While American Horror Story season 2, Asylum, is easily one of the darkest seasons of the anthology TV series, several of its twisted storylines are actually based on true stories. While American Horror Story tells some of the most disturbing tales on television, the stories become all the more bone-chilling when discovering that each season draws from real-life people and events. AHS season 2's Asylum is still considered one of the show's best installments after over a decade on air, partially because of how real Ryan Murphy's horror story feels.
Before horror icon Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, and Lady Gaga starred in the series, American Horror Story: Asylum boasted some of the biggest and best actors the series had seen. Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, and Zachary Quinto all returned from American Horror Story season 1, Murder House, as new characters. Just as several cast members of American Horror Story: Asylum portray characters inspired by real people, the same was true for many returning actors from Murder House, in which several real-life murder cases were showcased.
AHS season 2 tackles serial killers, aliens, a rundown psychiatric facility, demonic possession, evil Nazi doctors, among other topics, making it one of American Horror Story's more confusing seasons. Even still, Asylum's stories are cleverly woven and most of them are tied up well enough by the end that viewers are left satisfied, which can't be said for every season, such as American Horror Story season 10's alien story, Death Valley. Though it takes on a lot, American Horror Story: Asylum looked to many aspects of true history that are rooted in the same darkness as the season - and series - itself.
Briarcliff Manor Was Based The Notorious Willowbrook State School
Briarcliff Manor, despite being a backdrop much of the time in Asylum, is indeed one of, if not the main character of AHS season 2, as a majority of what transpires is within its walls. It may seem like a truly horrific place, but it pales in comparison to American Horror Story's real inspiration, the Willowbrook State School. Willowbrook was an institution for intellectually impaired children in Staten Island, New York that operated from 1947 to 1987. Within that 40 year period, the happenings that occurred were truly gruesome, even for Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story standards.
According to The Praeger Handbook of Special Education by Alberto Bursztyn, by 1965, the institution held six thousand patients even though it could only comfortably accommodate four thousand. This is a much larger patient number than in American Horror Story: Asylum, meaning even more children were neglected in real-life than in the series. The children were left to their own devices; many were malnourished and covered in their own body matter. There were also signs of physical and sexual abuse on some of the children at the hands of the staff, a pattern that AHS season 2 includes for some of its sadistic staff.
If this doesn't already seem worse than what's depicted in American Horror Story: Asylum's deadly season, the experiments that inspired the season are all the more bone-chilling. In 1956, a disturbing research study began at Willowbrook, in which researchers intentionally infected patients with hepatitis A to study the virus. The people behind the inhumane experiment claimed that there was already a high infection rate of hepatitis at the school before the study began, and attested that the intentionally-infected children would have more than likely gotten it anyway. The experiment lasted for 14 years before being shut down. These experiments inspired Asylum's Dr. James Arden's unethical tests at Briarcliff, though his dove into literally inhuman procedures.
Much like Sarah Paulson's AHS season 2 character did with Briarcliff, Geraldo Rivera released his exposé about the institution in 1972 called Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace. The real-life report showed the truly deplorable conditions the patients were living in and gained the attention of the nation. However, it wasn't until 1987 that Willowbrook finally shut down, which is similar to how long it took American Horror Story's Briarcliff to go under.
Lana Winters Is Based On Investigative Journalist Nellie Bly
Lana Winters is probably one of the greatest characters Sarah Paulson has ever played on any season of American Horror Story. Much of AHS season 2 revolves around her character, a reporter trying to get her big break by going to the asylum under false pretenses, only to be admitted against her own will. She pushes through everything that's thrown at her, and audiences can't help but root for her along the way. Possibly the best part about American Horror Story's Lana Winters character is that she's based on the very real Nellie Bly.
The real-life American Horror Story inspiration was born Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, although most know her by her pen name, Nellie Bly. Though known for various impressive writings, one, in particular, struck a chord with American Horror Story creators, called 10 Days in a Madhouse. In 1887, Bly took an undercover assignment for Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, New York World to unearth and report on the poor conditions at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, or Roosevelt Island as it's known today. To do so, Bly had to get involuntarily admitted by pretending she was insane. She succeeded and was admitted. Much sooner than Sarah Paulson's AHS season 2 character, Bly was released only 10 days later, with her exposé about the incident putting her on the map as an investigative journalist.
Kit and Alma Are Based On Betty and Barney Hill
Some may think American Horror Story: Asylum's alien plot was a bit too much or didn't belong in the season, especially with so much else going on. While it's true that the season featured several storylines, aliens played a critical role due to the people who inspired American Horror Story's characters Kit and Alma Walker. The on-screen AHS season 2 couple is based on a real-life one, Betty and Barney Hill.
Betty and Barney Hill were also an interracial married couple who reported seeing and being abducted by an alien spacecraft on September 19th, 1961. The real people who inspired American Horror Story were driving back home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire at night and witnessed a strange object fly across the sky, only to watch it descend and get closer to their vehicle. After some time being followed by the UFO that would inspire American Horror Story's aliens, the Hills said that they felt dazed and arrived at their home at 5 a.m., but were unable to account for 2 hours. It was later that they began to remember what happened with the missing time and reported that they were abducted by humanoid beings, with their story then becoming the basis for Kit and Alma's AHS season 2 plotlines.
Dr. Arthur Arden Is Based On Josef Mengele
Briafcliff's resident doctor, Dr. Arthur Arden, AKA Hans Gruper, wasn't the most likable character in American Horror Story, mostly due to the fact that he was a sadistic Nazi war criminal who experimented on his patients. The subjects that didn't die from Arden's brutal experiments became deformed, bloodthirsty creatures and were sent to live out in the woods surrounding AHS season 2's Briarcliff. Unfortunately, Asylum's Dr. Arden is another American Horror Story character inspired by an equally evil, real-life person: Josef Mengele. Mengele was one of the overseeing SS doctors at the Auschwitz concentration camp, and was later transferred to another, Gross-Rosen. American Horror Story's real-life inspiration led several human experiments and had a particular interest in twins, subjecting them to several gruesome procedures that many died from.
Dr. Oliver Thredson Was Based On Ed Gein
Zachary Quinto did a phenomenal job playing Dr. Oliver Thredson in American Horror Story: Asylum, who would become one of the show's most notorious serial killers. American Horror Story has dealt with powerful witches, ghosts, crazy cult leaders, and even the Antichrist, but AHS season 2's Thredsen is a monstrous character that holds his own against other antagonists of the series, despite being human. It's unsurprising that a character so evil as Bloody Face was inspired by Ed Gein, the real-life serial killer.
While the man who inspired American Horror Story's Thredson only confessed to murdering two women, Gein had a habit of graverobbing. It's estimated that he exhumed up to nine bodies from cemeteries; he then "repurposed" them for various reasons. This included making lampshades, belts, vests, and masks out of human skin, and other various items from the bones of his victims, such as bowls and ashtrays. American Horror Story's Dr. Thredson, AKA Bloody Face, was based on someone about as real and disturbing as it gets, but AHS season 2 wasn't the only recreation of Gein's story. Gein also inspired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface and others throughout horror history.
Other Real-Life Events That Inspired American Horror Story
American Horror Story's inspirations vary among real-life people, events, and locations that involve different generations and supernatural themes. Before AHS season 2's creepy real-life tale, American Horror Story's inspirations for Murder House included the Black Dahlia/Elizabeth Short murder case, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the infamous nurse murders by Richard Speck, and the Columbine High School mass shooting, the last of which was the basis for Tate's school massacre. AHS season 3, Coven, then took inspiration from the real-life Madame LaLaurie who brutally tortured enslaved people, the true story of the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, the legend of Papa Legba, and the real Axeman murderer.
AHS season 4's Freak Show was then inspired by serial killer John Wayne Gacy for Twisty the Clown, Grady Stiles Jr. for Jimmy Darling, the terrifying real-life Edward Mordrake, and The Mütter Museum for American Horror Story's Morbidity Museum. American Horror Story's inspirations for Hotel include H.H. Holmes for James March, the real-life Cecil Hotel for Hotel Cortez, and several real-life serial killers like Aileen Wuornos who fictionally appear in the season. AHS season 6, Roanoke, is inspired by the real-life mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke from 1590. As depicted in the season, American Horror Story: Cult is inspired by cult leaders like Charles Manson, David Koresh, and Jim Jones. American Horror Story season 10's inspirations include the real-life "Cape Cod Vampire" and President Dwight Eisenhower's rumored meeting with aliens.