Thanks to Monster: The Ed Gein Story, millions of people around the world now know about the serial killer whose horrific acts inspired countless films and TV shows, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. What fans may not have expected when they sat down to watch the latest Netflix series is that other major murderers would make appearances.
**Spoilers ahead for Monster: The Ed Gein Story**
In the series, while Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam plays the titular American serial killer, John T. O’Brien and Tobias Jelinek both appear as other notable killers, playing Ted Bundy and Richard “Birdman” Speck, respectively. In the eighth and final episode, “The Godfather,” the actors appear as Bundy and Speck, as Gein assists the FBI while in his mental institution in catching Bundy, whose own crimes played out in the episode’s cold open. But how do these two relate to Gein?
Here’s what you need to know about the real Bundy, Soeck, and how it all ties back to the serial killer at the center of the show.
As mentioned above, the eighth episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story gets into Gein’s impact on other prolific murderers in American history, including Speck and Bundy. The episode begins with Bundy asking a young girl for help before raping and murdering her and another young woman he had trapped in his car. As investigators are trying to get to the bottom of the case, Speck — imprisoned in Illinois for murdering eight nursing students — receives a letter from Bundy, who says he was inspired by the killings carried out by Speck.
This, in turn, causes Speck to send a letter to his own role model, Gein, sharing the news that he has inspired another person. In the letter, Speck also includes the note sent to him by Bundy, which states that he has murdered several women in the Pacific Northwest and plans to do more in the style of Speck. For his own part, Speck was arrested after stabbing, strangling, and slashing the throats of eight women in a suburb of Chicago back in 1966.
After receiving the disturbing letters from Speck, Gein reaches out to the FBI to alert them to Bundy’s name and other identifying details, such as the make and model of his car, hoping it will help narrow down the search. Earlier in the episode, Gein had a sit-down with three investigators from the FBI’s newly formed Behavioral Science Unit and was asked if he had any information or ideas that might help them track down their mysterious killer.
The scene with Gein and the agents came after two of the agents also sat down with serial killer Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson), marking a clear nod to Netflix’s Mindhunter, which ran from 2017 to 2019 and starred Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford, a character inspired by real-life profiler John E. Douglas… remember that name! In that series, Anderson also played Brudos, who was instrumental in providing insight into the mind of a serial killer and helping the FBI get their new Behavioral Science Unit off the ground.
In reality, when it comes to Gein, Speck, and Bundy, there is no evidence that Gein was responsible for helping to catch Bundy in the midst of his killing spree. There is also no evidence that Gein had any form of correspondence with Speck while living out his days at the mental asylum.
According to the real John E. Douglas, Speck’s nickname comes from a story about nursing a sparrow back to health while in prison. In his book, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, Douglas said that Speck shared that a sparrow had flown in through a broken window and that he decided to help it regain its strength. After a guard allegedly told Speck that pets weren’t allowed, the prisoner walked over to a fan and tossed the bird in, shocking the guard. The FBI agent said that of this horrifying act, Speck told the guard, “If I can’t have it, no one can.” Brutal stuff and a decent explanation of the nickname.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is now streaming on Netflix.