Ed Gein

Ed Gein

Edward Theodore Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American convicted murderer and body snatcher. Gein’s crimes gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957. He was found legally insane and was remanded to a psychiatric institution. He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute of respiratory failure, on July 26, 1984, aged 77.

About Ed Gein in brief

Summary Ed GeinEdward Theodore Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American convicted murderer and body snatcher. Gein’s crimes gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957. He was found legally insane and was remanded to a psychiatric institution. He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute of respiratory failure, on July 26, 1984, aged 77. His story inspired movies such as Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Ed Gein was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1906, the second of two boys of George Philip Gein ) and Augusta Wilhelmine Gein. Gein had an elder brother, Henry George Gein,. Augusta hated her husband, an alcoholic who was unable to keep a job; he had worked at various times as a carpenter, tanner, and insurance salesman. On May 16, 1944, Henry and Gein were burning away marsh vegetation on the property; the fire got out of control, drawing the attention of the local fire department. By the end of the day, Gein reported his brother missing. With lanterns and flashlights, a search party searched for Henry, whose dead body was found lying face down. Apparently, he had been dead for some time, and it appeared that the cause of death was heart failure since he had not been burned or injured otherwise.

It was later reported, by biographer Harold Schechter, that Henry had bruises on his head. The police dismissed the possibility of foul play as the county coroner later listed asphyxiation as the cause, but no official investigation was conducted and an autopsy was not performed. Some question the possibility that Gein killed his brother. In retrospect, it was possible, in retrospect, that it was ‘possible and likely’ that Henry’s death was ‘Cain and Abel’ Gein and his mother were alone, taking care of Henry in 1945 after his death, and later in 1945 Gein took care of his mother, Sometime in 1945. Augusta was fervently religious, and nominally Lutheran. She preached to her boys about the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drinking, and her belief that all women were naturally promiscuous and instruments of the devil. She reserved time every afternoon to read to them from the Bible, usually selecting verses from the Old Testament and Book of Revelation concerning death, murder, and divine retribution. The brothers were generally considered reliable and honest by residents of the community. While both worked as handymen and frequently babysat for neighbors, He enjoyed babysitting, seeming to relate more easily to children than adults. He was shy, and classmates and teachers remembered him as having strange mannerisms, as if he were laughing at his own personal jokes.