2. Ed Gein, 1906-1984
Wisconsin
Violently alcoholic father
Mother fanatical Lutheran
Ed & brother lived on remote
farm with mother
Left farm only for chores &
school
3. Father died.
Henry, the older brother, began rejecting
the mother’s world-view within ear-shot of
Ed.
Henry died
Mother died
Ed left alone on the farm
4. 1957, suspected in the disappearance of a
store cleric, Bernice Worden, police search
the Gein farm.
They found her
5. Her headless body was hung upside
down with a steel bar drilled through
her ankles.
Her ribcage was spread apart and her
abdominal cavity was emptied.
She had been shot at close-range with
a .22
6. Searching the house, police found:
Human skulls mounted upon the cornerposts of his bed;
Human skin fashioned into a lampshade and used to upholster
chair seats;
Human skullcaps, apparently in use as soup bowls;
A human heart the deputies' reports claim was in a saucepan on
the stove;
The head of Mary Hogan, a local tavern owner, found in a paper
bag;
A ceiling light pull consisting of human lips;
A quot;mammary vestquot; crafted from the skin of a woman's torso;
A belt made from several human nipples, among many other such
grisly objects;
Socks made from human flesh.
7. Some claim that Gein was a transsexual that
made the “woman suit” as a way to become
a woman.
Psychologists believe he was “resurrecting”
his mother
8. Ruled incompetent to stand trial.
Remanded to custody of a state mental
hospital
Died in jail of respiratory and heart failure
as a result of cancer
Editor's Notes
Mother taught that world was innately evil and that all women (except self) were prostitutes & whores
Mother did not allow sons to pursue any friendships
There was a brush fire on a neighboring farm; Ed told police that he lost sight of his brother in the smoke, but led them directly to the body. Evidence of blunt trauma to the back of Henry’s head; death ruled as asphyxiation
