Monster: The Ed Gein Story Ending Explained — Did He Really Help Catch Ted Bundy?

Netflix just dropped its latest Monster chapter, this time zeroing in on Ed Gein, and the finale goes for a big swing: the 'Butcher of Plainfield' finding a new purpose by helping the FBI catch Ted Bundy. It is a bold, creepy capper — and completely made up.

About that Gein-meets-Bundy tease

In the final moments of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, we see Charlie Hunnam’s Gein in a psychiatric facility when a young FBI agent sidles up with a pitch: your 'insight' could help us understand an emerging killer named Ted Bundy. The implication is that Gein, of all people, might aid law enforcement and, in doing so, find something like redemption.

Here is the reality check. Gein was charged in 1957 and spent the rest of his life in state psychiatric care until he died in 1984. Bundy committed his murders between 1974 and 1978. They never met, never worked together, and there was no investigative link. The show’s connection is intentional fiction — framed as part of Gein’s deteriorating mental state and used to underline a portrayal of schizophrenia — not history. Thematically, sure, the two loom large over horror: Gein and Bundy helped inspire Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. But that is where the overlap ends.

Did Ed Gein kill his brother?

Episode 1 does not tiptoe around it. The series shows Hunnam’s Gein killing his older brother Henry after Henry dares to talk about escaping their domineering mother. On screen, Ed smacks Henry with a piece of wood, drags him into the trees, and sets a brush fire to cover it.

What actually happened: in the spring of 1944, during a brush fire near the Gein property, Ed told police Henry had gone missing. When investigators found Henry’s body, he was lying face down with severe burns. There were signs that looked like injuries, but the official ruling was asphyxiation leading to heart failure. The case was never reopened. Even so, plenty of historians and true-crime folks think this was Ed’s first killing, driven by resentment and jealousy. The show amps this up, using Henry’s death as the point where Ed’s delusions and obsessive devotion to his mother fully take over.

Quick reality check

• Gein was charged in 1957, committed to a psychiatric institution, and died there in 1984.
• Ted Bundy’s crimes took place between 1974 and 1978; he and Gein never crossed paths.
• The finale’s 'Gein helps catch Bundy' bit is a dramatic device, presented as Gein’s delusion — not a historical event.
• Episode 1’s depiction of Henry Gein’s murder is heightened; in real life Henry’s 1944 death during a brush fire was ruled asphyxiation/heart failure and the case was not reopened.
• Both Gein and Bundy fed into later horror touchstones like Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.
• Charlie Hunnam stars as Ed in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, now streaming on Netflix.

The show’s tightrope act

Monster: The Ed Gein Story plays with perception on purpose — half true-crime reconstruction, half psychological fiction. It keeps you unsettled by blurring the line between what happened and what Gein might have imagined. If you are watching for strict history, the finale’s wink at an FBI-Bundy crossover will probably make your eye twitch. If you are fine with the genre mixing, it is an eerie, effective flourish.