*Get "Born to Kill?" on Amazon Prime Video here*
*Get Love as Always, Mum xxx by Mae West with Neil McKay on Amazon here*
*Get Fred & Rose by Howard Sounes on Amazon here*
*Get Inside the Mind of Rose West: Wife, Mother, Monster by Tanya Farber and Jeremy Daniel on Amazon here*
For many decades, the United States seemed to corner the market on horrific serial killers. Then, Fred and Rose West were arrested.
The premise of the British series "Born to Kill?" asks if notorious murderers are born or bred? In the Fred West case, there seems to be a little bit of both. West was born in a tiny English village in 1941. Both of his parents were physically, mentally, and sexually abusive to their children. West carried this trauma throughout his life, exacerbated by head injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. His first victims were his pregnant nanny, and then his first wife. After he married his co-conspirator Rose, they murdered ten more girls and women, including another pregnant woman and their own daughter. The victims' remains were found in a field near Fred West's hometown, in their house's garden, and underneath their cellar and patio. After his arrest, Fred West hanged himself on New Year's Day 1995, and Rose was sentenced to life in prison. Their remaining children have little to do with each other, not wanting to relive the trauma of what they went through, and some have had their names changed and live anonymous lives (according to some online research).
These were not "movie serial killers," the documentary mentions the couple's depravity without going into the grisly details too much. The documentary itself has many of the early 2000's cable true crime series tropes- talking heads, artsy lighting, and so on. The most compelling footage is the interview with Owens, perhaps the only person to survive an attack from the Wests. Their punishment for what they did to her is infuriating. Reenactments are kept to a minimum, but the film makers do present chilling footage of the quiet, normal-looking field where West buried his first victims, as well as bringing Owens to the site where the Wests' house stood and the remaining victims were found (now a walkway). One of their children wrote a book about their life with the Wests. The episode, the first of a very popular series, does not delve too deeply into the actual psychology in answering the series' question, despite the impressive experts. The Wests are as infamous in the United Kingdom as all the one-name serial killers in the United States today- Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer, Wuornos, etc., and this episode provides a good introduction to the case.
