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Category Serial Killers
Mary Bell
In late 1960’s England, one of the most unusual murder cases came to light. One that would shock the nation and raise many questions.
On May 25th May 1968, the body of 4 year old Martin Brown was found dead from asphyxiation in an abandoned home in a rough neighbourhood of Newcastle. There were no suspects to be found. 2 months later another toddler was found asphyxiated on Newcastle waste ground. This time 3 year old Brian Howe. He had been strangled and mutilated, with an M carved into his chest and his penis cut off. The police knew they had a serial killer on their hands and launched a large scale investigation that involved interviewing 1,200 children. Two of the children interviewed were of interest to the police due to the answers they gave being suspicious. The two girls were 11 and 13 year old, Mary Bell and Normal Bell, who although they shared a surname, were unrelated beyond friendship.
The girls eventually broke down during interrogation and turned on each other, both claiming that the other had squeezed the child’s neck until they stopped moving. Mary claimed that Norma had made the cuts to the body. On August 5th 1968, both girls were put under arrest. Mary’s response to this was ‘That’s alright by me’.
During the trial both girls reacted very differently to the proceedings. Norma appeared overwhelmed and confused whereas Mary was extremely confident and self possessed. After 9 days of evidence Norma was found not guilty, whereas Mary was found guilty of killing the boys. However, due to her young age it was impossible for her to be tried for murder and was thus sentenced to life for manslaughter. She spent 8 years in a young offenders institute followed by 4 years in an open prison before being released with a new identity in 1980. Mary Bell became the first person in British history to be awarded a lifetime anonymity order. This meant that she was provided with a new name and a life away from the public eye. This order was also given to her daughter to allow her a peaceful life. Mary moved to the USA, settled down with a husband and had children, outside of the release of her tell-all book in 1998, she’s managed to stay out of the public eye.
The question remains in what leads an 11 year child to commit two murders. While it’s impossible to ever say for sure, if we look at Mary’s upbringing, we can begin to see some contributing factors.
Mary Bell was born in 1957 to mentally unstable 17 year old prostitute, Betty Bell. Betty took an instant disliking to her daughter and began abusing the child from a very early age. There were at least several attempts on Mary’s life at her mothers hands. One attempt involved Mary managing to get hold of a container of bleach and another where Mary took an overdose of sleeping pills as a toddler. Betty Bell claimed that it was purely an accident, however an eye-witness claims to have seen her giving Mary the tablets as sweets. The most vindictive murder attempt came when Betty Bell pushed her daughter from a window. Mary suffered severe head trauma during the fall and sustained damage to her pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain used in voluntary movements and decision making. Mary has also claimed that from the age of 4, her mother would pimp her out to clients to engage in sexual acts with them. So while it’s never okay to provide someone with an excuse for a crime, especially not for the murder of children. It is important to look at where the criminal came from and what may have led them down the path in the hopes of preventing a similar tragedy happening in the future.
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The Euthanasia Coaster
Julijonas Urbonas, a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London aimed to design a method for euthanasia that would take lives with elegance and euphoria. Urbonas was inspired by a man named John Allen who stated that the ultimate Roller Coaster is one that sends out 24 people and they all come back dead.
So this is what Urbonas tried to create. He created a model of the coaster which would start by taking passangers up a steep raise to the 510 meter or 1,670 feet top. This would take two minutes which Urbonas felt was time for the passengers to have one final thought on if this was really something that they wished to proceed with. Upon reaching the top the coaster would stop and allow anyone that wished to exit the chance to do so. The coaster would then proceed down a 500 meter or 1,600 foot drop reaching speeds of 360 kph or 220 mph. The track would then flatten out before the 24 passengers were sent through 7 loops, with each consecutive loop getting smaller and smaller. By going through smaller loops the train would not lose it’s velocity and maintain a constant 10g to passengers, a lethal amount. With one final turn the train would return to the station so that the 24 corpses could be removed and replaced with 24 more passengers.
So how does the coaster kill? The Euthanasia Coaster kills through cerebral hypoxia or insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain. Riders would suffer through a gray out followed by tunnel vision. Eventually passengers would suffer a black out and ultimately g-LOC which is a g-force induced loss of consciousness. The entire ride would take 3 minutes and 20 seconds to complete a circuit.
The Euthanasia coaster was never built and probably will never be built. However it serves as an interesting look at the science of the human body and an impressive potential method for euthanasia.
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