Overview

• Netflix released the eight-part Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Oct. 3 starring Charlie Hunnam, and it quickly hit the platform’s top spot as criticism over graphic content intensified.
• A 1957 psychiatric evaluation documented in John Borowski’s The Ed Gein File diagnosed Gein with a “schizophrenic reaction of the chronic undifferentiated type,” and he was later found not guilty by reason of mental disease.
• Psychiatrist Paul E. Mullen said a case like Gein’s could recur today and argued the historical schizophrenia label likely would not meet current diagnostic criteria, citing isolation and fixation on death as warning signs.
• Fact-checkers report the series interweaves fiction with history, with certain violent incidents depicted on screen unsupported by the historical record.
• Netflix says cameras are rolling on season 4 centered on Lizzie Borden, with Hunnam set to return in a different role.