Edward Gein went from being known for being a sweet and innocent boy who would not hurt a fly to a murderer and a necrophiliac. Edward lived on a 195-acre farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin, with his parents Augusta and George Gain, and his older brother Henry. Gein’s actions caused him to be known as “The Butcher of Plainfield.”1 Edward’s father was an alcoholic and very abusive. Thus Edward grew up being extremely close to his mother. When his father passed away in 1940, Edward was not significantly affected by the loss, due to the lack of connection he had with his father. Four years later, his brother Henry passed due to a fire near their home; police suspected that Edward had had something to do with his death because he led them directly to his brother’s burnt body.2 The following year his mother Augusta also passed away, leaving Edward all alone on a big farm. After Augusta’s passing, Edward blocked off rooms in the house where his mother had spent most of her time, creating something of a shrine for her. With Edward being all alone it is said that this is what drove him into having psychopathic behavior.3
Edward’s first known victim was Bernice Worden in 1957. Worden worked in a hardware store in town. Edward went to the store as he usually did on Friday’s right before closing time, and asked Mrs. Worden to fill up his jug with antifreeze. Edward had recently started to question Mrs. Worden on whether or not she would like to go roller-skating or “try out the floor” in his words. When she declined, he left, and then he quickly returned to ask about a rifle she had on the wall. When Mrs. Worden handed Edward the rifle he desired, she proceeded to look out the window. While she had her back turned, Edward loaded the rifle with the .22 shells he had in his overall pockets. The next morning Bernard Muschinski, Sr. found something strange with Mrs. Worden’s store. It had seemed that the store had been closed for the weekend, but she had left the lights on, which was something she usually didn’t do.4
When police were tipped off by Mrs. Worden’s son that Edward was the one that had kidnapped and killed his mother, the police took off to find him. While Edward Gein was in custody, police officers went to explore his land to try and find Bernice Worden’s body. While examining the house for any signs of Mrs. Worden’s body, the two officers made their way into the summer kitchen and started making their way to the other side. Officer Schley stepped back and felt something rub against his jacket. When he beamed his light towards what was rubbing against him there, in the beam of light hung a large corpse. While looking at the body that was in front of them, they noticed that it was attached by its feet and was split open and decapitated the way a deer would be. Before running out from the sight of it, Schley had managed to get out a couple of words, “My God, there she is.” They had finally found the missing body of Bernice Worden. After other officers were called, they began exploring the central part of Gein’s house. While they were looking around the house, the officers found many ghoulish things, from a human skull to things like lampshades, wastebaskets, bracelets, and even a belt made from human body parts. Officers on the scene also found a chair upholstered from human flesh along with many other gruesome things. While being interrogated Gein was asked many questions regarding the strange things in his house, which he answered in a calm, truthful manner. When he was asked whether or not he would put on the skin face mask that was found in his home, Gein responded that he did without hesitation.5
With Gein admitting to the crimes and the evidence in his home, it was easy for the officers to charge him with murder. At the time of his trial, he was considered unfit to stand trial and was admitted to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Wisconsin on January 6, 1958. After a decade of being charged with first-degree murder, Gein was finally considered to be fit to stand trial; he was then found not guilty because of insanity and went back to the State Hospital. Edward Gein’s crimes have subsequently become the basis for many Hollywood horror movies, including Psycho (1960), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and Silence of the Lambs (1991).6
- Harold Schechter, Deviant: the shocking true story of the original “psycho” (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1998), 61. ↵
- Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018, s.v. “Ed Gein,” by John Philip Jenkins. ↵
- Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2016, s.v. “Ed Gein,” by Charles Avinger. ↵
- Harold Schechter, Deviant: the shocking true story of the original “psycho” (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1998), 67. ↵
- Harold Schechter, Deviant: the shocking true story of the original “psycho” (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1998), 122, 124. ↵
- Salem Press EncyclopediaResearch Starters, EBSCOhost, 2013, s.v. “Serial killer,” by Kathy Warnes. ↵
84 comments
Madison Downing
It is so terrible to read that a boy who was known to be harmless and kind turned out to be one of the most known killers in history. I wish you wrote more about what broke him inside, what made him feel like killing people could be the answer. However the article was so well-written not only being extremely informative but still easy and enjoyable to read. I also never knew that all those movies were based on what he has done and I think that I’m actually really proud to say I have never seen any of the movies in my life.
Michael Hinojosa
The fact that this man did all of these horrible things and inspired the creation of countless horror villains makes me sick to my stomach. Never before in my life had I known that all of everyones favorite horror movie baddies were inspired by a real life human being, one who was birthed onto this world and walked the same earth as we did; facts such as this is what made this article so interesting and enjoyable to read!
Emily Jensen
There are very few things that make me sick to my stomach by just reading them, but this story definitely has succeeded in doing that. The thought of one human disembodying another is so eerie and unnatural that it is hard for me to comprehend that this story is real and not fiction. Surely only someone who is truly insane is capable of committing such atrocious acts.
Didier Cadena
When it comes to killers there are none like Ed Gein. The amount of terror that this one man was able to cause is legendary. The story about a boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly to full fledged killer is a great one. The amount of horror villains that Gein inspired is countless. The article does a great job of putting all of the information together and still make it interesting to read.
Lorenzo Rivera
It is extremely difficult to comprehend exactly what certain people can be capable of in certain situations, and under extreme conditions. One common trait of many serial killers, including Edward Gein is the fact that they were exposed to child abuse during their adolescence. It is very unnerving to read about how Gein would treat his victims like animals, and use their skin as one would use leather from any other animal. No one will know what went on inside the mind of Ed Gein, but one thing is certain, this man is the embodiment of one thing, and one thing only, evil.
Belene Cuellar
I personally am a big fan of The Silence of the Lambs and I had no idea the movie was based on an actual serial killer. A part of me feels bad for Ed because he grew up in a unstable household filled with abuse by his father. I do think this article captured Ed’s unstable nature. Overall a very descriptive article that was written in chronological order and helped me understand Ed.
Roman Olivera
Ed Gein was the beginning of a fact based american horror. He was the inspiration and continues to inspire many movies and books written about the gruesome acts not spoken of in american society. This article just touched the surface on many aspects of Ed Gein’s life. As stated he was very close to his mother and it is believed after her death he carried on not only mental attachment to her but was physically attracted to her as well. Just like in the movie Psycho, they found his mother in the home preserved after death, where is thought that he had sexual relations with her after death. This is called a necrophilia, and is thought to be something that he participated in with his victims prior to cannibalizing their remains. This brings us to our Silence of the Lambs and Texas Chainsaw Massacre references, where he takes pieces of there skin and bones and makes them into decoration or even body coverings. He also was using the meat from the victims as a source of food through cannibalism. Though we may never know the true number of victims Ed Gein really had, we can be sure that he goes down as one of american history’s first serial killers and quite possibly the most gruesome. There have been a few after him such as Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy, who were also serial killing cannibals, but neither quite measure up to the heinous acts commited by Ed Gein.
Engelbert Madrid
When I was a kid, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films made me feel uncomfortable because of the horrific and gory scenes that I saw. It gave me goosebumps to imagine someone having an ugly mentality of killing and making disturbingly things with human body parts. However, before reading this article, I didn’t know that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was inspired by real events in life. This article just gives the reader chills that how a man could do such inhumane things in a small town.
Christopher Vasquez
This is a very sad story. It’s very unfortunate that Edward Gein had an abusive, alcoholic father. Maybe if Gein was treated in a more humane way by his father, Gein’s life story would have been different. While reading this post, it made me wonder if Gein really was responsible for the murder of his own brother, as suspected by the police; if Gein really did murder his brother, then that makes me think that he might have had something to do with his mother’s death — though, this is only speculation. Making a shrine to his mother when she passed reveals that he loved her (maybe a little too much, in an unhealthy way). What disturbed me the most about this article is his lack of remorse for what he did; he casually revealed that, even after butchering and decapitating his victim’s body, he would wear her face as a mask… It’s scary to think that some of the movies in Hollywood had inspiration from real events; maybe Hannibal Lector is real, somewhere, and that thought scares me.
Avery Looney
I had never heard of Ed Gein before reading this article. The author, Marlene Lozano, does a great job of capturing the attention of the reader and explaining why Ed Gein became the psychopath that he was. It is crazy to think that the way a person is raised and events that happen to them throughout their life can cause them to snap the way Gein did. The way that Lozano described the finding of the corpse and all the different trophies at Gein’s house gave me the chills. The story was very well written.