The new season ofAmerican Horror Storyis one for Colonial history geeks . After tons of cryptical marketing , fans of the FX serial publication have already become engrossed in the show ’s sixth season , which revolves around the lose settlement ofRoanoke . It ’s just the first timeAmerican Horror Storyhas drawn on real - life-time terror for its bloody bivouac . Here are seven more diachronic execution , abductions , and other oddities that have found their fashion into the show ’s storyline in seasons past . ( Considering co - creator Ryan Murphy ’s love of callbacks , do n’t be surprised if one of these monsters returns for some Roanoke mayhem . )
1. RICHARD SPECK’S KILLING SPREE
The second instalment of the serial publication featured a flashbackdirectly inspiredby serial slayer Richard Speck . The sequence showed a man hornswoggle his way into a house full of distaff roommates and then murdering a nurse and nursing student inside . In 1966 , Speck broke into a Chicago townhouse where nine nursing student . He tied them all up with torn bed sheets , and then led eight of them into separate rooms in the house . One by one , he stabbed or hamper each of them to death . A ninth young woman , Corazon Amurao , only survived by hide out under a bed , and it was her testimony that ensnared Speck .
Amurao differentiate police about a tattoo on the man ’s weapon reading material , “ hold to Raise Hell . ” When Speck attempted self-annihilation a few Day after the fire , his doctor at the hospital recognized the tattoo from the news . He was subsequently arrest , convict , anddied in prisonin 1991 .
2 . THE BLACK DAHLIA
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Also during season one , American Horror Storyrevealed that one of the retiring guests at the “ Murder House ” wasElizabeth Short , better known as The Black Dahlia . WhileAHSsuggested a creepy-crawly dentist rape the aim actress and then allow a ghost mutilate her , Short ’s real - life killerremains a closed book . A female parent and her child falter upon her organic structure , which was sliced in one-half and drained of roue , on the morningof January 15 , 1947 . Her expiry became a medium sensation , and newspaper quickly nickname her “ The Black Dahlia . ” This was purportedly both a play on the 1946 cinema noirThe Blue Dahliaand a reference to Short ’s love of sheer black dress .
Because the cold shoulder on her body pointed to a murderer with surgical attainment , the police begin searching for doctors . They never name the perpetrator , but people are still name suspects to this day . In 2014 , retire homicide detective Steve Hodelproduced evidencethat his own father was the killer .
3. THE ABDUCTIONS OF BARNEY AND BETTY HILL
American Horror Story
executive producer Tim Mineartraced the exotic abduction plotlinein time of year two back to the Barney and Betty Hill affair . The Hills were an mixed couple ( much likeAHScounterparts Kit and Alma Walker ) who claimed they were abduct by alien in 1961.According to the Hills , they were driving home to Portsmouth , New Hampshire after a vacation in Montreal when they saw lights appear in the sky . A prominent spacecraft land in a nearby field , and the Hills could see humanoid alien in the windows . Then , they say , everything went dark .
The Hills woke up two minute after with scraped skid and torn clothing , unsure what had happened . The memories fall after both assay hypnosis therapy . Their bizarre tale became a book , The Interrupted Journey , as well as a 1975 TV movie , The UFO Incident , starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons .
4 . DELPHINE LALAURIE ’S ATTIC OF HORRORS
By Reading Tom - Flickr : The LaLaurie Mansion , CC BY 2.0,Wikimedia Commons
Kathy Bates made herAmerican Horror Storydebut in season three asDelphine LaLaurie , a 19th century New Orleans socialite with a murderous streak . That was no invention on FX ’s part : LaLaurie is a ghoulish figure who brood large in New Orleans folklore .
Although LaLaurie project an range of a function as a generous party host , she was a condemnable schoolmistress to her slave behind unsympathetic doors . Many suspected her of famish them , but rumors of her cruelty were , for a time , just that . Things changed when LaLauriechaseda 12 - yr - old slave off the edge of the roof , seeking to welt her for improperly brush LaLaurie ’s tomentum . The fille die , and her fancy woman dumped her body down the well .
Despite the public yell , nothing really happened to LaLaurie in the aftermath . But then , her cook typeset fervor to her mansion . As the neighbors realized LaLaurie had no intention of letting the slaves get away the blaze alive , they broke into the Ionic to relieve them . There , they found several drained slaves chained to the walls . Others were alive , but mutilated or dismembered . bucket of their variety meat and body parts were scattered across the trading floor . LaLaurie would have surely been killed by the angry ring that work after this find , but she get off the metropolis in her carriage , leaving behind her house of unspeakable horror .
5. THE AXEMAN OF NEW ORLEANS
Another NOLA murderer appear inAmerican Horror Story ’s witchy third season . That would be the so - calledAxeman of New Orleans . The anonymous killerterrorized the city between 1918 and 1919by breaking into houses and hit house physician with an ax . In March of 1919 , he reportedly wrote toThe Times - Picayune , threatening a fresh onset but promising to spare any household that was playing jazz , his best-loved music .
malarky was blared across the city that night , so no one was killed . But sporadic attacks keep on until October , when a grocer got the terminal blow . Althoughsome speculatedthat the deaths were spurred by Mafia feuds , the Axeman ’s motive and individuality were never determined . He remains famous for his peculiarletter to the editor in chief , which was recreated onAmerican Horror Story .
6 . JOHN WAYNE GACY , KILLER CLOWN
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John Wayne Gacy ’s crimes filled out two freestanding season ofAmerican Horror Story . InAHS : Freak Show , his spirit is channeled through Twisty the Clown , a disfigured children ’s entertainer who kidnaps and kill . afterward , inAHS : Hotel , the same actor who dally Twisty ( John Carroll Lynch ) returned to toy Gacy for " Devil ’s Night , " a special Halloween episode boast other notorious serial killers , including Aileen Wuornos and Jeffrey Dahmer .
It ’s well-heeled to see whyAHSused Gacy twice , impart his backstory . From 1972 through 1978 , Gacy sexually dishonor and murderedat least33 teenage boys . When he was n’t tempt those young Man into his suburban house , he was prune up as Pogo the Clown for kids ’ birthday company . After the police uncovered mass Robert Graves in his crawl space and throughout his property , Gacy was put on trial and sentence to expire by lethal injection . He spend 14 years on death row before he was executedin 1994 .
7. THE CECIL HOTEL
It might be prognosticate Hotel Cortez , but the inn at the heart ofAmerican Hotel Story ’s 5th season is Los Angeles ’s Cecil Hotel in all but name . Over its near - one C history , the Cecil has take on a less - than - stellar reputation — mainly because people who stay there keep die , or obliterate others . Murphysaid the inspirationfor the 5th season come up from “ a surveillance video that went around two years ago that show a miss become into an elevator in a downtown hotel that was rumored to be haunted , and she was never see again . ” Journalistsquickly connectedthis clue to Elisa Lam , a Canadian bookman who was found dead in the Cecil Hotel body of water tank . Bizarre footage of her on the elevator was later released .
The Cecilwas alsoa pet haunt of serial killer likeRichard Ramirez(“The Night Stalker ” ) , who appears on the show . Several women who arrest into the hotel later jumped to their death . And in keep withAmerican Horror Story ’s interlink plot line , it was rumored to be one of the last places that the Black Dahlia was seen alert .
