The Truth Behind Evelyn Hartley’s Disappearance: Fact-Checking Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the kind of true-crime dramatization that gets people asking the question this anthology always sparks: where does the show stop being history and start being a story? Short answer: pretty early and pretty often. But it is effective, and it knows exactly what it's doing.

The show takes a big swing with the Evelyn Hartley case

One of the louder debates around the series is its suggestion that Ed Gein might be tied to the disappearance of Evelyn Hartley, a 15-year-old babysitter who vanished in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on October 24, 1953. She was last seen while watching a professor's child. Blood and broken glasses were found at the house. Hartley's body was never found, and the search that followed became one of the largest missing-persons efforts in Wisconsin history.

Here's the reality check: La Crosse is almost 70 miles from Gein's home in Plainfield. Despite rumor and speculation over the years, archived reports and police records do not name Gein as an official suspect, and no hard evidence ever linked him to Hartley's disappearance. Yes, Gein occasionally babysat. No, the scene evidence or the method matches do not line up with his known crimes. He denied involvement and reportedly passed two lie detector tests. That doesn't make him a saint; it just means this particular thread is a dramatic leap.

Creative liberties, front and center

Ryan Murphy and his writers are not making a documentary here. They're aiming for psychological storytelling and "emotional truth" over literal fact. If you've watched previous installments in this anthology, you know the playbook.

• Brother's death: The show opens with Charlie Hunnam's Gein killing his older brother. In real life, Gein was never tied to his brother's death, which was ruled as asphyxiation leading to heart failure.
• The girlfriend: The series gives Gein a girlfriend, Adeline Watkins. She existed, but the relationship on screen is heavily exaggerated and fictionalized.
• Bernice Worden: The idea that Gein had a love affair with his second victim, Bernice Worden, is not true, per reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

None of this is a dealbreaker if you're going in for a dramatization. But if you were expecting a fact-checked doc, this isn't that.

Where it sits next to other Gein projects

Ed Gein has been covered and re-covered for decades: The Butcher of Plainfield, In the Light of the Moon, and a pile of documentaries like Ed Gein: The Real Psycho and The Butcher of Plainfield: The Truth Behind the Legend. Monster: The Ed Gein Story separates itself by leaning into horror realism and moral introspection instead of strict investigative reporting. It's polished, moody, and purposefully unsettling. On the flip side, it's looser with the facts than most Gein projects — arguably the loosest yet.

If you want the visceral jolt of Gein's crimes and a more internal, psychological take, it's a strong watch. If you're looking for a courtroom-level reconstruction, you'll be frustrated.

"The series is less about perfect accuracy and more about forcing you to ask: what turns an ordinary person into a monster?"

Curious where you land on that. Are the liberties worth it, or does the fiction get in the way? Drop your take in the comments.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is now streaming on Netflix.