You’ve seen Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, maybe you’ve even read the books that the first two films were adapted from – now come and meet the guy behind Norman Bates, Buffalo Bill and Leatherface! The one, the only Ed Gein! Yay!
The opening two seasons of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series Monster dealt first with Jeffrey Dahmer (you gotta open with good name recognition, right?), and then with the Menendez brothers (bit classier, li’l bit more niche, get the real dedicated true crime fans to commit). Now it’s time for the Butcher of Plainfield – or, if you prefer, the Plainfield Ghoul – to take his turn in the spotlight. It’s only fair. He may not have the same brand recognition as Dahmer, Bundy or even John Wayne Gacy, and he only killed two people, but he desecrated so many female graves and corpses with such gusto and inventiveness that to this day if you find yourself watching anything involving mutilated corpses, flayed bodies or homewares made out of skin, the chances are it’s been inspired by this guy’s exploits more than 70 years ago. And they say that people don’t know history any more!
