The case of Mary Bell;: A portrait of a child who murdered

The case of Mary Bell;: A portrait of a child who murdered by Gitta Sereny. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780070562912.

In December 1968 two girls – Mary Bell, eleven, and Norma Bell, thirteen (neighbors, but not related) – stood before a criminal court in Newcastle, England, accused of strangling, within a six-week period, 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 rather than murder because of “diminished responsibility” and was sentenced to “detention” for life. Step by step, the extraordinary murders, the events surrounding them, the alternately bizarre and nonchalant behavior of the the two girls, their brazen offers to help the distraught families of the dead boys, the police work that led to their apprehension, and the trial itself are grippingly re-created in this rare study of the wanton murder of child by child. What emerges with equal force is the inability of society to anticipate such events and to take adequate steps once disaster has struck. The intermeshing threads of this chilling case and, above all, Ms. Sereny’s painstaking and vital reconstruction of Mary’s family life keep the reader spellbound and complete the devastating story that begins with the mysterious death of a four-year-old boy.