Updated April 10, 2020 29.0K votes 5.8K voters 249.0K views
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There are plenty of true stories that inspire American Horror Story. They are the stories that resonate and terrify, which is exactly why the creators of the show pull inspiration from their intriguing bits of folklore. The show's creators do an exceptional job of putting their own unique spin on real-life atrocities. Each season pulls from multiple sources, unsolved crimes, historical oddities, and chilling legends people have told around campfires for generations can all be found sprinkled throughout the show.
American Horror Story plots inspired by real events have included the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Bathory, the Axeman of New Orleans, and the haunted Cecil Hotel, to name a few. But what other horrifying stories - fact or fiction - haven't they done that would make for great television? Jack the Ripper? Slender Man? Here are some possible options from popular legends and real events that could fit in nicely with the collection of scary stories in American Horror Story.
The infamous demon house in Gary, IN, made headlines in 2014 when Latoya Ammons and her three children sought out exorcisms to rid themselves of demons. There was extensive media coverage, police involvement, and even members of the Department of Child Services got involved with these claims and witnessed unexplainable horrors in that house.
Footsteps, flickering lights, and strange sounds in the night quickly escalated to a 12-year-old child levitating off a bed, a 9-year-old walking backward up a wall (in front of a nurse and case manager), and then full on demonic possession of all the members of the family. The family reached out to two clairvoyants, both of whom claimed the house was infested with 200 demons. The Catholic Church decided to intervene and performed multiple exorcisms.
The demon house has since been demolished by paranormal investigator Zak Bagans. Bagans purchased the house in 2014 to film a documentary and found the place too evil to leave standing. But is it too evil to inspire AHS: Demon House?
A sprawling, wooded estate owned by an unassuming family man with murderous impulses became a mass burial site for gay men living in Indianapolis. The story itself is rife with twists, creepy dolls, and sex - perfect for AHS.
In this true story, Herb Baumeister was living a double life. He was a married father of three and business owner who was secretly luring gay men back to his own home to strangle them to death in his creepy pool surrounded by mannequins. Then, he would burn or bury their bodies in the yard where his children played.
Once his double life had been revealed, Baumeister took off to Canada to take his life at Pinery Provincial Park.
The 1996 police investigation of the property uncovered 5,500 bones, but more are still being discovered by the current owners today. After his death, Baumeister was also linked to the I-70 Murders. After speaking with his wife, authorities discovered his travels lined up with a series of unsolved murders where the bodies were dumped along I-70. The number of lives he claimed remains uncertain to this day.
A Bender family dinner was a pretty brutal affair. It would involve inviting an unsuspecting guest to sit over a secret trapdoor with their back to a curtain so John could pop out and bash them in the head with a hammer. Then one of the kids would slash their throat before opening the trapdoor that led to the basement. They’d bury all the corpses out in the nearby orchard.
A creepy family of murders on the prairie sounds right up American Horror Story's alley.
The American Horror Story “Sweet Dreams” trailer seemed to hint at a horror at sea. How awesome would AHS: Ghost Ship be? The historic mystery of the SS Ourang Medan would be a great place to pull inspiration from.
According to legend, multiple ships picked up distress calls from the SS Ourang Medan. The message received was broken up into two parts (with undecipherable Morse code between them) the messages said "S.O.S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float. All officers including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead. I die."
When the ship was actually found drifting near Indonesia, the entire crew aboard the Ourang Medan was dead - eyes wide open and mouths gaping.
It seems some dark power fell over the people of Black River Falls, WI, between the years 1890 and 1900. The small mining town experienced a climate change that caused the mines to shut down. Many residents left, those who remained were plagued by illnesses, poverty, murder, suicides, devil-worship, and madness. It seemed the entire town was cursed by some dark, merciless force.
It’s thought to be haunted beyond belief and inspired Michael Lesy’s book Wisconsin Death Trip. The photo-documentation is dark, hellish, jarring, and something American Horror Story could build a really interesting season around.
Fans have been screaming - well, more like typing in all caps - for an American Horror Story: Prison for quite sometime now. Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, which is reportedly one of the most haunted locations in the country, would be the ideal place to start. They had famous inmates like Al Capone, George "Machine-Gun" Kelly, Arthur "Doc" Barker and the first "Public Enemy #1" Alvin Karpis.
Obviously there would be plenty of vengeful ghosts of some wildly aggressive individuals. Any earth bound spirits of guards and administrators would be pretty terrifying as well since this facility was known for inhumane treatment of prisoners, back in the '30s prisoners were kept in "hole-cells." There is even talk about the land itself being haunted log before the prison went up.
According to local historians, the land was a Native American burial ground. Complaints of haunting have been going on since opening day.
