A post on The City of Buffalo Facebook page claims that 'A Nightmare on El Street' character Freddy Kruger is based on an actual serial killer from Buffalo. But is it true?

No.

In fact, this isn't the first time this story has been used to creep people out.

A quick search on Snopes.com shows that the same Facebook post(including the picture of a headstone reading 'Fredrick Kruger 1838-1910') has been used in several other areas of the country like Cincinnati and Brooklyn.

Here's what the post says:

DID YOU KNOW...
The Freddy Kruger character was based on a real serial killer who lived in Buffalo NY in the 1800s. According to police files of the time, Mr. Kruger had killed at least twenty children within a three mile radius of where he lived. He reportedly murdered the children using only a gardening claw, and he lived inside an abandoned factory; having set up a small living area (and torture area) within the "mechanical room" of the facility. Oh...back then, a "mechanical room" was also known as a "boiler room".

Mr. Kruger was eventually caught, tried, and found to be criminally insane. He spent the rest of his life in Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital before dying unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 72.
To this day (and LONG before the Elm St. films) Buffalo Psych Hospital was said to be haunted by the ghost of Freddy Kruger. And is still haunted till this day.

Dont belive, search it youself!

Spelling errors aside, this is the exact post used all across the country.

So we're sorry Buffalo, but Freddy Kruger isn't from Western NY, wasn't a real serial killer, or even based on a real person.

You can see the evidence, and a quote from Kruger's creator Wes Craven about how the character was actually invented on Snopes.com.

Now we can all go back to worrying about creepy clowns.


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