Fact vs. Fiction in Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”

Ryan Murphy’s latest installment in his Monster anthology series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, has once again blurred the line between truth and dramatic fiction. The series stars Charlie Hunnam as the infamous Wisconsin killer whose crimes in the 1950s inspired horror classics like Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.

While the show captures the eerie isolation and psychological horror surrounding Ed Gein, many details are exaggerated or entirely fabricated. Below, we separate the real history from the Hollywood additions.

The Real Ed Gein

Ed Gein lived most of his life as a quiet, reclusive farmer in Plainfield, Wisconsin. That image shattered in 1957 when local hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared. Police found her body in Gein’s shed and uncovered a house filled with horrifying objects made from human remains. Gein later confessed to killing Worden and Mary Hogan, a tavern owner who vanished in 1954.

Authorities also discovered that many of the human remains in his home came from graves he had robbed in local cemeteries. Gein admitted to exhuming bodies at night to create items like furniture, masks, and clothing. In 1958, he was declared not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to psychiatric institutions until his death in 1984.

Despite the gruesome reality of his crimes, the Monster series heightens Gein’s story with fictional relationships, invented crimes, and symbolic scenes that never happened.

Fiction: Gein’s “Accomplice” and Girlfriend

In the series, Gein has a romantic relationship with a woman named Adeline Watkins, portrayed as both lover and accomplice. In reality, Adeline was a real person but not a partner in crime.

After Gein’s arrest, Watkins told the Minneapolis Tribune that she had known him for about 20 years and claimed he had proposed to her in 1955. But when her comments drew attention, she retracted them, telling the Plainfield Sun that their relationship was platonic. “There was no 20-year romance,” she said.

No evidence suggests she was involved in or aware of his crimes.

Fiction: A Romantic Link to Bernice Worden

Murphy’s version implies that Gein had romantic feelings for Bernice Worden, his second murder victim. The show stages her death as an act of passion after a personal conflict.

In truth, there was no relationship between the two. Worden was the owner of the local hardware store, and Gein was a customer. Investigators concluded her murder was premeditated, not emotional. Gein himself claimed to have never had a sexual relationship with anyone, citing his mother’s strict religious upbringing and fear of intimacy.

Fiction: His Brother’s Murder and Evelyn Hartley’s Abduction

The series portrays Gein killing his older brother, Henry, during an argument before staging a brush fire to hide the evidence. In real life, authorities never charged Gein with Henry’s death. According to Harold Schechter’s book Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original “Psycho”, police ruled that Henry died accidentally from smoke inhalation while fighting a fire in 1944.

Similarly, the show links Gein to the disappearance of Evelyn Hartley, a 15-year-old babysitter from La Crosse, Wisconsin, who vanished in 1953. While Hartley’s disappearance remains unsolved, investigators found no evidence connecting Gein to the case. He even passed a lie detector test when questioned about it, as reported by the Winona Daily News and The Victoria Advocate.

Fiction: Necrophilia and Cannibalism

One of the show’s most shocking scenes depicts Gein committing necrophilia. While rumors of sexual acts with corpses and cannibalism have surrounded him for decades, investigators never proved either claim.

According to Deviant author Harold Schechter, Gein explicitly denied such acts, claiming he found the smell of corpses “offensive.” Police records support that no evidence of sexual assault or cannibalism was ever documented. These details, while sensational, were likely added for horror impact rather than accuracy.

Fiction: Gein’s “Fan Mail” From Other Killers

In Monster, fellow murderer Richard Speck sends Gein letters from prison, calling him an “idol” and inspiration. This scene is pure invention.

There is no record of correspondence between Gein and any other killer. In fact, Speck, who murdered eight student nurses in 1966, distanced himself from others. In a 1978 Chicago Tribune interview, he said, “Me, I’m not like [John] Dillinger or anybody else. I’m freakish.”

The idea that Gein influenced other killers through direct contact is fiction, though his crimes undeniably inspired film characters and cultural depictions for decades.

Fiction: Gein’s Gender Identity

The series explores Gein’s sexual identity through an imagined conversation with Christine Jorgensen, a real-life transgender woman and activist of the 1950s. In the episode, Jorgensen tells Gein he’s not transgender but “gynephilic” — someone deeply attracted to the female form.

No record exists of Gein ever discussing Jorgensen or identifying as gynephilic. The show’s creators told Tudum they included the scene to distinguish Gein’s psychological issues from transgender identity. “It was important for us to say these are two very different things,” co-creator Ian Brennan said.

While the intention was to avoid conflation, the scene is a fictionalized addition meant to frame Gein’s confusion about identity within a social conversation of the 1950s.

Fiction: Gein Helped Catch Ted Bundy

In the series finale, two detectives visit Gein in prison for his insight into a string of murders, implying that his observations help lead to Ted Bundy’s arrest.

Though FBI profilers did interview Gein during the late 1970s, he did not contribute to any active investigation. Former profiler John Douglas later recalled meeting Gein at Mendota State Hospital in Wisconsin, describing him as incoherent and “so psychotic that it really wasn’t much of an interview.” Gein’s mental state rendered him unable to assist in profiling other killers.

The Reality Behind the Myth

The dramatized version of Ed Gein may make for gripping television, but it often distorts key facts for narrative impact. The real Gein was a deeply disturbed man whose crimes shocked small-town America and changed the way the public viewed horror itself.

Yet, unlike the charismatic or manipulative killers depicted in fiction, Gein was socially awkward, isolated, and psychologically broken. He was not sexually motivated by his crimes, nor did he seek fame or power. His story is horrifying precisely because of its mundanity — a lonely man whose psychosis turned him into a real-life monster.

Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story succeeds in reigniting fascination with a case that shaped modern horror. But as with most “true crime” adaptations, the truth is both simpler and stranger than the fiction.

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