Mary Flora Bell was born in 1957 in an impoverished slum area in the West End of Newcastle. Her home life was a nightmare of extreme abuse and deprivation. Her mother Betty McCrickett was a mentally unstable alcoholic prostitute. Mary Bell murdered two preschool-age boys in 1968. In both instances she informed her victim he had a sore throat, which she would massage before proceeding to strangle him.—Ulf Kjell Gür
