8 Movie Villains Who Were Way Worse In Real Life

2. Genene Jones - Misery

Just as Buffalo Bill was based on Ted Bundy, fictional psychopath and literature fan Annie Wilkes was inspired by a real-life figure with just as dark a past.

The film version of Wilkes is actually more sanitised than the book, in which she chops off one of Paul Sheldon's ankles and one of his thumbs and in which Paul discovers that her past includes multiple murders. The film simply hints of her killing children in her care as a nurse, though she was acquitted for lack of evidence. So she's not a good person, in short.

But she's based on an even less good person: Genene Jones, who was part of the inspiration for Kathy Bates' performance. She was active during the 1970s and 80s and though she was only ever convicted of killing and injuring two children, it is widely held that she was responsible for the deaths of more than 60. Like Wilkes, she was a nurse and is suspected of injecting her youthful victims with a lethal cocktail of medication.