The Grimes Crimes / Martha and Eugene Grimes

About

The Grimes Crimes or The Grimes Family Crimes, also known as Martha and Eugene Grimes, refers to a series of fictional creepypasta true crime videos sharing the story of Martha and Eugene Grimes, who purportedly stitched their victims into animal costumes and went uncaught for 18 years, only being caught after one of their victims had their memories of the crimes triggered by Five Nights at Freddy's. The story was first shared by TikToker @baddreams1985 in February 2024, using AI-generated images of the Grimes family's supposed victims to help sell the story. Over the following months, several more videos sharing the fictional story were posted to TikTok, also using images made by artificial intelligence to portray the crimes.

Origin

On February 5th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @baddreams1985 posted a video consisting of AI images of people posing with what appear to be tattered teddy bears of various sizes. A voiceover claims that, in the early 2000s in Savannah, Georgia, Martha and Eugene Grimes, a couple revered for fostering children, would lure victims to their Victorian home, sedate them and stitch them into animal costumes.

The voiceover claims that the crimes were undetected for 18 years until a victim was triggered by Five Nights at Freddy's, remembered the crimes and reported the Grimes to the police. The police purportedly found a mass grave on the outskirts of the Grimes' home. The video gained over 5 million views in six months (shown below, left).

On February 10th, the same TikToker^[2] posted another video consisting of more AI photos supposedly showing victims of the Grimes family, garnering over 70,000 views in six months (shown below, right).

Spread

The video inspired further videos sharing the fake story of the Grimes family, usually including new AI photos of the family and their supposed victims. On February 28th, 2024, TikToker^[3] @grace.mitscherlich posted a video sharing the story, garnering over 900,000 views in six months (shown below).

On August 9th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @black.black898 posted a photo slideshow consisting of numerous AI-generated photographs showing the Grimes family and their victims, garnering over a million views in two weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References