Is a Young Child Serial Killer Born Bad?

While researching cases for Pretty Evil New England, I stumbled across the bizarre case of America’s youngest male serial killer. Later, I searched for a female child serial killer and found an even younger girl.

Below are my top two stories, one male, one female.

Male Child Serial Killer

(Deemed as America’s Youngest Serial Killer)

From 1871-1872, reports of missing children flooded the South Boston Police Department in Massachusetts. Mothers feared the worst.

Fathers suffered in silence.

On December 22, 1871, a 12-year-old boy lured the tiny son of Mrs. Paine of Chelsea to Powder Horn Hill, near Boston, where he stripped the boy, tied him to a beam, and beat him till he lost consciousness.

A few months later, on February 21, 1872, the tweenager coaxed little Tracy Hayden (male) to the same place. The boy matched Mrs. Paine’s description. This time, he stripped Tracy, tortured him in a similar manner, and slammed him in the face with a board, breaking Tracy’s nose, knocking out several teeth.

On a hot Fourth of July in 1872, this same mysterious youth enticed a boy named Johnny Balch to Powder Horn Hill, as well, where he tortured his victim in a similar manner—beat and bludgeoned with nearby objects. But when Johnny regained enough strength to crawl to his feet, the murderous child forced him to walk to a nearby saltwater creek where he washed Johnny’s wounds in the water. A brief display of remorse?

The following September, this mysterious child persuaded a young tot named Robert Gould to the Hartford and Erie Railroad track, where he tied Robert to a telegraph pole, stripped him, and beat him in the head with a knife.

A few days later, little Harry Austin crossed paths with the angry boy in South Boston—stripped, bound, and punctured with pins till he lost consciousness.

Notice the escalation? This young boy was experimenting.

The sixth child to fall victim to this stranger was a boy named George Pratt. He enticed George into the cabin of a yacht docked in South Boston, where he stripped, beat, and stabbed George in the groin with a penknife.

Within a week the dastardly youth inveigled Joseph Kennedy to a secluded section of Old Colony Road in South Boston, where he tortured him in the same way as George Pratt.

All seven victims survived, and pointed the finger at 12-year-old Jesse Harding Pomeroy, who lived with his widowed mother, a poor dressmaker.

Because of his age, authorities whisked Jesse to West Borough Reform School till he reached maturity. But the school had an out-clause. If the boys showed exemplary behavior, the school board presumed the good conduct would continue after release. Thus, they released Jesse on February 6, 1874.

Big mistake.

Jesse’s demons reached an all-new high. In reform school he learned a dead witness couldn’t identify him.

On March 8, 1874, John Curran sent an urgent message to police: His ten-year-old daughter disappeared! An eyewitness said the little girl climbed into a buggy with a strange man. Since the little girl was pretty and well-developed, authorities suspected a rapist.

The stranger wasn’t a man. Jesse was up to old tricks again.

A month later, on April 22, a bystander found the body of a four-year-old boy named Horace Mullen in a marsh near Dorchester, a suburb of Boston. Someone viciously mutilated the corpse, including near-decapitation. The coroner counted 31 stab wounds to the head and torso. Shoeprints through the mud led to Horace’s remains. Police casted each print and noticed the killer created an unusual track pattern—the same way Jesse planted his foot.

When the police found Jesse, his shoes were covered in marsh mud. He also had a knife in his pocket, with blood traces near the handle but not on the blade.

Rather than drag Jesse to the station, they escorted him to the room where Horace’s body lay.

Officer: Do you know this boy?

Jesse: Yes, sir.

Officer: Did you kill him?

Jesse: I suppose I did.

Officer: How did you get the blood off the knife?

Jesse: I stuck it in the mud.

A psychological exam confirmed Jesse’s sanity but also found he’d derived immense pleasure from torturing others. The reason he’d chosen these particular children was because he could physically overpower them.

Meanwhile, in July of the same year, Mrs. Pomeroy’s landlord sold the property where she and Jesse lived. The new owner eagerly dove into home improvement projects. When laborers excavated the cellar, they found the badly decomposed remains of a little girl buried beneath a pile of ash and stone. Police escorted Mr. and Mrs. Curran to view the remains, and while her features were horribly unrecognizable, they identified their daughter’s clothing.

Jesse confessed to murdering the little girl.

On December 10, 1874, a jury convicted Jesse of the two coldblooded murders and sentenced him to hang. His real body count is estimated to be 8-10. Nonetheless, Governor Gaston refused to sign a death warrant for a 14-year-old. His successor, Governor Rice, couldn’t do it either. So instead, a nine-member Council committee commuted Jesse’s sentence to life in solitary confinement.

Think about that for a second. Death would be a kinder sentence than life in the hole.

Alone.

Forever.

Books, his only companions.

After 40 years in solitary confinement, Jesse crawled out of the hole in 1917 and into general population where he earned the nickname “Grandpa.” That’s the second longest solitary confinement in U.S. history, second only to the Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud.

By 1929, Jesse was an old man in frail health, so the prison transferred him to Bridgewater Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he died on September 29, 1932.

Female Child Serial Killer

The story of Mary Flora Bell is a horrific tale.

In 1968 Britain, a month after her 11^th birthday, little Mary had already strangled two young boys to death. But violence was hardly foreign to Mary—pain and death were her constant companions since birth.

Betty Bell, her mother, was a 16-year-old prostitute who told the doctor, “Take that thing away from me” after giving birth. Mary’s life spiraled downhill from there. For much of Mary’s early years, Betty would take “business” trips to Glasgow, but this time away turned into a respite for Mary, who was constantly abused—mentally and physically—by her mother.

Betty’s sister recalled Betty trying to give Mary to a woman who couldn’t birth or adopt a child of her own. Betty’s sister “rescued” Mary from leaving.

Or did she unknowingly sentence Mary to more brutality?

Multiple family members recall Betty attempting to murder her toddler. Once she “accidentally” threw Mary out a window. She tried to overdose Mary with sleeping pills. And choked Mary till she gasped for air. Is it any wonder Mary strangled her victims?

The abuse didn’t stop there.

Betty offered little Mary to her johns. By age 4, these men regularly raped Mary while her mother watched.

The family also confirmed Mary had witnessed a bus plowing down her five-year-old best friend, killing her on impact. So, it didn’t surprise them when Mary, by the age of ten, had become a strange child, withdrawn and manipulative, and tottering on the edge of violence.

No one could predict Mary’s penchant to become a child serial killer.

Most of the experts who examined Mary after the murders focused on the abuse, and I have no doubt a harsh environment played a role, but Mary also damaged her prefrontal cortex in the “fall” from the window. It’s no secret brain damage can lead to serial killing, especially when the damage occurs to the frontal lobe/prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain dedicated to decision making and where our inner voice whispers right from wrong.

Joel Norris PhD believes a budding serial killer has no free will. He or she could no more stop the urge to murder as a heroin addict can say no to a fix.

Several names spring to my mind—male serial killers disgusted by their own murderous acts. Some even turned themselves into police—like Ed Kemper—because they knew of no other way to stop killing. An individual teetering on the edge of transforming into a serial killer likens to a dormant volcano. Beneath an often-bland exterior hides a psyche in turmoil, reliving the terror of psychological and emotional abuse by the hands of someone he or she should’ve been able to trust.

Like Betty.

The budding serial killer may have a more serious brain injury—like Mary—but they’ve managed to hide the symptoms. Until a sound, sight, or smell triggers the puzzle pieces to converge into a critical mass. Then it’s no longer a matter of, will they kill? The only question is: Who will be their first victim?

Unlike male serial killers, once a female decides to kill you, she won’t change her mind.

It’s difficult to comprehend a child serial killer. After all, a ten-year-old should be playing at the park or giggling with friends. The last thing they should be doing is contemplating murder. But here’s where nurture comes into play. For young Mary, violence, pain, and death were part of daily life.

Strangely, Mary left a note at the scene of her first murder, claiming she and her friend Norma Bell (no relation) strangled the girl. But police wrote it off as a childish prank. When a second victim turned up with an identical “M” carved into the abdomen, the so-called prank morphed into a handwritten confession.

Now under arrest for two murders, Mary said, “That’s all right by me.”

The court-appointed psychiatrists evaluated Mary and said she displayed “classic elements of psychopathy.” They further explained she’s “intelligent, manipulative, and dangerous.”

The judge agreed, calling Mary a danger to herself and others.

During the trial, Norma appeared distraught. Mary, on the other hand, showed defiance and no remorse—a classic psychopathic child serial killer response. The jury returned a not guilty verdict for Norma, while Mary was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The judge sentenced Mary to incarceration “at Her Majesty’s pleasure.” Which is a British term meaning “for an indefinite period of time.”

Even while incarcerated Betty never missed an opportunity to profit off her daughter. She invented wild tales about Mary’s psychopathic tendencies and sold the stories to the tabloids.

After serving 12 years in various prisons, Mary walked free at 23 years old. The court allowed her anonymity to escape the media frenzy concocted by her mother. Four years later, Mary gave birth to a baby girl. During which time Mary contributed tidbits about her life for the biography, Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell by Gitta Sereny.

Disgusted that she might profit off her crimes, the government tried in vain to block the book’s publication.

In 2001, Mary won a decision in the High Court to keep her and her daughter’s anonymity for life. At all costs Mary fought for her family to be protected from her crimes. Later, in 2009, the court updated the order to include Mary’s granddaughter.

No one knows where Mary resides today, but after all the violence, pain, and death in her life, perhaps she found redemption. I should note, she never committed another crime. But there’s no treatment for psychopathy, nor can a damaged prefrontal cortex heal on its own. So, maybe her environment turned Mary into a ruthless killer and once she freed herself from constant abuse, she was able to regain some semblance of normality.

What do you think? In both cases, do you think the punishment fit the crimes for a child serial killer?