I hate to inform you that the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is not based, even loosely, on Ed Gein or his life. There are video interviews with Tobe Hooper, the creator of TCM, that are easily found with an internet search in which Tobe says that this thought is an urban legend. The true story is that it was the holiday season and he was in a slow checkout line in a store that sold lawn care tools. While waiting, he noticed that there were chainsaws hanging on the wall. It occured to him that the fastest way to get through the line would be to grab one of these chainsaws and start it up and the customers would part like the Red Sea for him. The legend of Ed Gein inspiration probably started bacause he had relatives who lived about twenty miles from where Ed Gein had lived in Wisconsin and when he would go up to visit, he would hear stories of this man who had robbed graves and killed some people nearby. However, he did not know the man's name or the extreme similarities(i.e human leather mask, lamp shades,etc.) between the real life occurences and his film.See rgb filter Fan expo:Tobe Hooper interview.
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