For years, bodybuilder Sally McNeil wrestled under the stage name “Sally the Killer” before the fictional story became reality.
On Valentine’s Day 1995, she shot and killed her husband, Ray McNeil, an act she still claims was self-defense. Others, however, questioned whether the shooting was carried out in cold blood.
“On the last night I felt like I wasn’t going to survive the suffocation or the whole night,” she once told Treat muscles Fatal confrontation. “I panicked.”
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Who is former bodybuilder Sally McNeil?
Sally, a U.S. Marine and divorced mother of two, first met Ray, a Marine and bodybuilder, in the 1980s.
She later described in the 2022 Netflix documentary series Killer Sally Their relationship was “love at first sight.”
“He looked like a statue of David,” she recalled. “He looks beautiful.”
Together, the couple achieved success in the bodybuilding world, becoming the first husband-and-wife team to win the Armed Forces Bodybuilding Championships in 1990.
But the relationship between the two countries has also encountered problems. Sally told Rx Muscle that their marriage turned violent just three days into their marriage, claiming Ray beat her “mercilessly.” The violence escalated from there, with Ray punching her in the face, throwing her out of the bathtub, strangling her and hitting her multiple times, according to her account.
“Looking back, I realize I was a classic case of battered wife syndrome. I denied that Ray abused me,” she told the outlet. “My self-esteem was so low. I didn’t think I could attract another man like Ray. I feel lucky to have him.”
According to court records, both Ray and Sally used steroids, and Sally had her own record of violence.
At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Sally beat Ray and at one point threw the video recorder out of a second-story window as Ray walked downstairs. She also had “several violent altercations” with others, including women she believed to be having an affair with Ray, bouncers at the bar and even police officers, according to court records.
Sally MacNeil to star in ‘Sally the Killer’ on Netflix
When was Ray McNeil killed?
On the night of February 14, 1995, the violence turned deadly. Ray told his wife he was going out to buy chicken for dinner, but he didn’t return after several hours, according to court documents.
Sally suspects her husband is dating another woman, and the couple quarrel.
“[Sally] Ray then slapped her, pushed her to the floor and began strangling her, court records said.[Sally] Squirming away, she ran into the bedroom and retrieved her shotgun from the box in the closet. “
After Sally grabbed the gun, she shot Ray twice, once in the face and once in the stomach.
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She then called 911, telling the dispatcher: “I just shot my husband because he just assaulted me.”
According to court records, Ray can be heard moaning in the background of the call and asking, “Why did you shoot me?”
Sally allegedly responded: “I told you I wasn’t going to take any more punishment from you.”
Ray was rushed to hospital, where he died from his injuries later that night.
Sally MacNeil and Ray MacNeil star in Netflix’s Sally the Killer
Sally McNeil pleads self-defense in court
At the 1996 trial, prosecutors argued the fatal shooting was an act of murder.
However, Sally’s defense team maintained that she killed her husband because she feared for her life. According to court records, they presented a witness who testified that Sally “definitely qualified as a battered woman” and suffered from battered woman syndrome.
Although the prosecutor’s own experts agreed that Sally was a “battered woman,” the expert concluded that Sally was “not a classic sufferer of battered woman syndrome” because of her assertiveness and aggression.
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On March 19, 1996, a jury found Sally guilty of second-degree murder. The next month, she was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
Sally was paroled on May 29, 2020.
Where is Sally McNeil today?
After her release from prison, Sally reportedly lived at a Veterans Transitional Center. peopleshe met her new husband, Norfleet Stewart.
Nanette Burstein, the director of “Sally,” told Newsweek in 2022: “She’s out in the world, has a job, and is married to a very nice man. She’s currently in touch with her children and trying to forge a new path.”
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Sally’s case and subsequent conviction have returned to the spotlight as new questions have been raised about Sally’s culpability in the shooting.
Burstein told Oxygen.com that she herself was drawn to the story because Sally was not “the perfect victim.”
“That’s what makes this story so complicated,” she said in an interview at the time. “We want to have perfect victims and we get angry when they are imperfect, but no one is perfect, especially in the case of domestic abuse.”
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Burstein also believes Sally’s “Killer Sally” image in the ring and her history of violence may have influenced the jury’s view of the bodybuilder.
“It hurt her both in the media and at the trial,” she said, “even though it was a silly stage name and had nothing to do with her violent tendencies.”
Sally talks about what she thinks about her faith Killer Sally.
“I shouldn’t have been sentenced. But I don’t care anymore,” she said. “I’m free.”
