Was Usual Suspects a True Story?

Director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie originally conceived of The Usual Suspects as five felons meeting in a police line-up. ... McQuarrie combined this plot with another idea of his based on the true story of John List, who murdered his family and started a new life.

How much of the usual suspects is true?

All we can know for sure is that a boat was blown up, all of it's passengers were killed and that they were trading people when Keyser Soze was killing many men. Other than that, no other points of the story were qualified as true. There weren't even police reports for the New York's Finest Taxi Service heist.

Why did they kill Fenster?

Concluding his story, Verbal reveals Fenster was killed trying to flee; the men then threatened Kobayashi, only to accept the assignment when he threatened their loved ones.