Marybel had a very rough childhood from the beginning, it had been full of unhappiness. She was neglected both of her parents were often away. Marybel also lived with her family on White House Road, it was the roughest part of the rough estate. Her mother was depressive and erratic, she had tried to get Marybel adopted at one point but yet she rejected her family's offers to take her daughter off her hands. With her mother always being away for weeks, Marybel spent a lot and most of her time on her own in the house. Not only did her mother leave her alone but including her dad was messed up, he was a criminal and a drunkard.
Marybel had an erupted behavior on the playground with the other kids. She was quite aggressive towards other children, which was one of her early signs that lead eventually lead to her first murder. For weeks before her first murder, Marybel had been acting strange. On May 11, 1968, Mary had been playing with a three-year-old boy when he fell off the top of an air-raid shelter, his parents at first thought it was an accident. But the next day three mothers came forward and stated that Mary had attempted to choke their young daughters. Then on May 25, Mary strangled four-year-old Martin Brown to death in an abandoned house. Then on July 31, two months after the first murder, Mary and her friend killed three- year-old Brian Howe by strangulation. This time she mutilated the body with scissors scratching his thighs.
Marybel was soon caught by the police and trail was set fast. The jury agreed that Mary had committed the murders and handed down a guilty verdict. Although court psychiatrists had convinced the jurt that Mary shpwed "classic symptoms of psychopathy" and could not be holded fully responsible for her actions. Many also argued that her rough childhood had an influnece on her actions.
I'm surprised to hear about this case, because it's very rare for a child to commit a crime, especially murder. While I don't think that her childhood experiences should be a reason for her to be found "not guilty", I think that it's important to take it into consideration to better understand why she would murder someone. It's obvious she had some psychological issues and I think the court should have put her in mandatory psychiatric evaluation or something else to help her through her past trauma.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Evelyn, there must've been something so traumatizing for this young girl to be able to commit a crime like murder. Im not sure how society worked back then if someone had psychological issues, but I definitely think she should've been sent somewhere far.
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