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
Johnanthony Hernandez
Interesting article, I had not heard much about Edward Gein before reading your article other than I do remember hearing somewhere that his murders were the inspiration of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movies. Edward Gein is one of the serial killers that I don’t know much about and I didn’t know that he kept parts of his victims as trophies, while most serial killers do take a trophy of sorts from each of their victims they usually don’t flaunt them around. Rather choosing to keep them hidden for their eyes only, again great article.
Kayla Lopez
I have heard about Edward Gein before, however, I did not know about what exactly triggered his murderous and necrophilia ways. I would have never guess that it all began with the passing of his mother because this is something that every person has to go through. This was a very well written article and it served as a nice refresher for me about Ed Gein.
Noah Laing
I’ve never heard this story of Gein, so obviously I found it shocking and disturbing that this man actually committed such disgusting crimes and I haven’t heard about it before. This article did a good job of describing the motive and the events in Gein’s life that lead him to commit these horrendous crimes, interesting article.
Andrew Dominguez
This was a very interesting article, and i didn’t realize this individual inspired so many movies. I liked the author include background on the killer, especially details about his family.What i thought was crazy, is people thought he was such an innocent individual, yet was crazy. Especially when he would use people skin as material for different objects in his house. This a was great article on some one who inspired so many movies.
Timothy ODekirk
I never heard of Edward Gein before, and finding out that his crimes were based off of the movie, “Physco” is extremely interesting to me. I find it rather disturbing about how Gein turned out to be the killer that he is known for today. On how all of his loved ones were dead and he was the only one left on a large farm, turning him insane. This could be a possible explanation for this, intriguing me on the origins of Edward Gein. This was a great article and something that I might do some more research on in the mere future.
Belia Camarena
Great job writing this article; it was very intriguing to read, especially because I had never heard of Edward Gein. However, some pieces of the article were disturbing to read, and it is sick that Gein’s could commit these crimes and not feel any remorse. I have to wonder if there were more victims though. How could he have so many items with human skin in his home if he only had one victim?
Maria Esquivel
I had never heard of Edward Gein or the killings he committed prior to reading this article. However, I have seen “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” film, and it is interesting to read how Gein’s crimes became the basis for this movie. It’s crazy to read that he would keep the body parts of the victims and flaunt them like they were special trophies. Overall, it was a very well-written and interesting article. Good job!
Iris Henderson
I’ve heard of Edward Gein, infamous murderer and inspiration of Hollywood, befor this article. Yet, I have never found this much information about him in one place. The author did a great job of researching details to tie this story together. Edward Gein proved to be truly despicable in the way that he murdered countless innocent victims. The only thing I would reccommend for this article is that it could have incorporated a few more pictures to match the amount of detailed content.
Miranda Alamilla
Honestly, the very first picture (the featured image) reminds of Lenny from the “Of Mice and Men” movie. However, once I started the article, I found that Edward Gein was a man much more complex than Lenny. He lost all of his family and became mentally insane. He used body parts like skin and bones to create many different day to day objects like belts and trophies. This article was quite disturbing to read, but that’s what made it interesting!
Samuel Stallcup
Good connection at the end. When I was reading the introductory paragraph, I was thinking “this is almost exactly like Bates.” It’s so interesting when people try to keep someone alive, even though they’re dead. It shows that the person is incredibly alone and has no sense of moving on. Gein’s story is quite tragic, and it’s unfortunate that he lost so many important people in his life; the only people he had.