Charlie Hunnam Set to Play Serial Killer Ed Gein in Ryan Murphy's MONSTER Anthology Series
Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) is set to play serial killer and graveyard body snatcher Ed Gein in the next season of Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology series Monsters.
This seems like it will be a really interesting role for Hunnam to taking on. Gein was also known at “the Butcher of Plainfield,” and he was a truly twisted individual.
Murphy announced the casting before a recent screening of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and he plans to start production on it next month.
Ed Gein was a criminal whose gruesome crimes in the 1950s shocked the nation. Born in 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Gein grew up in a strict, repressive household under the rule of his domineering and religious fanatic mother, Augusta.
She instilled in him a deep fear and distrust of women, which, combined with an isolated upbringing, contributed to his psychological instability. Following the deaths of his parents and brother, Gein became increasingly withdrawn, eventually turning to grave robbing and murder.
Gein's horrifying activities were discovered in 1957 after the disappearance of a local woman, Bernice Worden, whose body was later found in his farmhouse in Plainfield, Wisconsin.
Investigators unearthed a house of horrors, filled with human remains that Gein had exhumed from local graves. He had fashioned various items from the skin and bones of corpses, including lampshades, clothing, and masks.
His crimes extended beyond grave robbing, as he was also responsible for the murders of Worden and another woman, Mary Hogan.
Gein's twisted acts inspired several iconic fictional killers in popular media, including Norman Bates from Psycho, Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.
Gein was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and was committed to a mental institution, where he spent the remainder of his life until his death in 1984.
What do you think about Hunnam taking on the role of Ed Gein?