The character of Owen Scudder, played by Lew Cody, may have been inspired by a real life bigamist and murderer James 'Bluebeard' Watson (1870-1939). Watson traveled the United States under several aliases, marrying 19 different women between 1918 and 1920 and murdering several of them for financial gain. He was apprehended in April, 1920, in Los Angeles.