Sally McNeil

Sally McNeil (born September 30, 1960) is an American former sergeant, professional female bodybuilder and muscle worship practitioner, who was convicted for the murder of her husband Ray McNeil, a Mr. Olympia competitor.

McNeil was born Sally Dempsey in Allentown, Pennsylvania and describes her upbringing as tough, including exposure to violence so frequently that she had thought it to be commonplace in every home.

Sally's father, Richard Dale Dempsey, was a raging alcoholic who was frequently abusive to her mother.

Her mother remarried when Sally was 3 years old, and they had two daughters, Judy and Jill, who were Sally’s half sisters, according to the Killer Sally documentary.

McNeil attended Dieruff High School in Allentown, where she was on the school's swimming and diving and track and field teams.

She enrolled at East Stroudsburg State College (now East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania) with aspirations of becoming a gym teacher.

After three and a half years in college, however, she ran out of money to fund her education and dropped out.

As her brother and her uncle before her, McNeil served in the United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton.

She rose to the rank of Sergeant.

McNeil met her first husband, Anthony Lowden, at Parris Island while in the Marines, and were married for four years and had two children together: Shantina, John, and a third child from another man.

Sally described Anthony as abusive towards the end of their marriage.

As she was being transferred to Camp Pendleton, McNeil filed for divorce from Anthony, winning custody of their two oldest children in the process.

During their divorce, the third child was put up for adoption.

She won the U.S. Armed Services Physique Championship twice in the late 1980s.

McNeil started bodybuilding during her service at Camp Pendleton, where a friend introduced her to Ray McNeil, another competitive bodybuilder, in June 1987.

They dated for about two months before getting married.

Three days later, Ray began abusing both Sally and her two children.

Sally was choked and punched by Ray.

The family settled in Oceanside, California.

When she was discharged from the military, Sally began a career wrestling men on video for $300 an hour, earning her the moniker Killer Sally.

She was trained by videomaker Bill Wick, who was the husband of Kay Baxter.

She made enough money to enable Ray to leave the Marines and concentrate on his own bodybuilding career.

Ray started using steroids, which Sally blamed for his violent behavior.

Sally would even go to Tijuana, Mexico with her children to buy steroids for Ray.

Sally would admit she was not proud of this and considered this to be ‘bad parenting’.

In 1990, McNeil was demoted from her position as a sergeant for a continuously poor behavioral record, including anger issues, violence, and lashing out at others.

Her behavioral record also resulted in her being discharged from the military.

McNeil was arrested in 1990, for brandishing a firearm at Lowden and smashing the windows of his vehicle with a metal bar.

She had been arrested previously for assaulting a mailman who had slapped her son John after he had a fight with the mailman’s son.

McNeil attacked one of Ray’s lovers at a bodybuilding show, pinning her to the floor and hitting her repeatedly.

This resulted in the National Physique Committee suspending her for a year.

During this time, Ray won the heavyweight and overall titles in both the 1991 NPC California Championships and the 1991 IFBB North American Championships, and competed in the 1993 Mr. Olympia competition, placing 15th.

He also began participating in professional wrestling and did stand-up comedy, performing his material in free shows at The Comedy Club in La Jolla, San Diego.

According to his friend, Dwayne "DJ" Jeffers, Ray got into an altercation with another Man One night whilst working as a bouncer at a nightclub and ended up sticking his fingers through his eyes.

Shantina, Sally’s daughter, spoke about the same night to verify this, as she recalled seeing Ray coming home covered in blood and how he told her he had to do what he did because the others were trying to kill him.

Ray had been dating another woman at the time and had decided to leave Sally for her.

According to DJ, Ray actually planned to spend Valentine’s Day in 1995 with the other woman, not his wife.

Ray apparently even told DJ he would tell Sally about ending their relationship.

DJ warned him about the shotgun in their house, saying she might shoot him.

But he said Ray only laughed it off.