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.
