Season 1 of Amazon Prime Videos' Cross has the titular detective track down a serial killer who idolizes other famous serial killers, including The Sandman.
Amazon's newest crime drama, Cross, stars a wide range of actors, including Aldis Hodge as Alex Cross. A detective in Washington, D.C., who is obsessed with breaking down the psychology of criminals, which includes serial killers.
In this season of Cross, the detective manages to uncover a years-long serial killer who has been working in the shadows until recently. This killer is inspired by real-life serial killers such as Aileen Wournos and John Wayne Gacy, but one killer who has fans curious is The Sandman.
Who Is The Sandman Serial Killer?
The first victim of Ryan Eggold's Ed Ramsey, aka The Fanboy, who gets on the radar of the police and detective Alex Cross, is beloved local community activist Emir Goodspeed, who was found dead in his car with his dreads mysteriously shaved off.
While the chief and sergeant of Metro PD believed it to be a simple drug overdose, Cross kept digging, believing it to be murder. Eventually, his efforts are rewarded with the discovery of a scrapbook filled with murder victims and serial killers.
One of these victims was Emir Goodspeed, whose photo was alongside a serial killer known as The Sandman. He was one of 11 serial killers that Ramsey idolized, and according to Alex Cross, he had "r---d and killed 14 women" and was later "executed in 2007 by lethal injection."
As Cross explained to the rest of his colleagues at Metro PD, based on the scrapbook, "Each of those victims was transformed to resemble a serial killer:"
"All right, Emir Goodspeed was murdered by a serial killer, but that killer kept a scrapbook of their work. In here, you'll find a postmortem photo of Emir and ten other victims. Each of those victims was transformed to resemble a serial killer."
He also explained how each victim was fed their corresponding serial killer's last meal, such as Maurice Freeman Jr.'s last meal being "grilled pork chops, mashed potatoes, chocolate cupcake," the same as Emir's stomach contents.
However, upon further research, there is such a serial killer as The Sandman, whose real name is Maurice Freeman Jr., a man who does not exist. There was a real-life serial killer named The Sandman, but he was a German serial killer from the early 20th century.
The Sandman serial killer in Cross appears to have been completely fictitious while being put alongside very real serial killers.
Why Make Up Maurice Freeman Jr.?
It's uncertain why Cross found it necessary to create a fictional serial killer for one of the show's victims to be turned into. After all, Ed Ramsey's intended last victim, Shannon Witmer (Eloise Mumford), was being made to look identical to actual real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
It's also not for lack of real-life black serial killers since the show even went as far as to name-drop John Allen Muhammad, aka the DC Sniper. Maurice Freeman Jr. also doesn't appear to be a reference to the Alex Cross books either.
The only possible explanation is that it's for legal reasons the series couldn't link a real-life serial killer to the character of Emir Goodspeed. Despite that, Cross still managed to trick audiences into believing The Sandman was just as real as the other killers mentioned in this series.
Every episode of Cross Season 1 is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
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