Monster: The Ed Gein Story - What's the true story behind Netflix's 'disturbing' new show?

*Contains spoilers for Monster: The Ed Gein Story*

The latest instalment of Ryan Murphy's Monster series on Netflix focuses on the abhorrent crimes and twisted mind of Ed Gein, who became a notorious grave digger and butcher in the 1900s - and everyone is hooked.

The grizzly dramatisation flicks between Gein's life, which sees him become infatuated with his ultra-religious mother following her death (which prompts him to begin his grave-digging quest), and the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, a film inspired by Gein's crimes.

Throughout the eight-episode series, we see Gein (played by Charlie Hunnam), go on a slaying spree and dismember his victims, before using their limbs and skin to create household objects, from chairs, to bowls that he eats from each day.

We also see his bizarre romance with wannabe crime scene photographer, Adeline Watkins unfold, who is curious by Gein's awkward personality, but comes face-to-face with his dark secret when she uncovers the corpse of 'Mother' in a bedroom.

“Who was the monster? This poor boy who was abused his whole life then left in total isolation, suffering from undiagnosed mental illness?” co-creator of the show, Hunnam asks Tudum. “Or the legion of people who sensationalized his life for entertainment and arguably darkened the American psyche and the global psyche in the process?”

Netflix

Whichever side of the argument you're on, we can all mutually agree that it makes for a rather disturbing watch.

However, there's now speculation about which parts of the show were based on truth vs created for our entertainment (if you can call it that).

Did Ed Gein really help solve the murder of Ted Bundy? Was Adeline Watkins really Gein's long-term girlfriend?

Much of the story laid out in the Netflix adaptation is true: Gein really was Wisconsin's most notorious body snatcher, taking keepsakes from his victims and using them in nefarious ways - and he also went on to become the inspiration behind many iconic slasher movies.

But, that being said, we have to take the show for exactly what it is; a dramatisation of real-life events, rather than gospel.

Here's what we know about the fact vs fiction of Monster: The Ed Gein Story...

What movies did Ed Gein inspire?

Psycho

Ed Gein's crimes were so gruesome that they did go on to inspire a number of iconic slasher movies, including Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, as seen in Monster.

Author Robert Bloch, who wrote the 1959 novel Psycho, lived near Gein’s hometown and based his character loosely on the case.

In the movie, we see Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his overbearing mother, who goes on to become a killer.

Ed Gein also served as the primary inspiration for Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, who notoriously skins his victims.

Other movies Ed Gein inspired include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Leatherface wears the skin of his victims as a mask), and Deranged.

Was Adeline Watkins really Ed Gein's long-term girlfriend?

Netflix

This one is up for debate. Adeline is a primary character in Monster: The Ed Gein Story and appears to have a shared fascination with the dead, but it would turn out that in real life, her story about just how intense their relationship was is an ever-changing one.

In 1957, Watkins was interviewed by the Minneapolis Tribune, where she admitted to dating Gein for two decades, even describing him as "good and sweet" - noting that the pair almost got married.

However, shortly after the article was released, Watkins revoked her comments. She said the story had been "blown out of proportion," and that they'd only actually ever been in a relationship officially for seven months, despite knowing each other a lot longer.

How many people did Ed Gein kill?

Ed Gein has only ever admitted to killing two women – 54-year-old Mary Hogan and 58-year-old Bernice Worden - who both appear in the Netflix adaptation, and were both shot.

In the show, we also see Gein kill both his brother, Henry, and Addison Rae's character, Evelyn Hartley; who he later mummifies. While Evelyn Hartley did disappear in real life, Gein has never been charged with her vanishing, nor was he ever arrested for killing his brother, whose cause of death was listed as heart failure.

While officials have investigated him for several other murders in the Plainfield area, there's never been any confirmed link that Gein was responsible.

However, he did admit to digging up numerous corpses to practice necrophilia and harvest body parts.

Wikipedia

Did Ed Gein really help solve Ted Bundy's case?

Long story short, no. In Monster: The Ed Gein Story, we see Gein in his later years inside a psychiatric facility assisting FBI with the case of fellow serial killer, Ted Bundy, as they attempt to get an insight into how the mind of a murderer works.

While we're unsure if it was merely portrayed as a figment of Gein's imagination, or was just an added plot for the dramatisation, this definitely didn't happen in real life.

Where is Ed Gein buried?

Following his death on 26 July, 1984, Gein was buried near the home where his crimes took place in Plainfield, Wisconsin. However, when his gravestone was stolen in 2000, it was never replaced.

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