Did Ed Gein really influence Richard Speck?
Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story has mixed together fact and fiction
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Netflix's latest true crime offering, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, is the third instalment in Ryan Murphy's highly praised series, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Unlike its predecessors, this season takes a more creative approach to the facts, aiming to portray the troubled mind and heinous crimes of Ed Gein (played by Charlie Hunnam), particularly his struggle to differentiate between reality and the hallucinations brought on by his schizophrenia.
The series also explores how Gein's horrific acts inspired iconic Hollywood horror films such as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.
Furthermore, it suggests that Gein's gruesome deeds influenced a new generation of American serial killers, including Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson reprising his Mindhunter role), Ed Kemper (Jeffrey Murdoch) and Charles Manson (John Drea).
In the eight-part drama, Gein interacts with various serial killers and receives what can only be described as fan mail while in an asylum, from notorious figures like Ted Bundy (John T. O'Brien) and Richard Speck (Tobias Jelinek). But did this really happen?
Did Ed Gein really influence Richard Speck?
There's no evidence to suggest that Speck ever contacted Gein during their respective prison terms or really influenced him.
This appears to be a fictional element added to reinforce the narrative that Gein's chilling crimes became so deeply embedded in the American psyche that they influenced others.
In the gripping finale of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Gein finds himself being lauded by a host of infamous serial killers, drawing parallels to Murphy's American Horror Story: Hotel, which features a chilling dinner party of serial killers.
Discussing the final moments of The Ed Gein Story, co-creator and producer Murphy confessed that the show was initially set to centre on a scene between the notorious killer and his mother Augusta Gein, portrayed by Laurie Metcalf.
Murphy elaborated: "We quickly abandoned that and came up with the kind of All That Jazz tribute. And also we wanted to talk about, yeah, it was a dark legacy.
"There were many, many dark creatures in our world - Richard Speck, Ted Bundy - who were influenced and obsessed with Ed for all the wrong reasons."
Meanwhile, writer and fellow co-creator Ian Brennan commented: "It's the most tonally challenging part of the show to me in that he's not horrified by it."
He added: "He sort of loves the fact that he made a mark."
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Who was Richard Speck?
Speck was a ruthless serial killer who, in 1966, murdered eight student nurses after breaking into their dormitory. A ninth potential victim survived only by hiding and later served as a key witness.
Convicted of all eight murders the following year, Speck was initially sentenced to death. However, this was later commuted to a life sentence, which he served at the Stateville Correctional Center.
Speck died from a heart attack in prison in 1991, just one day shy of his 50th birthday.
Five years following Speck's demise, a videotape surfaced in 1996 featuring the serial murderer alongside several other prisoners.
In the footage, according to CBS News, Speck displayed no regret whilst discussing the murders and revealed disturbing particulars.
He described how the slayings had occurred following his break-in to the premises with burglary in mind: "I was on acid; drugs. One of them spit on me in the face, she said she was going to pick me out of a lineup."
During his arrest, Speck had maintained he recalled nothing from that evening, yet the recording clearly demonstrated this was untrue.
The material also depicted the now elderly killer participating in drug consumption, amateur pornography and sexual behaviour.
In the footage, Speck was dressed in women's undergarments and his physique appeared to have been chemically or hormonally modified, as shown in the television programme.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is streaming on Netflix now