What did serial killers from films about famous maniacs look like in real life
Many people love horror movies and thrillers for the opportunity to get a fair share of adrenaline. Violent scenes of violence, blood-curdling stories about bloodthirsty maniacs have always attracted and will attract people.
But few people think that the plot of some horror films is based on stories that happened in real life, or the main villains had prototypes in the person of famous maniacs and murderers. Next, nine films about real maniacs and actors who played these famous killers are waiting for you.
Richard Attenborough — John Christie
10 Rillington Place, 1971
British serial killer John Christie gassed, raped and strangled his victims. He killed eight women, including his wife. On July 15, 1953, the maniac was hanged.
Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek — Charles Starkweather and Caryl Fugate
"Wastelands", 1973
The young lovers dropped out of school and ran away from home to travel around the States. Previously, the young man brutally killed his girlfriend's parents and younger sister so that they would not interfere with their plans. During the journey, Charles and Caryl killed 11 more people — for the purpose of robbery or just like that. On June 25, 1959, Charles Starkweather sat on the electric chair, and Caryl Fugate was sentenced to life in prison, but was released early in 1976, changed her name and got married.
Now Caryl is 74 years old.
Tony Curtis — Albert de Salvo
"The Boston Strangler", 1968
He confessed to the murder and rape of 13 women, but this number may be three times more. De Salvo was sentenced to life, but in November 1973, the maniac was stabbed to death in prison.
Jeremy Renner — Jeffrey Dahmer
"The Executioner Dahmer", 2002
Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer killed 17 men. The maniac raped the bodies of the victims, and later ate them. The killer received several life sentences, but almost immediately, in 1994, he was killed by a cellmate.
Hans Beckert — Peter Kürten
"M", 1931
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the story of Peter Kurten from Dusseldorf shocked Germany with its cruelty. The maniac grew up in a family of an alcoholic and a rapist, but in the matter of sexual perversions he went even further than his father. He raped his sisters, who were already broken by his father's abuse, raped and killed animals. After leaving home, the psychopath began stealing, as well as raping and killing girls. Kurten was imprisoned several times for theft, but was not caught for murder. He was arrested when one day he suddenly decided to tell his wife about his atrocities and she contacted the police.
The exact number of victims of the maniac is unknown — Kurten himself confessed to 69 episodes, but only nine of them were proven. On July 2, 1931, the maniac was beheaded.
Michael Rooker — Henry Lee Lucas
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", 1990
Lucas' mother was a prostitute. She beat her son and her husband, a disabled man with no legs, and forced both to watch her work with clients. Lucas's father tried to be kind to the boy, but he showed his father's love in a peculiar way: the man calmed the baby with moonshine, so that by the age of 10 the future killer earned alcoholism.
As a child, Lucas tortured animals, and then began to kill women. Among the victims of the maniac was his mother. For the murder of his mother, Lucas initially received 40 years in prison, but was released early (and not on his own initiative) in 1970. A couple of hours after his release, Lucas kills again. Later, together with his feeble-minded pervert partner, he began to practice cannibalism and Satanism.
In 2001, Lucas died in prison while serving a life sentence. The proven number of victims of the maniac is 11 people, but, according to Lucas' stories, there could be from 50 to 100 murders. Researchers of the Lucas case are convinced that he killed several hundred people.
John Cusack — Robert Hansen
"Frozen Earth", 2013
A maniac from Alaska raped and killed 17 women from 1971 to 1983. The escaped victim, Cindy Poulson, a 17—year-old prostitute, whom Hansen abducted, tortured and raped, helped to catch the killer. The police did not believe the accusations of a dysfunctional girl against an exemplary family baker, but the case aroused suspicion from one detective who managed to prove Hansen's guilt. Hansen was sentenced to life in prison and died in prison in 2014.
Mark Holton — John Gacy
"Grave Digger Gacy", 2003
The maniac was looking for his victims — teenage boys - on the street. I drove a car in search of lonely young men, offered to give them a ride, get to know each other and spend an evening together. Gacy Jr. raped and killed 33 young men. The psychopath kept the decomposing bodies of almost all the victims in his basement.
In 1978, a maniac, after several hours of torture, for some reason left the victim alive and threw the guy unconscious in the park. But the hospital did not believe the story of a young homosexual about a pervert rapist. John Gacy was arrested only at the end of 1978. The police removed 29 mutilated bodies from his basement. Four more were drowned in the river.
In May 1994, the maniac was executed by lethal injection.
Jeffrey Demann — Andrey Chikatilo
"Citizen X", 1995
Andrey Chikatilo, one of the most famous serial killers in Russia, is a pedophile, necrophile and cannibal maniac, whose victims in the period from 1978 to the early 90s were about 60 people (the exact number of victims has not been proven). He was executed on February 14, 1994.
Keywords: Maniacs | Thriller | Murderers | Horror | Movies | Film adaptation