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The Butcher Of Plainfield

DON’T READ IF THE MENTION OF DEATH, GORE AND MURDER MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE

Ed Gein inspired the creation of Norman Bates from Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, and The Silence of The Lamb’s Buffalo Bill.

Early life to his first murder

Born Edward Theodore Gein on 27th August 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin to parents George Phillip Gein (1873-1940) and Augusta Wilhelmine (née Lehrke) Gein (1878-1945). He also had an older brother, Henry George Gein (1901-1044) He grew up under the influence of his religious and overbearing mother. Augusta raised her two sons to see the world as evil, and that women were sinful. 

Augusta wanted to protect her family from this “evil” so she insisted they move away from La Crosse, to Plainfield. They lived in a farmhouse outside of the town since she believed that living in a town would corrupt her sons. 

This caused Ed only to leave their farmhouse to go to school, but he wasn’t able to hold any meaningful relationships with any of his classmates. They saw him as socially awkward and he was prone to random fits of laughter. Ed also had a speech impediment and a lazy eye which made him an easy victim to bullies. 

Despite his mother's attitude, he still adored her. His father was an alcoholic and died in 1940, he was a much smaller part of Ed’s life. He absorbed his mother’s lessons about the world and he seemed to share her harsh view of the world. His older brother Henry stood up to Augusta, but Ed never did. So it’s not surprising that Henry seemed to be Ed’s first victim. 

In 1944, Ed and Henry were sent out to clear the fields of unwanted vegetation by burning it away. As they worked, the fire suddenly got out of control and the fire brigade had to go and put it out. When they finally did, Henry was nowhere to be seen. Ed claimed he has just vanished and they filed a missing person report. Ed helped the police find him, and he lead them directly to the body of his brother, face down in the marsh. Dead. They said it was an accident, asphyxiation was the written cause of death. 

Henry’s death left Gein and his mother to live alone in isolation, until 1945 when Augusta passed away. 

After she died, Ed began his decade-long spree of crime.

Crimes of Ed Gein, The Butcher of Plainfield

After his mother’s death, Ed transformed the home into some sort of shrine in memory of her. He boarded up rooms she had used to keep them in pristine condition and he moved into a small room off the kitchen. 

After living alone, in isolation, he began to sink deeper and deeper into his obsessions. He learned about Nazi medical experiments, studied human anatomy, consumed porn, even though he had never attempted to date anyone, and read horror novels. And unbeknownst to the town, he began to indulge in his sick fantasies. For a full decade, he was left alone, no one thought anything of the Gein farmhouse outside of town.

That was until 1957 when Bernice Worden disappeared from her hardware store, leaving only bloodstains. Bernice was a 58-year-old widow who had last been seen at her store wither her last customer. Ed Gein, who was there to purchase a gallon of antifreeze. The police went to investigate Gein’s house which turned out to be something pulled out of a nightmare. 

What was found in the farmhouse

As soon as the authorities entered Ed’s house, they found Worden in the kitchen decapitated and hung from the rafters by her ankles. They also found various bones, both whole and fragmented, skulls on the bedposts, and bowls and other kitchen utensils crafted from skulls. However, they found things much worse than bones. There were chairs upholstered with skin, a wastebasket made with skin, masks crafted with human faces, leggings from human leg skin, a pair of lips being used as a drawstring to a window shade, a corset from a female torso, a belt made with nipples and a lampshade made from multiple human faces. 

They also found many dismembered body parts. Fingernails, noses and genitals to nine different women. They also found the remains of the body of Mary Hogan, a tavern keeper who went missing in 1954. 

Gein admitted that he had collected most of the remains from local graveyards that he had begun to visit two years after Augusta’s death. He said he’d gone in a daze, searching for bodies resembling his mother. He also explained to them why. He said he wanted to create a “woman suit” so he could become his mother and crawl into her skin. 

How many did he kill

Gein was arrested after the visit, but he was found not guilty by reasons of insanity in 1957 and he was sent to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. There he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. 

Ten years went by and Ed was deemed fit to stand trial. He was convicted of the murder of Bernice Worden, but not of Mary Hogan since the state allegedly saw it as a waste of money. They reasoned that Ed was insane, he would be in hospitals for the rest of his life either way. 

No one knows how many women he killed. He only admitted to Bernice and Mary, but as many as 40 bodies were found in his home - he claimed he had robbed them from graves.