In the winter of 1972 Edward was born to Virginia W. Tandy-Winthrop, a retired wartime nurse now working at the local hospital, and James P. Tandy, a coalmine worker in West Orange, New Jersey. On the morning of Edward’s 4th birthday, his father was killed in a violent accident that took place in the mines near their small rural home. Edward was devastated by his father’s death, but it was his mother who took it the hardest.

Virginia left her job at the local hospital and took up a new hobby - taxidermy. Her first project manifested in the family dog Giblet (or “Gibby” as Edward fondly called him). One day, when Edward arrived home from school, he found his mother bent over the living room table, her hands covered in blood, a needle and thread in one, and a large steak knife in the other. She had made some amateur mistakes, but was able to preserve Gibby for the most part. When Edward asked why she had done something so horrible to the family hound, she happily replied “Your father told me that it was his time, boy,” with a smile on her face.

Many times Edward’s mother tried to convince him to take part in her new hobby, and when he refused, she would call him weak, wimpy, and ill-prepared for the “horrible world that festered outside.” She would often beat him and burn him with lit cigarettes. Edward loved his mother in spite of her hallucinations, temper, and her new “hobby.” Through her dead husband’s words that echoed in her head, she was told to “teach them a lesson” and to “find the unique ones and spare them.”

When Edward was 19 years old, his mother developed a brain tumor and died 2 years later. Her last dying wish was for him to carry on her legacy in trying to bring a twisted sense of justice to the world. Edward went equally insane upon his mother’s death and became obsessed with mechanical engineering, taxidermy, and death itself. Within his obsessions, he came up with horrible ways to carry out his mother’s plans with animal victims as well as human ones.

You are Edward’s most recent victim... will you be spared?

The first time Edward Tandy met Toby was in a hospital room. Toby was curled up in a ball, his face twisted in a grotesque mask of agony. His eyes were raw and red, having ripped off his own eyelids in a fit of madness. Toby had been a participant in a sleep study that had gone horribly wrong.

Edward was drawn to Toby's pain, seeing in it a reflection of his own twisted desires. He introduced himself as Toby's grandfather, a lie that the hospital staff was all too willing to believe. He convinced them to release Toby into his custody, promising to take care of him.

As they left the hospital, Toby was docile, his mind broken by the horrors he had endured. Edward took him to his grand, decrepit mansion, where he began to mold Toby into his own image.

He trained Toby to assist him in building traps and puzzles for his unsuspecting guests. He showed him how to channel his madness into creating ever more twisted and sadistic creations. Toby, in turn, showed Edward new depths of depravity, pushing him further into his own madness.

Together, they were a pair of twisted geniuses, creating a macabre world of horror that was both beautiful and terrifying. The puzzles and traps they built were like nothing anyone had ever seen before, drawing in thrill-seekers from all over the city.

As the years passed, Toby became more and more like his master, losing all sense of morality and humanity. But even as he became a monster, he couldn't help but feel a sense of twisted loyalty to the man who had saved him from the abyss of insanity.

It was a meeting of two souls, both lost in a darkness that only they could understand. Together, they created a nightmare world that was both their sanctuary and their prison.