'Morbid' serial killer and cult museum becomes surprise tourist hotspot during pandemic

A spine-chilling 'museum of the morbid, macabre and mysterious' has become an unlikely tourist hit during the pandemic.

Visitors are flocking to the Graveface Museum in Savannah, USA, to catch a glimpse of the creepy collectables on display – from Charles Manson’s sweatpants to spine of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey.

The surge in interest is a welcome surprise for Ryan Graveface, 40, who spent $200,000 building the museum and opened it just before Covid struck.

With so few visitors at the height of the pandemic and no government funding to help keep the museum afloat, his hair-raising venture was on the brink of collapse.

"I didn’t get a penny," Graveface told the New York Post. "I guess a museum about serial killers isn’t considered an ‘essential service'".

Museum owner Ryan Graveface has 5,000-square-foot of storage space crammed with disturbing artefacts (graveface_museum / Instagram)

But after one thrilled visitor posted a 30-second video on TikTok earlier this year, the museum went viral.

Now, Graveface says, there's a huge line out of the door every day and tourists travel miles to get a piece of the action.

The Graveface Museum opened on Valentine’s Day 2020, just before the pandemic struck (graveface_museum / Instagram)

Graveface has been "hoarding" morbid memorabilia since he was eight years old. As a student, he would write to serial killers on death row, and was fascinated by their "very human" responses.

Over the years, he has accumulated enough strange stash to fill 5,000-square-foot of storage space – from unusual animal taxidermy to packs of Flavor-Aid from the scene of the Jonestown cult mass suicide.

Graveface insists most people who visit the museum are “sweethearts” with a genuine historical interest (graveface_museum / Instagram)

Some of his most prized exhibits came into his hands by chance.

One collector sent him box of evidence from the 1957 case of infamous serial killer Ed Gein, who inspired horror films like “Psycho” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.

Ryan Graveface spent $200,000 building the museum and now has plans to expand (graveface_museum / Instagram)

Graveface said it was "the best thing I’ve ever gotten in the mail".

He insists most people who visit the museum are “sweethearts,” less interested in the "shock and awe" factor of the exhibits than the history behind them.

Graveface has been "hoarding" morbid memorabilia since he was eight years old (graveface_museum / Instagram)

With so many visitors now queuing up, Graveface has plans to expand his collection.

But he's keeping tight-lipped about what's going to be on display.

“I want to keep that a mystery,” he told the New York Post.

“Let’s just say I’ve got some s**t that will blow peoples’ minds.”

A TikTok video of the museum went viral earlier this year and it's now a tourist hotspot (graveface_museum / Instagram)