December 16, 2024 • 12 mins
Prepare yourself for a chilling exploration into the unsettling story of Mary Bell, the young girl whose childhood was anything but innocent. As we unravel the haunting tale from the late 1960s, you’ll discover unsettling revelations about Mary’s upbringing in the heart of Newcastle's Scotswood. With a sex worker mother and a criminal father, Mary’s formative years were a perfect storm of neglect and abuse. Joined by Scott Bradfield, the insightful author of The History of Luminous Motion, we navigate through a time when the innocence of childhood collided with unimaginable darkness.
Our journey takes us through the summer of 1968, painting an evocative portrait of a community forever changed by the tragic deaths of two young boys. Learn about Martin Brown, whose life was tragically cut short, and how his untimely death became the linchpin for suspicion and investigation. Set against the backdrop of an era when children roamed freely, unaware of lurking dangers, this episode promises a compelling look at the complex intersection of innocence and malevolence. Join us as we piece together the grim narrative of Mary Bell’s early years, examining the societal norms and failures that culminated in a trial that shocked the nation.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In 1969, britain was stunned by the grim murders of
two little boys.
They were even more stunned todiscover that the killer was
just an 11-year-old girl, maryBell.
Childhood is not a gloriousthing.
Childhood does not comfort orinstruct.
Childhood isolates people.
Sometimes children makemistakes which they regret later
(00:20):
in their lives.
Scott Bradfield, the History ofLuminous Motion, welcome to
this episode of Human Wreckage.
(00:46):
This episode we talk about.
11-year-old Mary Bell had stoodtrial at Newcastle Assizes for
the murder of two young boys andwas now facing the first of
(01:07):
many Christmases without herfamily.
In the summer of 1968, twoyoung children had died in the
Scotswood area of Newcastle.
The first had been assumed tobe an accident, but when another
body was found three monthslater, the police began to have
their suspicions.
Mary Bell lived on White HouseRoad, having moved there from
the notorious Westmoreland Road.
(01:27):
It was what might now be termeda deprived area, with high
unemployment, alcoholism, wifebeating, child beating and all
the usual symptoms ofhopelessness that these places
are synonymous with.
Mary lived with her sex workermother Betty and petty criminal
father Billy in a house that waspart crypt, part decompression
chamber.
What little furniture they hadwas old and wrecked.
(01:49):
The curtains were always partlydrawn, even in the height of
summer.
It was a vampire's lair insideof which the dead of spirit
lurked.
Betty had had Mary when she was16 years old, and family
members would later recall thatwhen Mary was a toddler, betty
had tried to kill her and passit off as an accident.
Her biological father wasunknown, but dad to Mary was
(02:12):
Billy Bell, the man who'dmarried her mother and who would
look after her while Bettytraveled north to work the more
lucrative streets of Glasgow.
Billy Bell would eventually besent down for armed robbery, but
with Mary he was a gentle soul,in sharp contrast to Betty, who
beat her daughter andprostituted her out to clients.
Norma Bell, of no relation, wastwo years older than Mary.
(02:32):
Her family moved to White HouseRoad in the spring of 1967,
soon after which Normabefriended the younger girl.
Mary had grown up in anenvironment where crime was
simply a given aspect of dailyexistence, like breathing or
pissing.
It was what people did.
Norma herself was a fighter,pouring her frustrations out
through her fists in theplayground.
(02:53):
The two girls bonded throughhate for what they could barely
put into words, but whatever itwas, they were going to express
it somehow that the 25th of May1968 was the last day of Martin
Brown's short life.
Martin was four years and twomonths old.
He lived with his family in atwo-story terraced house at 140
St Margaret's Road in Scotswood.
(03:14):
He lived and played in the samearea as the now 11-year-old
Mary Bell.
He shared the same experiencesof Davies Shop, the sand pit at
the Woodlands Crescent, nursery,the railway embankment, hodkin
Park and the Tin Lizzy.
He lived there and he diedthere.
It was a Saturday and it wastradition for his parents to
sleep in on those mornings.
(03:35):
Martin had given his babysister her breakfast of bread
and milk and then dressed herbefore feeding himself.
Afterwards he grabbed hisanorak and went out to play.
I'm away, ma'am, were the lastwords his mother ever heard him
say.
In those days, communities andareas like Scotswood were
close-knit.
Everyone knew everyone else,and the tabloid invoked specter
(03:56):
of the pedophile had yet tooverrule the common sense of the
parents who were happy to seetheir children as young as three
or four years old running loosein the streets.
But that's how it was then.
Martin spent his day reboundingthrough the area, scabbing a
biscuit off some workmen fromthe electricity board as they
worked on the derelict houses,knocking in and out of folks'
houses.
Mid-afternoon, about threeo'clock, martin came home to get
(04:19):
some money off his dad prior toa lollipop raid on Davies' shop
.
A half hour later, martin wasdead.
Some lads chumping for wood inthe derelict houses on St
Margaret's Road found him in theback bedroom at Nome 85.
The floor was strewn withrubble and some empty pill
bottles.
In the posture of Jesus deposedfrom the cross, martin lay on
(04:40):
his back, his arms outstretched,blood on his mouth.
There were no other injuries,no signs of a struggle, and
after the ambulance man hadfailed to revive him, it was
assumed he had been the victimof an accident.
On the 26th of May, the dayafter Martin was found dead,
there was a break-in at thelocal nursery.
The vandals left behindscrawled notes that only made
(05:01):
sense later.
Amongst the angry scrawl was anemphatic warning to the world
Fuck off, we murder.
And the puzzling explanation Imurder so that I may come back.
Police dismissed the incidentas a prank.
The 31st of July 1968, nineweeks later, the schools had
broken up and high summer hungover the city.
(05:22):
Brian Howe, three years and fourmonths old, lived on White
House Road, the other majorresidential street in Scottswood
.
He shared number 64 with hisfather and his siblings,
together with Lassie the dog.
That afternoon he was seenplaying in the street with
Lassie in tow, but when tea timerolled around and he still
hadn't returned home, his familywent out looking for him.
(05:43):
They asked for him at DaviesShop, at the Vickers Armstrong
Car Park where kids would knockabout, and then back up to Tin
Lizzy and on to Hodkin Park.
He was nowhere to be found.
That night the heat of the daylingered and families stayed up
late, some helping the police tosearch for Brian.
Just after 11 pm the policefound him on the tin lizzie laid
(06:04):
under a blanket of grass andweeds.
Unlike Martin Brown, it wasclear how Brian had died from
the bruises and scratches aroundhis neck.
He also had scratches on hisface and blood on his mouth.
Close to the body lay an oldpair of scissors, with one blade
broken in the other.
Later they would find out whatthose scissors had been used for
.
Detective Chief Constable JamesDobson was the first to harbor
(06:27):
suspicions about Mary Bell, thelittle girl who lived down the
lane.
Let us say I sensed there wassomething terribly wrong.
He said Dobson had beeninvolved in the Martin Brown
case just a few weeks earlier,and his instincts were stirred
when he arrived at the Tin Lizzyearly on the morning of the 1st
(06:48):
of August.
The murder scene was harshlylit.
Police working the site weresolemn, respectful.
The night air was filled withthe clank of trains shunting
down the nearby tracks.
Initially they were looking fora non-see, already putting out
the feelers for known orsuspected kitty diddlers in the
area.
The pathologist at the scenedecided Brian Howe had been
strangled, not stabbed.
Between 3.30 to 4.30 pm theprevious afternoon he noted
(07:11):
pressure marks around the boy'sneck and across his nose.
He had been choked andsmothered carefully,
deliberately, tenderly.
There were six small stabwounds on his thighs and legs
and a small patch of skin hasbeen cut from his scrotum.
Dobson recognized no signs ofanger in these injuries.
There was a terribleplayfulness about it, a terrible
gentleness, if you like, andsomehow the playfulness of it
(07:34):
made it more rather than lessterrifying.
Dobson had seen how Mary Bellhad reacted.
On the morning of Brian House'sfuneral, mary Bell was standing
in front of the house house whenthe coffin was brought out.
I was, of course, watching herand it was when I saw her there
that I knew I did not dare riskanother day.
She stood there laughing,laughing and rubbing her hands.
(07:55):
I thought my God, I've got tobring her in.
She'll do another one.
Norma and Mary Bell werearrested that afternoon.
Their statements would gothrough several desperate
revisions on the part of bothgirls until on Sunday, the 4th
of August, norma spilled herguts.
She told them Mary had takenher down to 10 Lizzy to show her
Brian's body.
(08:16):
She claimed to have trippedover his head.
She claimed to have trippedover his head.
When she was taken back to thescene by police, she assumed the
position on the ground thatBrian had been found in, proving
she had seen the body.
She even showed them where Maryhad hidden the razor blade that
she had used.
Regina V, mary Flora Bell andNorma Joyce Bell took place at
Newcastle Assizes, held in theMoot Hall.
(08:37):
The trial lasted nine days.
Both girls were utterly bemusedby the proceedings.
Wearing cotton dresses, whitesocks and buff shoes, they would
sometimes laugh at theridiculousness of it all the
wigs, the strange language, theexaggerated solemnity.
The laughter, far from anexpression of callous
indifference, was a venting offear.
Norma, throughout the trial,quivered with terror, cheeks
(09:01):
perpetually wet with tears,forever looking to her parents
for reassurance.
Mary, reliant on her olddefense mechanisms in the face
of horror, appeared detached,not bored, but somehow
disengaged from the space-time,occupied by the barristers and
the jury and everyone elsepresent, and yet always
seemingly alert to the moment,watching the movement of arms
and jowls.
(09:21):
With her ethereally blue eyesshe disturbed.
Every adult charged with hercare during the proceedings gave
them the willies.
Mary didn't understand theimplication of what might happen
to her if she were found guilty, but she did know what would
happen to her if she got off,and that prospect filled her
with abject terror because sheknew that when she got home her
mother would beat her to death.
(09:42):
The age of criminalresponsibility in England and
Wales is 10 years old, betweenthe ages of 10 to 13,.
Children are considered doliand capax.
That is incapable of criminalintent.
Nevertheless, this was a murdertrial.
But in the end, after all thecontradictory statements and the
confused recollections, itnever was made clear just what
had happened that summer.
(10:02):
But the jury decided to acquitNorma and that Mary was in a
state of diminishedresponsibility and charged with
two counts of manslaughter.
Before the trial, the girls hadbeen on remand for four months.
Norma had been underpsychiatric observation in the
children's wing ofPrudhoe-Moncton Hospital, mary
had been sent to a remand homein Seaham, codurum, where she
(10:24):
was surrounded by older girls,some as old as 18, who were awed
by the enormity of the smallgirl's crime and act.
So far beyond the own patheticepisodes of rebellion,
throughout the 1970s, she washoused in a young offenders
institution, the sole girlamongst 22 older boys, while her
mother sold salacious storiesto the tabloids.
In 1977, she escaped and wenton a three-day runner, during
(10:48):
which time she finally lost hervirginity.
In 1979, her name made thepaper again when she briefly
absconded from Moore Court OpenPrison, though within a year she
was out on parole anyway,having served 12 years.
There was no public furorstirred up by the media and Mary
Bell, under a new name, wasgranted anonymity.
In 1984, she gave birth to adaughter who only discovered the
(11:11):
dark secret of her mother'spast when the tabloids swooped
in and they had to leave theirhouse with sheets over their
heads.
Since then, they've been forcedto move home several times
until the courts finally decreedthat Mary Bell's daughter
should also have anonymity forlife.
Thanks again for joining me onthis episode, a Really Messed Up
Case.
Tell me what you think in thecomments.
(11:31):
If you like what I do, pleaselike and subscribe.
Till next time, take care ofyourselves.
Thank you, you.
In 1969, britain was stunned by the grim murders of
two little boys.
They were even more stunned todiscover that the killer was
just an 11-year-old girl, maryBell.
Childhood is not a gloriousthing.
Childhood does not comfort orinstruct.
Childhood isolates people.
Sometimes children makemistakes which they regret later
(00:20):
in their lives.
Scott Bradfield, the History ofLuminous Motion, welcome to
this episode of Human Wreckage.
(00:46):
This episode we talk about.
11-year-old Mary Bell had stoodtrial at Newcastle Assizes for
the murder of two young boys andwas now facing the first of
(01:07):
many Christmases without herfamily.
In the summer of 1968, twoyoung children had died in the
Scotswood area of Newcastle.
The first had been assumed tobe an accident, but when another
body was found three monthslater, the police began to have
their suspicions.
Mary Bell lived on White HouseRoad, having moved there from
the notorious Westmoreland Road.
(01:27):
It was what might now be termeda deprived area, with high
unemployment, alcoholism, wifebeating, child beating and all
the usual symptoms ofhopelessness that these places
are synonymous with.
Mary lived with her sex workermother Betty and petty criminal
father Billy in a house that waspart crypt, part decompression
chamber.
What little furniture they hadwas old and wrecked.
(01:49):
The curtains were always partlydrawn, even in the height of
summer.
It was a vampire's lair insideof which the dead of spirit
lurked.
Betty had had Mary when she was16 years old, and family
members would later recall thatwhen Mary was a toddler, betty
had tried to kill her and passit off as an accident.
Her biological father wasunknown, but dad to Mary was
(02:12):
Billy Bell, the man who'dmarried her mother and who would
look after her while Bettytraveled north to work the more
lucrative streets of Glasgow.
Billy Bell would eventually besent down for armed robbery, but
with Mary he was a gentle soul,in sharp contrast to Betty, who
beat her daughter andprostituted her out to clients.
Norma Bell, of no relation, wastwo years older than Mary.
(02:32):
Her family moved to White HouseRoad in the spring of 1967,
soon after which Normabefriended the younger girl.
Mary had grown up in anenvironment where crime was
simply a given aspect of dailyexistence, like breathing or
pissing.
It was what people did.
Norma herself was a fighter,pouring her frustrations out
through her fists in theplayground.
(02:53):
The two girls bonded throughhate for what they could barely
put into words, but whatever itwas, they were going to express
it somehow that the 25th of May1968 was the last day of Martin
Brown's short life.
Martin was four years and twomonths old.
He lived with his family in atwo-story terraced house at 140
St Margaret's Road in Scotswood.
(03:14):
He lived and played in the samearea as the now 11-year-old
Mary Bell.
He shared the same experiencesof Davies Shop, the sand pit at
the Woodlands Crescent, nursery,the railway embankment, hodkin
Park and the Tin Lizzy.
He lived there and he diedthere.
It was a Saturday and it wastradition for his parents to
sleep in on those mornings.
(03:35):
Martin had given his babysister her breakfast of bread
and milk and then dressed herbefore feeding himself.
Afterwards he grabbed hisanorak and went out to play.
I'm away, ma'am, were the lastwords his mother ever heard him
say.
In those days, communities andareas like Scotswood were
close-knit.
Everyone knew everyone else,and the tabloid invoked specter
(03:56):
of the pedophile had yet tooverrule the common sense of the
parents who were happy to seetheir children as young as three
or four years old running loosein the streets.
But that's how it was then.
Martin spent his day reboundingthrough the area, scabbing a
biscuit off some workmen fromthe electricity board as they
worked on the derelict houses,knocking in and out of folks'
houses.
Mid-afternoon, about threeo'clock, martin came home to get
(04:19):
some money off his dad prior toa lollipop raid on Davies' shop
.
A half hour later, martin wasdead.
Some lads chumping for wood inthe derelict houses on St
Margaret's Road found him in theback bedroom at Nome 85.
The floor was strewn withrubble and some empty pill
bottles.
In the posture of Jesus deposedfrom the cross, martin lay on
(04:40):
his back, his arms outstretched,blood on his mouth.
There were no other injuries,no signs of a struggle, and
after the ambulance man hadfailed to revive him, it was
assumed he had been the victimof an accident.
On the 26th of May, the dayafter Martin was found dead,
there was a break-in at thelocal nursery.
The vandals left behindscrawled notes that only made
(05:01):
sense later.
Amongst the angry scrawl was anemphatic warning to the world
Fuck off, we murder.
And the puzzling explanation Imurder so that I may come back.
Police dismissed the incidentas a prank.
The 31st of July 1968, nineweeks later, the schools had
broken up and high summer hungover the city.
(05:22):
Brian Howe, three years and fourmonths old, lived on White
House Road, the other majorresidential street in Scottswood
.
He shared number 64 with hisfather and his siblings,
together with Lassie the dog.
That afternoon he was seenplaying in the street with
Lassie in tow, but when tea timerolled around and he still
hadn't returned home, his familywent out looking for him.
(05:43):
They asked for him at DaviesShop, at the Vickers Armstrong
Car Park where kids would knockabout, and then back up to Tin
Lizzy and on to Hodkin Park.
He was nowhere to be found.
That night the heat of the daylingered and families stayed up
late, some helping the police tosearch for Brian.
Just after 11 pm the policefound him on the tin lizzie laid
(06:04):
under a blanket of grass andweeds.
Unlike Martin Brown, it wasclear how Brian had died from
the bruises and scratches aroundhis neck.
He also had scratches on hisface and blood on his mouth.
Close to the body lay an oldpair of scissors, with one blade
broken in the other.
Later they would find out whatthose scissors had been used for
.
Detective Chief Constable JamesDobson was the first to harbor
(06:27):
suspicions about Mary Bell, thelittle girl who lived down the
lane.
Let us say I sensed there wassomething terribly wrong.
He said Dobson had beeninvolved in the Martin Brown
case just a few weeks earlier,and his instincts were stirred
when he arrived at the Tin Lizzyearly on the morning of the 1st
(06:48):
of August.
The murder scene was harshlylit.
Police working the site weresolemn, respectful.
The night air was filled withthe clank of trains shunting
down the nearby tracks.
Initially they were looking fora non-see, already putting out
the feelers for known orsuspected kitty diddlers in the
area.
The pathologist at the scenedecided Brian Howe had been
strangled, not stabbed.
Between 3.30 to 4.30 pm theprevious afternoon he noted
(07:11):
pressure marks around the boy'sneck and across his nose.
He had been choked andsmothered carefully,
deliberately, tenderly.
There were six small stabwounds on his thighs and legs
and a small patch of skin hasbeen cut from his scrotum.
Dobson recognized no signs ofanger in these injuries.
There was a terribleplayfulness about it, a terrible
gentleness, if you like, andsomehow the playfulness of it
(07:34):
made it more rather than lessterrifying.
Dobson had seen how Mary Bellhad reacted.
On the morning of Brian House'sfuneral, mary Bell was standing
in front of the house house whenthe coffin was brought out.
I was, of course, watching herand it was when I saw her there
that I knew I did not dare riskanother day.
She stood there laughing,laughing and rubbing her hands.
(07:55):
I thought my God, I've got tobring her in.
She'll do another one.
Norma and Mary Bell werearrested that afternoon.
Their statements would gothrough several desperate
revisions on the part of bothgirls until on Sunday, the 4th
of August, norma spilled herguts.
She told them Mary had takenher down to 10 Lizzy to show her
Brian's body.
(08:16):
She claimed to have trippedover his head.
She claimed to have trippedover his head.
When she was taken back to thescene by police, she assumed the
position on the ground thatBrian had been found in, proving
she had seen the body.
She even showed them where Maryhad hidden the razor blade that
she had used.
Regina V, mary Flora Bell andNorma Joyce Bell took place at
Newcastle Assizes, held in theMoot Hall.
(08:37):
The trial lasted nine days.
Both girls were utterly bemusedby the proceedings.
Wearing cotton dresses, whitesocks and buff shoes, they would
sometimes laugh at theridiculousness of it all the
wigs, the strange language, theexaggerated solemnity.
The laughter, far from anexpression of callous
indifference, was a venting offear.
Norma, throughout the trial,quivered with terror, cheeks
(09:01):
perpetually wet with tears,forever looking to her parents
for reassurance.
Mary, reliant on her olddefense mechanisms in the face
of horror, appeared detached,not bored, but somehow
disengaged from the space-time,occupied by the barristers and
the jury and everyone elsepresent, and yet always
seemingly alert to the moment,watching the movement of arms
and jowls.
(09:21):
With her ethereally blue eyesshe disturbed.
Every adult charged with hercare during the proceedings gave
them the willies.
Mary didn't understand theimplication of what might happen
to her if she were found guilty, but she did know what would
happen to her if she got off,and that prospect filled her
with abject terror because sheknew that when she got home her
mother would beat her to death.
(09:42):
The age of criminalresponsibility in England and
Wales is 10 years old, betweenthe ages of 10 to 13,.
Children are considered doliand capax.
That is incapable of criminalintent.
Nevertheless, this was a murdertrial.
But in the end, after all thecontradictory statements and the
confused recollections, itnever was made clear just what
had happened that summer.
(10:02):
But the jury decided to acquitNorma and that Mary was in a
state of diminishedresponsibility and charged with
two counts of manslaughter.
Before the trial, the girls hadbeen on remand for four months.
Norma had been underpsychiatric observation in the
children's wing ofPrudhoe-Moncton Hospital, mary
had been sent to a remand homein Seaham, codurum, where she
(10:24):
was surrounded by older girls,some as old as 18, who were awed
by the enormity of the smallgirl's crime and act.
So far beyond the own patheticepisodes of rebellion,
throughout the 1970s, she washoused in a young offenders
institution, the sole girlamongst 22 older boys, while her
mother sold salacious storiesto the tabloids.
In 1977, she escaped and wenton a three-day runner, during
(10:48):
which time she finally lost hervirginity.
In 1979, her name made thepaper again when she briefly
absconded from Moore Court OpenPrison, though within a year she
was out on parole anyway,having served 12 years.
There was no public furorstirred up by the media and Mary
Bell, under a new name, wasgranted anonymity.
In 1984, she gave birth to adaughter who only discovered the
(11:11):
dark secret of her mother'spast when the tabloids swooped
in and they had to leave theirhouse with sheets over their
heads.
Since then, they've been forcedto move home several times
until the courts finally decreedthat Mary Bell's daughter
should also have anonymity forlife.
Thanks again for joining me onthis episode, a Really Messed Up
Case.
Tell me what you think in thecomments.
(11:31):
If you like what I do, pleaselike and subscribe.
Till next time, take care ofyourselves.
Thank you, you.
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