The True Story of Adeline Watkins, Ed Gein's Girlfriend in Netflix's 'Monster'

In summary: Monster: The Ed Gein Story features a fictionalized version of the murderer’s romantic relationship with neighbor Adeline Watkins. Real-life reports about Watkins are conflicted, with a 1957 article claiming she and Gein were involved for 20 years, while she later said it was only seven months and more casual. She said she’d never entered his house, where he kept severed body parts. The show portrays the romance as a fantasy of Gein’s.

A fascinating aspect of any serialized true crime story is the peek into the killer’s personal life—their interactions with romantic partners, friends, and family can provide an insightful angle into their psyche. Monster: The Ed Gein Story doesn’t disappoint in this area, as Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix series portrays the titular murderer’s relationship with neighbor Adeline Watkins—and positions it front and center.

While it was initially reported to be a “top-secret role,” it’s now confirmed that rising actress Suzanna Son plays the serial killer’s reported 20-year love interest in the true crime drama. As the series follows Gein's life and his influence on the horror genre at large, Son's Adeline is depicted as a lifelong partner and confidant of the titular killer (who's played by Charlie Hunnam).

But Gein and Watkins’s relationship apparently wasn’t exactly what it was reported to be on the surface. With conflicting reports and words allegedly taken out of context, Watkins eventually refuted the alleged two-decade-long romance. Ahead, we break down the true story between Ed Gein and Adeline Watkins, including what was fact and fiction in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

A 1957 report claimed Adeline Watkins was in a long-term relationship with Ed Gein.

In a 1957 Minneapolis Tribune interview (republished in the Wisconsin State Journal), Watkins admitted to dating Gein for over 20 years. She described the serial killer as “good and kind and sweet” and felt that she was “taking advantage of him” when he gave in to activities that she wanted to pursue.

In opening up about their relationship, Watkins said she and Gein regularly discussed books even though they rarely read the same ones. “Eddie liked books about lions and tigers and Africa and India,” she told the paper. They also frequented movies and taverns, though it was Watkins who liked beer while Gein preferred a milkshake.

Hauntingly, she also claimed that the couple regularly discussed murders in the news. “Eddie told how the murderer did wrong, what mistakes he had made. I thought it was interesting,” Watkins said.

The newspaper stated that Ed Gein proposed to Adeline Watkins during their courtship.

When asked about the last time they saw each other, Watkins told the reporter that their last date was in 1955—two years before the interview. “That night he proposed to me,” she said before clarifying. “Not in so many words, but I knew what he meant.”

Watkins continued, “I turned him down, but not because there was anything wrong with him. It was something wrong with me. I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to live up to what he expected of me.” Even after his crimes came to light, Watkins said, “I loved him and I still do.” Watkins’s mother also played into her story, recalling Gein as a “sweet, polite man” who always had her daughter back home by her 10 p.m. curfew.

Soon after the report was published, Adeline Watkins declared the story an “exaggerated” rendition of the truth.

Approximately two weeks after the Wisconsin State Journal story was published, Watkins retracted her claims about a 20-year romance with Gein. In an article in the Stevens Point Journal, Watkins called the story about their relationship “exaggerated…blown up out of proportion to its importance and containing untrue statements.”

She clarified that, while they had known one another for 20 years, their romantic relationship lasted less than a year. “Actually, Miss Watkins declared, Gein had called on her for only seven months, and then only intermittently,” the report in the Stevens Point Journal stated. “She said Gein during this short period stopped at the Watkins home on some afternoons or evenings and that the couple had attended shows at the Plainfield Theater ‘a few times.’” Further, Watkins also refuted the claims that she and her mother thought of Gein as “sweet.”

Adeline Watkins maintained her distance from Ed Gein after his criminal activity was exposed.

In the new report, Watkins said she had never entered Gein’s home, where severed body parts from his victims and a shrine to his mother, Augusta Gein, were housed. While she called him “quiet and polite,” Watkins claimed she and Gein were not close.

Gein himself also never spoke publicly about Watkins.

Charlie Hunnam believes the 'Monster' version of Adeline Watkins is "a fantasy of Ed's."

In its fictionalized telling of Gein's life, Monster presents Watkins as a woman obsessed with disturbing media who eventually becomes Gein's accomplice over the course of their relationship. As Time points out, she seems to get off on Gein's most heinous acts and, in a brief period where she moves to N.Y.C. to meet crime-scene photographer Weegee, even becomes a murderer herself. Her storyline is a fictional invention of the show's writers, as all we know about the real-life Adeline is from her interviews.

Both in real life and in Monster, Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest. In an interview with Tudum, show co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan explained that the events in the series take place from Gein's perspective, and the audience is meant to question what is reality and what is just in Ed's head. This includes whether the faithful Adeline, who remains by his side, is just a figment of his imagination.

When posed the question, star Hunnam said, "My interpretation was that she’s in a large part a fantasy of Ed’s. He finds, whether in reality or in his mind, this sort of kindred spirit with Adeline, somebody who can relate and to understand these primal urges and instincts that he has."