On August 21, 1981, a horrific series of events unfolded in Indianapolis, Indiana, culminating in one of the city's deadliest instances of domestic violence. Bertha Mae Kirby Bell, a 26-year-old Black female, was the primary target of a calculated rampage orchestrated by her estranged husband, King Edward Bell. The couple had separated after eleven years of marriage, a split marked by intense acrimony and jealousy.
King Bell, described as a deeply religious man who was struggling with the separation and his wife’s new relationship, had reached a breaking point that led him to target his entire immediate family.
The violence began in the early morning hours when King Bell drove to the residence of Bertha's boyfriend, Clarence Barnett, and opened fire, critically wounding him. He then proceeded to the home where Bertha and their children were staying. When Bertha exited the house dressed in a robe and tennis shoes, she was fatally shot by her husband. Her 54-year-old mother, Mary Alice Kirby, rushed outside in an attempt to intervene or escape but was also gunned down and killed in the driveway. Neighbors who heard the gunfire alerted law enforcement, who quickly surrounded the property.
Upon the arrival of the police, King Bell exited the home holding a shotgun and screaming for the officers to kill him. He was apprehended and taken into custody without being shot. Inside the house, investigators discovered a scene of unimaginable tragedy. In the basement, the bodies of the couple's four young children, ranging in age from one to six years old, were found lined up on a bed under a blanket. Each child had been shot in the head. On the basement wall, police found a message scrawled in chalk that read, Jesus take them all to heaven, located near a hanging sign that declared the family that prays together stays together.
King Edward Bell was charged with six counts of murder. During the legal proceedings, the defense and prosecution reached an agreement where Bell pleaded guilty but mentally ill. The court sentenced him to 160 years in prison, a term effectively ensuring he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. The judge and prosecutors recommended psychiatric treatment within the Department of Correction. However, just a year into his sentence in 1982, King Bell committed suicide in his prison cell by asphyxiating himself with plastic bags, bringing a final end to the tragic case.
