Since its debut, we haven't stopped thinking about Netflix's latest drama Monster: The Ed Gein Story. Starring Charlie Hunnam as the notorious killer and body snatcher, the eight-part drama is the latest in Ryan Murphy's TV anthology about “monstrous” figures in society. However, Ed Gein isn't the only killer featured in the season.
As the series progresses we also get to meet a fictionalized version of Ted Bundy, Birdman, and Jerry Brudos. This isn't the first time Brudos, aka The Shoe Fetish Slayer, has featured in a Netflix drama, with actor Happy Anderson depicting the killer in both Monster, and in the 2017 series Mindhunter.
But who exactly was Jerry Brudos? Here's what you need to know.
When does Jerry Brudos appear in Monster: The Ed Gein Story?
Jerry Brudos appears at the start of the final episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story. He's visited by two FBI agents who are looking for help on solving the Ted Bundy case. While Brudos isn't able to help them directly, he does give them the idea to start talking to Ed Gein for help with the Bundy case.
During his scene with the detectives, he opens about his own fetishes and what drove him to kill women, revealing that what he really wanted was their shoes so that he could ejaculate into them. He doesn't appear in the series again.
Who was the real Jerry Brudos?
Jerome ‘Jerry’ Brudos was a serial killer also known as The Lust Killer and The Shoe Fetish Slayer.
He was born in 1939 in South Dakota. Brudos reportedly had a strained relationship with his mother and began his fascination with women's high heels when he was just five years old, after discovering a pair in a junkyard. After his mother discovered him wearing the shoes, she took them away from him and destroyed them. Throughout his childhood and teenage years he continued his obsession with women's shoes and stealing women's underwear.
When he was 17 years old he threatened a teenage girl with a knife and forced her to remove her clothes. He then spent time in Oregon State Hospital’s psychiatric ward but was still allowed to attend school.
After graduating, he got a job as an electronics technician. He got married and had two children, but his obsessions continued.
In 1968, he began a killing spree, kidnapping, raping, and murdering four women. He often kept the women's bodies long after killing them, dressing them up and engaging in acts of necrophilia. He reportedly began removing the dead women's breasts and keeping them. He also attempted to kidnap two more women.
Brudos was later arrested, charged, and sentenced with three life sentences—the body of one victim, Linda Katherine Slawson, was never discovered.
During his time imprisoned he attempted to appeal his conviction but these were never successful. He later died of liver cancer in prison in 2006.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now.
