Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story shows Richard Speck, aka the Birdman, sending letters to Ed Gein from prison and admiring him as a criminal inspiration, but the truth about his real life was far stranger and darker than just that.

The series goes deep into Ed Gein’s gruesome crimes and how they inspire many horror films. It also dramatises that loads of serial killers were actually inspired by him, including Richard Speck, aka the Birdman. In the show, the Birdman scenes are brief, but his real life was actually much darker.

Richard Speck was an American mass murderer who became infamous for killing eight student nurses in Chicago. He broke into their dormitory and attacked them one by one. Another woman, Corazon Amurao, survived by hiding under a bed, later helping police identify Speck.

His time in prison was bizarr

According to Crime and Investigation, Speck’s time behind bars was unusual, to say the least. While imprisoned at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois, he earned the nickname Birdman because he kept two sparrows in his cell, a nod to Robert Stroud, the original Birdman of Alcatraz. He spent his time collecting stamps, listening to music, and keeping to himself, but he also got into trouble a lot for drugs and contraband.

Years later, shocking footage from 1988 surfaced showing Speck with female-like breasts. Reports suggest he smuggled hormone pills into prison, which changed his body. On the tape, he was also taking drugs, wearing women’s underwear, and bragging about his crimes, saying things like, “If they knew how much fun I was having, they’d turn me loose.” Basically, he seemed completely comfortable living behind bars in a way most people would find shocking.

So what happened to him, and was there a connection to Ed Gein?

Speck was sentenced to death in June 1967 after a short 12-day trial. But in 1972, the US Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, so his sentence was changed to multiple life terms. He lived out his final years surprisingly comfortably in prison, with contraband, alcohol, and even sexual activity part of his daily routine. Speck died of a heart attack in 1991, just one day before his 50th birthday.

As for Ed Gein, Netflix makes it look like Speck wrote to him and idolised him. But in real life, there’s zero proof they ever met or corresponded. Speck was in Illinois, Gein in Wisconsin, and no letters have ever been found. The show just uses this to underline how Gein’s crimes loomed large in the American imagination.

Of course, Netflix takes creative liberties. Co-creator Ian Brennan said Ed’s story was “fragmented” and incomplete. So, the show blends fact with fiction to explore his psychology.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now.