Mary Flora Bell scribe Gitta Sereny dead at 91

[wfgodot]

First of all, the journalist and author Gitta Sereny should be known and valued because of the many books she wrote - not just the two which link to the heinous '60s Mary Flora Bell case: The Case of Mary Bell (1972) and Cries Unheard (1998). Second: do we really lack a thread regarding the crimes of Mary Bell (Wiki) - who was convicted of manslaughter, committed between the ages of ten and eleven, of two small boys (ages four and three) in 1968 - here at WS? Perhaps I'm missing something.

Veteran journalist Gitta Sereny dies age 91 (Independent)

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Although much of her work concerned the Third Reich, Ms Sereny became perhaps best known for her investigations into Mary Bell, who served 12 years’ imprisonment for the manslaughter of two young boys in the late 1960s when she was aged between ten and 11.

An acclaimed study by Ms Sereny at the time of the killings was followed in 1998 by a second book, Cries Unheard, which became highly controversial after it emerged that the author had shared her publishing fee with Ms Bell, by then a mother-of-one who had been granted an anonymity order.

In a letter to the mother of one of Bell’s victims, Ms Sereny, who used the book to explain for the first time the child killer’s account of the abuse she herself suffered, said her purpose had been “not to re-live these terrible crimes, but to find some understanding of how they could happen.”
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more, with a picture, at link above

She was a favorite and she will be missed.

[badhorsie]

Mary Bell's name has come up in many threads, I remember posting about hervery recently but you are right Wfgodot, I cannot find a thread dedicated to her.

I found Cries Unheard painful to read but it was a brilliant, hopeful book. Now living undercover with her own child, Mary Bell seems to have moved on from her shocking crimes. I must find some more of Gita Sereny's writings

[wfgodot]

Yes, checked - could have sworn I'd seen one, must have dreamt it; it's come down to this: dreaming of non-existent WS threads on English child killers of the 1960s, lol. Yikes, help!

[wfgodot]

Excellent Guardian obituary.

[STANDREID]

Originally Posted by wfgodot

Yes, checked - could have sworn I'd seen one, must have dreamt it; it's come down to this: dreaming of non-existent WS threads on English child killers of the 1960s, lol. Yikes, help!

I did bring Bell up on the JtR 123 thread here about 6 weeks ago regarding solo female mutilation serial killers and you commented there about her. That's all I know anything about.

[wfgodot]

Originally Posted by STANDREID

I did bring Bell up on the JtR 123 thread here about 6 weeks ago regarding solo female mutilation serial killers and you commented there about her. That's all I know anything about.

Aha! Thanks, STANDREID - that undoubtedly was what I was thinking of - or trying to think of.

[LadyL]

I could've sworn we had a thread about her too. Hmmm.

[Robin Hood]

Fred Dinenage has a new series on the box at the moment, last nights episode was on Mary Bell.
Found this on Youtube, worth watching.

the mary bell case 1/5 - YouTube

the mary bell case 1/5 - YouTube