With the Netflix ‘Monsters’ season 3 coming out on October 3rd with Charlie Hunnam playing our main man Ed Gein, I thought this would be the perfect timing to cover this case.

Edward Theodore Gein was born to George Philip Gein and Augusta Wilhelmine Gein on August 27th 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

His early years weren’t exactly happy, to say the least. His father was an abusive alcoholic and his mother was extremely overbearing and verbally abusive. Augusta wanted Ed to be a girl, so when he was born she was more than disappointed. It is reported that she would often dress Ed in girls clothing, despite the ridicule he received for this.

His mother would often tell Ed and his older brother Henry of the immorality of women, and supposedly even made them promise to stay virgins for the rest of their lives for their mother. It is unknown whether Augusta sexually abused Gein, however given the evidence… you’ll have to come to that conclusion on your own. She would also discourage her sons from having any friendships, including anyone they went to school with, girls or boys. This meant that their isolated life, living on a farm where the nearest neighbour was literally miles away, became even more isolated for the young boys.

Gein always wanted to please his mother, whereas his brother Henry wasn’t afraid to confront their mother in front of Ed, even though he knew how he felt about her. Augusta was a very neat and tidy woman, and liked everything to be ‘just so’. This fact is made more apparent when the police searched Ed’s house, and his mother’s room is pretty much in pristine condition even though the rest of the house had fallen into disarray. But we’ll get into that in a sec…

In 1940 his father George died of heart failure. This meant that Augusta was left as the head of the household, even more so than she was before. Just 4 years after the death of his father, Ed’s brother Henry was killed ‘by a fire on the farm’. His death was suspicious as his body was found quite a way from the fire and had no signs of skin damage a fire would cause or smoke inhalation and had bruising and other marks on his head. Ed reported his brother missing to police and claimed he didn’t know what happened, however when they arrived he was able to take them directly to where Henry’s body was. Although they were suspicious of Ed, the death was ruled as an accident.

In 1945, Augusta passed from a stroke, leaving Ed on the farm all alone and pretty much a hermit. As I mentioned before, Augusta’s room was untouched since her death, and some think it was left like this as a shrine to her. After his mother’s death, Ed made a living being a general handyman around the town, and babysat the local children.

Gein went on to inspire multiple books and movies, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence Of The Lambs, and with nicknames such as ‘Grandfather of Gore’, ‘The Ghoul of Plainfield’, ‘The Plainfield Butcher’ and ‘The Plainfield Ghoul’, its not hard to see why.

Ed first came to the attention of the authorities in the 1950’s, when he was found to be robbing graves at Plainfield Cemetery. It was later found the he was using body parts of the graves he dug up as well as women he murdered to create household items and other objects.

The first murder Ed confessed to was that of Bernice Worden, the owner of a local hardware store. It was the beginning of the hunting season so almost all the men were out hunting, except for Ed as he said he didn’t enjoy it, so he was reported as being seen in town. It was also reported that a man matching Gein’s description was seen driving Bernice’s truck away from the hardware store earlier that morning. When police searched Gein’s farm, they found Bernice’s decapitated body hanging by her feet in a shed. She had been shot and also eviscerated. Her head was later found in a burlap sack.

The second murder Gein confessed to was of Mary Hogan, a local tavern owner who had disappeared in 1954. When they searched the farm, her skull was found in a box.

Throughout searching the farm, they came across clothing and household items that Gein had made using the things stolen from the graves and the body parts, including a belt of nipples, a chair upholstered with human skin, face masks and a shoe box that was filled with 9 vulvas, one of which was covered in salt. They also found a head to toe skin suit that could actually be worn.

Although Gein confessed to the two murders, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In 1957 he was deemed unfit for trial, after he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and so he was confined to various psychiatric institutions. In 1968 he was found sane enough to participate in his own defence, so his trial commenced. He was found guilty of the murder of Bernice Worden, however he was deemed insane at the time of the murder.

After his trial he was returned to Mendota Mental Health Institute where he remained until he died from cancer in 1984, passing in his sleep.

He is buried next to his mother, Augusta, in Plainfield Cemetery, which is ironically the cemetery where he did the majority of his grave robbing.