There was never an actual hook-handed serial killer, supernatural or otherwise.
However, there were two horrific cases of murderers with similarities.
- Dean Arnold Corll (1939 - 1973) was an American serial killer who killed 27 or more teenage boys, with the help of two younger accomplices named David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. (Corll was killed by Henley, and both Henley and Brooks were sentenced to life in prison.)
- Ronald Clark O'Bryan (1944-1984) was nicknamed The Candyman after he poisoned his 8-year-old son Timothy with cyanide-laced Halloween candy. He was executed for the crime, in which he placed many other children at risk from the poisoned candy.
