You wouldn't know it from the Netflix series, but Gein is only proven to have killed two people. Factchecking Monster: 10 details The Ed Gein Story gets wrong (

You wouldn't know it from the Netflix series, but Gein is only proven to have killed two people.

Fact-checking Monster: 10 details *The Ed Gein Story *gets wrong (and what really happened)

You wouldn't know it from the Netflix series, but Gein is only proven to have killed two people.

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 15, 2025 2:30 p.m. ET

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

Bettmann/Getty; Netflix

*Monster: The Ed Gein Story* is more interested in the *idea* of its subject than it is in presenting an accurate portrait of the infamous killer and grave robber.

Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the latest installment in Netflix's *Monster* anthology casts Charlie Hunnam as Gein, a Wisconsin farmer who shocked the nation by killing two local women and plundering numerous graves, collecting body parts, and using human skin to upholster furniture.

The series plays fast and loose with the details of Gein's life and crimes, opting instead to explore what fascinated such a monstrous figure and his impact on pop culture. Gein, after all, inspired cinematic killers like *Psycho*'s Norman Bates, *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre*'s Leatherface, and *The Silence of the Lambs*' Buffalo Bill.

Below, we've compiled eight instances where the show sacrificed historical record in favor of drama.**

Gein is only confirmed to have killed two killed people

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

Courtesy Of Netflix

Gein confessed to the murders of two women: 54-year-old tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and 58-year-old hardware store operator Bernice Worden in 1957. But *Monster *ups his body count considerably, showing Gein committing murders for which he was suspected but never definitively connected.

One prominent example was Evelyn Hartley, a 15-year-old who disappeared in 1953 from La Crosse, Wis. On the show, she's played by Addison Rae, and Gein is shown murdering her after she takes a babysitting gig he wanted.

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Following his arrest in 1957, Gein was suspected of Hartley's abduction, a case which had gone cold, but he was cleared by police after passing a polygraph test, per *The Victoria Advocate*. Her case remains unsolved to this day.

Gein was also suspected of murdering two hunters, Victor Travis and Raymond Burgess, in 1952. The series depicts Gein killing them with a chainsaw, though there's no evidence that he had any connection to their disappearances. As with Hartley, Gein passed a polygraph test in which he said he was innocent of the murders. Furthermore, he was never known to use a chainsaw as a weapon.

Gein's involvement in his brother's death is unproven

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

*Monster: The Ed Gein Story*'s first episode sees Gein kill his older brother, Henry (played by Hudson Oz), by hitting him with a piece of wood and setting a fire to burn the body.

According to a 1944 story in the *Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune*, Henry "died of a heart attack while trying to protect his farm from the ravages of a grass and brush fire." The article goes on to detail how Henry was burning over the property's marsh when the fire "escaped control." His body was found by a search party several hours later.

In his 2005 book *Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original Psycho, *author Harold Schechter writes that Henry's dead body was found with bruises on his head, leading some to suspect Gein of having been involved. Still, no foul play was suspected by authorities.**

Adeline Watkins played no part in Gein's crimes

Suzanna Son as Adelina and Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in episode 302 of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

Courtesy Of Netflix

*Monster *presents Adeline Watkins (Suzanna Son) as an active participant in Gein's grave-robbing expeditions. On the show, she fuels his dark fantasies by encouraging necrophilia and showing him disturbing photos and books about Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch (played by Vicky Krieps), who allegedly collected human skin and body parts, just as Gein would go on to do.

There's no evidence that Watkins was involved in any of Gein's crimes. Her relationship with him, however, remains a curious one.

In November 1957, just days after Gein's arrest, the *Minneapolis Tribune* reported that she'd been in a relationship with him for 20 years, describing him as "good and kind and sweet." But she contested that characterization in the following weeks, telling the *Stevens Point Journal* that the original story exaggerated their relationship and contained "untrue statements." According to Watkins, she knew him for 20 years, but their relationship was never romantic.

When Adeline visits Ed in the final episode of *Monster: The Ed Gein Story*, he addresses this real-life detail. "You told the newspapers that you barely knew me. And that we'd just talked a few times," he says, pained at how she'd denied their relationship.

Adeline Watkins never desired to be a killer

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein and Suzanna Son as Adelina in episode 302 of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

When Adeline returns in the final episode, she tells Gein that she's suffered "deep, deep depressions for years at a time," and calls herself "the dark one." She then shows him a list of "people I gotta get rid of," implying that she, too, sees herself as a killer.

"You and me have always been the same, Eddie Gein," she says, much to his displeasure.

But, just as there's no evidence that the real Watkins was Gein's accomplice, there's nothing that suggests she followed in his footsteps. It appears the show is using her character to explore how engaging with violent imagery can lead to real-life violence, not to mention how Gein's gruesome crimes inspired so many others.**

In an interview with Netflix's Tudum, Hunnam revealed that he sees the show's Adeline as a figment of Gein's imagination. "My interpretation was that she's in a large part a fantasy of Ed's," the actor said. "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."**

Gein did not have a relationship with Bernice Worden

Portrait of murder victim Bernice Worden ; Lesley Manville attends The Olivier Awards 2025 on April 06, 2025 in London, England.

Bettmann/Getty; Karwai Tang/WireImage

*Monster: The Ed Gein Story *portrays Gein as having a romantic relationship with Bernice Worden (played by Lesley Manville), the second woman he confessed to killing. On the show, he takes her out on a date. Later, they sleep together and he wears her underwear. He kills her inside the hardware store she owns the next day, shooting her after an argument.

There's no evidence that Gein and Worden were ever romantically linked, though Schechter writes in *Deviant* that Gein asked her to go roller-skating not long before murdering her.

Gein was busted over a receipt, not a gift box

In the series, Gein is caught after police find a gift box in Bernice's hardware store addressed to him.

In reality, authorities found a receipt that showed Gein was expected to return the next day for antifreeze. This led authorities to Gein's home, where they found her body (and a lot more).

Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan had very different personalities

The series depicts Worden as flirtatious and bawdy, while Hogan (Rondi Reed) is shown as stern and cold.

According to Schechter's *Deviant*, however, the opposite is true. Hogan, who owned a local tavern, was known for being "foul-mouthed" and having a "shady, even sinister past."

Worden, on the other hand, was more of a no-nonsense figure, a devout Methodist who had been awarded a Citizen of the Week award. Per Schechter, she was known for being "a bit snippy and sharp-tongued," but was "held in high regard by most of the community."**

Gein denied any interest in necrophilia

Addison Rae as Evelyn and Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in episode 302 of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

Courtesy Of Netflix

Gein did a lot of sordid things with the body parts he collected, including fashioning a "woman suit" from the skin of the corpses that he collected. Still, there's no evidence that he engaged sexually with corpses, as depicted on *Monster: The Ed Gein Story.***

Per a TIME report from 1957, Gein "practiced neither cannibalism nor necrophilia, but preserved the remains just to look at." He did, however, have an "erotic obsession" with the women's corpses, per A&E, though he denied any sexual contact, saying "they smelled too bad."**

Gein didn't correspond with serial killer Richard Speck

Richard Speck, a serial killer convicted of murdering eight female nurses in Chicago in 1966, appears in *Monster: The Ed Gein Story* as a Gein superfan. The show depicts him as saying Gein is "who I wanted to be, and he's who I became."

The intent is to show Gein's influence on different serial killers throughout time, but there's no real-world evidence that Speck and Gein ever communicated.**

Gein did not help catch Ted Bundy

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

Bettmann Archive/Getty

Fans of Netflix's dearly departed *Mindhunter* got a surprise in the series' last episode when a pair of FBI agents visit Gein in the psychiatric hospital. Later, Gein helps provide information that leads to the arrest of serial killer Ted Bundy.

The agents are John Douglas (Caleb Ruminer) and Robert Ressler (Sean Carrigan), the real-life figures who inspired the characters played by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany on *Mindhunter. Monster* even takes pains to mimic the stylistic flourishes of David Fincher's crime series.

It's a neat nod to *Mindhunter*, though it's not rooted in reality. While Douglas did get a chance to speak with an incarcerated Gein in the 1970s, he didn't receive any useful intel from the killer.

"I had the opportunity to briefly meet him, but Gein was so psychotic that it really wasn't much of an interview. Not like the ones I did after with other serial killers," Douglas told *Schokkend Nieuws* (via Flashback Files). "It was really weird: he was working in the leather shop at the prison, this Mendota State Mental Institution."

Bundy was arrested in August 1975 after attempting to speed away from a patrol car.

How can I watch Monster: The Ed Gein Story?

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

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

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