One of the most disturbing scenes in Netflix’s new Ed Gein true crime series is when Birdman appears in the final episode, but who is he? Here’s a full explanation.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story tells the story of the Wisconsin serial killer who is better known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul, and committed his crimes in the 1950s.
He’s one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, inspiring many of the world’s most famous horror films, but in the final episode, another killer appears – Richard Speck, aka the Birdman.
We see the American mass murderer who killed eight women send a disturbing letter to Ed Gein in the hospital, calling him his inspiration.
Credit: Netflix
So, who is the Birdman in Monster: The Ed Gein Story?
Richard Speck was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in one night at their Chicago home on the night of 13th to 14th July 1966. A ninth student nurse, Corazon Amurao, survived by hiding under a bed.
He was nicknamed Birdman because he kept two sparrows as pets while behind bars at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois. Speck was initially sentenced to death, but this was changed to multiple terms of life in prison after the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.
The nickname came from The Birdman of Alcatraz, a 1962 film about Robert Stroud, another murderer known as The Birdman of Alcatraz. He spent time raising and researching almost 300 canaries while behind bars at Leavenworth Penitentiary after killing two people. Stroud went on to write a book called Diseases of Canaries, which was published in 1933.
Credit: Netflix
Did the Birdman actually send letters to Ed Gein in hospital?
In The Ed Gein Story, Speck sends Gein a disturbing letter from his own prison cell telling him how much of an idol he is. However, there’s no evidence that Richard Speck ever sent letters to Ed Gein in real life.
This fictional scene was included in the series to eerily show that Ed Gein had become a celebrity in the criminal world, receiving mail from other serial killers who saw him as an idol. The chilling scene shows that Gein has inspired a new wave of serial killers, and that the cycle hasn’t ended with his imprisonment.
“There were many, many dark creatures in our world – Richard Speck, Ted Bundy – who were influenced and obsessed with Ed for all the wrong reasons,” producer Ryan Murphy told Tudum.
Co-creator Ian Brennan added: “It’s the most tonally challenging part of the show to me in that he’s not horrified by it. He sort of loves the fact that he made a mark.”
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Featured image by: Netflix
