True Horror Stories

We've all heard true horror stories like Ed Gein and what he did in Plainfield, Wisconsin, the Zodiac Killer out in California, and the horrors of what the suave murderer Ted Bundy did to his victims. In a large part, horror movies are sometimes born because of the actual events that happened somewhere. One can wonder where the person that got the idea to make that slasher movie that's currently number one at the box office? Well, look in the news. We have enough horror going on day to day to make a million horror movies.

Consider the horrifying case of Jack The Ripper. Back in the late 1800's he murdered five prostitutes and mutilated their bodies over in bloody London. A whole bunch of theories abound that Jack was a doctor with scalpel skills because of the way the whores were cut open from crotch to crown. Some people think that Jack was a customer who caught V.D. from the women and he was angry! We haven't read once that he my have just liked doing what he did. The guy was never found. Today, people are still studying Jack The Ripper and trying to speculate on what made him tick.

David Berkowitz, aka Son Of Sam or the .44 caliber killer, terrorized New York City back in the mid 70's using a .44 caliber gun. He killed a handful for no apparent reason at close range. From what we understand, a .44 makes one heck of a mess. Of course, he taunted the cops, taunted newspaper reporters, and wrote a bunch of crap that made no sense. He was finally caught and NY breathed easier. Our best guess is that he was looking for attention, or again....he may have just enjoyed what he was doing! Yes, a movie was made about these murders.

Charlie Manson has to be the king of true horror stories when, back in 1969 his followers committed murder at a house in Beverly Hills, CA. A bizarre event, Manson’s followers murdered the actress Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, the coffee heiress, and a bunch of other people. It was a bloodbath. Among other things, the murderers scratched foul sayings on the walls with the victims own blood. A sensational trial followed in mid 1970, with a headline grabbing Charlie Manson acting like the hysterical nut that he is, ring leading the whole trial with his antics. Goodtime Charlie, however, got put away in spite of his ranting and raving.

Sharon Tate, unfair victim of the monster Charles Manson.

Consider this recent (August 2006) true horror story out of Newry, Maine. This guy, Christian Nielsen, killed and dismembered three people and killed, dismembered, and burned another. He was a cook, too at a place called the Sudbury Inn! That's one of those interesting tidbits of information that mean nothing to the story, but the reporters throw that in to make you think long and hard about eating out again. The weird thing about this story (as more information comes out) is that this nut bag smiles at the cameras. How's that for weird? Pretty soon, this will become a book or a "based on a true story" movie. And that, my horror friends, are how true horror stories are made into horror movies.

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