Freddy Krueger Inspired by a Real Life Serial Killer in New York?
Are the horrors of Freddy Krueger's "Nightmare on Elm Street" based on a real-life serial killer from New York? That's the twisted rumor that has spread throughout the state but is it true?
According to a Facebook page that pretends to represent the City of Buffalo, Wes Craven's Freddy Krueger character was inspired by a real-life figure named Freddy Krueger who allegedly killed at least 20 children in the 1800s and is said to have haunted Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital to this day. However, this comparison is nothing but a bunch of fake news.
The truth is that there is no Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital. The Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane was built in 1870 and is today known as the Richardson Olmsted Complex, where the Buffalo Psychiatric Center now operates. Additionally, there is no evidence of a real-life person named Freddy Krueger in Buffalo or in any other city even though several viral social media posts claim it to be true.
In fact, Wes Craven himself stated that the "Nightmare on Elm Street" was not based on a serial killer, but instead on a phenomenon known as "Asian Death Syndrome." The movie was inspired by a series of newspaper articles about Cambodian refugees who had nightmares about Pol Pot, refused to sleep, and eventually died of exhaustion. Craven also based the character of Fred Krueger on a classmate who bullied him and the idea of a killer living in the boiler room came from growing up in a house with a furnace in the basement.
While the myths surrounding the origins of "Nightmare on Elm Street" continue to be spread periodically on social media, the truth is that the infamous Freddy Krueger character is entirely fictional, with no basis in reality.