Edward Theodore Gein (August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984) was an American murderer, possible serial killer, and body snatcher from Plainfield, Wisconsin. He was known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul. In 1957, police discovered that Gein had been stealing bodies from local cemeteries and keeping parts of them in his home. He also admitted to killing two women: Mary Hogan in 1954 and Bernice Worden in 1957.
When police searched Gein's house, they found many things made from human body parts. These included bowls made from skulls, masks made from faces, a lampshade made from skin, a box with cut-off vulvas, and clothing made from human flesh.
Edward Theodore Gein was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1906. He was the second son of George Philip Gein (1873–1940) and Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (née Lehrke; 1878–1945). Gein had an older brother named Henry.
Augusta was very religious and a Lutheran. She always told her sons that the world was full of sin, that drinking was evil and that all women worked for the devil. She always read them the Bible, mainly verses that talked about death and punishment. Gein looked up to his mother and became obsessed with her.
In La Crosse, Gein's father worked as a carpenter and firefighter. He also owned a small grocery store, but soon sold it. The family then moved to a 155-acre (63-hectare) farm in the town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. Gein's father was a violent alcoholic who beat both of his sons. This caused Ed's ears to ring when his father beat him on the head.
Gein left the farm only to go to school. He was very shy and quiet. Classmates and teachers thought he acted strangely, such as laughing for no reason. Augusta punished him whenever he tried to make friends.
On April 1, 1940, Gein's father died of heart failure at the age of 66. After his death, Ed and his brother Henry began working around town to help pay for bills. People in Plainfield saw them as reliable and honest. Both worked as handymen and Ed sometimes babysat for neighbors. Henry began dating a divorced woman with two children and planned to move in with her. He worried about how close Ed was to their mother and often spoke badly about her. Ed defended his mother and did not like hearing anyone say bad things about her.
On May 16, 1944, Ed was burning vegetation on his farm when the fire got out of control. Firemen arrived to the scene to help put the fire out. Later that day, Ed reported Henry missing. A search party later found Henry's dead body lying face down. It looked like Henry had been dead for some time. BiographerHarold Schechter later said that Henry had bruises on his head and said that Ed might have killed him and used the fire to hide it. However, police did not think Henry was murdered and the county coroner named asphyxiation as the cause of death. Police believed that Henry died in the farm fire and no official investigation or autopsy was done.
After Henry's death, Ed and his mother were alone. Soon after, Augusta had a stroke that left her paralyzed. Ed spent his time taking care of Augusta. In 1945, Augusta had another stroke. She died on December 29, 1945, at the age of 67. Gein became depressed after his mother's death.
Private life
After his mother's death, Gein owned the farm and earned money from uncommon jobs around Plainfield. He closed up the rooms used by his mother, including the upstairs, the downstairs rooms, and the living room. While the rest of the house became dirty, these rooms stayed clean. Gein lived in a small room next to the kitchen. Around this time, he started reading pulp magazines and adventure stories. These stories were mainly about cannibals or Nazis. He liked reading about Ilse Koch, who was accused of making lamps from human skin.
In 1951, Gein started getting farm subsidy from the federal government. Sometime between 1946 and 1956, he sold 80-acre (32ha) part of the land that Henry owned.
Crimes
On the morning of November 16, 1957, Bernice Worden, a 58-year-old hardware store owner from Plainfield, was reported missing. Her store’s truck was seen leaving the building around 9:30a.m. Worden's son, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, came to the store at around 5:00p.m. He found the cash register open and blood on the floor.
Frank Worden told investigators that the day before, Gein had been in the store and would return to buy antifreeze. That evening, police arrested Gein near his home. After Gein's arrest, the Waushara County Sheriff's Department searched the Gein farm. A sheriff's deputy found Worden's decapitated body in a shed. Her body was cut open and hung upside down by her legs with ropes around her wrists. Worden had been shot with a .22-caliber rifle.
Inside Gein's house, police found: parts of human bones, a wastebasket made of human skin, human skin covering many chairs, human skulls on the bed, female skulls with the tops sawn off, bowls made from human skulls, a corset made from a female torsoskinned from shoulders to waist, leggings made from human leg skin, masks made from the skin of female heads, Mary Hogan's face mask in a paper bag, Mary Hogan's skull in a box, Bernice Worden's entire head in a burlap sack, Bernice Worden's heart in a plastic bag, nine vulvas in a shoebox, a young girl's dress and "the vulvas of two females [said] to have been about fifteen years old", a belt made from female human nipples, four noses, a pair of lips on a window curtain, and a lampshade made from the skin of a human face.
When questioned, Gein told police that between 1947 and 1952, he had visited local graveyards at night to dig up recently buried bodies. He said that during these visits he was in a "daze-like" state. He said that sometimes he came out of this state while in the cemetery, left the grave and returned home having done nothing. Other times, he dug up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women who reminded him of his mother. He took the bodies home and used their skin and bones to make clothing and objects.
Gein said he stole bodies from nine graves and showed police where they were. Gein had robbed the graves soon after the funerals. At first, police officers did not believe Gein. However, after finding empty caskets in the cemeteries, they believed everything that Gein told them.
After his mother's death, Gein said he began to make a "woman suit" so that he could "become his mother". He told the police that he never had sex with the dead bodies because "they smelled too bad". Gein also said he never ate the dead bodies or organs. While being questioned by the police, Gein confessed that he shot and killed Mary Hogan, a 51-year-old bar owner, in 1954.
A teenager who knew Gein, said that he had shrunken heads in his house. Gein told the teenager that they were relics sent by a cousin who had served in the Philippines during World War II.
During questioning, Sheriff Art Schley assaulted Gein by banging his head and face into a brick wall. As a result, Gein's first confession was seen as not reliable.
Possible murders
Police thought that Gein might be connected to other missing-person cases in Wisconsin. Some cases include:
Georgia Jean Weckler was eight years old when she disappeared near her home in Fort Atkinson at around 3:30p.m. on May 1, 1947. She was given a ride home from grade school in Jefferson by a neighbor. Weckler was last seen by the family mailbox.
Evelyn Grace Hartley was 14-years old when she went missing while babysitting a toddler at the home of Viggo Rasmussen on October 24, 1953. Her father, Richard, checked the Rasmussen house when Evelyn did not call him back. He found that the doors were locked, the lights and radio on and signs of a fight. Richard found her shoes in different rooms and his daughter's broken glasses upstairs. Richard did not find Evelyn in the house. After his arrest, Gein was questioned about Hartley's disappearance, but he said he did not kill her.
Victor Harold Travis was 42-years old and lived in Adams County. He went off to hunt deer with his friend Raymond Burgess on November 1, 1952. The hunters were never seen again after leaving a bar. Travis and Burgess had been hunting on the land next to Gein's farm.
James Walsh was 32-years old and lived near Gein's farm. Gein had worked for Mrs. Walsh after her husband went missing.
In 1968, doctors found that Gein was mentally fit to go to court. The trial began on November 7, 1968, and lasted one week. A psychiatrist said that Gein had told him he was not sure if killing Bernice Worden was an accident. Gein said he did not remember what had happened that morning.
Gein's trial happened without a jury. Gein was found guilty on November 14, 1968. A second trial was held to see if Gein was mentally okay. After doctors gave their testimonies, it was decided that Gein was not guilty by reason of insanity. He was ordered to stay at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for the rest of his life.
Because of his crimes, Gein became known as the "Butcher of Plainfield" and the "Plainfield Ghoul".
Gein's property
Gein's house and land cost about $4,700 at the time after his arrest. His belongings, house and land were set to be sold on March 30, 1958. Some people thought his farm would become a tourist attraction.
Early on the morning of March 20, the house was destroyed by fire. A deputy fire marshal said that a garbage fire had been set 75 feet (23m) from the house by a cleaning crew. Arson was possible, but the cause of the fire was never officially discovered. When Gein learned of the fire, he simply said "Just as well".
Gein's truck, which he used to take the bodies of his victims, was sold at a public auction for $760 to a carnival owner.
Death
Gein's vandalized grave in 1999 before thieves stole it
Gein died at the Mendota Mental Health Institute from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer, on July 26, 1984, at the age of 77. Gein was buried between his parents and brother in Plainfield Cemetery.
Over the years, people would break pieces from his gravestone to keep as souvenirs. Some people even began selling the dirt by his grave. Gein's gravestone was stolen in 2000. It was found in late May 2001, near Seattle, Washington. The Waushara County Sheriff's Department decided to keep the gravestone because they thought it would be stolen again. Since then, Gein's grave has had no gravestone.
Directors Errol Morris and Werner Herzog once planned to make a movie about Gein. Morris said he interviewed Gein many times. Morris and Herzog even tried to dig up Augusta Gein's body for research, but decided not to. In the end, the movie was never made.
Gein's story inspired American grunge band Tad to write the song "Nipple Belt" for their 1989 album, God's Balls. Gein also inspired American thrash metal band Slayer to write the song "Dead Skin Mask" for their 1990 album, Seasons in the Abyss. Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon said that the song "Skinned" on their 1995 album, Soup, was about Gein.
In 2012, German director Jörg Buttgereit wrote and directed a stage play about Gein's case called Kannibale und Liebe. Historian George W. Arndt said that after Gein's arrest, many black humor movies were inspired by him. These movies were called "Geiners." Gein was played by actor Michael Wincott in the 2012 movie Hitchcock.
↑Gein said he only killed two people, which is why he is not called a serial killer, however he is believed to have killed more though this cannot be confirmed or denied.
↑Stone, Michael H.; Brucato, Gary (2019). The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p.8. ISBN978-1633885325.
↑"Gein Also Admits He Killed Mary Hogan; Results of Lie Tests Announced". Stevens Point Daily Journal. November 20, 1957. p.13.
↑"Edward Theodore Gein, American Psycho"(PDF). Department of Psychology, Radford University. Radford, Illinois. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 3, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018. Beginning in 1947 – He saw a newspaper article of a woman who had been buried that day. The first corpse came from a grave near the grave of Gein's mother. Indeed, one report is that among the first grave robbing incidents was that of his own mother.
↑"Augusta Gein". The Hanneman Archive. November 4, 2014. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
12"Empty Coffins Discovered in Graves at Plainfield; Appears To Back Up Gein's Story". Stevens Point Daily Journal. November 25, 1957. p.1.
12"DA Convinced Gein Actually Raided Graves". Stevens Point Daily Journal. November 26, 1957. p.1.
↑Bell, Rachael; Bardsley, Marilyn. "Seriously weird". Tru TV. Atlanta, Georgia: Turner Broadcasting Systems. Archived from the original on January 30, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
↑"Gein Trial Under Way". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. November 7, 1968. p.1. Circuit Judge Robert Gollmar of Baraboo ruled today that the murder trial of Ed Gein of Plainfield will be heard without a jury. ... The first trial witness called by the prosecution this morning was Leon Murty of Wild Rose.
↑"Psychiatrist Tells Gein Account of Worden Death". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. November 12, 1968. p.1.
↑"Gein Takes Stand, Remembers Little". The Daily Telegram. Eau Claire, Wisconsin. November 13, 1968. p.1.
12"Ed Gein Found Guilty of 1957 Murder in Plainfield". The Capital Times. Madison, Wisconsin. November 14, 1968. p.2, col. 4.
↑"Wisconsin Killer Gein Ruled Guilty, Insane". The Chicago Tribune. November 15, 1968.
12Singer, Mark (February 2, 1989). "Predilections". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 15, 2014– via Errolmorris.com.
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