then fuck those who don’t agree with me. Life is too short for suffering fools when important concepts are at stake. Not everyone is deviously passive/aggressive. Some of us are honest enough to be just plain aggressive/aggressive. Get used to it.

          • LOL, language, language darling! Also; the ONY thing you and the rest of the world know for a fact is that she has a grandchild and that she and her family have been living anonymously since 2003. I’m assuming you know she hasn’t re-offended and, as you say, ‘is doing fine’ thanks to the book she co-wrote, which I’m certain is an incredibly objective read, and the money she made off that ( several thousands, I believe…) she must have donated to the mothers of her victims or a charity, since she is such an upstanding citizen these days..?

      • She was willing to accept a large sum of money if she helped an author write a book about her killings. Does that sound like a normal thing to do ? The bitch is a psychopath and has to this day a very warped sense of right and wrong and also a lack of empathy and remorse, classic traits of a psychopath.

        • Being a “psychopath and has to this day a very warped sense of right and wrong and also a lack of empathy and remorse” is not against the law in itself, and is also just an opinion. Locking her up and throwing away the key is wrong. She was a kid when she did this.

          • remember me?  I’m the psychopath who wants to rape and murder downies.

            I think they should let Mary Bell team up with Casey Anthony and have a reality show, extreme Nannies.

          • How could anyone forget a charming character like you? I will point out that wanting to do something as “forever alone” as that, is different from actually saying you will – which you did.

            Dark cynicism just for the sake of it is utterly try-hard – it is also a true sign of emotional retardation.

            Pretty boring dude – because the underlying causes are kind of obvious. Try and be of use to the world, kk? cool.

          • You blatantly are Mary Bell. 

          • remember me?  I’m the psychopath who wants to rape and murder downies.

            I think they should let Mary Bell team up with Casey Anthony and have a reality show, extreme Nannies.

  21. not working! please fix?

  22. ok tv thing