Killer Sally: The True Story of The Netflix Documentary: What Happened To Sally’s Children?
Killer Sally: The killer bodybuilder is a three-part documentary that premiered on Netflix and puts, like others that have been seen on this and other platforms, the focus on psychological and physical abuse as a possible trigger for the crimes committed by women. There is something of a catch in the premise: why would a woman shoot the man she loves? The reason that floats in all this work is clear: because she was a victim. Nanette Burstein (we recommend her work ‘On the Ropes’) doesn’t seem very interested in countering the story of Sally McNeil, the bodybuilder who shot her life partner twice and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Therefore, the conclusion that viewers come to is that the system failed the young athlete. There would be nothing wrong with this if from the first chapter they indicated to us, with certain details, that this is the way to go. Unfortunately, it is not.
There are disturbing documentaries on Netflix, but there are also others that tell shocking stories about murder. Such is the case of Killer Sally, a docuseries that narrates how Sally McNeil, a former professional bodybuilder, ended her husband’s life on Valentine’s Day. It has a total of three episodes in which interviews with Sally and her two children are exposed. In them, they narrate her testimonies about what happened. And it is that the woman was sentenced to 19 years of life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder in the second degree. But what exposes Killer Sally is the fact that before committing this heinous crime, the former bodybuilder had been the victim of psychological and physical abuse by her partner.
The true story of Killer Sally, Netflix Docuseries
As told in the Netflix docuseries, Sally McNeil is a former American bodybuilder who served for years in the United States Marine Corps. It was there that she met the father of her children (Shantina and John). But it turned out that he was an aggressive man, so she parted ways with him. Years later he met Ray McNeil, a Marine with whom he shared a great passion for bodybuilding. She married him and they began to have a life together. But his “love story” ended in misfortune, as Sally shot him twice with a shotgun in the home they shared, thus ending his life.
She always maintained that she did it in self-defence, as she claimed that both her children and she had been victims of various violent acts by Ray. However, Ray’s friends and those in charge of the case insisted on labelling Sally’s actions as cold-blooded murder. In addition, she was portrayed as a violent woman due to her large muscles and was stigmatized for having previously dedicated herself to making fetish wrestling videos.
What Happened to Killer Sally and Her Children?
Sally was eventually found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. She was paroled in June 2020. She later remarried and currently lives in Northern California. For their part, their children, Shantina and John, grew up with their maternal grandparents, and both decided to pursue a military career. Both now have their own families, and although they also suffered the ravages of their mother’s violent relationship, they currently try to have a good relationship with her.
However, some think that the Netflix documentary, Killer Sally, did not delve into what happened to Sally’s children while she was in prison. In addition, some consider that the docuseries focuses mainly on Sally’s perspective on the events, which leaves out Ray McNeil’s point of view. What do you think?
The Best Is In The Pieces
The intention of making this product consumable as quickly as possible conspires against its quality. And that shows when we barely get a glimpse of what happened to the children while Sally was in jail. Shantina and John say that they both followed a military career, like her mother, and both were in abusive relationships, like their mother. The two of them repeated what they saw at home.
This is when the documentary could have risen, showing the viewer the collateral damage that is the product of toxic relationships. Fortunately, Shantina, who had practically blamed her mother for allowing so much abuse to her, finds herself in a similar relationship and decides to sever that link before the cycle repeats itself until it reaches irreparable damage. On the other hand, John, who directly accused his mother of not thinking of them when she pulled the trigger, implies that he was also an abuser of his wife.
Killer Sally is, in principle, a story about how society passed judgment on women who moved away from the stereotype promoted by the media. Sally was a fighter, an athlete who did not have the financial support to meet certain goals. But she was also a person with obvious psychological problems attributable or not to her upbringing. This is not answered effectively.
The dependence on affection, how she idealizes men she just met, and how she relates to her surroundings -always from violence-, are other aspects of Sally’s life. However, the director of the series does not want or does not dare to delve into it. The closure, with traditional marriage, and the family reunion, is still blackmailing. It’s like we were taken on a school trip where he was prevented from raising his hand to say you weren’t comfortable in the seat.
