Ed Gein

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.

Gein was found not fit to have a trial and was sent to a mental hospital. By 1968, he was found able to stand trial. He was found guilty of the murder of Worden. However, he was found legally insane and stayed at the Mendota Mental Health Institute for the rest of his life. Gein died in 1984 from respiratory failure and lung cancer at the age of 77.

Gein's crimes had a large impact on American popular culture. He inspired the character Norman Bates in Robert Bloch's 1959 suspense book Psycho and its 1960 movie version, Leatherface in the 1974 horror movie The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in the 1988 book The Silence of the Lambs and its 1991 movie version.

Early life
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  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.

Deaths in the family
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. Biographer Harold 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  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 torso skinned 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 3:30 p.m. on May 1, 1947. She was given 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.

Aftermath
Trial
On November 21, 1957, Gein was taken to court in Waushara County to be charged with one count of first-degree murder. He said he was not guilty by reason of insanity. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was found mentally unfit for trial. Gein was sent to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, now Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. He was later moved to Mendota State Hospital in Madison.

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  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 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.

In popular culture
Gein's story had an effect in American popular culture. Gein was a big inspiration for Robert Bloch while he was writing his 1959 suspense book, Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock, just like Bloch, used Gein for inspiration for the 1960 movie Psycho. Gein's story inspired other movies such as, Deranged (1974), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and the Rob Zombie movies House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005). In 2010, Gein's life was made into a comedy musical called 'Ed Gein: The Musical'.

Gein inspired many fictional serial killers. These include Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs). He also inspired the characters Garland Greene in Con Air and Dr. Oliver Thredson in the television series American Horror Story.

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.

In 2022, actor Shane Kerwin played Gein in the first season of Netflix's anthology series Monster which was about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The third season of Monster, called Monster: The Ed Gein Story, tells the story of Gein's life and crimes. Actor Charlie Hunnam plays Gein. The season was released on Netflix on October 3, 2025.

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Category:1906 births
Category:1984 deaths
Category:Deaths from lung cancer
Category:Deaths from respiratory failure
Category:Cancer deaths in Wisconsin
Category:American murderers
Category:Criminals from Wisconsin
Category:People with schizophrenia
Category:Disease-related deaths in Wisconsin
Category:People who died in prison custody in the United States
Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Category:People acquitted by reason of insanity
Category:Necrophiles
Category:Violence against women