Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Ryan Murphy, True crime
Emily Brown
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s latest instalment of their Monster series on Netflix is inspired by the heinous crimes of Ed Gein - but while many of the stomach-churning details are true, there are a few elements of the story that took advantage of artistic license.
Charlie Hunnam took on the role of Gein for the new eight-part series which dropped on Netflix on October 3, and presented viewers with the reality of the man Netflix's Tudum described as the 'godfather of all serial killers'.
Gein's story inspired horror movies including The Silence of the Lambs and Psycho after he was found to have killed at least two women, and created furniture and accessories out of numerous body parts.
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It's true that Gein made 'clothes' from his victims as well as a mask of a woman's face, but here are seven things from Monster that didn't actually happen.
Fans of Monster will know that Adeline, played by Suzanna Son, is depicted in the series as Gein's accomplice and longtime girlfriend.
In real life, Watkins reportedly suggested she'd had a relationship with Gein before she retracted her statement and told reporters she knew him as nothing more than a 'quiet and polite' friend.
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“There was no 20-year romance,” she said.
Following the murder of tavern worker Mary Hogan in December 1964, Gein was linked to the disappearance of Bernice Worden, who was reported missing from her hardware store in Plainfield three years later.
In Monster, the scene in which Worden is shot is depicted as one of passion - but there's no evidence Gein and Worden had any sort of relationship.
Monster details how Gein's older brother, Henry, dies in a fire - but the exact details of that incident were embellished for the series.
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While on Netflix we see Gein killing Henry and staging a fire, in real life there's no proof that Gein was the cause of Henry's death. According to Harold Schechter's 2005 book Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original 'Psycho', police reported that Henry died of asphyxiation that led to heart failure after fighting a bush fire.
Similarly, Gein was not proven responsible for the disappearance of Evelyn Hartley; a girl who, in the show, Gein abducts and kills.
While Hartley did go missing in real life, authorities never found evidence linking Gein to her disappearance.
Gein is shown in Monster as engaging in necrophilia - the sexual attraction to corpses.
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However, while Gein did keep body parts, including sex organs, around his home, he denied participating in necrophilia.
While Gein definitely inspired real-life movies, he's shown in the series as also proving an inspiration to other serial killers, including mass murderer Richard Speck.
Speck is shown in the show writing fan letters to Gein and describing him as his 'idol' - but there's no evidence to suggest Speck ever actually got in touch with Gein.
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Just like he didn't communicate with other killers, Gein also didn't help police catch one of the most notorious.
The final episode of Monster depicts two detectives interviewing Gein in prison to discuss who could be responsible for the deaths of young women in the late 1970s - and while detectives really did speak to Gein in real life, in reality, he was no help in solving the case.
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However, in the show, Gein's insight ultimately leads to the capture of Ted Bundy.
Gynephilic is a term which describes a sexual orientation which is characterized by an attraction to women or femininity, and it's this term which Gein is given in Monster in an imaginary conversation with Christine Jorgensen, a transgender woman and activist from the 1950s.
Hunnam's Gein describes thinking he might be 'transsexual' in the series, to which Jorgensen tells him he's actually gynephilic.
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While Gein didn't ever publicly identify himself as gynephilic, Monster co-creator Brennan said they added the label to ensure Gein's crimes were not linked to transgender identity.
Brennan told Tudum: "It was really important for us to make that distinction, for us to say, ‘Look, these are two very different things'."
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available to stream on Netflix now.