North Dakota is home to some pretty creepy abandoned places and ghost stories, but do you remember when our little ol' city of Fargo gained quite a bit of attention after the 1996 film Fargo was released? While the overall movie was technically fictitious, throughout the years there has been confusion and strange findings concerning what the film was actually based on.
In the opening credits of Fargo, it states the movie is based on true events that took place in 1987.
To be specific it reads:
"THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987.At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed.Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."
It's a movie you can easily get sucked into, and viewers from all over were under the impression that the horrifying events that took place in the film actually happened.
If you've never seen the movie (or the semi-recent TV series on the FX network), we'll give you the overall gist of it: a man from Minnesota finds himself desperate for money, and as a quick-fix solution, he decides to go to Fargo, North Dakota, to hire two criminals to kidnap his own wife and extort money out of her family in return for her safety. Horrible husband, huh?
After the film was released, it was made clear by the Coen Brothers - who directed the movie - that everything was fictitious, and that only certain scenes and ideas were based on some real life events.
Oddly enough, while the Coen Brothers denied knowing anything of the horrible tragedy, a murder very similar to the one depicted in the film took place not far from where they grew up in Minnesota.
In the midst of rumors and conspiracies, the Coen Brothers explained now that part of the movie had been based ona murder that took place in Connecticut. The New England murder was a situation where, reportedly, a husband killed his wife and disposed of her body by putting it through a wood chipper. Excuse us while we cringe; yikes!
But the murder the Coen brothers claimed to have never heard of? In 1963, a woman by the name of Carol Thompson was murdered by a home invader. In a disturbing string of events, after being beaten and nearly drowned in her own bathtub, she managed to escape and make her way to safety at a nextdoor neighbors house only to pass away hours later in the hospital of her injuries.
Quickly, investigators began to feel that Carol's husband, T. Eugene, was to be watched closely. It was eventually revealed that Carol's husband had hired a man to kill her, who then passed the job onto another man to actually complete. To this day the husband maintains his innocence and swears he was framed for her murder, though his own children don't believe his story.
The similarities between the two stories led many Minnesotans to believe that the film was based upon the 1963 murder, especially considering it took place in a city just a half-hour away from where the Coen brothers themselves grew up.
So, did you ever realize that the 1996 cult film wasn't actually based on a true story? To read more about our creepiest city, check out these 5 Truly Terrifying Ghost Stories That Prove Fargo Is The Most Haunted City In North Dakota!
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