Serial Killers
Probably some of the most obvious influences on the show are the serial killers who have appeared three times in the series as part of storylines. There is Bloody Face and Son of Bloody Face in ‘Asylum’, the axe murderer of New Orleans in ‘Coven’ (based on real life events) and The Ten Commandments killer in ‘Hotel’. Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Richard Ramirez (aka The Night Stalker) all appeared in ‘Hotel’. Between them they are responsible for the murders of over 70 people. John Wayne Gacy, who often worked as a clown, also influenced the Twisty the Clown character who appeared in ‘Freak Show’. Gacy was caught in December 1978 and was later executed by lethal injection in 1994.
In the first season of the show, ‘Murder House’, it is revealed that the weird next door neighbour Tate Langdon (Evan Peters) was a school shooter, modelled after Columbine High School shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who murdered 12 students and one teacher in April 1999.