Aidan's Reviews > Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell

Where to even begin with this? The story of Mary Bell's life is so unspeakably tragic that it's difficult for me to put into words. I first heard of her when I was a teenager; heard that she had killed two little boys, had later asked to see the first one in his coffin, and that she had carved her initials into the second victim's skin. But Mary's story, as Gitta Sereny shows, did not begin with these slayings, and it certainly did not end there. Sereny, who covered Mary's trial along with the co-accused child (who would later walk free), sensed that beneath the surface, this "bad seed" was a tremendously troubled, and probably abused, child. She has compiled 30 years of court and medical records and conducted extensive interviews with Mary and nearly everyone else of relevance to her life: family, friends, psychiatrists, parole officers, lawyers, to get the answer to the reason WHY Mary had been compelled to kill and how she rebuilt her life when she was eventually released after 12 years of detention. It comforts me to know that as much as Mary suffered, she now lives as normal a life as possible with her partner and her child, to whom she has always been a doting and supportive mother. Sereny ends Mary's tragic story with recommendations for trying and housing children who kill, with the outcome of rehabilitating them rather than slamming the cell door closed on them forever. This is entirely horrifying and fascinating, a story of redemption and a cautionary tale.