The Oklahoma Murders That Inspired ‘Friday the 13th’

Most people think Friday the 13th came straight from the minds of Hollywood, but there is a real-life Oklahoma crime that inspired it.

The case shocked the entire nation.

In 1977, a tragic event occurred at Camp Scott, a Girl Scout camp near Locust Grove, Oklahoma. Three young girls, Lori Farmer, Doris Milner, and Michelle Guse, were brutally murdered on their first night.

Their bodies were found zipped in their sleeping bags and left in the woods.

After a lengthy investigation, what little evidence authorities had pointed to a man named Gene Leroy Hart. He was an escaped convict who was on the lam for a few years at that time when he was located and arrested for the crimes.

Despite strong public opinion against him due to his past convictions of rape and burglary, he was acquitted in the Camp Scott murders and sent back to prison to complete his 300-year previous sentence.

Officially, the case remains unsolved to this day.

Then, in 1980, Friday the 13th was released, and suddenly, everyone feared summer camps.

While the filmmakers never claimed the Oklahoma murders were their inspiration, the similarities are hard to ignore... Kids in the woods, an isolated camp in the middle of nowhere, nighttime horror, and an unknown killer.

Talk about a nightmare scenario. A place meant for fun and innocence turned into a crime scene.

Even though the movie added the supernatural twist with Jason Voorhees and a hockey mask, the core elements of fear, vulnerability, and isolation reflect what actually happened at Camp Scott.

Oklahoma might not be mentioned in the credits, but similarities are closer to reality. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the scariest stories don’t come from the big screen... they start right here, in our own backyard.