The Netflix series plays fast and loose with the reallife details of Gein's gruesome exploits. How much of Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story is true? Separat

The Netflix series plays fast and loose with the real-life details of Gein's gruesome exploits.

How much of Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story is true? Separating fact from fiction

The Netflix series plays fast and loose with the real-life details of Gein's gruesome exploits.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on *The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer*, and many other publications.

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October 7, 2025 3:00 p.m. ET

Ed Gein; Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'. Credit:

- *Monster: The Ed Gein Story* stars Charlie Hunnam as notorious Wisconsin killer Ed Gein.

- The Netflix series takes numerous liberties with Gein's real-life history.

- All eight episodes of the season are now streaming.

Ryan Murphy makes entertaining television, but the co-creator of Netflix's *Monster *anthology is no historian.

The latest installment, *Monster: The Ed Gein Story*, follows Ed Gein, the so-called "Butcher of Plainfield," whose gruesome crimes in 1950s small-town Wisconsin went on to inspire horror classics like *Psycho* and *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre*.

The series, which engages with both Gein and his legacy in Hollywood, plays fast and loose with the proven details of the killer's life, using the crutch of Gein's diagnosed schizophrenia to keep it ambiguous as to what's real and what isn't.

Below, we dig into *Monster: The Ed Gein Story* — what's fact and what's fiction?**

How many people did Ed Gein kill?

Bettmann Archive/Getty

Gein confessed to the murders of two women: 54-year-old tavern owner Mary Hogan and 58-year-old hardware store operator Bernice Worden. Hogan and Worden were killed in 1954 and 1957, respectively. Gein told authorities he murdered the women because they resembled his dead mother, per the *New York Times*.

While Gein was suspected of other murders, there is no evidence that he was responsible.**

Did Ed Gein rob graves?

Suzanna Son as Adeline and Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

Courtesy Of Netflix

Yes, Gein confessed to robbing the graves of nine women, per the *Warsaw Times*. After investigating the gravesites mentioned by Gein, authorities discovered the caskets to be empty, giving credence to Gein's confession. The *New York Times* reports that Gein robbed graves between 1944 and 1952.

Per TIME, Gein tended only to steal the heads of the corpses he pillaged, though he did confess to one instance in which he absconded with an entire body.**

Did Ed Gein make masks and suits out of human skin?

Ed Gein wearing the skin of a corpse on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

Netflix/YouTube

Gein is remembered less for the murders he committed than for what he did to the corpses in his possession. Like *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre*'s Leatherface, who was based in part on Gein, the killer put the skin of his victims to use.

As reported by TIME, investigators found a "chamber of horrors" at the Gein farmhouse, including "ten skins of human heads, neatly separated from the skull; assorted pieces of human skin, some between the pages of magazines, some made into small belts, some used to upholster chair seats (the largest piece, rolled up on the floor, was the front upper section of a woman's torso); a box of noses."

In episode 2, Hunnam's Gein is seen eating from a bowl made out of a human skull. This particular artifact was also reported to be in Gein's house after he was arrested, along with a "face mask" made from Hogan's skin, a belt made of nipples, and "the component parts of a 'woman suit,' including leggings and a corset made of skin designed to help him literally inhabit his mother's body," per Northeastern University.**

Did Ed Gein have a girlfriend?

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein and Suzanna Son as Adelina on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

The relationship between Gein and Suzanna Son's Adeline Watkins — whom we see join him on a grave-robbing expedition and introduce him to the story of Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch — is greatly exaggerated in *Monster*.

The real-life Watkins spoke with the *Minneapolis Tribune* following Gein's arrest, saying the two dated for 20 years and that Gein had even proposed to her. Curiously, she retracted those remarks two weeks later in an interview with the *Stevens Point Journal*. There, she said her previous comments had been blown out of proportion, clarifying that she had simply known Gein for 20 years and had never been inside his house.

"My interpretation was that she's in a large part a fantasy of Ed's," Hunnam told Tudum. "He finds, whether in reality or in his mind, this sort of kindred spirit with Adeline, somebody who can relate and to understand these primal urges and instincts that he has."**

Did Ed Gein kill his brother?

Hudson Oz as Henry Gein and Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

Early on in *Monster*, Gein is shown killing his brother, Henry, by hitting him across the face with a piece of wood and subsequently staging a brush fire accident to cover his tracks.

The real Henry indeed died in a brush fire incident, but there's no evidence that Ed had any involvement in his brother's death. The official cause of death was asphyxiation.

However, Harold Schecter writes in the 1998 Gein biography *Deviant* that there may be more to the story. "Several odd things immediately struck the searchers," writes Schecter (via TODAY). "First, though the corpse was stretched out on a scorched piece of ground, there were no signs that Henry had been injured by the flames. His clothes were soot-covered but otherwise undamaged, and the exposed part of his body was similarly free of burns."**

Did Ed Gein kill Evelyn Hartley?

Addison Rae as Evelyn on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

Pop star and actress Addison Rae costars in *The Ed Gein Story* as Evelyn Hartley, a real-life 15-year-old who disappeared from La Crosse, Wis., in 1953. On the show, Gein kidnaps and murders Hartley after she takes a babysitting job from him.

According to *The Charley Project*, Gein denied having any involvement in Hartley's disappearance, and there was no evidence linking him to her disappearance. Despite new clues resurfacing in 2004, her case remains unsolved.**

Was Ed Gein a cannibal or necrophiliac?

Addison Rae as Evelyn and Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein on 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.

Courtesy Of Netflix

Gein's desecration of corpses was grotesque, but there's no evidence that he ever ate his victims or the bodies he dug up. Nor is there any evidence that he engaged sexually with the bodies.**

Gein "practiced neither cannibalism nor necrophilia, but preserved the remains just to look at," according to a TIME report. A&E also notes that while Gein confessed to having an "erotic obsession" with the women's corpses, he never defiled them sexually because "they smelled too bad."**

Did Ed Gein help the FBI catch Ted Bundy?

Ed Gein stands with his attorney William Belter at the Wabsara County Court.

Bettmann Archive/Getty

The final episode of *Monster* finds a pair of FBI agents speaking with Gein during their search for a serial killer later revealed to be Ted Bundy. The show more or less depicts this as a figment of Gein's imagination, which is good, since there's no evidence that Gein ever worked with the FBI.

Bundy was arrested in August 1975 after attempting to speed away from a patrol car, per the *New York Times*.**

How can I watch Monster: The Ed Gein Story?

All eight episodes of *Monster: The Ed Gein Story* are available to stream on Netflix.

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