So this true crime doc was actually the first one I watched when naturally progressing into my TC era. I'd heard about these monsters before on a podcast, but seeing their crimes played out in front of me, the photos of their victims, it was far more impactful.
Fred and Rose West from Gloucester way were a sadistic married couple who delighted in abuse, sexual abuse, and the eventual murder of young women including their own children. They had 10 kids of their own and all of them suffered at the hands of their parents, but two died at the hands of Rose West with a little help from Fred.
The documentary is split into three episodes, one on each murderer and then one that focuses on the trial. Although I knew what the outcome was going to be, I found myself still holding my breath when they toyed with the notion that Rose might be set free, I didn't want her to escape justice
But let's go through it one by one.
The first episode titled Fred is the one that gripped me. I'd put the dinner on, fed the dog, and was waiting for Jamie to come home from work so decided to chuck on an episode. He's not a lover of true crime docs so I took the opportunity presented to me, and I was honestly hooked.
The first episode jumps right into it. We examine Fred's marriage, his home, his kids, and then we are given the transcript of his interviews. We meet all the key players in this docuseries in this first episode, but we also learn of the height of his crimes. It all started with Heather West, his daughter. The other children had started whispering about behaving or else they'd end up under the patio like their sister. What was taken as a joke by adults for a while soon became something of a concern as the other siblings were heard to say this too. One kid you'd expect to be morbid but all of them? Something was up. So the flags were raised and Fred went into custody and admitted he killed his daughter and that she was indeed buried in the garden. When they dug her up they found another bone not belonging to Heather and that's when the horror mounted.
Buried within the property were a further 9 girls. Both within the house and in the garden. They were named, we met their families most of whom were siblings due to parents being long dead. We met their friends. We also met a survivor of the West family who blamed herself for not pushing the rape charge, but it wasn't her fault.
In this first episode we think we know the extent of it. We think we have the measure of Fred West, but we don't. We are presented with a man who is freely admitting to the murder of these girls, but swearing his wife is innocent. He talks about how she dabbled in sex work for him, and she lays the blame squarely at his door. In this episode Rose West is the innocent, she's just as abused by her husband as anyone else, she's under his thumb with no escape. But we know that isn't true. Thanks to the outsiders who were investigating we can clearly see that Fred is defending his wife, their bond is true. But that means they are both monsters, and he is hiding something else.
The second episode titled Rose, we get a glimpse of her involvement and how far Fred was willing to go to protect her. Rose murdered his daughter Charmaine, her own step kid. She tied her up and abused her, and then she killed her and left the body for Fred to dispose of when he returned from his short stint in prison. We see in this moment Fred taking the blame and Rose plastering it on thick here. The home videos paint her as the perfect mother going for walks with her kids, but you can see in her eyes the evil within. But with Fred taking the blame and the lack of witnesses it seems like Rose is going to get away with it, they'd planned this, he was going to take the fall and she was going to get away with it because he loved her. They got together when she was 15 and he was in his twenties, she was pregnant within a month. You can already see the issues.
When we move on into The Trial episode everything becomes bleaker. We talk to the oldest West boy, Steve, and he tells us of the abuse he and his siblings endured and that his mum was always the worst. She always took it too far like she couldnt stop herself from beating them. They feared her more than their dad you could see it. But it was when Fred told his son that he would die without telling the true extent of what they'd done that chilled me to the core. We find out that two other women were buried in a field, and then Fred killed himself and took his secrets to the grave. He heavily indicated that there were more victims and it breaks my heart to know that they will never be found.
At this point Rose is still pleading innocent and she goes out of her way to ignore Fred in the courtroom which upsets him greatly. He throws her under the bus as the doubts creep in at whether or not she was using him all along for her murderous deeds. He tries to backtrack with a change of heart but by then the damage is done, he's convicted his wife. He seems to think that by hanging himself it will set Rose free and she thinks it too, but the jury have other ideas and the judge throws the final quip showing he too hopes she never sees the light of day again. She is sent down for involvement in 10 murders, but there is no doubt more, but she wont tell.
Jamie watched the last episode with me and it upset him a little to know she's still just living out her days in prison at the age of 70 something. But he found out that she's isolated, no one will go near her, she's alone even though she's changed her name. Everyone knows who she is and what she's done and no one will touch her. She's heavily supervised so she cant dodge justice like her husband, but is that enough really? 10+ young women dead and she gets to sit in a cell and watch nature documentaries about birds. It doesnt seem fair. Let's not go into that.
The way this docuseries handled this case was intriguing. It wasn't glorifying the killers just as it wasn't the story of the victims. This was fact, they killed these girls and through interviews and recordings from the time they showed us what had happened. This was the story of how these two murderers were caught and nothing more. It was morbidly interesting and of course very sad as you cant help but attach emotion to these things. But Netflix dealt with this properly, it created no bias and no theatrics, this was taking us through two killers trying to play a game and ultimately lost.
Again I hate doing this, but with this one it is a little easier as it presented the case without bias emotions. Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story gets an 8/10 from me. It was informative, we didn't linger on motives or personal histories of the victims. This was simply an educational presentation of two murderers and what they had done and how they were caught in order to serve justice. I'm torn between needing these types of series in order to remember those who died and shunning them as the killers dont deserve the notoriety. But it helps people stay vigilant, it is a difficult pill to swallow.
Join me next time as I take a break from true crime and go back to the escapism that cinema brings!
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