Despite coming out more than 50 years ago, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is still considered a Halloween classic and is re-watched by millions every time spooky season rolls around.
But did you know that the beloved horror flick is actually based on chilling true events?
The film follows a group of teens who accidentally stumble across a family of psychopaths while visiting a rural town in Texas.
The family – which includes Leatherface, a chainsaw wielding man who famously wears a mask made from the skin of his victims – brutally torture and murder them one by one, making for gruesomely terrifying film that still haunts people today.
Leatherface himself is now one of the most infamous horror figures of all time – and it turns out, his character was inspired by a real sadistic killer whose actions were perhaps even more disturbing than what happened in the film.
Filmmaker Tobe Hooper has said that he based Leatherface off real-life murderer Ed Gein, who wreaked havoc across a small Wisconsin town the 1950s.
Dubbed ‘The Butcher of Plainfield,’ Gein is known to have killed at least two women – potentially more.
Despite coming out more than 50 years ago, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is still considered a Halloween classic and is re-watched by millions every time spooky season rolls around
But did you know that the beloved horror flick is actually based on chilling true events?
But more frightening was that he was also a body snatcher who preyed upon dead victims.
He would scan obituaries in his small town, go to the graveyard, and dig up the bodies of the listed deceased.
He would then take the stolen remains to his farmhouse where he would dissect, dismember, and skin them.
Some of the body parts he removed were then used as home and fashion accessories.
Skin became chair covers, masks were made from human faces, kitchen utensils from skulls and bones, and nipples were used to make belts.
Similar scenes are depicted in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. One particularly scary scene shows the group of friends discovering the family tormenting them had hoards of items made from human flesh and other body parts in their home.
They also uncover something that can only be described as a torture chamber, where the cannibalistic family got to work on dismembering their victims.
Gein’s descent into madness began when his mother, Augusta, died in 1945.
The film follows a group of teens who accidentally stumble across a family of psychopaths while visiting a rural town in Texas
The family – which includes Leatherface, a chainsaw wielding man who famously wears a mask made from the skin of his victims – brutally torture and murder them one by one
Filmmaker Tobe Hooper has said that he based Leatherface off real-life murderer Ed Gein (seen), who wreaked havoc across a small Wisconsin town the 1950s
Gein (seen in 1957) is known to have killed at least two women – potentially more – but more frightening was that he was also a body snatcher who preyed upon the dead
The loner had a sick infatuation with her and tried to dig up her grave when she died. When he came up empty-handed, he went in search of other woman who resembled her.
It was only when two women in his small town mysteriously disappeared that cops began investigating him.
Among them was Mary Hogan, 54, who ran a tavern that Gein frequented and went missing in December 1954.
Three years later, Bernice Worden, 58, disappeared from a hardware store she worked at in the town of Plainfield where Gein lived.
Worden’s son was the town’s deputy sheriff who had become suspicious of Gein.
After Gein was apprehended, the authorities went to his dilapidated farmhouse where they were confronted by a house of horrors.
Worden’s body was found hanging from the ceiling. She had been decapitated – her head was found in a sack, and her heart was in a plastic bag.
It was revealed later in the search that the remains of more than 15 bodies were found at his home.
Gein pictured kneeling on the floor of his filthy kitchen in this dilapidated farm house where human skulls and body parts were found
Gein’s descent into madness began when his mother, Augusta (pictured), died in 1945
He would then take the stolen remains to his farmhouse where he would dissect, dismember, and skin them. His home is seen
Texas Chainsaw Massacre filmmaker Hooper told Flashback Files in 2015 that hearing stories about Gein as a child lead to him ultimately making the horror flick
After his arrest, Gein confessed to killing both Worden and Hogan, and said the rest of the body parts in his farmhouse came from bodies he had dug up.
He eventually entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and was later found unfit to stand trial after a schizophrenia diagnosis. He was committed to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.
Gein was later transferred to Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, where he died aged 77 in 1984 from lung cancer and respiratory illness complications.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre filmmaker Hooper told Flashback Files in 2015 that hearing stories about Gein as a child lead to him ultimately making the horror flick.
‘They told us the story about this man who lived in the next town from them, about 27 miles or so, who was digging up graves and using the bones and skin in his house,’ he said, adding, ‘To me he was like a real boogeyman.’
Gein’s horrifying crimes were also said to have in-part inspired the movies Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, and were featured on season three of Ryan Murphy’s Monster.
