Did Ed Gein exchange letters with Richard ‘Birdman’ Speck, as portrayed in Netflix show ‘Monster’
Did Netflix tell a true Ed Gein story? Separating fact from fiction
Not everything in Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” is factual. We separate fact from fiction.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Netflix show “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” and some graphic description of events portrayed in the show.
Among the many creative liberties taken by the hit Netflix show “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” is a final episode arc in which killer Richard “Birdman” Speck professes to idolize Gein and even corresponds via letter with the confined Wisconsin murderer.
The episode, titled “The Godfather” as one of numerous homages throughout the series to notable movies of the decades after Gein’s crimes, positions Gein as a “godfather” template to a generation of serial killers.
Who was Richard ‘Birdman’ Speck?
In 1966, Speck killed eight nursing students in Chicago; he was later identified by his tattoo from a survivor who hid during the attack. He died in prison in 1991. He earned the nickname “Birdman” while caring for a sparrow during incarceration.
Five years after his death, a video surfaced of Speck in prison, showing him taking drugs and performing oral sex on another inmate. He had also appeared to grow breasts as a result of taking female hormones. The video led to demand for changes in the Illinois prison system. The Netflix show recreates a similar vignette upon introducing Speck.
Did Richard Speck and Ed Gein communicate?
There is no evidence Speck and Gein corresponded, nor that Speck had any special affinity for Gein’s crimes. In the show, their bond leads to the arrest of another serial killer, Ted Bundy, though there’s no documentation the real-life Gein had any connection to that case whatsoever. Even the show leaves some doubt as to whether the entire sequence was merely imagined as a schizophrenic episode.
The show’s recurring theme of Ed Gein as a bizarre inspiration tracks more neatly when it connects Gein to movies like “Psycho,” “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Silence of the Lambs,” as opposed to when it posits him as a forefather in the serial killer “community.”
Is Ed Gein a serial killer?
Not by the traditional definition of three or more murders in separate events, though it fits if the definition is two events. Evidence and Gein confessions pointed to the Plainfield man killing two women, in addition to digging up the graves of nine to 10 others. Gein killed tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957; he was apprehended after the latter victim’s body was found in his shed.
This story was updated to correct a misspelling.
