American Horror Story can be horrifying
and it's even more chilling when you
consider that the many villains and
victims across its various stories are
drawn from the real-life crimes both
solved and unsolved that populates
American history the first season of
American Horror Story was retro actively
dubbed Murder House it's a fitting name
for a season that's all Connie Britton
and Dylan McDermott star is Vivian and
Ben Harmon a couple who moved with their
teenage daughter violates into a Los
Angeles mansion as you can probably
guess the mansion is haunted and the
Harmons are constantly confronted by the
ghosts of those who have been murdered
there among their many Supernatural
roommates is Elizabeth Short known to
history as the Black Dahlia I'm an
actress I'm gonna make it big everyone
says so you can expect to see me up on
the silver screen one day mena Suvari
played the AHS version of short an
aspiring actor desperate to be famous
who visits the house in the late forties
for a dental appointment that turns
lethal in reality short was indeed a
Hollywood hopeful who went missing in
early January 1947 her body was
discovered six days later near a park
horribly mutilated and posed in a
grotesque fashion the crime was never
solved the one police detective has
written a compelling book full of
evidence suggesting that his late father
who was a doctor was responsible the
second season of AHS was subtitled
Asylum and focused on the patients and
staff of Briarcliff a sanitarium in New
England during the 1960s one of the
asylums residents was kit Walker he
lived happily with his wife Alma until
the interracial couple was visited by
extraterrestrials who abducted her Kitts
ensuing psychological breakdown leads
authorities to believe that he offed his
missing wife and he sent to Briarcliff
I'm not crazy let's invite Annette they
decide you're saying your name someplace
way where it's Barney and Betty Hill
were the model for kitten alma story no
they thankfully suffered no homicide
allegations as a result of the
visitation they claimed to have
experienced in 1961 while driving the
back roads of New Hampshire they saw
what Betty described as a shooting star
falling upwards that pursued their car
suddenly the pair found themselves 35
miles from where they had been only
moments earlier their watches had
stopped working and they lost two hours
of time under hypnosis the couple
claimed to recall details of their
visitation they were credible as it
seemed unlikely that an interracial
couple in the 1960s would want to draw
further attention to themselves
Betty claimed to continue to experience
visitations for years following her
abduction New Orleans provides the
magical setting for coven the third
installment of AHS which draws on the
historical legacy of the Crescent City
to populate its cast of characters one
of the show's most memorable monsters is
Madame Delphine LaLaurie whose horrific
torture of her slaves reached levels of
inhumanity made even more ghastly by
Cathy Bates's unsettling performance and
the real-life suffering that inspired it
it wasn't any hundred-and-fifty slaves
that that of you hang tell you they're
sorry
it was 62 fates brings LA Laurie to life
over a hundred and fifty years after the
suspected death of the real Madame
Delphine who was born in New Orleans in
the late 18th century she lived a
privileged life as a socialite for a
time until reports began to emerge that
Delphine mistreated her slaves the
claims were not investigated though the
city did have laws against such abuse
following the suspected killing of a
young slave in her care lalaurie's house
caught fire in 1834 and revealed the
family had indeed brutalized those in
her workforce the slaves had been
starved shackled at the neck with spiked
collars and subjected to torture enraged
by this cruelty an angry mob ransacked
the house and Delphine fled the city for
Paris on ahs Marie LeBeau is a powerful
immortal voodoo queen played by Angela
Bassett whose desire for revenge against
Madame LaLaurie
leads her to form her own cult of
followers
don't think that they didn't suffer
because they did greatly but the fate
that I planned for you
suffering seemed as a gentle sleep in
the modern-day timeline of coven she
alternately makes and breaks alliances
with the coven of witches led by Fiona
Goode descended from the victims of the
Salem witch trials confirmed details of
the life of the real Marie LeBeau who
was born to a Creole mother and white
father at the turn of the 19th century
our scant
the woman herself a Catholic who woke
threads of African and Native American
traditions into her religious practice
was reluctant to tell her own story
according to her 1881 obituary in The
New York Times what is known is that
Laveau worked as a hairdresser a detail
represented in her AHS counterpart and
that this work informed her role as a
spiritual adviser to the wealthy and
powerful people of New Orleans who
flocked to her for guidance in matters
both personal and professional a
traveling show of human curiosity stars
in the fourth season of AHS led by the
scheming ringmaster Elsa Mars the
carnival performers of AHS freakshow are
misunderstood by the public who
perceived them as monstrous because of
their unique appearances among them is
pepper a microcephalic woman recruited
by Elsa after her family abandoned her
to an orphanage her first appearance
however wasn't in freakshow
she actually first popped up in asylum
where her storyline diverged from that
of her historical inspiration
play with me
pepper as played by Naomi Grossman in
both Asylum and breach show was based on
slits II Surtees a real carnival
performer slit see is thought to be a
man named Simon Metz born in 1901 in
Bronx New York his parentage is unknown
but his condition relegated his brain
development to that of a young child he
performed with the Ringling Brothers
Circus and at Coney Island in the late
20s before being cast in Todd Browning's
1930 to MGM cult classic freaks he took
the last name surtees from his guardian
George a former carnival barker and
chimpanzee trainer slits he became one
of the most well known carnival
performers of his era costumed in a
dress and billed as a woman during the
events of freakshow
Elsa discovers conjoined twins dot and
bat Tattler and convinces them to join
her troupe
dot is reluctant and relents only to
please her sister Beth who dreams of
becoming a star playing the role of two
different sisters on the same series
would be a challenge for any actor but
Sarah Paulsen's a pro and she
successfully portrayed the twins with
ease and believability Elsa you can be
the fairy godmother who grants the wish
of the Plain Jane that stop and
transforms her into the epitome of
glamour that's me the physiology of the
Tattler sisters was inspired by
real-life conjoined sisters Abby and
Brittany Hensel whose 2003 documentary
joined for life was closely reviewed by
paulsen in preparation for the part yet
the story of the Tatler's follows the
lives of a different set of twins violet
and Daisy Hilton these conjoined sisters
like Bette and dot suffered the abuse of
their Guardians during their early years
in show business the pair toured the
carnival circuit and even starred with
Schlitz E Surtees and freaks the sisters
saw great success for a time and
eventually liberated themselves from
their Guardians on the advice of Harry
Houdini eventually interest in their act
wind old and they spent their last years
working in a grocery store before they
passed away in 1969 dying a few days
apart James March built the hotel Cortez
where the bloody events of AHS Hotel
take place you see March was no
benevolent Hotel EUR in fact he
specifically designed the place around
his violent tendencies fashioning rooms
that enabled him to commit any number of
killings within its walls March is
clearly modeled on real-life
serial-killer HH holmes who did build a
hotel designed for homicide
it featured gas jets which turned guest
rooms into deadly chambers and a wooden
shoot that allowed four bodies to be
swiftly disposed of in an incinerator
his murder hotel claimed the lives of
many young women who visited there in
connection with the 1893 Chicago World's
Fair when he was finally caught Holmes
confessed to taking the lives of 30
people though authorities believe he may
have been responsible for nearly 200
deaths he was hanged for his crimes in
1896 his hotel was later intended to be
remodeled as a murder Castle attraction
but was destroyed by a fire before its
opening bike the iliad his stories will
live on forever the fourth episode of
hotel features a deadly dinner party
hosted by mr. March a who's who of
famous criminals check in to attend the
festivities which they've attended
annually for many years yep the guests
of Marches party are some of the most
famous real serial killers in American
history the first guests to check in is
Richard Ramirez known as the
nightstalker who is responsible for at
least 13 deaths in the 1980s the next
killer to turn up at the hotel is Aileen
Wuornos who confess to the deaths of six
men she claimed assaulted her while she
worked as a prostitute Jeffrey Dahmer
who killed at least 11 people also turns
up evidence indicates Dahmer may have
consumed some of the remains of his
victims jeffrey do even more quiet than
usual tonight
I'm just hungry he's joined for dinner
by none other than John Wayne Gacy who
dressed up as a clown in his free time
and also took the lives of 33 men in its
sixth year ahs decided to change things
up a bit and brought us Roanoke which is
stylized as a found footage documentary
Roanoke or at least its first half
follows a young couple living in an old
mansion known as Roanoke house near the
site of the lost Roanoke colony in
Virginia Roanoke was a real colony from
the 16th century that represented the
first attempt to establish an English
settlement in North America when the
community's founder returned from a
two-year voyage its inhabitants had all
vanished leaving the word Croatoan
carved in a tree nearby another nod to
this history is series character Thomas
ein white played by kathy bates 'as my
Roanoke nightmare character Agnes Mary
Winstead white was a real person and was
indeed married to John White founder of
the Roanoke colony though not best of
mine on prejudice flesh I would cook
titled an alley into bloody damnation
well there's no evidence to suggest she
accompanied white to his colony in
Virginia their Union produced two
children including their daughter
Elizabeth Elizabeth bore a son at
Roanoke who vanished along with his
mother and father and the rest of the
colony between 1588 and 1590 the 2016 US
presidential election gave AHS plenty of
fuel for the story of cults their
seventh season in the turbulent
post-election times occult forms in a
small town in Michigan one of its
associates reveals she had a love affair
with none other than Valerie Solanas the
woman who shot Andy Warhol the famous
pop artist and leader of the studio
known as the factory which drew artists
and luminaries of all kinds to
congregate and experiment in the AHS
universe Solanas was also responsible
for the zodiac killings in reality that
series of Slains was carried out by an
unknown person in the Bay Area who
taunted police with a series of cryptic
messages sent to local newspapers in the
late 60s Solana's only attempted to kill
Warhol and mario amaya an art dealer
both men lived but Warhol had to wear a
surgical corset for the rest of his life
the crime saw solana sentenced to three
years in prison she suffered from
schizophrenic hair
nowa that complicated her rehabilitation
and died in a welfare hotel in San
Francisco in 1988 check out one of our
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