Killer Sally

The show plays with the narratives a lot, giving first very positive views into the relationship of Sally and Ray, twisting them then in seeing that the relationship was far from being perfect and that there was a lot of abuse going on, explaining both sides of the story with a lot of insight of different people. However, it's the small details you pick up that clearly tell you this is fishy. Clear is that both had aggression issues and probably aggrevated each other constantly in arguments. Sally also was very protective over her children and her marriage but there is a fine difference between being aggressive and disrespectful and beating up your step children, choking your wife and making a person blind by pressing their eyeballs in with your own fingers. I am happy that Daniel Goldstein was in this documentary and showed his true face. Comments like that a muscular woman could easily just defend herself and clearly can't be abused and that Sally will sure say things like "I didn't do anything wrong and I regret nothing" just show how r*tten he is in the inside and that he never tried to understand this woman. The friends of Ray going from "I saw him do really evil stuff" to "oh he was just a really big goof ball and could never hurt her" was ridiculous to watch. Is it okay that she killed him? No, absolutely not. It is however very clear that she did get abused? Yes. The explanation of the autopsy of him laying down on the floor and her pressing in the second shot to secure the kill just by seeing the blood splattered on the inside of the lamp is completely wild to me, as if he couldn't have been falling down after he got shot the second time and the blood splattering on the lamps inside when he landed on the floor. The news media in the 90s being absolutely disgusting with this case too. The children getting striked from the court because they cried too much instead of letting them speak up about their experience in the household. There is just so much that went wrong in this trial with so many people not doing their job correct and I am happy that Netflix picked it up and showed it to the world.

I walked into this series not sure what to expect. So many other true crime docs recently have been so bad. Over dramatized. Slow. Etc. But I'm glad I took the chance with this one. The pacing was great. The interviews were not over sentualized. The doc maker definitely had an opinion and made it clear. I think people will walk away thinking this is about her being innocent. I disagree. Sally made some bad decisions, but I have a lot of empathy for her situation. I think the film is about how women are driven to a point of breaking from a lifetime of abuse. Nobody would talk about it. Excuses were made. The man's side is automatically taken. The BS just swept under the rug. Thru continued recognition that domestic abuse is real and that we should not turn a blind eye to it, hopefully more people can get out of the toxic relationship earlier before another life or lives are destroyed. On a side note. I found the exploration into the subculture of body building and muscle worshipping very interesting.

First and foremost, if you, like me, are a DV survivor, parts of this will be VERY triggering... but it's my own experience in DV that makes me believe Sally's side of this story. Her descriptions of the abuse, her reactions to it, the feeling of being unable to leave, all of it was spot on. And as for "no imminent threat"... when you are a battered person the threat is ALWAYS imminent. Not only was she poorly represented but the prosecutor is a disgusting excuse for a human being. His reaction to her trial and conviction even today is gleeful. He should be ashamed of himself but I doubt he's capable of it.

In no way do I condone domestic violence, particularly when a man beats a woman, especially in front of her kids. However, Sally was using steroids as well, and it was later revealed that she had one steroid in her system after she killed Ray. The first shot tore off parts of his liver, and the second shot to the face was unnecessary. "Roid Rage" is a serious issue; this is not the first time something like this has happened amongst bodybuilder couples. There was one tragic incident where the couple actually got into a fight over their share of steroids. That time the girlfriend ended up dead. There's no telling what she may have been saying to Ray at the time of the murder. She even admitted that she told him he looked like crap, and that he wasn't going to win the competition. She knew how he felt about winning, did she say that to provoke him? Women can be abusive too! I agree with the DA when he said she was angry because Ray was seeing another woman. So maybe she was in a "Roid Rage" in combination with a jealous rage that night. If her son was old enough to testify he would have told the truth about her. In the interview he made it very clear that his mother was very aggressive, and besides, she had a history of being hostile, even in the military. Ex-Marine + Aggressive Nature + Steroid Abuse + Toxic Environment + Jealousy = TIME-BOMB 💣

This poor woman. Surrounded by pretty much the worst people imaginable. Daniel Goldstein is just the biggest POS I've ever seen in a true crime doc. Along with all of Ray's friends (DJ is a moron), it's a surprise she's not completely insane. Definitely worth the watch but some of the people they interview might make your blood boil. All of rays friends just completely dismiss the fact that dude beats his wife and cheats on her religiously but defend that he was a good dude that was trying to leave the marriage. Absolutely laughable. One of them (probably DJ) tried to bring race into the equation for some reason. Nah ray was just an abusive monster.

This is a documentary about how the District Attorney will play the system to defeat anyone they come up against regardless of whether they're innocent or guilty...they only want to win and Dan Goldstein is a prime example of this. Just look at how he's aged and riddled with the disgusting things he has said and done to people. He cannot conceive that everyone is different, he simply worked to box Sally up as a violent woman, he used drug addicts/pedlars to provide witness testimony and he basically worked on the notion that mental health issues do not exist especially when you're battered. The guy literally shows how he celebrated this as a victory when he took her life. It's pretty inconceivable that this battered woman was planned a murder, called 911 and had herself locked up, away from her children and basically lose her own life to take one...there's zero sense in that, zero. It shows how fraudulent the "justice" system in the US is.

There isn't enough material for three episodes; two would have worked out perfectly. The story of Sally is definitely worth telling, from everything to her body-building career and the abusive equation she shared with her husband Rob, to the resulting murder. I appreciate Netflix choosing to tell this story after Sally's release because it would have left a sour taste in every viewer's mouths to know that she was still serving a prison sentence for what she did - maybe, partly due to roid rage and partly due to the mistreatment she had been meted out all those years, right from her childhood to her failed relationships. Sally's love for her kids is undeniable, and that's what keeps the emotional core of the piece fully intact. The media and the prosecution, as expected, played a role in worsening the conditions of the trial and pictured Sally as more of an "abuser" and less of an "abused" citing her physicality and occupation. Ray's friends also seem unclear of their current stance, but casually speak about he was a physically imposing person who could beat people up with ease (even inflicting injuries on multiple occasopns). Sally's kids also get a fair amount of screen-time, given that their lives also changed drastically after the incident, and it felt important to hear their life stories (with its share of downs).