Famous Cases of Crime

Ever wondered what a ten year old girl is capable of? Did it ever cross ur mind that a ten year old girl could say, " I just like to hurt people" and they really did it? But what this girl did, was far worse than just hitting another, she killed two innocent lives at the age of ten and not only did she kill them, she carved an initial on one of the victim's body and shaved the three year old kid bald just because she thinks its fun. That was what Mary Bell, who was ten in 1968 did to Brian Howe and Martin Brown.



The story goes like this:



Brian Howe's sister, Pat was looking for him as it was already late and Brian had not yet arrived home. Mary had an accomplice, so she claimed, called Norma who was her best friend, both of them volunteered to help Pat locate her missing brother when they know exactly where Brian's body was laying. When Pat wanted to look near a pile of concrete blocks, she was told by Norma that Brian never goes there to play so why bother searching. At 11.10 at night, the Newcastle Police found Brian's body covered with grass and purple weeds, he had been strangled. A pair of broken scissors was also found in the pile of grass, there were punture marks in Brian's thighs, clumps of his hair were cut away and his genitals were partly skinned.



An investigation was carried out to identify the culprit for kids between the age of three and fifteen and among these investigated children, the two that stood out the most suspiciously were Mary and Norma, her best friend. When interrogated, Mary suddenly 'remembered' that she saw an eight year old boy with Brian before Brian went missing. But the funny thing here is this, she described the scissors at the crime of the scene, which was supposed to be confidential, almost perfectly. The scissors had one blade that was a bit bent. When Brian Howe was buried on the seventh of August, Inspector Dobson saw what frightened him the most and what made him sure that he should take Mary into custody, Mary was laughing when she was looking at Brian Howe's coffin. He had to take immediate action before she took another life.



When both of them were questioned, they were blaming each other for the murder. Norma gave her statement that Mary was the one who was responsible for it and actually enjoyed doing so as she ran her fingers on Brian's lips when it turned purple after she strangled him whereas, Mary did not want to give a statement because Inspector Dobson had got on to something when he was questioning Mary and Mary gave contradicting answers.

Mary later then decided to give her statement. She said that Norma was the one who was responsible for Brian Howe's death. Stating that she couldnt even kill a bird by the neck or anything, how could she kill a person. Mary claimed that Norma had asked Brian to follow them to the pile of concrete blocks and had asked him to lie down and later put her hands to his neck and strangled him to death, go home and take a pair of scissor and a shaver to shave Brian's head bald. All of this had some partial truths but Inspector Dobson knew that Mary was attempting to blame Norma for the murder, he then charged both of them for the murder of Brian Howe. Norma was outraged whereas Mary was composed.

Now, investigators look to Martin Brown's mysterious death as a homicide. On May 11, 1968, a three year old boy was found near some empty sheds near a pub, the poor boy's body was found by both Mary and Norma. He was Mary's cousin and it was claimed that Martin had 'fallen' off a ledge but Mary would later admit to having him pushed off the edge. Mary has also been known as a ' show off ' and will always say, " I am a murderer!" and she would be laughed at, no one realised that her actions were actually warning signs to her murder.

Martin's death was further rubbed in to the family when Mary and Norma would go to Martin's aunt house and ask questions like, " do you miss him? Do you cry for him? Does June (Martin's mother) miss him? " and all the while they were grinning when they asked these questions. there was one day when Mary came and asked June, " can i see Martin? " she was told that Martin was dead and Mary replied, " I know Martin's dead, I wanna see him in his coffin. " June shut the door in Mary's face. Mary also clebrated her eleventh birthday by strangling Norma's younger sister but was stopped by Norma's father.

Murderous messages were found in a Day Nursery which was also vandalised by Mary and Norma because to them it was fun. In Mary's notebook, there was a page that illustrated perfectly how Martin's body was found, there was a bottle with pills coming out and it was illustrated in the notebook, but that evidence was never revealed to public. This aroused suspicion.

Story cut short, they were caught and put in jail before their trial. During the trial, they blamed each other for the murders but in the end Mary was found to be guilty and since she had a psychological illness she was not sentenced to death but to life imprisonment while Norma was put on probation only because she broked into the Nursery to vandalise it. During the trial, Mary's mother, who was a prostitute, was being dramatic about it all while Mary's father, a thief, kept a calm look. Mary was sent to an all boy's prison, when she was transferred to an all girl's prison, she became a lesbian. she managed to escape and got pregnant. She was released at the age of twenty three and being a more reponsible person because of her daughter.

Well this is the story of Mary Bell. We wrote on this story because it is not always that you hear a story of a ten year old girl being responsible for the death of two babies.

10A05,
Rasyidah
Rochelle
Mubasysyir

Munich Massacre

By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guide

Historical Importance/Significance of the Munich Massacre:

The Munich Massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic Games. Eight Palestinian terrorists killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and then took nine others hostage. The situation was ended by a huge gunfight that left five of the terrorists and all of the nine hostages dead. Following the massacre, the Israeli government organized a retaliation against Black September, called Operation Wrath of God. Such an attack encouraged terrorist groups to form and later became a threat worldwide in the 21st Century.

Dates: September 5, 1972
Also Known As: 1972 Olympics Massacre

Overview of the Munich Massacre:
The XXth Olympic Games were held in Munich, Germany in 1972. Tensions were high at these Olympics, because they were the first Olympic Games held in Germany since the Nazis hosted the Games in 1936. The Israeli athletes and their trainers were especially nervous; many had family members who had been murdered during the Holocaust or were themselves Holocaust survivors.

The first few days of the Olympic Games went smoothly. On September 4, the Israeli team spent the evening out to see the play, Fiddler on the Roof, and then went back to the Olympic Village to sleep. A little after 4 a.m. on September 5, as the Israeli athletes slept, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Black September, jumped over the six-foot high fence that encircled the Olympic Village.

The terrorists headed straight for 31 Connollystrasse, the building where the Israeli contingent was staying. Around 4:30 a.m., the terrorists entered the building. They rounded up the occupants of apartment 1 and then apartment 3. Several of the Israelis fought back; two of them were killed. A couple of others were able to escape out windows. Nine were taken hostage.

By 5:10 a.m., the police had been alerted and news of the attack had begun to spread around the world. The terrorists then dropped a list of their demands out the window; they wanted 234 prisoners released from Israeli prisons and two from German prisons by 9 a.m.

Negotiators were able to extend the deadline to noon, then 1 p.m., then 3 p.m., then 5 p.m.; however, the terrorists refused to back down on their demands and Israel refused to release the prisoners. A confrontation became inevitable.

At 5 p.m., the terrorists realized that their demands were not going to be met. They asked for two planes to fly both the terrorists and the hostages to Cairo, Egypt, hoping a new locale would help get their demands met. The German officials agreed, but realized that they could not let the terrorists leave Germany. Desperate to end the standoff, the Germans organized Operation Sunshine, which was a plan to storm the apartment building. The terrorists discovered the plan by watching television. The Germans then planned to attack the terrorists on their way to the airport, but again the terrorists found out their plans.

Around 10:30 p.m., the terrorists and hostages were transported to the Fürstenfeldbruck airport by helicopter. The Germans had decided to confront the terrorists at the airport and had snipers waiting for them. Once on the ground, the terrorists realized there was a trap. Snipers started shooting at them and they shot back. Two terrorists and one policeman were killed. Then a stalemate developed. The Germans requested armored cars and waited for over an hour for them to arrive.

When the armored cars arrived, the terrorists knew the end had come. One of the terrorists jumped into a helicopter and shot four of the hostages, then threw in a grenade. Another terrorist hopped into the other helicopter and used his machine gun to kill the remaining five hostages. The snipers and armored cars killed three more terrorists in this second round of gunfire. Three terrorists survived the attack and were taken into custody.

Less than two months later, the three remaining terrorists were released by the German government after two other Black September members hijacked a plane and threatened to blow it up unless the three were released.