The world of professional bodybuilding has always been cut-through. I mean, people working tirelessly to tone every muscle, cut every ounce of flab and do it better than everyone else has to be dedicated to an insane and perhaps unhealthy degree. Sooner or later, you feel that pressure can break some people. And in the case of Sally McNeil, that, along with personal trauma, can even push someone to murder.
Created by Nanette Burstein, the three-part Netflix documentary series Killer Sally explores McNeil, convicted of the murder of her abusive husband Ray. Was the murder premediated? Was it spontaneous and perhaps even deserved? Interviews with friends, family and onlookers paint a portrait of a history of abuse and a criminal justice system that continues to punish women unfairly.
Burstsein told The Guardian she wanted to “[point] out how inane some of the [prosecution’s] argument was, that she couldn’t have possibly been a victim because she was too strong. Which is absurd.” Indeed, McNeil, though physically imposing, can not hide the emotional scarring that led her to kill and haunts her to this day. As is often the case, McNeil’s brush with abuse did not start with Ray but followed a string of men seemingly drawn to or sought out by Sally.
The docuseries does a good job of exploring the case from multiple angles: the defense, the prosecution, Sally, her children, Ray’s friends. All express sympathy, but ultimately Sally is judged more for her sex and her victimism than by the facts of the case. In that way, the series becomes frighteningly pertinent.
A point is made at the series’ conclusion that we’d like to believe that women are treated better in the courts today than 30 years ago, but that is seldom true; when women abused by men are still being sentenced to prison for their murders as just happened last year, the system hasn’t really changed at all.
Hardwired for Film 
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