All the characters in Monster: The Ed Gein Story who are based on real life people

Netflix has just released true crime drama series Monster: The Ed Gein Story, which sees actors recreate the chilling stories of the real people involved in the case.

The series is the third instalment of Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology on Netflix, after The Jeffrey Dahmer Story in 2022 and The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story in 2024. Serial killer Ed Gein was active in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, from 1947 to 1957.

Here is a rundown of all the characters in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, who are based on real life people.

Ed Gein

via Netflix

Let’s get the obvious one out the way first, Ed Gein unfortunately was real. The unassuming man became known as the Butcher of Plainfield, a serial killer and grave robber. Charlie Hunnam plays him.

Augusta Gein

via Netflix

Laurie Metcalf plays Gein’s real life mother, Augusta. It was Ed’s relationship with Augusta that served as the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Augusta was highly influential in Ed’s life.

Adeline Watkins

via Netflix

Adeline Watkins was a companion for Gein, also obsessed with death. She first introduced him to some serial killer stories, which would later become his inspiration. After he was arrested, Adeline told the Minneapolis Tribune she had a decades-long relationship with Ed Gein.

Enid Watkins

Robin Weigert plays Enid Watkins, who in real life was Adeline’s long-suffering mother.

Sheriff Arthur ‘Art’ Schley

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via Netflix

Arthur Schley, Plainfield’s head law enforcement officer, is based on a real life person. He was one of the main people involved in the killer investigation.

Bernice Worden

via Netflix

Bernice Worden, played by icon Lesley Manville, was a real life person. She was an object of Ed Gein’s obsession. Ed Gein was found guilty of her murder in 1968.

Deputy Frank Worden

via Netflix

Charlie Hall plays Deputy Worden, Bernice’s son and a police officer in Plainfield. So, he was the son of a victim, and highly involved in the investigation.

Evelyn Hartley

via Netflix

Addison Rae’s character was also real. Babysitter Evelyn Hartley was just 16 when she vanished on October 24, 1953, in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. She has never been found. Over the years, her name has been linked to Ed Gein, though authorities never confirmed she was one of his victims.

Ilse Koch

via Netflix

Ilse Koch was also a real person, and the war criminal inspired Ed Gein’s hideous use of human bodies. In the Netflix drama, Gein is shown as having developed a fascination with killing and skinning bodies after he learned about Nazi atrocities during WWII.

Gein read a comic book titled The B*tch of Buchenwald, which told the story of real-life Nazi Ilse Koch. She died in prison.

Alfred Hitchcock

via Netflix

I think it goes without saying but yes, Alfred Hitchcock is real. Tom Hollander plays the iconic filmmaker in the Netflix series. Hitchcock directed Psycho, inspired by Ed Gein.

Alma Reville

via Netflix

Olivia Williams plays Alma Reville. Shw was a screenwriter and editor, who was married to Alfred Hitchcock from 1926 until his death in 1980.

Anthony Perkins

via Netflix

Anthony Perkins was a young actor, who would take on the role of Norman Bates in Psycho. He was born in New York, and died in 1992.

Tobe Hooper

Tobe Hopper is also real. He is the director and co-writer of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, another film inspired by Ed Gein crimes.

Dr. Mildred Newman

Mimi Kennedy plays Dr. Mildred Newman. She was a psychologist and author, who rose to fame in the 1970s for her self-help books.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.