Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the moniker of ‘based on a true story’ but did you know that SAW has a true story behind it? I thought the story was pretty darn genius but it seems that their is a true story that touches home. Jigsaw John was real and shares quite a few similarities with the JIGSAW of SAW fame.
John P. St. John was a detective who worked for 43 years as a homicide detective from 1949 to 1993. During that time he got the nickname Jigsaw John because of a crime he solved where the victim was chopped up jigsaw style. The name stuck because he was able to solve so many cases just by piecing things together and using his obvious superior intelligence. He worked tons of the most gruesome and brutal crime cases and was able to solve a lot of them. Cases he worked on included the Black Dahlia, Harvey Glatman Case, The Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, The Hillside Stranglers the Southside Slayers and more!
Granted he was a Police Officer not a killer but his claim to fame was being highly intelligent and putting together the puzzle to solve crimes, not commit them. When he retired from the police force he died quite quickly of what… ? He died from complications of Pneumonia and Cancer. When did Jigsaw die? He also died of Cancer after he had decided his time had come to an end.
This is a very fascinating story and I can definitely see parts of it being the inspiration for SAW. Jigsaw shares the same name, both are involved in gruesome murders and both are very good at what they do, before they both die of cancer. The difference is the real Jigsaw solved them and the fictional Jigsaw did them. What do you think? Thanks to MisJigsaw for the heads up on this. I for one think it very well could have been the inspiration for the starting blocks of SAW!