Cries Unheard

Author: Gitta Sereny
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 9780805060683
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
England's controversial #1 best-seller. What brings a child to kill another child? In 1968, at age eleven, Mary Bell was tried and convicted of murdering two small boys in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Gitta Sereny, who covered the sensational trial, never believed the characterization of Bell as the incarnation of evil, the bad seed personified. If we are ever to understand the pressures that lead children to commit serious crimes, Sereny felt, only those children, as adults, can enlighten us. Twenty-seven years after her conviction, Mary Bell agreed to talk to Sereny about her harrowing childhood, her terrible acts, her public trial, and her years of imprisonment-to talk about what was done to her and what she did, who she was and who she became. Nothing Bell says is intended as an excuse for her crimes. But her devastating story forces us to ponder society's responsibility for children at the breaking point, whether in Newcastle, Arkansas, or Oregon. A masterpiece of wisdom and sympathy, Gitta Sereny's wrenching portrait of a girl's damaged childhood and a woman's fight for moral regeneration urgently calls on us to hear the cries of all children at risk.

The Case Of Mary Bell

Author: Gitta Sereny
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446449653
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
In December 1968 two girls who lived next door to each other - Mary, aged eleven, and Norma, thirteen - stood before a criminal court in Newcastle, accused of strangling two little boys; Martin Brown, four years old, and Brian Howe, three. Norma was acquitted. Mary Bell, the younger but infinitely more sophisticated and cooler of the two, was found guilty of manslaughter. She evaded being branded as a murderer due to what the court ruled as 'diminished responsibility', but she was sentenced to 'detention' for life. Step by step, Gitta Sereny pieces together a gripping and rare study of a horrifying crime; the murders, the events surrounding them, the alternately bizzare and nonchalant behaviour of the two girls, their brazen offers to help the distraught families of the dead boys, the police work that led to their apprehension, and finally the trial itself. What emerges from this extraorindary case is the inability of society to anticipate such events and to take adequate steps once disaster has struck.

The Case of Mary Bell

Author: Gitta Sereny
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description

Mary Flora Bell: The Horrific True Story Behind an Innocent Girl Serial Killer

Author: Ryan Becker
Publisher: Real Crime by Real Killers
ISBN: 9781793194275
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
What can drive a young and seemingly innocent child to kill? Murder is horrible enough when perpetrated by adults, and yet the concept takes on a whole new level of chilling morbidity when a murderer is revealed to be a young boy or girl. Is it the result of severe trauma manifesting itself in the most macabre of ways? Is it the progeny of some severe mental disorder? Or were they influenced by the actions of the people they grew up with? Most of the time, the answers to such a question are simple but no less horrific. Eleven-year-old Mary Flora Bell was tried and found guilty, in 1968, for the coldhearted murders of two very young boys - crimes which she committed without any hint of remorse. After her past and motives have been examined, hindsight asks the pressing question: Had Mary being a victim herself turned her into a killer? In this brand new expanded edition, the author sets out to discover what really happened to turn young Mary into an infamous killer. In addition to the previously printed material, you will find an all-new introduction and chapters filled with the author's never before published in-depth study into what made Mary angry enough to kill and her life after the crimes. From the details of her murders to the dark childhood she suffered, Mary Flora Bell's short, but horrific, time as a child serial killer will be analyzed in detail within Mary Flora Bell: The Horrific True Story Behind An Innocent Girl Serial Killer. Get your copy now and learn the tragic nature of a good girl gone bad and her road to redemption.

Killer Child

Author: Sylvia Perrini
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781508556633
Category : Children and violence
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
N December, 1968, Mary Bell, aged eleven, appeared before a criminal court in England, accused of murdering, Martin Brown, aged four, and Brian Howe, aged three. Mary was found guilty of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility and was sentenced to 'detention' for life. What would induce a young child to murder two other young children? In this short book, Sylvia Perrini, looks at Mary's tragic life, her years in prison and life since prison.

Case of Mary Bell

Author: Gitta SERENY
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description

The Case of Mary Bell

Author: Gitta Sereny
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780413279408
Category : Bell, Mary Flora
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
In 1968, 11-year-old Mary Bell was found guilty of the manslaughter of two young boys. This study asks why one child would murder another, and provides the background to the Bell case. The author also gives her account of the case of James Bulger, now that the debate has tragically re-opened.

Mary Flora Bell - the True Story

Author: Kate Smith Adams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781790824755
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 147

Book Description
On the 25th of May, 1968, a four year-old boy named Martin Brown was playing outside with his friends in the Scotswood area of Newcastle. Tragically, this would be the last day of Martin's short life. Martin was found upstairs on the floor in a derelict house by three children. He was dribbling saliva from his mouth and looked inert. On the 31st of July, three year-old Brian Howe was watching the demolition of houses in Scotswood. He was never seen alive again. Brian was found by the police just after 11 pm. He was lying dead between two concrete blocks. Some of his hair had been snipped off and there were puncture wounds on his legs and pressure marks on his nose. The police reopened the investigation into the death of Martin Brown and eventually reached a shocking conclusion. The serial killer responsible for these deaths was a pretty blue-eyed eleven year-old girl named Mary Bell. It would become one of the strangest and most unfathomable cases in British criminal history. But Mary Bell didn't come out of nowhere. She was well known to the police and the authorities long before she became famous in the worst possible way. Here then, is the complete story of Mary Flora Bell - The True Story

The Mary Bell Case - the True Story

Author: Kate Smith Adams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781710974959
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140

MARY BELL

Author: Katherine Smith
Publisher: BookRix
ISBN: 3748766599
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
The case of Mary Bell shocked the nation in 1968. In the city of Newcastle, an eleven year-old girl was responsible for the death of two young boys who were not much more than toddlers. The method of death was strangulation (squeezing of the neck) and both tragic incidents took place on derelict land where massive slum housing clearances were under way. The girl responsible for the murders was Mary Flora Bell - a darkly angelic looking child who never seemed to show any sign of emotion. The case of Mary Bell, as it drifts further and further into the past, is like a nightmarish folk memory that refuses to ever completely fade. It is a strange and tragic story that will probably never lose its enduring and morbid fascination.