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The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child Who Murdered
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 extraordinary case is the inability of society to anticipate such events and to take adequate steps once disaster has struck.
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 extraordinary case is the inability of society to anticipate such events and to take adequate steps once disaster has struck.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 1972
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About the author
Gitta Sereny
20 books148 followersGitta Sereny was an Austrian born journalist, biographer and historian. She passed away in England aged 91, following a long illness.
Gitta attributed her fascination with evil to her own experiences of Nazism as a child of central Europe in the early 20th century. Hers was not a happy childhood. She was born in Vienna, the daughter of a beautiful Austrian actress, whom she later described as "without moral opinions", and a wealthy Hungarian landowner. Her father, Gyula, died when she was a child; her elder brother left home at 18 and disappeared from her life; Gitta herself was sent to Stonar House boarding school in Sandwich, Kent, an experience she remembered with some affection.
In 1934, while changing trains in Nuremberg on a journey home from school, she witnessed the Nuremberg Rally and was profoundly moved by the beauty of the spectacle, joining in the crowd's ecstatic cheering. These favourable impressions of the Nazis survived both a reading of Mein Kampf and the 1938 Anschluss, when Hitler annexed a quiescent Austria. The grim realities of Nazism, however, soon began to affect her life in Vienna where she was, by then, a drama student.
She later described seeing a Jewish doctor she knew well being forced to clean pavements with a toothbrush; the terror became more personal after her mother, Margit, with whom Gitta had a poor relationship, became engaged to Ludwig von Mises, the Jewish economist. Von Mises had left Austria for Switzerland, but a German friend tipped Margit off that the authorities planned to arrest her to oblige him to return. Margit promptly fled to Switzerland with her daughter.
In Switzerland, Gitta was sent to a finishing school. Never accommodating to her mother's plans, she promptly absconded, first to London then to Paris. Margit and von Mises moved to the US. Gitta, eventually, was also obliged to flee, first across the Pyrenees to Spain, then to the US.
She returned to Paris four months after the war ended, to join the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, working with orphans in a ravaged Europe. The framework of what was to be her life's work – the exploration of childhood trauma and the nature of evil – was in place. It was in postwar Paris, in 1948, that she met and married the photographer Don Honeyman, with whom she was to have a son and a daughter. Don, who died last year, was to prove a good humoured and profoundly supportive companion who accompanied Gitta through the long and painstaking research that became a hallmark of her work.
She also reported on the trials in Germany of Third Reich functionaries, including concentration camp staff, such as Franz Stangl, the former commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka. . Her book on Stangl, Into That Darkness (1974), remains one of the best books on the Third Reich and established Gitta's reputation as an authority on the history of the period.
Furthermore, her book ‘Albert Speer, His Battle With Truth’ (1995), later dramatised by David Edgar at the National Theatre, repeatedly challenges Speer's contention that he too was ignorant of the fate of the Jews under the regime he had served so faithfully.
Gitta was frequently embattled, but rarely daunted. She fought a 20-year battle with the historian David Irving and was often targeted with fascist hate mail. Despite the grim nature of her subjects, Gitta was a warm and generous friend with a ready sense of humour, and she and Honeyman entertained frequently at their home in Chelsea, London. Despite her relentless psychological exploration of her subjects, she resisted all invitations to write her own autobiography, but in her late 70s she published a partial memoir in The German Trauma: Experiences and Reflections 1938-2001 (2001). She was appointed honorary CBE in 2003, for services to journalism.
Gitta attributed her fascination with evil to her own experiences of Nazism as a child of central Europe in the early 20th century. Hers was not a happy childhood. She was born in Vienna, the daughter of a beautiful Austrian actress, whom she later described as "without moral opinions", and a wealthy Hungarian landowner. Her father, Gyula, died when she was a child; her elder brother left home at 18 and disappeared from her life; Gitta herself was sent to Stonar House boarding school in Sandwich, Kent, an experience she remembered with some affection.
In 1934, while changing trains in Nuremberg on a journey home from school, she witnessed the Nuremberg Rally and was profoundly moved by the beauty of the spectacle, joining in the crowd's ecstatic cheering. These favourable impressions of the Nazis survived both a reading of Mein Kampf and the 1938 Anschluss, when Hitler annexed a quiescent Austria. The grim realities of Nazism, however, soon began to affect her life in Vienna where she was, by then, a drama student.
She later described seeing a Jewish doctor she knew well being forced to clean pavements with a toothbrush; the terror became more personal after her mother, Margit, with whom Gitta had a poor relationship, became engaged to Ludwig von Mises, the Jewish economist. Von Mises had left Austria for Switzerland, but a German friend tipped Margit off that the authorities planned to arrest her to oblige him to return. Margit promptly fled to Switzerland with her daughter.
In Switzerland, Gitta was sent to a finishing school. Never accommodating to her mother's plans, she promptly absconded, first to London then to Paris. Margit and von Mises moved to the US. Gitta, eventually, was also obliged to flee, first across the Pyrenees to Spain, then to the US.
She returned to Paris four months after the war ended, to join the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, working with orphans in a ravaged Europe. The framework of what was to be her life's work – the exploration of childhood trauma and the nature of evil – was in place. It was in postwar Paris, in 1948, that she met and married the photographer Don Honeyman, with whom she was to have a son and a daughter. Don, who died last year, was to prove a good humoured and profoundly supportive companion who accompanied Gitta through the long and painstaking research that became a hallmark of her work.
She also reported on the trials in Germany of Third Reich functionaries, including concentration camp staff, such as Franz Stangl, the former commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka. . Her book on Stangl, Into That Darkness (1974), remains one of the best books on the Third Reich and established Gitta's reputation as an authority on the history of the period.
Furthermore, her book ‘Albert Speer, His Battle With Truth’ (1995), later dramatised by David Edgar at the National Theatre, repeatedly challenges Speer's contention that he too was ignorant of the fate of the Jews under the regime he had served so faithfully.
Gitta was frequently embattled, but rarely daunted. She fought a 20-year battle with the historian David Irving and was often targeted with fascist hate mail. Despite the grim nature of her subjects, Gitta was a warm and generous friend with a ready sense of humour, and she and Honeyman entertained frequently at their home in Chelsea, London. Despite her relentless psychological exploration of her subjects, she resisted all invitations to write her own autobiography, but in her late 70s she published a partial memoir in The German Trauma: Experiences and Reflections 1938-2001 (2001). She was appointed honorary CBE in 2003, for services to journalism.
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May 28, 2019
In the summer of 1968, the murders of two toddlers shocked Newcastle in England. But they were in for a bigger shock very soon. The murderer was a little girl of 11 years, Mary Bell. Gitta Sereny was a journalist covering the case and she immediately got interested in this child who should not be a killer. After all, children are supposed to be innocent. What could possibly have driven Mary to kill?
Sereny contends that some children are not naturally bad. Instead it's their environment that's producing violence in them. She also makes a really brilliant point that most of this abuse is concocted in families and it is high time that families should not be held as a sacred cow at the expense of the welfare of children. Oh my god! I agree so much! I've never heard anyone say this so clearly before. Everyone seems reluctant to separate mother and child, but in this case, it would have been best for both of them.
The author covers the incidents, the investigation, the trial, and a bit of the background of Mary Bell's family in the book. Written only a few years after the trial, Sereny is still fresh with the trauma of the incident and is able to take the reader back in time to feel the horror of those days. It does not cover information that Bell as an adult has come out with - that's in another book by Sereny. A few things stand out for me after reading this book.
- Norma Bell was probably guilty. How is it possible that she was not? As much as I try to find ways to exonerate her, she just looms in the background, impossible to ignore. She was not the instigator but she took part. I suppose that the entire system found this case so distasteful that they were happy to ignore Norma, who didn't stand out in their face like Mary did. But this prevented her from getting a chance to turn her life around, like Mary did. In fact, Sereny does point out that Norma's life went downhill and her obsession with the murders never ended. I found it so intensely creepy that she offered to take a toddler for a walk just a few days after the trial!
- I found it confusing why Norma was allowed to play with Mary, after Mary was caught red-handed throttling Norma's younger sister, Susan. Norma's father sent her off and refused to allow Susan to play with Mary anymore. But why allow Norma then? This makes no sense to me.
- Why was Mary's home life never investigated? It is obvious that she was abused by her mother. Her entire family knew that Betty Bell had tried to murder her daughter four times! But they just sat on their hands and did nothing at all. What kind of jerks are these? They should all have been prosecuted.
Sereny writes well and brings out the salient points. The book is quite interesting and explores different relevant themes. At the end is tacked on an article about the James Bugler case, which I found rather unnecessary. Just because they were both child killers doesn't mean it should be included in a book about Mary Bell. The article was rather interesting but if you knew nothing about the case, then it would be completely useless because Sereny just goes on to discuss the family backgrounds of the boys involved without saying much about the case itself.
Today, Mary is rehabilitated and has not re-offended. It's incredible what can be done with faulty humans with therapy and support. Mary was on her way to becoming a serial killer as a child. Her being caught and detained saved other lives and her own. Anyone interested in Mary Bell should probably also read the next book that came out in the 90s, Cries Unheard. In that one, the adult and rehabilitated Mary talks about her childhood problems and offers some further perspective.
Sereny contends that some children are not naturally bad. Instead it's their environment that's producing violence in them. She also makes a really brilliant point that most of this abuse is concocted in families and it is high time that families should not be held as a sacred cow at the expense of the welfare of children. Oh my god! I agree so much! I've never heard anyone say this so clearly before. Everyone seems reluctant to separate mother and child, but in this case, it would have been best for both of them.
The author covers the incidents, the investigation, the trial, and a bit of the background of Mary Bell's family in the book. Written only a few years after the trial, Sereny is still fresh with the trauma of the incident and is able to take the reader back in time to feel the horror of those days. It does not cover information that Bell as an adult has come out with - that's in another book by Sereny. A few things stand out for me after reading this book.
- Norma Bell was probably guilty. How is it possible that she was not? As much as I try to find ways to exonerate her, she just looms in the background, impossible to ignore. She was not the instigator but she took part. I suppose that the entire system found this case so distasteful that they were happy to ignore Norma, who didn't stand out in their face like Mary did. But this prevented her from getting a chance to turn her life around, like Mary did. In fact, Sereny does point out that Norma's life went downhill and her obsession with the murders never ended. I found it so intensely creepy that she offered to take a toddler for a walk just a few days after the trial!
- I found it confusing why Norma was allowed to play with Mary, after Mary was caught red-handed throttling Norma's younger sister, Susan. Norma's father sent her off and refused to allow Susan to play with Mary anymore. But why allow Norma then? This makes no sense to me.
- Why was Mary's home life never investigated? It is obvious that she was abused by her mother. Her entire family knew that Betty Bell had tried to murder her daughter four times! But they just sat on their hands and did nothing at all. What kind of jerks are these? They should all have been prosecuted.
Sereny writes well and brings out the salient points. The book is quite interesting and explores different relevant themes. At the end is tacked on an article about the James Bugler case, which I found rather unnecessary. Just because they were both child killers doesn't mean it should be included in a book about Mary Bell. The article was rather interesting but if you knew nothing about the case, then it would be completely useless because Sereny just goes on to discuss the family backgrounds of the boys involved without saying much about the case itself.
Today, Mary is rehabilitated and has not re-offended. It's incredible what can be done with faulty humans with therapy and support. Mary was on her way to becoming a serial killer as a child. Her being caught and detained saved other lives and her own. Anyone interested in Mary Bell should probably also read the next book that came out in the 90s, Cries Unheard. In that one, the adult and rehabilitated Mary talks about her childhood problems and offers some further perspective.
April 23, 2012
I once team-taught with a young and very gifted teacher, J, whose pedagogy and commitment were streets ahead of mine. It was one of the best periods of my teaching life – we had such fun. In the second year of our work together with a large Year 7 group, she sat down with me one day and said “I think Justin is truly evil.” Justin was quite a disruptive boy – perhaps the only one who really confronted J in terms of discipline and attitude. Justin had said to J. “I’m going to kill you (there was an elaborate plan) and then I‘m going to laugh at your graveside.” All kinds of thoughts are going through my head as I type this. It sounds funny and silly and melodramatic and unbelievable. But I can also still see J’s face as she told me; she was in tears and she was also afraid. She truly believed he was evil and was frightened of him.
For some reason, he did not have the same impact on me (but he hadn’t threatened to kill me either). And we weathered the year together with Justin and I don’t know what happened to him after that because I left that school and so did J (though our departures were not because of Justin but in the natural order of things).
I thought a lot about this time when I was reading The Case of Mary Bell. This relates to the killing of two small boys in England in 1968 by two girls aged 11 and 13. I was prompted to read this book after hearing the author Gitta Sereny speaking with Phillip Adams (http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcas...). They were mostly talking about her later book Cries Unheard (which is about the same case). Sereny was propelled into writing two books about this case because of the ‘bad seed’ argument. She said that she simply didn’t believe that children were born evil – that it had to be events in their childhood which led to their committing evil acts. One of the things that bothered Sereny was that courts did not allow discussion of the background of criminals in the course of the trial – the facts of the case were the only allowable elements (and I think it’s similar here – the background is only relevant in sentencing.)
The Case of Mary Bell follows the events around two killings and the subsequent trial. It also has an additional chapter added twenty years later at the time of the killing of James Bolger. Sereny tries to unpack something of the family background of each of the two young girls charged with murder. While interesting, the fact that we learn so little about the motivations for the crime is frustrating. It means that there is an essential gap in the book that leaves me wondering – and that leaves it wanting.
Through the narrative, Sereny indicates that things were awry in Mary Bell’s family that contributed to her anti-social behaviour. She is coy about what these are and they only emerge on the later book when she has a chance to interview the adult Mary. But she is very critical of the prevailing practices of the state in terms of intervention in the lives of children. She says, writing in a post script in 1995, that there is "still too much ignorance within families about how to live and how to love. And a state which is ruled by a dogma of non-interference in private lives - which admittedly, of course, can save enormous sums of money- is showing ever less compassion for troubled adults, far too little care for troubled children, and entirely lacks the courage to separate children from parents when the relationship is manifestly destructive ." (p xiv) She also asks “When are we going to have the courage to discard the tired principle of the absolute sacredness of family and parental ties? When are we going to allow parents to be free if children they for some reason cannot love, and help children be free of the catastrophic handicap of parents who cannot love them?” ( p259) Sereny believes that things have regressed from 1968 to 1995 in Britain, that our children are living in a more materialistic world, our kids are increasingly living in a moral void.”
We have been provoked lately, to think about good and evil and to think about madness and badness because of Anders Breivik. What can you say of an 11 year old? Would the Justin of my opening (who must now be in his early 30s) recognise my story and laugh? I have taught 3 kids or brothers of kids who have ended up murdering someone. In two out of three cases, they grew up in ‘bad families’. As an adult looking at the home environment, bad outcomes were predictable, but maybe not pre-ordained. What does Mary’s story, fifty years on, mean for us?
For some reason, he did not have the same impact on me (but he hadn’t threatened to kill me either). And we weathered the year together with Justin and I don’t know what happened to him after that because I left that school and so did J (though our departures were not because of Justin but in the natural order of things).
I thought a lot about this time when I was reading The Case of Mary Bell. This relates to the killing of two small boys in England in 1968 by two girls aged 11 and 13. I was prompted to read this book after hearing the author Gitta Sereny speaking with Phillip Adams (http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcas...). They were mostly talking about her later book Cries Unheard (which is about the same case). Sereny was propelled into writing two books about this case because of the ‘bad seed’ argument. She said that she simply didn’t believe that children were born evil – that it had to be events in their childhood which led to their committing evil acts. One of the things that bothered Sereny was that courts did not allow discussion of the background of criminals in the course of the trial – the facts of the case were the only allowable elements (and I think it’s similar here – the background is only relevant in sentencing.)
The Case of Mary Bell follows the events around two killings and the subsequent trial. It also has an additional chapter added twenty years later at the time of the killing of James Bolger. Sereny tries to unpack something of the family background of each of the two young girls charged with murder. While interesting, the fact that we learn so little about the motivations for the crime is frustrating. It means that there is an essential gap in the book that leaves me wondering – and that leaves it wanting.
Through the narrative, Sereny indicates that things were awry in Mary Bell’s family that contributed to her anti-social behaviour. She is coy about what these are and they only emerge on the later book when she has a chance to interview the adult Mary. But she is very critical of the prevailing practices of the state in terms of intervention in the lives of children. She says, writing in a post script in 1995, that there is "still too much ignorance within families about how to live and how to love. And a state which is ruled by a dogma of non-interference in private lives - which admittedly, of course, can save enormous sums of money- is showing ever less compassion for troubled adults, far too little care for troubled children, and entirely lacks the courage to separate children from parents when the relationship is manifestly destructive ." (p xiv) She also asks “When are we going to have the courage to discard the tired principle of the absolute sacredness of family and parental ties? When are we going to allow parents to be free if children they for some reason cannot love, and help children be free of the catastrophic handicap of parents who cannot love them?” ( p259) Sereny believes that things have regressed from 1968 to 1995 in Britain, that our children are living in a more materialistic world, our kids are increasingly living in a moral void.”
We have been provoked lately, to think about good and evil and to think about madness and badness because of Anders Breivik. What can you say of an 11 year old? Would the Justin of my opening (who must now be in his early 30s) recognise my story and laugh? I have taught 3 kids or brothers of kids who have ended up murdering someone. In two out of three cases, they grew up in ‘bad families’. As an adult looking at the home environment, bad outcomes were predictable, but maybe not pre-ordained. What does Mary’s story, fifty years on, mean for us?
October 16, 2019
Interesting book about an interesting case. The author wrote a previous book about Mary, after the trial, and this is a follow-up, which was based on interviews with Mary, now an adult.
I felt the author truly wanted to help society figure out why kids kill, but I'm not sure she accomplished much towards that goal. She was 77 when she wrote this book (1998), she is a journalist - not a psychologist, and was probably not the best qualified to analyse Mary Bell's motives, etc. In fact, I didn't feel that Mary, as an adult herself, had much of an idea about that either. So, the author puts forth her own ideas, bounces them off Mary, and so forth.
But despite its shortcomings, if you are a true crime fan, you'll probably want to read this book - and the author's first book, too. It is a look 'inside' child murderers that we don't often get a chance to see.
3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.
I felt the author truly wanted to help society figure out why kids kill, but I'm not sure she accomplished much towards that goal. She was 77 when she wrote this book (1998), she is a journalist - not a psychologist, and was probably not the best qualified to analyse Mary Bell's motives, etc. In fact, I didn't feel that Mary, as an adult herself, had much of an idea about that either. So, the author puts forth her own ideas, bounces them off Mary, and so forth.
But despite its shortcomings, if you are a true crime fan, you'll probably want to read this book - and the author's first book, too. It is a look 'inside' child murderers that we don't often get a chance to see.
3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.
November 21, 2015
In a broad sense, this is the story of Mary Bell, a child serial killer who before her capture strangled two young boys.
As such the story is somewhat disturbing.
But beyond the story of Mary's crime is also the story of an inept legal justice system that was and, to some extent, still is ill-equipped to deal with children who kill.
When an adult kills, it's much easier to assign blame. Surely, an adult has the ability to distinguish right from wrong, to fully comprehend and appreciate the finality of death, and has sufficient control over their impulses. But a child of eleven? Can even the brightest and most psychologically healthy children really appreciate the permanence of death, understand the difference between right and wrong, and exert the same control over their emotions that we feel an adult should have?
Sereny's book (the second she wrote on Mary Bell's story) addresses the nature of evil and what motivates someone, in this case a child, to murder. It also begs us to consider whether monsters are born or if they are made. And perhaps even more importantly, does one have to be a monster to commit a monstrous crime. It also addresses the inadequacies of a criminal justice system that is set up to deal with adults. She seems to feel that what happened to Mary is almost as horrendous as what happened to her victims.
Some thoughts...
Like many books that tell a murder's story, this book seems overly sympathetic with the killer, at times minimizing the heinousness of the crime and the pain and suffering of the victims and their families. I always feel that this is unfortunate, but ultimately unavoidable.
So while a true crime book, this is much more than a true crime book as the crime really is not the focus (or not the entire focus), although its relevance is central to the discussion.
July 15, 2009
Nonfiction.
In 1968: an eleven year old girl named Mary Bell killed two boys (ages 3 and 4). The courts tried her, found her guilty, put her in jail until she was in her 20's. This book revisits her case years after she was released from jail and tries to figure out why she did it, what her life was like before she committed this crime, and whether she really understood the gravity of what she did at the time. I don't want to give any of it away, but I was so engrossed that I wanted to read the whole thing in one sitting... I couldn't only because it was so overwhelming: at times so depressing, at other times funny and even joyful. I had to take breathers because it was so intense.
I really felt for Mary Bell and totally rooted for her the whole time. The author does a good job of bringing out the various threads of the story. She's compassionate and understanding, but also she makes it clear that none of this is an excuse for the crime itself. She makes the case that when a child commits a horrible crime like this, the court's job is not only to say whether she was guilty of the crime or not, but also to ask why a child would do this? And to help the child psychologically with their problems. A child does not commit a crime like this because they are evil. It is usually a sign of some disturbing realities at home. To ignore this is to make the problem worse.
I found that Mary Bell was (predictably) messed up, but what surprised me was how strong she was as well, and how positively she looked at life despite everything that happened to her. This was a wonderful read.
In 1968: an eleven year old girl named Mary Bell killed two boys (ages 3 and 4). The courts tried her, found her guilty, put her in jail until she was in her 20's. This book revisits her case years after she was released from jail and tries to figure out why she did it, what her life was like before she committed this crime, and whether she really understood the gravity of what she did at the time. I don't want to give any of it away, but I was so engrossed that I wanted to read the whole thing in one sitting... I couldn't only because it was so overwhelming: at times so depressing, at other times funny and even joyful. I had to take breathers because it was so intense.
I really felt for Mary Bell and totally rooted for her the whole time. The author does a good job of bringing out the various threads of the story. She's compassionate and understanding, but also she makes it clear that none of this is an excuse for the crime itself. She makes the case that when a child commits a horrible crime like this, the court's job is not only to say whether she was guilty of the crime or not, but also to ask why a child would do this? And to help the child psychologically with their problems. A child does not commit a crime like this because they are evil. It is usually a sign of some disturbing realities at home. To ignore this is to make the problem worse.
I found that Mary Bell was (predictably) messed up, but what surprised me was how strong she was as well, and how positively she looked at life despite everything that happened to her. This was a wonderful read.
December 15, 2011
I grew up in Newcastle, the city where Mary Bell committed her crimes, in the 1980s and as such was always aware of this case and the "folklore" built up around it in a city that won't forget these awful crimes. As such I was very kean to read "The Case of Mary Bell" to understand more of the truth behind the case and perhaps gain some insight as to how on earth an 11 year old girl comes to murder two innocent little boys. The book has not disappointed me at all.
Sereny has produces a fascinating account of the case. She is an excellent writer and as a consequence the book is very readable and her theories clear and easy to follow. Sereny was present throughout Mary's trial and subsequently visited Mary in her detention centre. She has also talked to the the vast majority of the parties involved in the case, from the police to the families of both perpetrator and victims. Her research was clearly very thorough, her presentation of events is clear and it would seem very accurate.
Sereny's examination of Mary's character and possible motivations is fascinating and she does not attempt to either condemn her as evil or diminish her responsibility for her crimes. Her opinions on Mary and her co-defendent Norma Bell (no relation to Mary) are interesting, well argued and fair. The examination of the relationship between Mary and Norma was in my opinion particularly interesting as it was key to the case. It was fascinating to read how such a young child could so manipulate an older girl and indeed the adults around her for her own ends. At the time this book was originally written, the 1970s, not much was really known about Mary's background, but Sereny has gathered as much information as she could and produces some good reasoning on what made Mary kill as a result. Her family is looked into in depth, at least as much as the family was willing to reveal at the time. The first hand information they provide is very valuable in understanding the whole case. Interviews with those in the community as a whole also provide a fascinating insight into how these crimes affected a whole community for many years and still affects it, I believe, today.
Sereny also discusses the way the justice system treats children who kill and again produces some interesting thoughts on this. While it is clear Sereny has sympathy with Mary and Norma, and does not like the way the system treats such children, her analysis is both fair and constructive. Her examination of the trial process is thorough and I also found it fascinating to see how children are interviewed by the police in such matters.
The book, though written some time ago, is still highly relevant today in our increasingly violent and disillusioned society. In this new edition Sereny has added a short but interesting and thought provoking section on the Bulger case from the 1990s which presents some interesting theories and also shows how little has changed in the years between the two cases, both in society as a whole and the attitude towards such children, and also in the justice system. Indeed it seems little has changed even today and another such killer could well be in the making now. Overall this is an excellent and important text in our modern culture and a must for those interested in true crime and psychology.
Sereny has produces a fascinating account of the case. She is an excellent writer and as a consequence the book is very readable and her theories clear and easy to follow. Sereny was present throughout Mary's trial and subsequently visited Mary in her detention centre. She has also talked to the the vast majority of the parties involved in the case, from the police to the families of both perpetrator and victims. Her research was clearly very thorough, her presentation of events is clear and it would seem very accurate.
Sereny's examination of Mary's character and possible motivations is fascinating and she does not attempt to either condemn her as evil or diminish her responsibility for her crimes. Her opinions on Mary and her co-defendent Norma Bell (no relation to Mary) are interesting, well argued and fair. The examination of the relationship between Mary and Norma was in my opinion particularly interesting as it was key to the case. It was fascinating to read how such a young child could so manipulate an older girl and indeed the adults around her for her own ends. At the time this book was originally written, the 1970s, not much was really known about Mary's background, but Sereny has gathered as much information as she could and produces some good reasoning on what made Mary kill as a result. Her family is looked into in depth, at least as much as the family was willing to reveal at the time. The first hand information they provide is very valuable in understanding the whole case. Interviews with those in the community as a whole also provide a fascinating insight into how these crimes affected a whole community for many years and still affects it, I believe, today.
Sereny also discusses the way the justice system treats children who kill and again produces some interesting thoughts on this. While it is clear Sereny has sympathy with Mary and Norma, and does not like the way the system treats such children, her analysis is both fair and constructive. Her examination of the trial process is thorough and I also found it fascinating to see how children are interviewed by the police in such matters.
The book, though written some time ago, is still highly relevant today in our increasingly violent and disillusioned society. In this new edition Sereny has added a short but interesting and thought provoking section on the Bulger case from the 1990s which presents some interesting theories and also shows how little has changed in the years between the two cases, both in society as a whole and the attitude towards such children, and also in the justice system. Indeed it seems little has changed even today and another such killer could well be in the making now. Overall this is an excellent and important text in our modern culture and a must for those interested in true crime and psychology.
January 15, 2008
This book about child killer, Mary Bell, is one of the saddest true stories I've ever read. Because of my own tragic childhood, I could connect with this poor little girl on a deeper level. It really emphasizes that old saying: There but for the grace of God, go I. Very chilling.
September 17, 2014
Terrible, and dated psychology analysis from the get-go coupled with jumbled and scattered writing. I almost gave it a 1 star, and I did skim the last half because she was so redundant. This author would have produced a better work by writing the long term adult story of Mary Bell in 1/3rd of this length instead of preaching her own bias and rewriting the first book. The second star was for the locale of Newcastle societal information for the late 1960's, especially common family, community neighborhood cultural habits/social structure.
December 27, 2015
Unheard Cries is both problematic and frustrating. Its subject is Mary Bell, who murdered two little boys in 1968, when she was eleven, and who subsequently got dragged through the British justice system in ways that Sereny is quite right to want to protest. My problems with the book are not with that part, or with Sereny's general point that child criminals are very badly served by adult legal systems. My problems are with her discussion of Mary Bell's crimes and what caused them.
Sereny displays a dreadful historical naivete: "The uncertainties of our moral and--yes--spiritual values have caused a fracture in the bulwark of security with which earlier generations protected children from growing up prematurely" (370), which I think contributes to her failure to interrogate the question of classism in Mary Bell's biography as rigorously as she needed to. There are a number of other questions that she doesn't pursue as far as she should (and she irritates me by hinting at things), but the real flaw in the book is the other little girl.
Norma Bell (no relation) was Mary's best friend. She seems to have had nothing to do with the first murder, but everything to do with the second, and I really wanted Sereny to talk about that shift in a meaningful way--even just to talk about the transition for Mary from her first murder (which she committed alone and for which, you could make a pretty good case, she did not have a clear understanding that death was irrevocable) to her second (which she committed with Norma either as a participant or an audience, and which she did know was murder and permanent).
Sereny wants to generalize from Mary Bell to all children who kill (as her nested subtitles suggest), and while I think that's reasonable when talking about their treatment by the justice system (as in, one may safely generalize from Mary Bell's specific case to say that better protocols need to be in place), I'm not convinced that all children come to murder by Mary Bell's path. And I'm not sure that the commonality Sereny wants to argue for (that children who kill are all victims of prolonged and serious abuse) is actually as useful as the obverse difference: why do all child abuse victims not become child murderers? The question may sound glib, but I'm perfectly serious. What enables some people to resist doing evil, while others cannot or do not?
Sereny displays a dreadful historical naivete: "The uncertainties of our moral and--yes--spiritual values have caused a fracture in the bulwark of security with which earlier generations protected children from growing up prematurely" (370), which I think contributes to her failure to interrogate the question of classism in Mary Bell's biography as rigorously as she needed to. There are a number of other questions that she doesn't pursue as far as she should (and she irritates me by hinting at things), but the real flaw in the book is the other little girl.
Norma Bell (no relation) was Mary's best friend. She seems to have had nothing to do with the first murder, but everything to do with the second, and I really wanted Sereny to talk about that shift in a meaningful way--even just to talk about the transition for Mary from her first murder (which she committed alone and for which, you could make a pretty good case, she did not have a clear understanding that death was irrevocable) to her second (which she committed with Norma either as a participant or an audience, and which she did know was murder and permanent).
Sereny wants to generalize from Mary Bell to all children who kill (as her nested subtitles suggest), and while I think that's reasonable when talking about their treatment by the justice system (as in, one may safely generalize from Mary Bell's specific case to say that better protocols need to be in place), I'm not convinced that all children come to murder by Mary Bell's path. And I'm not sure that the commonality Sereny wants to argue for (that children who kill are all victims of prolonged and serious abuse) is actually as useful as the obverse difference: why do all child abuse victims not become child murderers? The question may sound glib, but I'm perfectly serious. What enables some people to resist doing evil, while others cannot or do not?
September 28, 2007
Brilliant examination of a very compelling case. Completely interesting on a great many levels. The book itself because a huge scandal on its serialisation and publication, when it became known that the grown up Mary Bell had received payment for her participation, which was another whole level of remarkableness.
December 13, 2017
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I don't often read or listen to non-fiction, but I find audiobooks are often a good way for me to get through them, as I can listen whilst I do other things like walking, driving etc... I'm really interested in true crime, so this appealed to me, and it's on a case I didn't know much about (somewhat before my time!). It's the case of two little girls, Mary Bell (11) and - no relation, just a neighbour with the same surname - Norma Bell (13), who were both on trial in the 1960's for murdering two young boys. Gitta highlights that this case is also particularly interesting, from a sociological stance, because of the way the jury - and indeed the general public - seemed to place most of the blame on Mary, despite her being the younger of the two.
The book starts with some background information, and then there's a detailed section on the trial itself; this makes up a large portion of the book, and it is indeed very interesting to hear what was said as well as Gitta Sereny's analysis of it. However I wish there had actually been a little less of a play-by-play account of the trial, and more of a breakdown from Gitta on why this evidence or information might have been included in the trial, and what exactly it meant. Still, I enjoyed (or perhaps 'enjoyed' isn't the right word?) listening to the trial and how it played out. The book then concludes with information on Mary's (and Norma, to some extent) lives after the trial, and how the author feels that these tragic murders of two innocent little boys could possibly have been avoided in the first place. In this new edition Gitta also includes information and comparisons to the more recent Jamie Bulger case (which I actually remember hearing about when I was younger) which I found very interesting - though elements of the case are quite disturbing, so be prepared for that!
The audiobook is narrated well, with the two children's strange behaviour relayed to the reader in an intriguing and clear manner, and the way it's written lacks any sensationalism that you might get with other authors. I felt that at times the court scenes could perhaps have been split up a bit, and some parts felt a little uneventful, but I suppose you can't really complain because this IS a true story, after all!
Overall, this is an interesting book which details an shocking and intriguing case. If you're into true crime I think you'll enjoy this one, whether you read the print version or listen to the audiobook.
I don't often read or listen to non-fiction, but I find audiobooks are often a good way for me to get through them, as I can listen whilst I do other things like walking, driving etc... I'm really interested in true crime, so this appealed to me, and it's on a case I didn't know much about (somewhat before my time!). It's the case of two little girls, Mary Bell (11) and - no relation, just a neighbour with the same surname - Norma Bell (13), who were both on trial in the 1960's for murdering two young boys. Gitta highlights that this case is also particularly interesting, from a sociological stance, because of the way the jury - and indeed the general public - seemed to place most of the blame on Mary, despite her being the younger of the two.
The book starts with some background information, and then there's a detailed section on the trial itself; this makes up a large portion of the book, and it is indeed very interesting to hear what was said as well as Gitta Sereny's analysis of it. However I wish there had actually been a little less of a play-by-play account of the trial, and more of a breakdown from Gitta on why this evidence or information might have been included in the trial, and what exactly it meant. Still, I enjoyed (or perhaps 'enjoyed' isn't the right word?) listening to the trial and how it played out. The book then concludes with information on Mary's (and Norma, to some extent) lives after the trial, and how the author feels that these tragic murders of two innocent little boys could possibly have been avoided in the first place. In this new edition Gitta also includes information and comparisons to the more recent Jamie Bulger case (which I actually remember hearing about when I was younger) which I found very interesting - though elements of the case are quite disturbing, so be prepared for that!
The audiobook is narrated well, with the two children's strange behaviour relayed to the reader in an intriguing and clear manner, and the way it's written lacks any sensationalism that you might get with other authors. I felt that at times the court scenes could perhaps have been split up a bit, and some parts felt a little uneventful, but I suppose you can't really complain because this IS a true story, after all!
Overall, this is an interesting book which details an shocking and intriguing case. If you're into true crime I think you'll enjoy this one, whether you read the print version or listen to the audiobook.
April 30, 2014
Cries Unheard... Until it was too late.
When this book was first released, it created a massive controversy over criminals profiting from their crimes in the nation where this story really happened: Britain. I can only surmise that those whom so vigorously felt that way didn't even read the book. Not long ago, I got my hands on a first edition American Version of the book published in 1999 from a thrift store.
This book is the horrific story of tragedy. When a child of barely 11 years old strangles two young boys between the ages of 3-4 the mob mentality kicked in. Everyone rushed to put away the monstrous little girl who could do such vile acts without ever thinking or asking what on earth caused this child to act out in this way? Instead she became a living incarnate of the "Bad Seed". A child simply born evil.
The Book Cries Unheard by Gitta Sereny looks at the entire picture of the phenomenon that is Mary Bell, who is often billed as the world's youngest serial killer. A misnomer if there ever was one since Mary Bell was released in 1980 and has never re-offended in the slightest way while it is a fact true serial murderers are incapable of stopping (often knowing they under police surveillance...or at least suspicion).
This was one of the best books I've ever read on the subject of child murder and child murderers. The author gives us a full biographical account of the child's life into womanhood. In the case of Mary Bell, to know what happened in her young life to lead her to act out the way she did is essential to understanding why and how she ended up killing two young boys. Some children have hellish childhoods and are able to cope. They go on and live reasonably normal lives. When children murder (in the WAY) Mary Bell did, you can't look at a child who doesn't have the capacity to fully understand what it was they did as you would even a child a few years older. We all know maturity and understanding grows in leaps and bounds in those years.
This book was incredible with its indictment on the system. The system failed Mary Bell and through that failed her victims. Starting as a baby she suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of her mother. Her mother Betty had tried to give her away to strangers but refused to allow her more stable family members adopt her. Betty worked as a prostitute from possibly even before Mary was born. She specialized in giving her clients unique 'experiences'. Some of those were her being a dominatrix and forcing her young daughter to have oral sex with her clients. Also allowing her to get beat during these sessions. In fact her mother practiced Erotic Asphyxiation on her clients till they passed out in Mary's presence while also subjecting her to the same strangling that would cause her to lose consciousness. This left Mary with a belief that when you strangle someone to the point of losing consciousness, they will wake up as she had and seen others do countless times!
The end point of this abuse dovetails with what a young girl did, to two boys younger and weaker than herself. It is completely probable that as she strangled these boys she didn't understand she was killing them. She had been subjected to the same strangling where she woke back up. But there is something else that culminated in these murders. A young girl had been acting out for months begging for attention so someone would take her away from her mother. No one noticed until they finally realized she killed two young boys. By that time nobody cared that in the most final and horrific way she was seeking attention to get away! No one labeled her mother what she was: a sexual abuser who prostituted her own daughter, drugged her in the presence of other people by mixing sedatives with her candy, physically abusive! Mary was the bad seed with no one realizing she was reacting to the home she had to grow up in.
None of this absolves of her or excuses her crimes. The child needed to be put into a mental institution to get help for the trauma she was subjected to rather put into a reformatory school till she was 16 that indeed CHANGED her life, making her a better human being (all that needed to be done was for them to take her mother away and replace a stable set of individuals to teach the maturing girl how to behave in society 11-16). But throwing a 16 year old with her trauma into a women's prison was vengeance on behalf of a world that couldn't see Mary Bell wasn't BORN evil, nor inherently evil at all!! In fact she was created. Prison could have totally regressed her. Luckily those years in an also unsuitable Reformatory School taught her how to live correctly as a good person.
So you see this story is controversial for many, many reasons. It cuts open for the world to see what happens when someone like Mary at such a young an age commits the ultimate crime how unprepared we truly are to handle it as a society-- be it Britain or the USA. Something happened to these children to cause them to act this way and we should be exceptionally thankful that the murderous reaction to unbearably inhuman abuse by children is rare (at least while they are STILL children.) These factors are common in the childhoods of real serial killers. But this is why I don't consider Mary a 'serial killer' in the truest sense since true ones are like sharks that can never stop devouring. Mary needed structure, then she needed help to move on with her life. If somehow at 11 years old she had some sort of murderous impulse, it wasn't like what we see with male or female serial killers the world over who lose control of those impulses at some point or another. For Mary, it stopped being an issue once she left the custody of extremely abusive mother.
The book is debated ethically for many reasons. One being Mary Bell was paid for participation. I understand the anger of the victims family's. At the same time it is hard for me personally to see Mary Bell getting paid for her painful, excruciatingly abusive life that culminated in the murders of two young boys as on the level of a callous murderer looking to profit off what he did. There is nothing in common in this book with say Ian Brady's arrogant "Gates of Janus" where he in a Ted Bundy arrogance tries to tell the world who he is as such an incredible expert in serial murder.
Cries Unheard is an astoundingly poignant book that rips open the tragedy that befell everyone involved. In order to understand it, you had to know... you had to have the details from Mary Bell herself. She opened herself to examination is ways few of us would dare even without her past. Yet Mary's story is vitally important for understanding what causes children to kill (and if they grow up without intervention...reveals the personal horrors driving them). Maybe the saddest part of all is in order for Mary to end her abuse, she had to commit soul ripping acts of horror herself to get the attention she had been trying to get for a long time acting out. In fact she may have aggressively, been reenacting the erotic asphyxiation that she witnessed her mother perform on clients and was performed on her.
Mary has grown up into a rather normal woman no doubt to being taken away from her mother's influences (as much as possible, her mother used the press to further her daughters image as evil murder for money while in reformatory and prison--she was never above USING her own child. Especially since no one called her out as the creator, except the author of this book and a book on the case before it). Mary has now become a grandmother! She has never done ANYTHING illegal again (she is on a strict parole for life).
I think before people damn this book they should read it. I found myself aching for two little boys who paid the price for Mary's mothers sins. And maybe for the failure of society to help them all.
The only part of the book that I didn't particularly care for were the author's 'solutions' to this problem of abuse that results in these acts of murder. In her view all children should be given over to the government for raising so parents just can't have the opportunity to commit vile acts of abuse. While it is true no one can really understand what goes on behind their neighbor's closed doors... The answer is not allowing the state to have control. The fact of the matter is most of the time family's love their offspring and make mistakes. You open up the can of worms that an UNLOVING institutional government agency can do better than the majority of parents is not only naive, it's stupid. We have to believe in the sanctity of family. The issue is reporting. In the book the author often sites that lots of people KNEW Mary Bell wasn't being treated well even if they didn't know the full extent. An abusive mother who is a prostitute, I think it's perfectly fine to report that situation to the authorities. Especially when the woman's family closes ranks behind her trying to hide her shortcomings and even abuses. Regardless of how totally niave and unrealistic the author's conclusions are on how to handle children with troubled backgrounds the book is amazing. And more amazing because in the end the young girl, at the center of it all made a recovery into the integration back into society. It will just never cease to hurt ones heart what had to happen for someone to take notice of the tragedy brewing until it was spilling over in the streets of her neighborhood.
When this book was first released, it created a massive controversy over criminals profiting from their crimes in the nation where this story really happened: Britain. I can only surmise that those whom so vigorously felt that way didn't even read the book. Not long ago, I got my hands on a first edition American Version of the book published in 1999 from a thrift store.
This book is the horrific story of tragedy. When a child of barely 11 years old strangles two young boys between the ages of 3-4 the mob mentality kicked in. Everyone rushed to put away the monstrous little girl who could do such vile acts without ever thinking or asking what on earth caused this child to act out in this way? Instead she became a living incarnate of the "Bad Seed". A child simply born evil.
The Book Cries Unheard by Gitta Sereny looks at the entire picture of the phenomenon that is Mary Bell, who is often billed as the world's youngest serial killer. A misnomer if there ever was one since Mary Bell was released in 1980 and has never re-offended in the slightest way while it is a fact true serial murderers are incapable of stopping (often knowing they under police surveillance...or at least suspicion).
This was one of the best books I've ever read on the subject of child murder and child murderers. The author gives us a full biographical account of the child's life into womanhood. In the case of Mary Bell, to know what happened in her young life to lead her to act out the way she did is essential to understanding why and how she ended up killing two young boys. Some children have hellish childhoods and are able to cope. They go on and live reasonably normal lives. When children murder (in the WAY) Mary Bell did, you can't look at a child who doesn't have the capacity to fully understand what it was they did as you would even a child a few years older. We all know maturity and understanding grows in leaps and bounds in those years.
This book was incredible with its indictment on the system. The system failed Mary Bell and through that failed her victims. Starting as a baby she suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of her mother. Her mother Betty had tried to give her away to strangers but refused to allow her more stable family members adopt her. Betty worked as a prostitute from possibly even before Mary was born. She specialized in giving her clients unique 'experiences'. Some of those were her being a dominatrix and forcing her young daughter to have oral sex with her clients. Also allowing her to get beat during these sessions. In fact her mother practiced Erotic Asphyxiation on her clients till they passed out in Mary's presence while also subjecting her to the same strangling that would cause her to lose consciousness. This left Mary with a belief that when you strangle someone to the point of losing consciousness, they will wake up as she had and seen others do countless times!
The end point of this abuse dovetails with what a young girl did, to two boys younger and weaker than herself. It is completely probable that as she strangled these boys she didn't understand she was killing them. She had been subjected to the same strangling where she woke back up. But there is something else that culminated in these murders. A young girl had been acting out for months begging for attention so someone would take her away from her mother. No one noticed until they finally realized she killed two young boys. By that time nobody cared that in the most final and horrific way she was seeking attention to get away! No one labeled her mother what she was: a sexual abuser who prostituted her own daughter, drugged her in the presence of other people by mixing sedatives with her candy, physically abusive! Mary was the bad seed with no one realizing she was reacting to the home she had to grow up in.
None of this absolves of her or excuses her crimes. The child needed to be put into a mental institution to get help for the trauma she was subjected to rather put into a reformatory school till she was 16 that indeed CHANGED her life, making her a better human being (all that needed to be done was for them to take her mother away and replace a stable set of individuals to teach the maturing girl how to behave in society 11-16). But throwing a 16 year old with her trauma into a women's prison was vengeance on behalf of a world that couldn't see Mary Bell wasn't BORN evil, nor inherently evil at all!! In fact she was created. Prison could have totally regressed her. Luckily those years in an also unsuitable Reformatory School taught her how to live correctly as a good person.
So you see this story is controversial for many, many reasons. It cuts open for the world to see what happens when someone like Mary at such a young an age commits the ultimate crime how unprepared we truly are to handle it as a society-- be it Britain or the USA. Something happened to these children to cause them to act this way and we should be exceptionally thankful that the murderous reaction to unbearably inhuman abuse by children is rare (at least while they are STILL children.) These factors are common in the childhoods of real serial killers. But this is why I don't consider Mary a 'serial killer' in the truest sense since true ones are like sharks that can never stop devouring. Mary needed structure, then she needed help to move on with her life. If somehow at 11 years old she had some sort of murderous impulse, it wasn't like what we see with male or female serial killers the world over who lose control of those impulses at some point or another. For Mary, it stopped being an issue once she left the custody of extremely abusive mother.
The book is debated ethically for many reasons. One being Mary Bell was paid for participation. I understand the anger of the victims family's. At the same time it is hard for me personally to see Mary Bell getting paid for her painful, excruciatingly abusive life that culminated in the murders of two young boys as on the level of a callous murderer looking to profit off what he did. There is nothing in common in this book with say Ian Brady's arrogant "Gates of Janus" where he in a Ted Bundy arrogance tries to tell the world who he is as such an incredible expert in serial murder.
Cries Unheard is an astoundingly poignant book that rips open the tragedy that befell everyone involved. In order to understand it, you had to know... you had to have the details from Mary Bell herself. She opened herself to examination is ways few of us would dare even without her past. Yet Mary's story is vitally important for understanding what causes children to kill (and if they grow up without intervention...reveals the personal horrors driving them). Maybe the saddest part of all is in order for Mary to end her abuse, she had to commit soul ripping acts of horror herself to get the attention she had been trying to get for a long time acting out. In fact she may have aggressively, been reenacting the erotic asphyxiation that she witnessed her mother perform on clients and was performed on her.
Mary has grown up into a rather normal woman no doubt to being taken away from her mother's influences (as much as possible, her mother used the press to further her daughters image as evil murder for money while in reformatory and prison--she was never above USING her own child. Especially since no one called her out as the creator, except the author of this book and a book on the case before it). Mary has now become a grandmother! She has never done ANYTHING illegal again (she is on a strict parole for life).
I think before people damn this book they should read it. I found myself aching for two little boys who paid the price for Mary's mothers sins. And maybe for the failure of society to help them all.
The only part of the book that I didn't particularly care for were the author's 'solutions' to this problem of abuse that results in these acts of murder. In her view all children should be given over to the government for raising so parents just can't have the opportunity to commit vile acts of abuse. While it is true no one can really understand what goes on behind their neighbor's closed doors... The answer is not allowing the state to have control. The fact of the matter is most of the time family's love their offspring and make mistakes. You open up the can of worms that an UNLOVING institutional government agency can do better than the majority of parents is not only naive, it's stupid. We have to believe in the sanctity of family. The issue is reporting. In the book the author often sites that lots of people KNEW Mary Bell wasn't being treated well even if they didn't know the full extent. An abusive mother who is a prostitute, I think it's perfectly fine to report that situation to the authorities. Especially when the woman's family closes ranks behind her trying to hide her shortcomings and even abuses. Regardless of how totally niave and unrealistic the author's conclusions are on how to handle children with troubled backgrounds the book is amazing. And more amazing because in the end the young girl, at the center of it all made a recovery into the integration back into society. It will just never cease to hurt ones heart what had to happen for someone to take notice of the tragedy brewing until it was spilling over in the streets of her neighborhood.
January 30, 2012
Anyone who's familiar with the cult classic film The Bad Seed will at least partially recognize the story of Mary Bell, who was the inspiration for the movie. Mary Bell, an 11 year old at the time, and her 14 year old friend Norma Bell (no relation) were accused of killing two toddlers in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Norma Bell was eventually acquitted and Mary Bell convicted of manslaughter in both cases. The author was present for the entire trial and was able to interview many of the people involved, and what I appreciate most about this book is that nothing is ever simplified. The press loved to call Mary a "Bad Seed," a "Monster," and "an Evil Birth," but the author refuses to present things so one-dimensionally. She, very successfully I think, tries to have compassion for a troubled girl who really should have been recognized as a possible danger and in need of help long before the murders were ever committed, without failing to acknowledge the horror of two dead little boys. It's a complicated and kind of depressing story, but very interesting if you're looking for non-sensationalistic true crime.
November 29, 2023
Partendo dal presupposto che un omicidio è tale anche se commesso da una bambina di undici anni, è giusto che la pena da applicare sia la stessa di un adulto?
Ci sono stati dei segnali che hanno preceduto questo reato? Se si, perché non si è provveduto ad aiutare il minore?
È sempre giusto lasciare i figli con i genitori anche se quest'ultimi sono completamente disinteressati ai loro bambini?
Questo libro non racconta solo di tre omicidi, ma cerca di individuarne i motivi, dato che gli assassini non ne avevano, e di portare il lettore a riflettere sull'adeguatezza dei metodi di prevenzione/cura/reclusione/reinserimento dei bambini che compiono questi atti.
Ci sono stati dei segnali che hanno preceduto questo reato? Se si, perché non si è provveduto ad aiutare il minore?
È sempre giusto lasciare i figli con i genitori anche se quest'ultimi sono completamente disinteressati ai loro bambini?
Questo libro non racconta solo di tre omicidi, ma cerca di individuarne i motivi, dato che gli assassini non ne avevano, e di portare il lettore a riflettere sull'adeguatezza dei metodi di prevenzione/cura/reclusione/reinserimento dei bambini che compiono questi atti.
September 9, 2010
This was truly disturbing. Not only the fact that she killed the two boys, which is integral to the book, but not what the book is about. The book is about what led up to her killing the boys [after all, what would drive a child to kill an unknown toddler?] and what happened to her afterwards. At what age do children become criminally responsible - which means they are tried in an adult court. In Scotland, it's as young as 8. How is a child that young supposed to understand why it's there and what's going on? If the child's only contact with a psychologist is a brief meeting where they decide whether or not the child can tell right from seriously wrong, how can they possibly make any judgements on the child? How can they convict one child as guilty and another as not-guilty simply because the one has a loving family and the other doesn't?
One would hope that since Mary Bell was convicted in 1968 that the system had radically changed with new, progressive knowledge. At the time this book was published [1999] it hadn't. After all - who cares about the people [adults and children] that aren't happy and whole. If they're damaged, just push them away and ignore them... Like I said, this is a very distubring book. I never realised that there are actually people who completely deny the existence of paedophilia. If you're squeamish, don't read it. It's not particularly gruesome or gory, but I couldn't put it down and every time I did [even when I finished it] I was miserable and depressed about the state of the world and wanted nothing more than to hide in the bed and cry.
One would hope that since Mary Bell was convicted in 1968 that the system had radically changed with new, progressive knowledge. At the time this book was published [1999] it hadn't. After all - who cares about the people [adults and children] that aren't happy and whole. If they're damaged, just push them away and ignore them... Like I said, this is a very distubring book. I never realised that there are actually people who completely deny the existence of paedophilia. If you're squeamish, don't read it. It's not particularly gruesome or gory, but I couldn't put it down and every time I did [even when I finished it] I was miserable and depressed about the state of the world and wanted nothing more than to hide in the bed and cry.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2024
La sensazione di assenza emotiva di Mary rende agghiacciante tutta la narrazione, che a mio avviso ha un picco nella descrizione del processo.
Norma Bell, a differenza di Mary, sembra completamente aliena alle circostanze, nonostante abbia assistito e non solo a scene di morte infantile raccapriccianti.
La fedeltà con la quale viene raccontato l’accaduto e le conseguenze che hanno colpito le Bell lascia al lettore un’angoscia tremenda.
Consiglio solo a chi non teme di immergersi in questo tipo di storie così forti.
:)
Norma Bell, a differenza di Mary, sembra completamente aliena alle circostanze, nonostante abbia assistito e non solo a scene di morte infantile raccapriccianti.
La fedeltà con la quale viene raccontato l’accaduto e le conseguenze che hanno colpito le Bell lascia al lettore un’angoscia tremenda.
Consiglio solo a chi non teme di immergersi in questo tipo di storie così forti.
:)
January 22, 2012
I first have to confess that I love true-crime, the more disturbing the better, though I do demand a certain level of literary-ness. This one seemed to fit the bill. But this is one of those books that you keep reading and hoping it will get better. It did not. Now I just feel annoyed at how much time I wasted. It was really just a book about prison life.
May 31, 2017
This book was endlessly fascinating from a psych perspective. Mary is clearly a sociopath but her descriptions and memories are from a traumatized child's point of view. If you enjoy psychological true crime, this is a must.
February 2, 2019
Un analisi molto precisa e dettagliata,correlata da riflessioni profonde sul sistema giudiziario moderno. Consiglio vivamente
June 27, 2021
Desesperador
August 29, 2025
molto ben scritto, dettagliato.
analisi ambientale e familiare di Mary Bell.
analisi sociopolitica dell'Inghilterra anni '60.
analisi ambientale e familiare di Mary Bell.
analisi sociopolitica dell'Inghilterra anni '60.
June 9, 2020
A história é muito interessante. A leitura vale para aqueles que gostam de histórias reais, crimes e psicologia. Contudo, não gostei da abordagem e forma de escrita da autora. Achei a redação confusa e a forma que ela apresenta as lembranças de Mary Bell um pouco bagunçada. Além disso, percebi alguns erros na tradução do livro.
June 17, 2021
‘Er zijn veel mensen in onze maatschappij die een kind als Mary een ‘monster’ noemen en daarmee zowel het kind verdoemen als zichzelf vrijpleiten van verantwoordelijkheid voor hun lot. Als het verhaal van Mary al een doel heeft, dan is het dat het veranderen van die opvatting, het veranderen van de toekomst - voor al onze kinderen.’
December 3, 2020
Um livro brutal e honesto, que traz uma investigação profunda, de anos, para tentar nos ajudar a entender o motivo de crianças cometerem crimes como assassinatos. Apesar do tema pesado, a narrativa fluida da história torna esse livro impossível de parar de ler.
July 21, 2020
Cries Unheard tells the story of Mary Bell, a girl who was only eleven years old when she was convicted of murdering two boys - aged 3 and 4. Most of my knowledge about Mary Bell comes from my grandmother who lived in the same area as Bell at the time of her crimes and knew both Bell and the victims families. The other knowledge comes from one TV documentary and the small amount of information about the case which is on the internet. Due to the locality of the case, I'm always wanting to learn more about it and this seems to be the most comprehensive book available about Bell. I have also been told that this book caused quite the stir in my hometown of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
This is the second book that Gitta Sereny has written about Mary Bell, the first being The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child who Murdered, which is referenced throughout this one.
Quite honestly, the first book seems referenced a little too much - despite thankfully including all necessary information to the case and even including some excerpts. I did briefly consider reading the first book but in all honesty, after reading this one, I don't feel the need to - it doesn't seem like there's much more to learn. The book contains a lot of information about Mary Bell both before, during and, mostly, after her conviction which was good - I felt like we got a good insight into all aspects of her life. The book did have a good amount of information and I am glad I read it as I did find it interesting and I learnt a lot about Mary's life, the murders, the court trial and what happened afterwards. I am fairly confident I now have a good firm knowledge of the case, but of course, I can't be sure that everything that I read was true. I am pleased that there were conversations with more reputable sources mentioned in the book - such as Bell's psychologist and mentors - which I am much more inclined to believe.
This is somewhat of a biography of Bell, written by Sereny but interspersed with direct quotes from conversations with Bell after her release. The purely factual parts of the book and the information about Newcastle in the late 60's seems accurate and interesting. I think Sereny did a great job of setting the scene of the murders in the first half of the book and was especially good at describing what working class life in Scotswood was like. The first section of the book was a useful, informative account of the crime.
In the second half of the book, it was certainly interesting to get insight about Mary and her life from the woman herself, to see how she communicates and thinks, but the problem about that is that she seems to be a prolific liar - something that is made clear in the book and can actually become quite frustrating. We read pages and pages of Bell's recollections, only for them to often then be quickly disproven by people that have been responsible for her care. It was very hard to understand what to believe about Mary and to be honest, the author didn't help. Despite her brief protestations, I also often felt like she seemed overly sympathetic to Bell and had been somewhat 'drawn in' by her. Sereny offers a lot of opinions on Bell's psychological state, none of which seem significant due to the sense of bias and the fact that Sereny is purely a journalist - not a psychiatrist, psychologist or criminologist.
My main issue with this book was that, at points, it felt very disjointed. Although there is some sort of intended chronology in the book, the author has a tendency to jump around the timescale. I was particularly bewildered as to why Sereny decided to address Bell's early life at the end of the book - it would have made far more sense to include it at the beginning and it would've really helped to develop an understanding of Mary's actions and personality. I actually believe that I may have seen the whole situation in a different perspective if she had included that information at the beginning.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with several aspects of Cries Unheard but as aforementioned, I did also find it interesting and gained a lot of knowledge about Mary Bell and her life so far - I am glad that I read it despite its faults. If you're particularly interested in this case or are interested in what happens after a child is convicted of murder in the UK, this is worth a read.
This is the second book that Gitta Sereny has written about Mary Bell, the first being The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child who Murdered, which is referenced throughout this one.
Quite honestly, the first book seems referenced a little too much - despite thankfully including all necessary information to the case and even including some excerpts. I did briefly consider reading the first book but in all honesty, after reading this one, I don't feel the need to - it doesn't seem like there's much more to learn. The book contains a lot of information about Mary Bell both before, during and, mostly, after her conviction which was good - I felt like we got a good insight into all aspects of her life. The book did have a good amount of information and I am glad I read it as I did find it interesting and I learnt a lot about Mary's life, the murders, the court trial and what happened afterwards. I am fairly confident I now have a good firm knowledge of the case, but of course, I can't be sure that everything that I read was true. I am pleased that there were conversations with more reputable sources mentioned in the book - such as Bell's psychologist and mentors - which I am much more inclined to believe.
This is somewhat of a biography of Bell, written by Sereny but interspersed with direct quotes from conversations with Bell after her release. The purely factual parts of the book and the information about Newcastle in the late 60's seems accurate and interesting. I think Sereny did a great job of setting the scene of the murders in the first half of the book and was especially good at describing what working class life in Scotswood was like. The first section of the book was a useful, informative account of the crime.
In the second half of the book, it was certainly interesting to get insight about Mary and her life from the woman herself, to see how she communicates and thinks, but the problem about that is that she seems to be a prolific liar - something that is made clear in the book and can actually become quite frustrating. We read pages and pages of Bell's recollections, only for them to often then be quickly disproven by people that have been responsible for her care. It was very hard to understand what to believe about Mary and to be honest, the author didn't help. Despite her brief protestations, I also often felt like she seemed overly sympathetic to Bell and had been somewhat 'drawn in' by her. Sereny offers a lot of opinions on Bell's psychological state, none of which seem significant due to the sense of bias and the fact that Sereny is purely a journalist - not a psychiatrist, psychologist or criminologist.
My main issue with this book was that, at points, it felt very disjointed. Although there is some sort of intended chronology in the book, the author has a tendency to jump around the timescale. I was particularly bewildered as to why Sereny decided to address Bell's early life at the end of the book - it would have made far more sense to include it at the beginning and it would've really helped to develop an understanding of Mary's actions and personality. I actually believe that I may have seen the whole situation in a different perspective if she had included that information at the beginning.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with several aspects of Cries Unheard but as aforementioned, I did also find it interesting and gained a lot of knowledge about Mary Bell and her life so far - I am glad that I read it despite its faults. If you're particularly interested in this case or are interested in what happens after a child is convicted of murder in the UK, this is worth a read.
September 30, 2018
This book is actually a two hander, the first (and major) section deals with the killing of two toddlers by schoolgirl Mary Bell in 1968. Sereny, in her formal, school headmistress tone, dissects the killings and, rather than plaster bland and cheap sentiments onto Bell (and her friend Norma Bell, who played a lesser part in the killings, perhaps acting as an enabler) Seveny takes a microscopic look at Mary's formative years and her dreadful upbringing.
The murders are gone over in some detail, as is the subsequent trial but Seveny steps in to fill the void that others wouldn't or couldn't, by looking at the family life of Mary.
So, rather than the worn trope of 'monster' or 'born evil' Seveny actually humanises the girl and perhaps explains part of the reason why she ended up as she did. No doubt the masses want easily digestible answers and are happy with tabloid level indignation but, as always, these sad incidents are the end of a long and sad road, these killers do not commit their crimes without some precursor or lead-in.
The background is intensely interesting, Mary's mother had huge issues after her father died when she was young and she became a seeker of sensation, disappearing for weeks, months and sometimes a year at a time to play out other lives in distant towns. Mary learnt, from a young age to manipulate and connive, she was a very bright girl whose upbringing led her leanings and energies towards darker thoughts. On four occasions during her young years, Mary's mother almost killed Mary, through neglect, indifference or manifest action. The most disturbing episode narrated concerned her mother holding Mary over a sink in an upstairs flat to urinate and the child falling from an open window, her life was only saved when a male relative bound across the kitchen to grab her as she was upside and pitching out of the window. Small wonder, then, that Mary was never destined to become a stable child from a secure home.
The reactions recorded by the multitude of police officers (invariably women in those days) who looked after Mary before and during were also interesting. Some of the officers utterly despised her and others found her very endearing. It seemed that she prompted outpourings of affection in many who knew her but some people felt they were being tricked into giving this affection and they seemed to dislike Mary because of it.
Depressingly, Seveny's revisit of this book came at the tale end of the Bulger killing, 25 years later and, one would hope, a more enlightened world. But, no, the problems plaguing Mary and her family seem to be no less formidable and intense than those facing families at the tail end of the millenium.
Seveny is a very erudite writer and brings a social work perspective on these crimes. This makes for an engaging read as the insights she offers are arresting in their clarity. To quote:
"Unhappiness in children is never innate, it is created by the adults they 'belong to': there are adults
in all classes of society who are immature, confused, inadequate, sick, and, under given and
unfortunate circumstances, their children will reflect, reproduce and often pay for the miseries of
the adults they need and love. Children are not evil."
This book is a very worthwhile read.
The murders are gone over in some detail, as is the subsequent trial but Seveny steps in to fill the void that others wouldn't or couldn't, by looking at the family life of Mary.
So, rather than the worn trope of 'monster' or 'born evil' Seveny actually humanises the girl and perhaps explains part of the reason why she ended up as she did. No doubt the masses want easily digestible answers and are happy with tabloid level indignation but, as always, these sad incidents are the end of a long and sad road, these killers do not commit their crimes without some precursor or lead-in.
The background is intensely interesting, Mary's mother had huge issues after her father died when she was young and she became a seeker of sensation, disappearing for weeks, months and sometimes a year at a time to play out other lives in distant towns. Mary learnt, from a young age to manipulate and connive, she was a very bright girl whose upbringing led her leanings and energies towards darker thoughts. On four occasions during her young years, Mary's mother almost killed Mary, through neglect, indifference or manifest action. The most disturbing episode narrated concerned her mother holding Mary over a sink in an upstairs flat to urinate and the child falling from an open window, her life was only saved when a male relative bound across the kitchen to grab her as she was upside and pitching out of the window. Small wonder, then, that Mary was never destined to become a stable child from a secure home.
The reactions recorded by the multitude of police officers (invariably women in those days) who looked after Mary before and during were also interesting. Some of the officers utterly despised her and others found her very endearing. It seemed that she prompted outpourings of affection in many who knew her but some people felt they were being tricked into giving this affection and they seemed to dislike Mary because of it.
Depressingly, Seveny's revisit of this book came at the tale end of the Bulger killing, 25 years later and, one would hope, a more enlightened world. But, no, the problems plaguing Mary and her family seem to be no less formidable and intense than those facing families at the tail end of the millenium.
Seveny is a very erudite writer and brings a social work perspective on these crimes. This makes for an engaging read as the insights she offers are arresting in their clarity. To quote:
"Unhappiness in children is never innate, it is created by the adults they 'belong to': there are adults
in all classes of society who are immature, confused, inadequate, sick, and, under given and
unfortunate circumstances, their children will reflect, reproduce and often pay for the miseries of
the adults they need and love. Children are not evil."
This book is a very worthwhile read.
March 15, 2020
December 1968. two girls aged eleven and thirteen are accused of strangling two little boys - four-year-old Martin Brown and three-year-old Brian Howe. The oldest girl, Norma, is acquitted, but the younger and more advanced Mary Bell, is found guilty of manslaughter. Investigative journalist Gitta Sereny tells the story of this terrible crime, charting the background, lead-up to the murders, the trial and the aftermath.
I like to think I remember this case, though at the time, I would only have been about seven years old. However, with the murders occurring only a few miles from my hometown, the case was one of those that sticks in my memory. Gita Sereny digs into the background of the families involved, highlighting the social and familial influences on Mary Bell and her parents. In detailed scenes including police reports, witness statements and court documents, the author unpicks the minutiae of Bell’s life, especially the influence of the mother, whose personal history and actions following the court case, shine an intriguing light on the case.
What is most interesting, is the difference in the way crimes of this type are handled now, and how those involved are dealt with. At the time, suitable custodial arrangements did not exist for very young children, and the authorities found themselves in a difficult position in finding a suitable ‘prison’ for Mary.
More than fifty years on, the name Mary Bell still evokes strong feelings, but what comes across most clearly in this book is the hopelessness of Mary’s situation and, perhaps, the inevitability of such tragic events.
Included with this edition, is Sereny’s account of the James Bulger murder and the police investigation.
A troubling and thoughtful book that harks back to a time when the concept of a child killing another child was unheard of in this country.
I like to think I remember this case, though at the time, I would only have been about seven years old. However, with the murders occurring only a few miles from my hometown, the case was one of those that sticks in my memory. Gita Sereny digs into the background of the families involved, highlighting the social and familial influences on Mary Bell and her parents. In detailed scenes including police reports, witness statements and court documents, the author unpicks the minutiae of Bell’s life, especially the influence of the mother, whose personal history and actions following the court case, shine an intriguing light on the case.
What is most interesting, is the difference in the way crimes of this type are handled now, and how those involved are dealt with. At the time, suitable custodial arrangements did not exist for very young children, and the authorities found themselves in a difficult position in finding a suitable ‘prison’ for Mary.
More than fifty years on, the name Mary Bell still evokes strong feelings, but what comes across most clearly in this book is the hopelessness of Mary’s situation and, perhaps, the inevitability of such tragic events.
Included with this edition, is Sereny’s account of the James Bulger murder and the police investigation.
A troubling and thoughtful book that harks back to a time when the concept of a child killing another child was unheard of in this country.
Want to read
July 27, 2010From Reading Matters: Gitta Sereny is an Austrian-born British-based journalist who has spent much of her career writing about moral culpability. She wrote an amazingly detailed but completely fascinating biography about Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, and a similar one about Franz Stangl, the commandent of the Treblinka extermination camp. But it is this book about Mary Bell, an 11-year-old who was tried and convicted of manslaughter of two young boys in the late 1960s, that sticks in my mind more than any other.
Sereny followed the case from the very beginning, including the trial and subsequent imprisonment of Bell, and was always puzzled as to the girl's motivations: what drives a young girl to carry out such horrendous acts? In 1995 she managed to convince Bell to be interviewed, and the book is a result of a year's collaboration in which Sereny manages to unearth some startling revelations.
While Sereny attracted some flak for sharing the proceeds of the book's publishing fee with Bell, this does not take away from the importance of Cries Unheard. It is a profoundly thought-provoking look at the ways in which we treat child criminals and should be read by anyone who cares for children or works with them -- in other words, all of us. I am utterly convinced that even the most hardened right-wing reader will no longer rush to cast judgement about child crime once they've read Bell's incredibly sad story.
Sereny followed the case from the very beginning, including the trial and subsequent imprisonment of Bell, and was always puzzled as to the girl's motivations: what drives a young girl to carry out such horrendous acts? In 1995 she managed to convince Bell to be interviewed, and the book is a result of a year's collaboration in which Sereny manages to unearth some startling revelations.
While Sereny attracted some flak for sharing the proceeds of the book's publishing fee with Bell, this does not take away from the importance of Cries Unheard. It is a profoundly thought-provoking look at the ways in which we treat child criminals and should be read by anyone who cares for children or works with them -- in other words, all of us. I am utterly convinced that even the most hardened right-wing reader will no longer rush to cast judgement about child crime once they've read Bell's incredibly sad story.
August 31, 2024
An in-depth look into the life of a child killer, reflecting on both her childhood and the impact of growing up in jail. It fails, however, at achieving what it announces to be its goal: to investigate the reasons why children might kill and the inadequacies of the judiciary system in these cases. These are only properly looked at in the final chapter and most of the conclusions are personal opinions by the author, who never even bothers to submit them to an evaluation by (or to ask the opinions of) experts in the area. Still, a worthy read if you’re interested in the life of Mary Bell.
February 21, 2008
This is a really hard book to read due to the content. I picked it up with the intention of reading something that I disagreed with to see if it could sway my opinion. It did. Obviously I don't glorify children who kill by any means, but it does shed light on the other side of the story. This book broke my heart but it was so intriguing that I read it in one night.
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