The plot of AHS: 1984 focuses on an '80s summer camp called Camp Redwood that is being terrorized by a sinister force. Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) is the camp's uber-religious owner, and her friendship with Charles Keating leads Chet (Gus Kenworthy) to ask who this powerful man is. 

Charles Keating infamously was the face of a savings-and-loan crisis in the '80s that led to millions of Americans losing out on their life savings. Thousands of loan companies went under, and much of the country was in a state of crisis. Keating was also infamous for being anti-porn and for serving on the president's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography under Lyndon B. Johnson.

While serving for the president, Keating gained the nickname, Mr. Clean, because of how he wanted the country to ban porn and maintain some semblance of "decency." He also opposed the gay community. 

In AHS: 1984, Margaret refers to Keating as a good friend of hers, which is to key the audience in not to trust her. She also said that she supported Keating when Larry Flynt was on trial, which is another real-life reference that the show made.

Larry Flynt founded Hustler magazine and ran strip clubs. He subsequently went on trial in the '70s for charges of obscenity. He was eventually cleared of the charges, but not before he was shot outside of a courtroom alongside his lawyer, Gene Reeves Jr. 

Flynt survived the shooting, but it left him with partial paralysis and a dependence on a wheelchair. The shooter was eventually discovered to be a white supremacist who found Flynt's line of work despicable.