The Curious Case of Mary Bell

WARNING: This post includes discussion of dark topics such as murder, violence, child abuse, and child death. Please be mindful of your own mental health and if you need to skip this one, I’ll see you next time.

Fuck it. If facebook is gonna censor me anyway, I might as well do a blog entry about true crime, a subject I've long been fascinated by and that I've wanted to dip my toes into for awhile. Not in the gross 'I wanna fuck Ted Bundy' way - seriously what the hell is up with those people? No, I more find it psychologically interesting to ponder what drives someone to that.

Child psychology in particular is interesting to me. In an ideal world, of course, this would involve the psychology of how a child grows, how their brain changes and how they learn, stuff like that. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world. Many people are completely unfit to raise children, and abuse them horrifically. Due to my own personal triggers, I will not go too into detail as to what that abuse entails, but I'm assuming you all can use your imaginations.

Children raised in such conditions often have long-term learning difficulties, problematic behaviors, and increased incidences of physical and mental health issues, all stemming from the abuse. Children learn who they are by interacting with their primary caretakers, and it's little wonder that the ignored, marginalised, or abused child has little sense of who they really are. They internalise what's been said or done to them, and lacking any healthy coping mechanisms (often they need, with their limited facilities, to quickly cobble together maladaptive coping mechanisms) they suffer greatly - and often turn to making others suffer as a way to regain some sense of the power that has been robbed from them.

The "Child of Rage" documentary about Beth Thomas is an example about how such treatment can damage a child's psyche. At only six years old, Thomas admitted to a clinical psychologist, on tape, that she would hurt her adoptive parents and birth sibling if given the opportunity. Her adoptive parents, Jill and Rob Tyler, locked their young daughter in her room at night because they were afraid of what she might do - all because of the way her biological father had abused her from infancy. (Also what kind of sick fuck abuses an infant?!)

Beth saw a series of psychiatrists who struggled to help her develop empathy, and overcome her psychopathic personality, which was the result of her father's sick behaviour. And, after years of intensive therapy, she was able to re-learn empathy and has grown to be a well-adjusted adult woman who helps others as a nurse. Her therapist, however, was one of the adults responsible for the tragic and terrible murder (and YES, I do view it as a murder, as they all should have known better) of Candace Tiara Ellmore, better known as Candace Newmaker. (Warning - That link is the most sickening and depressing story you’ll probably ever read, and not safe for sanity.)

Of course, Beth Thomas was not the first (and sadly not the last) child whose psyche was horrifically warped by early abuse. A few decades before her, in a working-class town in England, there lived a serial killing child named Mary Bell.

I’ve been fascinated by the Mary Bell case for years now. The story is, in turns, both revolting and really interesting, with all sorts of psychological implications.

Of course, it should be kept in mind that while Mary was a victim of child abuse, there should be much more sympathy for her young victims, who did nothing to deserve their fates. We shouldn’t forget that they were brutally murdered by Mary, no matter how sad her home life was, and I ask that you all be respectful towards the memory of Martin Brown and Brian Howe

So what drove Mary to become a murderer at such a young age? Let’s start at the beginning of her life.

Mary's mother Betty McCrickett was a sex worker who was often absent from the family home, travelling to Glasgow to work. It isn't know who Mary's bio-father was, but for most of her life both she and her mother believed it to be a habitual thief named Billy Bell. When Mary was born on 26 May, 1957, Betty reportedly told doctors "get that thing away from me". Unfortunately, her childhood didn't improve from there. Maybe if doctors had taken this remark more seriously and removed the baby from Betty's custody, the lives of Mary's victims could have been saved. But how could they have known?

Members of the McCrickett family, when later interviewed, suggested that Betty had more than once attempted to kill Mary and make her death look accidental during the first few years of her life. Her family was suspicious when Mary "fell" from a window, and when she "accidentally" consumed sleeping pills (A witness had actually caught Betty giving the pills to her daughter as "sweets"). Mary herself says she was subjected to repeated sexual abuse, her mother forcing her from the age of four to engage in sexual acts with her clients. Either because of the fall, or because of physical abuse at the hands of her mother - or perhaps both - Mary had damage to her prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with voluntary movements and decision-making. Mary's psyche was further damaged when, at age 5, she saw a friend struck and killed by a bus.

It's worth mentioning that the area of England where the family lived was, at the time, a poorer part of the country. Sadly, in regions like that, stuff like this is far more common.

Even before her first murder, the warning signs were there. Mary was obsessed with violence and death. When she was still a toddler, family said, she would lash out at them and hit them. In kindergarten, she had wrapped her hands around a classmate's throat and squeezed. On 11 May 1968 - weeks before her first murder - Mary had been playing with a three-year-old boy when he was badly injured in a fall from the top of an air raid shelter; his parents thought it was an accident. The following day, however, three mothers came forward to tell police that Mary had attempted to choke their young daughters. A brief police interview and a lecture resulted - but no charges were filed. Mary Bell was only 10 years old.

After all, who would believe an innocent child capable of attempted murder by strangulation? I certainly couldn't believe my eyes the first time I read about this case, about 8 years ago.

Now, I am not trying to absolve Mary of guilt when I say it's Betty's fault that she was like this. Mary is the one who killed her victims (which I will go into shortly). But I am saying that Betty had a responsibility to raise her child to understand basic human fucking decency, and that she failed. If she didn't want the child, she should have given Mary up for adoption, or even - yes - aborted her. (Though I don't know the abortion laws of 50s-60s England. I'm guessing they weren't great.)

It's just all so sad and frustrating that any of this had to happen at all.

Psychologist Peg Streep says, of children raised the way Betty raised Mary:

"A number of theorist believe that an insecure style of attachment is actually a failure of the emotional regulatory system; the three adult insecure styles are anxious-preoccupied, fearful-avoidant, and dismissive-avoidant. A loving and attuned mother teaches the infant child how to regulate emotion and self-soothe in times of stress; the unloved child doesn't learn that... She either learns to dissociate from emotions and put on a suit of emotional armor (the avoidant styles) or use clumsy efforts to deal by being emotionally volatile, aggressive, and panicked by turns (anxious-preoccupied)."

Okay, another warning - we're gonna talk about the murders now. And this shit is about to get brutal. Proceed at your own risk.

Mary's victims, 4-year-old Martin Brown and 3-year-old Brian Howe

On 25 May, the day before she turned 11, Mary Bell strangled 4-year-old Martin Brown to death in an abandoned house in Scotswood, England. His body was discovered later that day by two local boys playing in the building. Police were completely baffled. Besides a little blood and saliva on the victim’s face, there were no obvious signs of violence. There was, however, an empty bottle of painkillers on the floor near the body. In the absence of better information, they assumed Martin Brown had swallowed the pills. His death was ruled accidental.

But Mary Bell showed up on the Brown family's doorstep a few days after Martin’s death and asked to see him. His mother  explained to her that Martin was dead, but Mary said she already knew that; she wanted to see his little body in the coffin. Martin’s mother slammed the door in her face.

Shortly after, Mary and her friend Norma Bell (no relation) broke into a nursery school and vandalised it with notes taking responsibility for Martin Brown’s death and promising to kill again. One of them (pictured) read "I murder so that I may come back." Police dismissed these notes as a prank. In the meantime, Mary wasn't exactly being subtle. She told her classmates that she'd killed Martin Brown. Her reputation as a show-off and a liar prevented anyone from taking her claims seriously. That is, until another young boy turned up dead.

A few weeks later, 3-year-old Brian Howe was found strangled in an industrial area, where local children sometimes played. He was found with various strange wounds, including puncture marks on his thigh, his genitals partially mutilated, and clumps of his hair cut off. In addition, a few days later another mark would become evident on his belly, where it looked like someone had tried to scratch the letter "M" into his skin with a razor blade. A pair of broken scissors lay nearby - it later came out that Mary had attempted to cut off the toddler's penis.

Police started questioning all the children in the area, and quickly noticed something was a bit off with two children in particular. Norma Bell seemed excited by the murder, and the detective noted that throughout questioning she kept smiling, as though it were a huge joke. But Mary was acting even weirder. She claimed she had seen another 8-year-old boy with Brian the day he was murdered. She claimed she had seen the 8-year-old hit Brian, and that at one point she saw him playing with a pair of scissors. But, the boy she pointed the finger at had been at the airport the afternoon of Brian's murder, and by mentioning the pair of scissors, Mary had implicated herself - police had not mentioned them to the public at all.

It was becoming clear that one or both girls were involved in the murder. The day that Brian Howe was buried, Mary was observed by a detective lurking outside of the Howe's house. The detective was horrified to see Mary, watching while the coffin came out, laughing and rubbing her hands together like some sort of cartoon villain. He knew something needed to be done immediately, before another child died, and Norma Bell was brought back in for questioning. This time, Norma turned on her friend and implicated Mary in both murders. Mary, despite trying to implicate Norma, was brought into police custody.

While awaiting trial, Mary Bell was held in the Newcastle police station. The guards noticed some strange behaviour from her. Mary Bell would suddenly wake from her sleep and bolt upright several times during the night. Often she would make comments that would trouble most people if they heard these words coming from a young child. She said at one point, "I want to be a nurse so I can stick needles into people, I like hurting people." In another conversation with the guards she said, "Murder isn't that bad, we all die sometimes anyway". At one point a stray cat that used to visit the police station for food wondered into Mary Bell's cell and Mary started to strangle it. The guards had to force her to leave the cat alone and Mary Bell said, "Oh, she doesn't feel that, and anyway, I like hurting little things that can't fight back"

At the trial, Norma was determined to be acting under Mary's direction (and honestly I have no idea what to make of Norma Bell), and acquitted. Mary was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of "diminished responsibility" - court-appointed psychiatrists described her as displaying "classic symptoms of psychopathy" and the jury kept this in mind when sentencing her. The judge, Justice Cusack, described her as dangerous and said she posed a "very grave risk to other children". Mary was detained in prison until adulthood, where she was treated by psychologists. She was granted anonymity upon her release. I have no idea if her story has a happy ending, but for Martin Brown and Brian Howe, there is no happy ending, and their families do not feel justice was served.

I honestly have read and reread this case over and over throughout the decade or so that I've known about it and I just... I wish something had been done sooner. I wish Mary had been treated like Beth Thomas was, so that Martin and Brian could have lived. I am grateful that Beth did not become another Mary Bell, though. Even if I also think her therapist deserves to rot in jail for that "rebirthing" bullshit.

If you think you know of a child who is being mistreated, you can call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1 (800) 4-A-CHILD or 1 (800) 422-4453.

-Nym

P.S. Sorry for the darker tone of today's entry. I promise the next post will be a lot more lighthearted.