At 11-years-old, Mary Bell
is the youngest female killer in the UK.
A "Geordie" from
Newcastle, Mary was born in 1957. Her mother was, unusually for the
time, a single mother, as well as being a mentally disturbed woman who
once gave the child to a stranger she met outside an abortion
clinic.
Described by court
psychiatrist as intelligent, manipulative and dangerous, in 1968 Mary
was found guilty of killing two children. Mary went to visit the
parents of her first victim four days after his body was discovered
When the grieving mother told her that the young boy was dead, she
replied: "I know he's dead. I wanted to see him in his coffin." Mary
did the killings with the help of her best friend, Norma Bell (no
relation). Norma, ended up spilling the beans about the lethal habits
of her friend. Her two victims were three and four year-old boys. Mary
was also accused of trying to strangle four other girls. She was also
responsible, along with Norma, of vandalizing a local nursery school
and scribbling on the walls: "Fuck off, we murder, watch out, Fanny and
Faggot." Not a model prisoner, Mary escaped from Moor County
Prison in 1977 and was captured three days later. Back in the Big
House, Mary, not one to shy away from publicity, gave detailed accounts
to the British tabloid press of how she lost her virginity to a young
lad she met during her three days of liberty.
April 30, 1998,
Mary Bell's teenage daughter discovered her mother's true identity as a
double child-killer when their home on England's south coast was
besieged by reporters. The girl had no idea of her mother's previous
life.
Bell was released from
prison in 1980. She had been living in anonymity under an assumed name
until word got out that she had been paid money to tell author Gitta
Sereny about her criminal past. Both the Home Secretary and the
Attorney General confirmed that they were looking at ways of blocking
the payment. With the house under siege by the media, police took Bell
and her daughter into protective custody to ensure their safety.
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