ED GEIN
Ed Gein. If you don't know who Ed or "Eddie" Gein is than consider your self lucky. Gein was the grandfather serial killer. Although only three bodies could be connected to Gein, his home was littered with bones, limbs, and other assorted body parts. Ed Gein was the insperation for such classic Horror Killers as Norman Bates and the Psycho storyline, Buffalo Bill (the other killer in Silence of the Lambs), and Leatherface's house was almost exactly what the inside of Gein's house looked like in the move Texas Chainsaw Massacre. To fully understand Gein, must first look at his childhood.
The Childhood of Ed Gein...
Ed (or "Eddie" as he was then called) Gein grew up with the normal style of family. He had a mother, a father and a brother, however that was all that was normal about Eddie's family. His mother was the most strict woman imaginable who believed that the bible was law and taught her sons accordingly. Her name was Augusta and she ran her family with an iron fist. She viewed her husband, George, as a worthless piece of crap and gave him no say what so ever in how the boys were rised. Augusta often told her boys of the dangers of women and how they were loose and deceptive. She also abused them psychologically, believing that they were destined to grow up and be just as trashy as their father. Eddie loved his mother and put her in the closest place in his heart. He once said that his mother was his first and only true love. In 1914, the Gein family moved away from the city, to a farm out in the country where Augusta felt they would be far from the sinfull influences of the big city. Augusta then opened a store because she felt that George was not worthy to hold a job and unable to support his family by any other means. George was a weak alcoholic man who knew that what his wife said was law and did not dare challenge her. In 1940 George died. Augusta believed that her views on the world and it's evil filth were ture and had no problems what so ever forcing them on her sons. Eddie looked up to his older brother and thought that he had a great work ethic, however he also believed every word she said but Henery, his older brother, often bashed her verbally behind her back, which is probably why he mysteriously died 1944.
Eddie said that there was a fire and he lost sight of Henery in the night, however when he summoned the police, he brought them streight to Henry's body which was untouched by flame and appeared to have bruises on the head. The police did not suspect fowl play due to the young age of Eddie and did not feel that such a well mannered and shy little boy was capable of such a thing as murder.
Eddie had no friends in school due to his shyness and if he tried to make friends, his mother would punnish him. So, feeling that his mother was not unlike god on earth, he did the best he could to honor Augusta's wishes. Eddie recieved poor marks in school in everything accept reading, a subject that he quite enjoyed.
Augusta Gein died of several series of strokes on On December 29th, 1945. This was a great loss for Eddie, due to the fact that he felt so close to his mother and the other fact that she was his last living relative.
All alone in the world...
After the death of his mother, Eddie continued to live in the farm house, but boarded off the rooms that his mother most used and loved which was most of the up stairs. He later explained that he boarded off the other parts of the house because he wanted them to be preserved and untouched as a sort of monument to his mother. Eddie spent most of his time in the kitchen and a room just off of it, that he made into his bedroom. He began reading Cult magizines, and adventure stories, and began paying nightly visits to the local graveyard. As he became more and more lonley, he beagn reading about nazis, head hunters, shipwrecks, and anatomy books. Eddie soon learned the process of shrinking heads, how to exume a corpse from it's grave and became well aquainted with the parts of the human body. Eddie sometimes babysat for extra cash, a job he enjoyed because he felt he could relate to children better than adults. Sometimes he would tell the children he watched about the stories he had read. Eddie most enjoyed reading the obituaries because he could find out when local women had died and visit their fresh graves. Although Eddie swore that he never had sex with any of the corpses, he did enjoy peeling their skin off and wearing it. Eddie liked the idea of having breasts and often wondered what it would be like to be a woman, and to hold so much power over men. Eddie soon had quite a unique collection of bodie parts and began putting them to use, making chairs of flesh and bone, lamp shades of skin, bowls of the tops of skulls, a belt made entirly of nipples, and a nice collection of severed shrivled heads. A young boy once visited Gein's farm and apon seening one of the heads, was told by Eddie that it was a relic from head hunters in the south seas. The boy went home to tell anyone that would listen, about what he had seen, but of course, no one belived him... Untill later when two other young men payed a visit to Eddie's home and saw the heads. They believed them to be halloween props, but rumors began to spin around town about what strange things Eddie did or did not possess. Towns people would joke with Eddie about the severed heads, and Eddie would smile, or make a sideways comment about hanging the heads in his room. No one took him seriously. Then Bernice Worden disappeared.
1940's and 1950's = women vanishing...
The police began to notice women mysteriously vanishing durring the late 1940's and early 1950's. The evidance left at the scenes of the disappearances was very little if any. Usually the tire tracks of a Ford truck, and thats about it. Durring the next several years, 5 girls turned up missing. One case the police found a blood trail from the basement window of one house, across a yard to a bloody hand print on the neighbors house. In 1952, two men vanished after leaving a bar. Their car was found, they were not. 1954 marked the disappearance of a bar owner by the name of Mary Hogan. Due to a large ammount of blood that trailed out into the parking lot, foul play was susspected. The only evidance other than the blood was a spent bullet shell on the floor. Eddie later admitted that he remembered taking her but not shooting her.
Suspected of Robbery
On November 17, 1957, police went to Ed Gein's house to try to question him as a suspect in a local robbery. What they found was enough to send any officer into shock. Bones everywhere. Trash and filth all over the house. Lamps and chairs made of human remains. Even a gutted, decapitated corpse of a deputy's wife hung from the rafters of the kitchen. Needless to say, Gein was arrested. After a day of silence, Gein began to confess to things that would shock the nation and cause a media up roar. People travled from all around the world to get a look at the Gein house and the Ford truck he used to carry corpses. Every one was desguested but facinated with the Gein story and he became an overnight celeberty of sorts. Durring his confessions, Eddie showed no sorrow or remorse for what he had done and spoke rather proudly of his grave robbing outings. Gein swore that he only killed afew people and most of the bones and such that were found in his house came from the graves he had robbed. Police later exumed the graves he had claimed to have robbed and found that he had been telling the truth. Police had identified the bodies of at least four murder victims but believed there would be more than just the four murder charges filed. Gein had no concept of how serious his crimes were and did not seem worried. In his first trial he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He would later be found to be emotionally impaired and a schizophrenic sexual psychopath. It was discovered that Gein had conflicting feelings twords women due to his mothers up bringing of him and his natural attraction to the opposite sex. He loved and hated women at the same time which eventually caused a full blown psychosis. Unfortuantly police could only pin two of the murders on Gein, that of Deputy's wife, Bernice Worden and bar owner Mary Hogan. Gein was found mentally incompetent and lived out the remainder of his days in a mental hospital, where he was the "model patient". It was believed that the happiest days of Gein's life were spent in that hospital. Eddie's home was eventually burnt to the ground by local towns people who were sick of all of the world wide attention it was recieving. Although Gein did not seem upset apon hearing the news, he was not happy either, saying: "Just as well." Most of Eddies belongings were destroyed in the fire but that which wasn't was auctioned off to the highest bidder. The "Goul Car" as it was known, Eddie's Ford truck was sold for $760.00 and was later put on display where people would pay a quorter to see it.
In Closing
On July 26, 1984, Ed Gein died of cancer in the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Gein is now buried in Plainfield cemetery next to his mother, where he rests to this day. Durring his final years, nurses say that he was the most polite patient they had ever known and that if all patients acted the way he did that their job would be alot easier. Ed Gein never had to be sedated like many of the other patients, he kept to himself, usually reading. Ed Gein was a sick sad man. I know I'll think twice about how I raise my child, when he or she is born. A psychologist once said, "we must blame the parents." In most cases I do not agree with this statement, because I believe that every person is responsable for their actions. However, in this case, I definantly think it goes to show how much influence a parent can have on the life of their child.
HORROR MOVIE TRIVIA
HORROR REVIEWS
MORE HORROR REVIEWS
CLASSIC HORROR REVIEWS
HORROR PICS ARCHIVE
LINKS
UPDATES
HORROR RANTS
THE ASYLUM
return to
REAL KILLERS