Warning! This article contains spoilers for Cross season 1.

Warning! This article contains mentions of murder and many real-life serial killers.

Cross season 1 is based on James Patterson’s fictional Alex Cross books, but it seems to draw some inspiration from real-world crimes. Created by Ben Watkins, Amazon’s Cross does not shy away from drifting far from its source material’s stories. Instead of staying true to nearly all story beats from the original novels, Cross season 1 only borrows character beats from the book while adopting a completely original narrative.

While this approach could have easily backfired for the series, it surprisingly works wonders and earned the show a “fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating. Although some aspects of the story in Cross season 1 are too over the top, the show also tries to ground itself in more realism than its source by drawing subtle references to real-life crimes. Owing to this, one might be curious whether the show’s central serial killer character is based on a real person.

The Fanboy Killer In Cross Is Technically Not Based On A Real Serial Killer

Cross Season 1’s Ed Ramsey Is An Original Character

While many fictional serial killers in movies and TV shows are based on real-life criminals, Cross season 1’s “The Fanboy Killer” seems completely original. He is not based on any one particular real-life killer and even his name seems to be an original creation. Although Cross season 1 features many original characters from the James Patterson novels, the Fanboy Killer, Ed Ramsey, does not appear in any of the books.

Since Alex Cross and his fellow police officers manage to build a solid case against Ed Ramsey in

Cross
season 1’s ending
, it seems unlikely he will return in the show’s future seasons.

Considering how Cross season 1’s mid-credits sets up a familiar villain for season 2, the Amazon show’s next installment might share more parallels with the source material than season 1. However, since season 1 adds a completely new antagonist to the franchise’s mix, its story seems fresh and unpredictable even to those familiar with the original books. The Fanboy Killer, Ed Ramsey, is convincingly portrayed by Ryan Eggold (of The Blacklist and New Amsterdam fame) in Cross season 1.

The Fanboy Killer Is Inspired By Various Real-Life Copycat Serial Killers

Ed Ramsey Idolizes Some Of The Most Vicious Real-Life Serial Killers

The more Alex Cross investigates Ed Ramsey’s murders, the more he realizes that he is obsessed with many famous serial killers. When Alex Cross and John Sampson discover Ramsey’s scrapbook, they learn that he makes his victims look like famous serial killers before killing them. They also notice that most of his victims were murdered through lethal injection, which parallels the method used for executing the serial killers he looks up to. A closer look at Ramsey’s scrapbook reveals that most criminals featured in the journal are real-life serial killers.

From John Wayne Gacy to Aileen Wuornos, Ted Bundy to Jerry McFadden, the scrapbook features them all alongside a few fictional names. Apart from having real-life serial killers in his scrapbook, Ed Ramsey also uses the names of some as aliases for his dating app profiles. Rodney Alcala and Harvey Glatman are among the few real-life serial killers borrowed by Ramsey in Cross season 1 to create fake dating profiles and lure unsuspecting victims.