Who Was Ed Gein?
Ed Gein was a killer and notorious grave robber who admitted to two murders but is believed to be connected to a number of other unsolved cases. After he was suspected in the 1957 murder of Bernice Worden in Plainfield, Wisconsin, the investigation of Gein’s home led to the gruesome discovery that he collected human organs and fashioned clothing and accessories out of body parts. He was eventually convicted of Worden’s murder and spent the rest of his life institutionalized. In 1984, Gein died of complications from lung cancer at age 77. His crimes helped inspire fictional killers in popular movies—including Psycho’s Norman Bates, The Silence of the Lambs’s Buffalo Bill, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Leatherface—and earned Gein nicknames such as the “Butcher of Plainfield” and the “Plainfield Ghoul.”
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Edward Theodore Gein
BORN: August 27, 1906
DIED: July 26, 1984
BIRTHPLACE: La Crosse, Wisconsin
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo
Upbringing and Family Deaths
Edward Theodore Gein was born on August 27, 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The son of George, a timid alcoholic father, and Augusta, a fanatically religious mother, Ed grew up alongside his older brother, Henry, in a household ruled by his mother’s puritanical preachings about the sins of lust and carnal desire.
Around 1915, Augusta moved the family to a farm outside Plainfield, Wisconsin. Ed rarely left the farm, except for attending school.
Getty ImagesThe Gein house in Plainfield, Wisconsin
After George died in 1940, Ed and Henry began working more odd jobs to support the family. In 1944, the brothers were burning brush on the property, when the fire raged out of control. Henry was found dead, and although it was initially believed to be the result of the fire, the circumstances surrounding his death, as well as Ed’s later activities, led to conjecture that the younger brother might have been responsible.
Obsessively devoted to his mother, Gein never left home or dated women. However, after she died in late 1945, he became increasingly deranged. Now living alone, he left her room neat and untouched while the rest of the home fell into squalor. He also developed an interest in anatomy books.
Victims
Gein managed to support himself as a handyman and—despite his odd behavior—as a babysitter. Meanwhile, a few residents from the area had mysteriously disappeared over the years. Among them was Mary Hogan, who ran a tavern in nearby Pine Grove that Gein regularly frequented. The 54-year-old woman disappeared in December 1954.
On November 16, 1957, Bernice Worden, 58, was reported missing from her hardware store in Plainfield. The cash register was also gone, and a trail of blood led out the back. Her son Frank, a deputy sheriff, was suspicious of Gein, and the reclusive man was soon apprehended at a neighbor’s house.
Getty ImagesA police officer investigates the cluttered kitchen of Ed Gein following his arrest.
The authorities sent to Gein’s home that night were greeted by the gruesome sight of Worden’s headless, gutted body hanging from the ceiling. Her head was soon found in a sack and her heart hanging in a plastic bag. Further investigation yielded more shocking discoveries, including organs in jars, skulls used as soup bowls, and a belt made from human nipples.
Under questioning, 51-year-old Gein confessed to killing Worden, as well as Hogan three years earlier. He shot both women, who resembled his late mother. Additionally, he admitted to digging up numerous corpses in order to cut off body parts, practice necrophilia, and fashion masks and suits out of skin to wear around the home. With that sort of evidence, authorities attempted to connect him to other recent murders and disappearances but were unable to draw any definitive conclusions.
Other Notorious Killers
In March 1958, the Stevens Point Journal reported that Gein’s farmhouse had burned down amid rumors the site might be turned into a museum. Initial speculation was that the fire had been set intentionally, though an official cause was never determined.
Trial
Getty ImagesEd Gein, center, admitted to killing Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. In 1968, he was convicted of first-degree murder in Worden’s death but was also declared insane at the time of the killing.
After Gein’s arrest, his lawyer, William Belter, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, and in January 1958, Gein was found unfit to stand trial after a schizophrenia diagnosis. He was committed to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin, where he variously worked as a mason, carpenter’s assistant, and medical center aide.
In early 1968, Gein was determined fit to finally stand trial. That November, he was found guilty of Worden’s murder. However, he was also found insane at the time of the murder, and as such, he was recommitted to Central State Hospital. Save for his attempt to petition for a release in 1974, which was rejected, the mild-mannered Gein made virtually no news while institutionalized.
Death
In the late 1970s with his health failing, Gein was transferred to the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. He died of complications from lung cancer and respiratory illnesses on July 26, 1984, at age 77.
Gein was buried in a county cemetery near Plainfield, and his grave became something of a tourist attraction. Some visitors even chipped off pieces of his gravestone to keep as souvenirs. Then, in June 2000, the entire gravestone was stolen. The New York Post reported that Waushara County police initially believed occult groups might have been behind the theft. The tombstone was found a year later and placed in storage; Gein’s gravesite is now unmarked.
Nicknames
Not surprisingly, Gein’s shocking actions earned him a number of notorious nicknames. The best known is the “Butcher of Plainfield,” a reference to both his hometown and his inclination to dismember victims. It was used as the subtitle in a 2007 made-for-video film, Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield.
Gein has also been referred to as the “Plainfield Ghoul” and the “Grandfather of Gore.”
Movies Gein Inspired: Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and More
The story of Gein’s gruesome activities, particularly his devotion to a dead mother, strongly influenced Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel Psycho, which was adapted to the big screen the following year by Alfred Hitchcock and starred Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins as the unstable Norman Bates.
Gein at least partially inspired other notorious movie villains, including Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Texas Chain Saw Massacre features an opening narration implicitly suggesting that elements of the plot actually happened in “one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history.” But in reality, the movie merely borrowed elements from the cases of Gein and Elmer Wayne Henley.
Tobe Hooper, who directed Texas Chain Saw Massacre, said in a 1997 documentary interview he heard stories of Gein’s crimes from family members that lived near the killer. “I grew up with that kind of like a campfire tale, you know, a horror tale you tell in the woods,” he said. “I didn’t really know the man’s name; I didn’t even know about Ed Gein. I just knew about something that happened that was horrendous. But that image really stuck, and I grew up with that kind of burning in my mind.”
Keep Reading
Additionally, Gein’s life and crimes were the subject of the dramatized movies In the Light of the Moon (2000) and Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007). Gein has also been referenced in numerous songs over the years and served as the direct inspiration for metal band Slayer’s 1990 single “Dead Skin Mask.”
2023 Documentary
In September 2023, MGM+ debuted the four-episode docuseries Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein. As the title suggests, the series featured never-before-heard audiotapes from Gein’s interviews with local law enforcement after his arrest.
According to director James Buddy Day, a county judge named Boyd Clark—who questioned Gein—kept the tapes in his office for years, and they were placed in a safety deposit box upon his death. Clark’s family eventually contacted members of the production crew about their existence. “I had always assumed that Ed Gein was this meek, mild person, and that really comes through in the tapes,” Day said. “But when you hear his voice and you hear that interaction between him and the authorities, it really sets him apart from the serial killer myth, this kind of handsome, Anthony Perkins type who can talk his way out of anything. Ed Gein is the opposite of that. But that’s what I think is so scary about him. He really is a monster in plain sight.”
In addition to the tapes, the series used archival police photos to illustrate the gory extent of Gein’s crimes.
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Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
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