'American Horror Story': Your Grotesque Guide to the True Tragedies That Inspired 'Hotel'

The new season of American Horror Story is giving an all new meaning to historic hotel as Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and their fellow writers repeatedly rip creepy characters and scary and strange stories of slaying, swindling, and bloodsucking from the headlines to increase the fear factor in the fifth installment.

Related: Get Caught Up With Our ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Recaps

Although certainly taken to the extreme in this week’s “Devil’s Night” episode, this is not a new trick. They’ve been mining true crime tales for inspiration since Season 1 welcomed the Black Dahlia (who is a likely candidate for a return cameo given that the setting has returned to L.A., old Hollywood is a recurring theme, and photos surfaced of filming returning to Murder House) and riffed on the 1966 massacre of eight student nurses by Richard Speck.

Click through this slideshow to see the real folks behind the freaky fiction taking place at the Hotel Cortez, which also coincidentally was based on a vintage L.A. property, if you dare. Don’t worry: The character you’d least like to meet in an empty eternal hallway, Drilldo, thankfully, appears to be a figment of Ryan and Co.’s twisted and limitless imaginations.

American Horror Story: Hotel airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.