Before Ed Gein gets another chance at the spotlight in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming Netflix series, the Wisconsin serial killer will be the focus of another documentary project.
Deadline.com reported June 16 that Hearst Networks EMEA, Spirit Studios and BossaNova are producing a two-part documentary series, “Ed Gein: Original Psycho.” According to Deadline, the series will run on Crime+Investigation, a Hearst-owned true-crime platform with outlets in Europe.
In 1957, Gein confessed in the Wisconsin community of Plainfield to killing two local women and digging up bodies from graveyards and using body parts and skin to make everything from trophies to lampshades.
Gein’s story has been fodder for scores of dramatic and true-crime productions over the years. It inspired Milwaukee writer Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho,” which Alfred Hitchcock turned into the 1960 classic of the same name that transformed the horror genre. Gein also inspired other horror classics, from “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” to “The Silence of the Lambs.”
“Using reconstructed transcripts of Gein’s original confessions from November 1957, ‘Original Psycho’ will use generative AI to portray him and actor-performance for the detective who led the real-life interrogation,” reported Deadline, which dubbed Gein “America’s first famous serial killer.”
“This is not just another retelling of a notorious case — it’s an invitation into the fractured mind of Ed Gein, told in a way that’s as immersive as it is unsettling,” Spirit Creative Director and co-founder Campion told Deadline. “We wanted to create something that pushes the boundaries of true crime storytelling and resonates with a global audience.”
Filming for “Original Psycho” is underway in the United Kingdom and the United States, according to Deadline.
In September 2024, Murphy, the hit-making producer behind Netflix’s “Monsters” series on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, announced that Gein would be the focus of the next installment in the series. Charlie Hunnam, best known for the series “Sons of Anarchy,” is playing Gein.
In a fall 2024 interview with Collider, Murphy disclosed the title of the Gein series would be “Monsters: The Original Monster.” In addition to Hunnam, reported cast members include Emmy- and Tony-winning actor Laurie Metcalf, playing Gein’s domineering mother; and Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams as Hitchcock and Alma Reville, the legendary director’s wife and filmmaking partner.
No premiere date has been announced for “Monsters: The Original Monster,” but Murphy’s previous two “Monsters” series debuted on Netflix in late September, in 2022 (Dahmer) and 2024 (the Menendez brothers).
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: With Netflix’s Ed Gein series near, docuseries on Wisconsin serial killer in the works
Reporting by Chris Foran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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