This powerful documentary delves into the lives of Colleen LaRose and Jamie Paul Ramirez who were involved in a plot to murder a controversial cartoonist
‘She seemed like a normal country girl.” That’s Kurt speaking, ex-boyfriend of Jihad Jane, a blond, blue-eyed woman from suburban Philadelphia, real name Colleen LaRose, convicted in 2014 of conspiracy to murder a Swedish artist who drew a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. What emerges in this fascinating documentary, made with sensitivity by
Irish film-maker Ciarán Cassidy, is that LaRose was anything but normal, after a childhood scarred by horrific abuse.
Cassidy also profiles Jamie Paul Ramirez, dubbed “Jihad Jamie”, another vulnerable woman convicted on terrorism charges in connection with the same plot. The two women became radicalised in much the same way, watching
YouTube clips of
Israeli air raids on
Gaza with a growing sense of anger and outrage. Both joined online jihadi chatrooms where they met an Algerian man, Ali Damache, who lived in
Ireland where he claimed to be the leader of a jihadist group. Separately, they flew out to join him, Ramirez bringing her six-year-old son with her. She arrived on a Sunday and married Damache the next day.