TV

Mindhunter season 2: Is it based on a true story?


Netflix today (Thursday, August 15) will release Mindhunter season two, which blends two fictional detectives with a series of real-life serial killers and cases. Mindhunter season two on Netflix is based on a true story, as recorded in the 1995 book of the same name. Mindhunter, however, does make some changes to the real-life story.

Is Mindhunter season 2 based on a true story?

Mindhunter combines fact and fiction, though at heart it is based on a true story.

The series is an adaptation of the 1995 book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and his co-writer Mark Olshaker.

Douglas and Olshaker, however, do not appear in Mindhunter itself.

In the series, Douglas, who also inspired characters in Silence of the Lambs and Criminal Minds, has become Holden Ford (played by Jonathan Groff), while his partner in Mindhunter Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) is based on FBI agent Robert Ressler.

READ MORE: Mindhunter season 2 location: Where is Mindhunter filmed? Where’s it set? 

The real-life Ressler is said to have coined the term ‘serial killer’, an update of the ‘series killer’ term suggested by Holden in Mindhunter’s first series.

Dr Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) is herself based on psychologist Dr Ann Wolbert Burgess, who published leading research on sexual assault.

Though these are fictional characters, they are seen in Mindhunter talking to real serial killers.

The first of these is Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton), who first appears in Mindhunter season two.

READ MORE: Mindhunter season 2: How tall was Charles Manson? What was his height?

The real Kemper – also knonw as the Co-ed Killer – was convicted for 10 murders in 1973.

Season two of Mindhunter will also feature a number of real high-profile serial killers.

Among these are the Son of Sam killer David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper), who killed six people in 1976 and 1977 and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman), who incited his cult to kill nine people in 1969.

Mindhunter season two will also feature the Atlanta child murders, which took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

READ MORE: Mindhunter season 2: Will Charles Manson be in the new series?

Although all of the criminals seen in Mindhunter so far are based on real people, some of the less well-known killers and victims have been changed.

For example, Mindhunter episode four and five features Benjamin Barnwright (Joseph Cross) and his brother-in-law Frank Janderman (Jesse C Boyd).

These characters are based on real killer Charles Soult and his brother Michael Soult, with the former convicted and serving a life sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Huntgindon, according to WJACTV.

The inclusion of this crime in Mindhunter also suggests that the Netflix series has changed the real-life timeline, as this crime came a few years after the 1977 setting of the show.

Mindhunter season 2 is released on August 16 on Netflix

This article contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission on any sales of products or services we write about. This article was written completely independently, see more details here.



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.