I just finished watching Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Ryan Murphy’s new exploration of a serial killer. Well, the serial killer, one that inspired hosts of other killers, both real and fictional.
There’s a part near the end that gets rather weird. Well, weirder than usual. We get a glimpse at a revival of Mindhunter for a minute, where a pair of FBI agents go around to killers trying to stop an active one: Ted Bundy. Eventually they land on Ed Gein, the godfather of killers, and he’s happy to help however he can, first telling them what kind of saw Bundy would be using to remove the heads of women (and he’s apparently right), and then later, sharing a letter he acquires, revealing Bundy’s first name and indicating which car he drives (also right). Gein watches on TV later as Bundy is caught, and an “anonymous” tipster is credited. Job well done, he thinks. He gave something back to society.
Except no, none of that happened in real life.
This bit was confusing because there were other moments in the show, particularly his asylum life, that certainly did not seem real, and were not real, like Gein being able to communicate with a Nazi war prisoner via ham radio. That seemed absurd, and it was, in fact, all in his head. The Bundy bit, however, with two different visits from law enforcement and no real indication that it was fake, would make you look up if that actually happened. I know I did, and this is what I found.
(Original Caption) Suspected murderer Theodore Bundy, charged with the killings of FSU coeds Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy who were beaten and strangled at the Chi Omega House in January, is shown in this photograph.
Bettmann Archive
This just didn’t happen at all. There’s no record of Ed Gein ever being interviewed by the FBI for something like this. Ted Bundy was not found based on his name or car make or type of saw he used like the show suggests, via Gein’s information. Bundy was arrested three different times because he escaped custody twice. The first time he was caught was after a traffic stop, the second was when he was found hiking near Aspen, the third was after another traffic stop. Sorry, Ed.
The entire show blends fantasy and reality, truth and fiction, in a way that is consistently disorienting and mirroring Gein’s own schizophrenia. But this final storyline felt more plausible than the others, and the show goes to great lengths showing the FBI interviewing other killers, which leads into the Gein interviews. Then, unlike the ham radio situation, no one ever sits Gein down and tells him this didn’t happen. It’s unclear whether Gein actually had this delusion when in the asylum, but there is no confirmation that he did. It appears to be just another “inspired by a true story” liberty, and the show is full of them.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.