NETFLIX have released a three-part in-depth documentary that examines the life and crimes of Britain’s most notorious and sordid husband and wife serial killers.
It is a harrowing and disturbing story, with no crimes of passion or desire for status and wealth. Just a husband and his younger wife killing for sexual pleasure and their own twisted desires.
There have already been plenty of tv shows, movies and books about 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester where the West’s lived and committed their crimes. What makes this documentary stand out is that it includes unseen police video and audio recordings of Fred and Rose.
Fred met Rose at a bus stop when he was 27 and she was 15. Fred was barely literate, was often in trouble with the police for petty crime and looked like a tramp but Rose was flattered by the attention he lavished on her and they ended up getting married and having a daughter called Heather.
The couple had other children that they abused in unspeakable ways, as well as lodgers and vulnerable teenagers that they came across. All this done while Rose worked as a prostitute in a room of their home.
It wasn’t until 1993, when the mother of a friend of the West’s abused daughter Louise tipped off the police that an investigation into Fred and Rose began.
This culminated in Fred admitting that he had murdered Heather (who had been disappeared years before) and buried her under the patio of their home. This led to other bodies being found and Rose being charged as an accomplice after those living in the house said she was a willing and enthusiastic partner in the crimes committed. 12 young women were eventually confirmed dead. There may have been many more.
The horrors committed by Fred and Rose West are just so evil and pointless that the question that needs to be asked is “do we really need to give this story any more oxygen?”
One answer it could be that be revealing the dark and disturbing events that went on behind closed doors of a normal English street, it highlights the need to stay vigilant.
It seemed there was plenty of evidence and cries for help from victims that went unheard. Heather disappeared and no one raised the alarm and runaways that ended up at the West’s house were forgotten.
FRED AND ROSE WEST: A BRITISH HORROR STORY is like a waking nightmare that went on for years under the noses of society that found it easier to look the other way.