20 Mind-Blowing Facts About The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
19. But There Was A Grain Of Truth In Leatherface’s Real-Life Inspiration
The events of the movie may not have been real but Leatherface was inspired by a real-life killer – Ed Gein, aka The Butcher of Plainfield, who killed two women in the 1950s in between his other main hobby of robbing corpses from graveyards. Gein also had a penchant for crafting items from his victims’ body parts – a face mask here, a lampshade made from human skin there.
There are some distinct differences between Gein and Leatherface, however. Gein’s weapon of choice wasn’t a chainsaw but a gun and he committed his crimes in Wisconsin rather than Texas. We suppose ‘The Wisconsin Pistol Massacre’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.