Mary Bell: Love And Tragedy

By Musa Shihadeh

"Now that Mary Bell attained her goal as a New York model, she became obsessed for attention and recognition by everyone, subconsciously erasing images from her mind of the poor girl walking a mile to school on a snowy day, wearing second hand torn shoes."

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Jun 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647538408

Musa Shihadeh

Musa Shihadeh, a Palestinian, worked in the Kuwaiti oil fields and saved money to enable him to attend the University of Pennsylvania, and he later received his master's degree in chemical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. After serving in the US Army in 1958, he started his Plastics Products Co. In Jersey City. The company was later acquired by Helene Curtis in 1960 and was moved to Detroit where he met the love of his life and his second wife, Mary Bell. A year later, he moved back to Paterson, New Jersey, and started a new company where he became highly successful. He also licensed his patents to several international companies, and he accumulated substantial sums of money. He then merged his company with Carboline Inc., a public corporation located in St. Louis, and moved to Missouri. After two years, he moved back to New Jersey and started his third company.

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MARY BELL

LOVE AND TRAGEDY

MUSA SHIHADEH

Mary Bell

Copyright © 2021 by Musa Shihadeh. All rights reserved.

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The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021912386

ISBN 978-1-64753-839-2 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-841-5 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-840-8 (Digital)

03.06.21

To my two lovely daughters

Contents

Preface

Life of Poverty and Misery

Escape to Freedom

Meeting the Man of Her Dreams

Happy Days of Wine and Roses (1961-1963)

Marriage and Children (1961-1963)

The Seeds of Dissention

Postpartum Depression

Obsession and Psychosis

A New Start

Elusive Recovery and Setback

Bitter End

The Aftermath

Preface

They met in a small Detroit diner, a convenient place to stop for a bite of exotic Middle Eastern cuisine. At eighteen years old, she was the abused daughter of an alcoholic Kentucky preacher and a coal miner. He was the sophisticated international entrepreneur, a chemical engi neer.

His first marriage had been less than successful, more a marriage of convenience that was no longer working. There was something missing in his life, and she seemed tailor-made to fit the bill. When he stepped forward to protect her from local bullies while serving as a waitress, it was no surprise they should become attracted to each other. But their storybook romance was built on illusion and fantasy, doomed to peril in the nightmare of schizophrenia and clinical paranoia. She was obsessed.

Life of Poverty and Misery

On a cold day in April 1956, a beautiful fourteen-year-old girl sitting on a rocking chair, dressed in a short, revealing dress, causing the two boys to ogle her smooth and shapely legs, trying to make idle conversation. She was hardly interested and barely paid any attention to them. The weather was chilly with slight wet snow coloring the green grass on the ground. Mary Bell kept rocking and conversing as little as she could with the two boring teenage boys from her school. The school stood four miles away from Coon Creek where she lived. The school has about 120 children in classes covering from the first to the sixth grade where students come from various parts of the area around Pikeville City and Pike County, where most of the region’s citizens who earned their living by working in the underground coal mines were. The entire area of Pike County was one of the poorest in the Appalachian Mountains. The mining companies closed many mines after they were fully used and left the surface area contaminated with remnants of black coal dust and debris. The houses in those poor areas were erected using clapboards with newspapers pasted on the walls with flour paste to seal the holes between the boards. Some people finished the walls with lead paint or calcimine products. The houses used coal-heating stoves on which they cooked most of their meals and warmed their rooms. Unfortunately, the coal emitted a great amount of carbon dioxide and traces of sulfur dioxide, inherently present in coal. No wonder most coal miners and even most residents suffered from black lung disease, all sorts of respiratory illness, or cancer. Most of them did not live beyond seventy y ears.

From the pits of a coal mine came out an old man by the name of Ambrose. He used to be the area preacher before he was replaced because of his excessive drinking and cursing. The sticky, cold wet snow covered his spectacles.

He cursed, God damn it, what kind of life is this? I work ten hours a day, yet I can hardly feed my four daughters.

He reached into his pocket and took a sip from his moonshine flask. His face was blackened by the coal dust, his overalls black and filthy, and his wet shoes sliding on his feet on the narrow sloping dirt road.

As soon as Ambrose arrived at his home, he shouted at Mary Bell, Bitch, why are you flirting with these boys? Get inside and make me a cup of coffee.

The boys took off fast. Mary Bell went inside the house to get a bucket and went to the well fifty feet away to fetch some water. They did not have running water or any indoor plumbing. The outhouse lies about one hundred feet away, which made it miserable for anyone to go that far in the cold weather or at night.

Once Ambrose got his cup of coffee, he screamed at his daughter Mary Bell, ordering her to prepare dinner for her two working sisters, Molly and Sally, who were due home shortly, Get the food ready so that your sisters can have a meal after working hard all day to make money for you too. All you do is go to school and do nothing, I wish you would quit. Girls only need to read and write.

Mary Bell answered angrily, I walk to school four miles each way five days a week starting at 7:00 a.m., and I don’t get back home until 4:00 p.m. I have a very thin coat and a pair of secondhand shoes with holes in them. Do you think I’m having a picnic? Slapping her across her face, Ambrose screamed, What a bitch, I hear all the bullshit from my foreman inside that hellhole and here I have to hear backtalk from you too? Just get the hell away from my face.

Finally, they all sat down to eat their meager meal of potatoes and beans. Ambrose had a glass of moonshine that he always enjoyed with his meals.

Mary Bell was a very pretty girl who was often told by boys, girls, and even teachers at her school. She felt the only happiness she would ever have was to get away from her oppressive and abusive father and the entire coal mining county. I will get out of here by next year one way or the other even if it kills me, she thought seriously. Looking at herself in a small mirror, she intensely observed her face, eyes, and high cheekbones, agreeing with all the people who praised her or admired her looks. She swore to herself, Yes, I will get my own admirer, a personal man of my own who is rich and lives in a big city and will fulfill my lifelong dreams. Mary Bell kept looking at herself while daydreaming of a rich and happy life. She often read in magazines about models and actresses needed. She could hardly wait until she was eighteen to be able to go out on her own and seek such great opportunities. Her father would let her leave at this young age, although there were many job opportunities at her age that required parental approval. Mary Bell kept thinking, I am not going to be mistreated and live in a cheap shack like my other sisters. I hated that my mother died at an early age and left us with a cruel, drunken, and abusive father. My mother died young because her life was very harsh, cruel, and unsanitary. I will not die the same way . . . no way . . . no way! Mary Bell continued to defy her father, who insisted that she leave school. But she wanted to finish the sixth grade, which she did.

A year later, Mary Bell was fifteen years old, but she looked more mature and more attractive. It was customary for the people in Pike County to go to Pikeville City, the seat of Pike County, for shopping and meeting other folks from different creeks and areas of the county. The city had a few bars, two hotels, a dance hall for the adults, and another one for teenagers. It had parks and recreation centers for the younger children. The people went to the city to buy vegetables, meats, clothing, and other household requirements. Mary Bell looked forward to the weekend and to going to the city with her sisters and her schoolmates. There they separated, and each went her way until the evening where the time was set to meet to go back home. That was the only time Mary Bell felt free to roam around with her friends and dance with other teenagers. Then it happened. She met a sixteen-year-old good-looking, neatly dressed boy, named Charles. She spent most of the day with him in the park holding hands. She enjoyed having lunch with him, and she later agreed to meet him the following weekend. Sure enough they met again, fell in love, kissed gently, and agreed to become engaged. Charles told her it was the first time he ever kissed a girl, while Mary Bell confessed this was the first time she every held a boy’s hand or even kissed another boy. After a month of meeting every weekend, Mary Bell and Charles decided to tell their parents that they wanted to get married. Charles and his father went to visit Ambrose and Mary Bell at their home in Coon Creek. Ambrose welcomed them with open arms, and he agreed to the marriage when Charles’s father said he would pay for the wedding expenses. Charles’s father realized that Ambrose was a very poor man and did not have sufficient funds to make any contribution to the wedding. Ambrose, realizing that there would be one less mouth to feed and one less daughter to support, felt a sense of relief. Ambrose thought to himself, This is one way to get rid of this hot little bitch before she messes around giving me another mouth to feed. Charles’s father told Ambrose that he had room for Mary Bell and Charles in his house for their own privacy and happiness. Mary Bell was ecstatic that this went all so smoothly without any words or objections from her father and that she would finally be free to live her own life without being a servant to her entire family.

Finally, Mary Bell and Charles married and started their new life together in what she believed would be freedom from abuse and extreme poverty at her father’s house. Charles’s father’s house was constructed with better building materials and the design was better than the shack she lived in all her life. The road by the house was paved and easier to travel on, especially in the cold weather and when it snowed. It was also easier to walk the short distance to the bus stop and travel to Pikeville City for shopping or recreation. She was very happy and satisfied especially since Charles was taking her to the city three to four times a week.

A couple of months later, Mary Bell became pregnant. She was not very happy about it because she wanted the both of them to move to a large city like Chicago or Detroit where he could get a better job at a factory. She also wanted to realize her dream of working as a model or some other well-paying profession. But her pregnancy left her no choice but to stay where they were. She tried to make the best of her life living in this small town until she gave birth. She often tried to ask Charles to tell his father they wished to go to Detroit because of the many openings at General Motors. The job at GM offered good training and good pay. But Charles’s father refused to hear of any plans to move out of his house. Mary Bell started to think less of Charles because he could never stand up to his father. The father treated Charles like a little boy and not the married man with a responsibility to his wife and future child that he was. This made Mary Bell more resentful of Charles and the whole situation. She realized she jumped from the frying pan into the fire. This was not what she hoped for, as the marriage was the first step to getting away from Ambrose and these creeks.

Nine months later, Mary Bell delivered her first child at the age of sixteen. She told Charles she did not want any more children and often refused to have sex with him. Apparently, Charles told his father that Mary Bell was refusing to perform her duty as a wife.

The father angrily screamed at Mary Bell saying, You married my son who took you from squalor to a decent house, you have good food and nice clothing, and you refuse to give him sex?

She told her father-in-law that Charles wasn’t to have sex without using condoms, and she did not want any more children at that time.

Escape to Freedom

Mary Bell was nursing her new baby. Her breasts were full of milk and appeared large. Charles’s father was sitting across from her staring intensely at her breasts. At first, Mary Bell thought nothing of it because she thought he was admiring his grandson at her breast. He then stood up to leave the living room when she observed that her father-in-law had an erection. She was embarrassed and stopped nursing the baby. She did not know whether she was the reason for getting the old man sexually aroused or it was because his wife was away working in Pikeville. Mary Bell’s mother-in-law was working three to four days a week in one of Pikeville’s bars and sometimes, she stayed at her job the entire week. She brought home a lot of money to support the entire family. Charles’s mother was forty years old with good looks, especially when she wore makeup and pretty clothes. Her husband did not work nor did Charles. She was the sole moneymaker. Mary Bell was a girl with a sharp mind. She wondered why a married woman put on so much makeup and dressed up just to work in a bar, and how could she be earning so much money? She concluded that Charles’s mother was a prostitute, but she could not utter such thought to Charles or anyone else. The house had four large bedrooms, two baths, a living room, and a large kitchen situated on three acres of land. They had an electric generator for lighting, heating and cooking, and also indoor plumbing. Mary Bell thought, how else could a forty-year-old woman support a family and a house without having an education or any other professional training, but only working as a barmaid in a small town, unless she was a ho oker.

One day, Charles’s mother asked Mary Bell if she wanted to work with her in the bar, telling her she could make lots of money with her good looks. That day Mary Bell confirmed in her mind that Charles’s mother was really a hooker and wanted her to work as one also, so they could both bring in a lot of money. Mary Bell refused with the excuse that she could not leave her three-month-old baby for any kind of job, especially when there was no other woman in the house to take care of the baby.

Mary Bell was no dummy. She was very ambitious, but she was naïve. She had no experience with men but realized that men were attracted to beautiful women and would pay money for sex. She heard and read many stories about such matters when she borrowed and read books from the library as she was an avid reader. Mary Bell was very shy and even afraid to speak to men when she went to the city, but she was anxious to study and read books. She bought old secondhand books on grammar and mathematics and taught herself the best she could. She planned to get her GED and even proceed further to college. She knew she could accomplish all that easily if she and Charles could only get out of this area and live in a major city.

Charles’s father showed his intentions to her on several occasions. Once he told her, If Charles doesn’t satisfy you sexually, maybe a man like me can. Another time he tried to kiss her and grab her bosom. She would have run away immediately at that time had it not been for a second pregnancy, which she had not expected as she has been on the pill to prevent another pregnancy. At the age of seventeen, she would be a mother of two children. She wondered how she could ever fulfill her ambitions with two kids while married to an immature and unintelligent husband. Chicago and Detroit appeared to be farther away than ever, but she wasn’t one to give up. She was still young, and she knew this could not be her destiny. What good was her beautiful face if she could not achieve her goal? She was truly frustrated. But she told herself to be patient and the right time would arrive. She, again, tried to tell Charles to speak with his father to let him go to Detroit and get a good paying job at General Motors. Charles tried once or twice to convince his father but gave up when his father slapped him and told him never to speak of it again and to stop listening to his whore of a wife.

A few nights later, the baby was crying, and Mary Bell got up to change his diaper and put him back to sleep. She then went back to bed next to her sleeping husband. It was about midnight when she felt someone slip into bed behind her. She was facing Charles. Charles’s father pulled down her panties and started raping her. She tried to wake Charles up by shaking him violently, but he did not respond.

She cried out, Look what your father is doing, he has his penis inside of me, please make him stop.

Charles was a coward and afraid of his father even when he was trying to rape his pregnant wife. Mary Bell hit Charles in his stomach again and again but to no avail. The cowardly husband was awake and aware of what was happening, but he did not dare to confront his father and allowed him to have his way with his wife. Mary Bell then realized this was the end of her patience, and she must get away. Charles’s father repeated the sexual abuse again and again until Mary Bell was in her seventh month and gave birth to her premature second son. She believed the early birth was the result of the sexual abuse and stress she suffered at the hands of her father-in-law. Mary Bell was disgusted with Charles’s weakness and his negligence as her husband and knew she could never have anything to do with him or with his entire family ever again.

The new baby was sickly and weak and cried constantly. She waited for the baby’s health to improve before she could escape from that hell. She said to herself, That’s it. I’m getting away from Pikeville and the entire state of Kentucky the first chance I get. Every time she went to Pikeville, she saved a few dollars instead of spending it on other items, so she could pay for her fare out of the state. She read somewhere that many young girls got out of Pikeville by hitchhiking. If she wasn’t successful at hitchhiking, she wanted to save enough money for bus fare to take her away so Charles or his father could not prevent her from leaving. She finally managed to save $40, including the money Charles gave her to buy a new dress.

The baby was three months old when Mary Bell went to the city with the full intention of never returning to her husband. Her goal was to make enough money and return to take her children away from Charles and his immoral family. She stood for several hours at the main highway in Pikeville trying to get a ride to any place out of the city. Being unsuccessful, she went to the bus station and caught the last bus leaving for Ashland, Kentucky, at 6:00 p.m. Half her money paid her way to Ashland, but she was happy to finally be on her way to freedom. Arriving at the Ashland bus station, she managed to hitchhike with an elderly man who was heading to a small town in Ohio, which was halfway to Detroit. Four hours later, they arrived at the old man’s house. He asked her if she wanted to stay overnight at his house because it was four o’clock in the morning. He told her she could have breakfast in the morning and be on her way afterward. He made coffee and offered her a bed. After she lay down, the old man came in and told her this was the only bedroom in the house, and he would have to sleep with her. She got up to leave, but the old man held her down and proceeded to rape her. Afterward, he told her he would make breakfast and then drive her to Detroit. She had no choice except to comply.

Later in the morning, they had breakfast. He told her he had to do a few errands and fill the car with gas, and he would then return and take her to Detroit. She waited until the afternoon, but he never returned. She became suspicious that he intended to keep her as a sex slave as she read in many books. She quickly dressed, took her small bag, and ran out to the highway. After an hour, a truck stopped and offered her a ride as he was heading to Michigan, which was near to her destination in Detroit. Finally, she arrived in the small city where she could take a bus to Detroit for about $10. That left Mary Bell with only $10 to her name. She had no place to go, no job, and she knew no one in the city.

Meeting the Man of Her Dreams

Before Mary Bell found the Lebanese diner, she had wandered through the street of Detroit to find a cheap hotel and have a good night’s sleep after the hectic time she had in the last few days. She could not afford to pay much of her last $10, which would leave her with just a few dollars for food. She thought, I’ll find some work very soon even if I have to wash dishes or clean floors. The weather started getting chilly. Detroit lies by Lake Michigan, which leaves the city cold and damp until the middle of May. The blue skies were decorated with some cumulus nimbus. Mary Bell realized she would not be able to find a reasonable hotel in the downtown vicinity where the Sheraton hotel and the shopping centers lie. She walked to a narrow side guessing that cheap hotels would lie away from the center of town. She walked about six blocks happy to have carried a small suitcase with the few secondhand clothes and some cosmetics she borrowed permanently from her mother-in-law’s bureau drawer. She felt the weight of that small suitcase, which began to tire her arms.

All I wish is to throw these old secondhand rags away to erase any and all traces of my depressing past, she murmured.

After an exhausting walk, she observed from a distance a sign saying Mariam Middle Eastern Diner. I surely can have a bit to eat, but I hope this place isn’t too expensive, she thought. It turned out she did not have to pay for her meal or worry about a place to sleep. Mariam told her to go upstairs, clean up, and put on her uniform and some makeup.

Your room is the vacant one on the right side. Mariam said.

Mary Bell showered, put on some make up, and put on the ugly oversized uniform, but she didn’t care how she looked; she was just happy to be there. An hour later, she went downstairs and spoke to June, the other waitress. It was about 8:00 p.m., and the place was not busy at that time of night. Most customers who frequented the diner were shoppers, area employees, and some college students. Mary Bell was starving. June, the waitress, told her to sit in the back booth and gave her a menu. Mary Bell never heard of such exotic names, such as falafel, hummus, pita bread, taboolah, baba ghannoj or shish kabob.

Wow, Mary Bell exclaimed loudly. What are all these names? she questioned June.

The waitress replied, You will learn them in time. Aren’t you hungry?

Mary Bell replied, I’m starving. I was traveling all day and had nothing to eat except a Coke, but I do not know what to order.

June brought her hummus, pita bread, olives, and a few pieces of shish kabab. June then explained to her what each was and told her this was how the Lebanese people eat – a variety of small dishes to make a full meal. Mary Bell hungrily devoured everything on her plate without pausing. June then brought her a cup of coffee and a piece of baklava for dessert.

Mary Bell said, This is by far the best meal I’ve ever had in my life.

She then asked June to explain to her the rest of the menu and what all the other items were so she could take orders from customers correctly. June then took her back to the kitchen and showed her the various types of food and where they were. Mary Bell sampled some more until she was full and couldn’t anymore.

This is truly heathy and very tasty food. I don’t think I’ll ever eat any other kind of food again.

June smiled.

Mariam came downstairs from her room around 9:30 p.m. to get ready to set up the menu for the following day and then close up the diner at 10:30 p.m. She looked at Mary Bell and told her she looked very pretty, but she needed to fix her straggly blonde hair.

You have very pretty natural blonde hair. You could be a knockout if it is properly styled. I’ll show you how to apply makeup on your flawless skin.

Mariam realized that Mary Bell came from the backwoods of Kentucky and had no experience in makeup or fashion. However, Mariam acknowledged that this hillbilly girl had a natural beauty and was very attractive. She asked Mary Bell how she liked her room and the adjoining bathroom, which she would have to share with Mariam’s brother.

Mary Bell replied, Everything is fine, thank you very much.

Mariam showed her what her job was and how she should take the orders and to be courteous to the customers at all times. She also explained to her the working hours, her off days, and her salary. Mariam explained that her tips depend on how good her service is and that she can keep all her tips. Mary Bell and June could arrange to stay till 11:00p.m. three days a week each as they chose to clean the kitchen and the booths after closing.

Mariam stayed with Mary Bell the first night until 11:00 p.m. to show her how to perform the cleanup and to close the diner for the night. The duty of both waitresses was to close up the diner at 11:00 p.m. if Mariam was not around to do it herself.

The second floor of the diner consisted of Mariam’s two bedroom apartment and two other single rooms that shared a small kitchen and a bathroom.

This is much better than the place I grew up in. I have heat, hot water, and a bathroom with a shower.

The other room was occupied by Mariam’s brother, Salim. He was a fifty-year-old fairly good-looking man with graying hair at the temples. Salim was very happy to see a pretty young girl sharing the facilities with him. He introduced himself to Mary Bell the next morning. He let her use the bathroom first, as he told her he did not work on weekends. He only had a part-time job as a plumber’s assistant not far from the diner. Mary Bell realized that Salim was leering excitedly at her, but she tried to ignore him and pretend not to notice. Such gaze and attention from men were not new to her. She was used to strangers ogling her and often crossing the line.

Mary Bell was cautious of all men, making her appear stand-offish and unsociable. The fact was she liked to see men admiring her from a distance until the time she would meet the right man. She suffered sufficient and overwhelming physical, sexual, and mental abuse, enough to drive a person to the abyss. She did not hate all men. She just abhorred the lazy and dirty-looking men who appeared similar to the men she encountered in Coon Creek. Mary Bell confirmed and assured herself, I’m not promiscuous or a whore, all the men that sexually molested me forced themselves on me. I did not enjoy their illicit acts." She continued, I don’t mind if someone is flirting or admiring me from a distance. She looked at herself in the mirror with full makeup and well-groomed silky blonde hair saying, Yes, I am pretty, and I will seek a job to commensurate with my physique and appearance. But I’ll choose the right time after I have some money and learn the customs of people in big cities and in the world of business.

Most men coming into the diner always tried to sit on her side. Mary Bell began to make lots of tips. She was pleasant to talk to as well as look at. Mariam was glad that she hired this backwoods girl who learned the business fairly quickly and gave the customers pleasant service. She always had a smile on her face.

Many male customers tried to strike up a conversation with Mary Bell and ask her for a date. She pleasantly declined under the pretense or excuse that she was a married woman and had two young babies. Mary Bell reminded herself, I am not going to let men exploit me again. I will not date anyone until I meet the man of my future. I’ll know it when I meet him, I’m sure.

Mary Bell wanted to work hard, save money, and study to obtain her GED. She managed to save over $70 in her first week. She never held such a large amount in her life. She ate and slept at no cost to her, and she did not have the expense of entertainment or expensive clothing or have to feed her babies. Furthermore, she did not have utility, phone, or car expenses. The only place she ventured to was the public library, which was five blocks away. She walked there and to the downtown area on her off days. She spent only a few dollars on cosmetics and personal items. Mariam, realizing that Mary Bell had spare time on her hands in the mornings and on every other weekend, asked her to clean her brother’s room and the bathroom, claiming her brother was not very neat or tidy. Mary Bell did not object. The diner did not open until 11:00 a.m. and closed at 11:00 p.m. and was closed on Mondays. When Mariam’s brother, Salim became aggressive with heavy roaming hands on Mary Bell, she complained to Mariam, demanding that Salim stop bothering her and keep his hands off her. She said he tried to grab her breasts a few times, and she wanted it to stop.

Mariam answered, "The man is lonely, he doesn’t speak English very well and can’t seem to meet women his age, but he’s not a bad-looking guy, so why don’t you just give him some