Murderers and Their Mothers
Do the warped and damaged relationships of murderers and their mothers lie at the root of many of the world's most notorious killers? In these ten episodes, journalist Donal MacIntyre examines ten cases of murder in which the culprits' childhoods and maternal influences set them on the path towards their unspeakable crimes.
Overview
Do the warped and damaged relationships of murderers and their mothers lie at the root of many of the world's most notorious killers? In these ten episodes, journalist Donal MacIntyre examines ten cases of murder in which the culprits' childhoods and maternal influences set them on the path towards their unspeakable crimes.
Episodes
1. Daniel Bartlam: The Coronation Street Killer
At just 14 years old Daniel Bartlam savagely killed his mother with a claw hammer and then sought to cover his tracks by setting fire to her body. Daniel's deep resentment of his mother following his parents' divorce rapidly led to dark and menacing behavior, and she was desperate to keep the problems behind closed doors, but did her love for him seal her fate?
2. Fred and Rosemary West: Killer Couple
Fred and Rosemary West raped, tortured, murdered and dismembered twelve young women including two of their daughtersin one of the most shocking cases of serial killing Britain has ever seen. But why did the Wests embark on their path of depravity? Were they born to kill, or did their mothers make them into monsters thanks to childhoods full of incest and abuse?
3. Jed Allen: The Wolverine Killer
The case of Jed Allen, a young man who on the surface had a happy, stable life. Yet in May 2015 he would kill his mother, step-father and six year old half-sister in a brutal knife attack. MacIntyre and criminologist Dr Elizabeth Yardley explore Jed's dysfunctional childhood years with his mother to discover the trigger that led him to commit family annihilation.
