An interesting observation draws parallel to the Mary Bell case (11yo female serial killer in the UK) and Nannie Doss ( American serial killer responsible for the deaths of 11 people between 1927 and 1954).
Despite the obvious evidence of abuse suffered during the offenders’ childhood, a less talked about viewpoint is that they both suffered head injury.
Mary Bell was dropped from 1st floor window by her mother at the age of around three (1960).
Here is my reply to a reddit discussion regarding this matter:
I immediately thought of this when I read about her early life but it's so rarely talked about - head trauma causing personality change: anxiety, anger, irritability, impulsive and risky behaviour - due to damages to the frontal lobe that controls morality and reasoning.
Personality change in post Traumatic Brain Injury occurs in 59.1% of patients
(reference needs to be checked)
A recent example I've heard of is Nannie Dose case where she was involved in a car accident in her childhood where she hit her head on a metal bar resulting many years of headaches, blackouts, depression (again, reference to be checked)
In addition to the physical injury that may have caused a “change” in personality or characteristics, it’s not to be missed that both offenders have excelling people skills. Mary Bell was described as an “intellegent, mannipulative” psychopathic child by psychiatrist Dr. Orton; whereas Nannie Doss masked her dark side behind a warm smile and friendly personality as she silently kill everyone around her (including her own blood).
Mary Bell was released at the age of 23 on account of good behaviour serving her life sentence in an institution, had a daughter and later granddaughter living under alias and jurisditory protection. If she was truely a mannipulative child psychopath, could she have really been “re-educated” back to a normal life? Was there ever suspicions of coersion where she could have mannipulated her parol staff? What are the measures in place to keep track of her on-going good conduct for the rest of her life?
Myers, W.C. (2004). Serial murder by children and adolescents. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 22, 357–374.