The story of Ed Gein, one of the worst maniacs in history ⁠ ⁠

The story of Ed Gein, one of the worst maniacs in history ⁠ ⁠

Ed Gein spent his entire life on a farm located a few miles outside of Plainfield, Wisconsin. His father, George, was a moderately successful farmer who loved to dig in the soil and was addicted to alcohol. However, no matter how heavy and fast his hand was after another portion of whiskey, it could not be compared with his wife, Augusta.

Augusta grew up incredibly devout, even obsessive, about religion. Brought up in the same spirit, Augusta saw only dirt, sin and lust in everything - it’s even surprising how she managed to become pregnant with her two sons - Edward and Henry. Shortly after Eddie's birth, she convinced her husband to move from the "wicked" LaCrosse to the more "chaste" Planfield. However, it soon became clear that this small God-fearing town was no better than the one abandoned. Augusta called it a “hell hole” and kept her sons on the farm - away from the sinful city and, in particular, corrupt women and the sin of love.

In 1940, George Hein dies of a heart attack. The brothers remained in the care of their mother and soon Ed fell even more deeply under her terrible influence. Henry, on the other hand, tried to distance himself from his family and live a normal life. However, he paid a terrible price for his disobedience - in 1944 he was found dead in the Hein property. The official version was that Henry had a heart attack. However, she did not explain the strange wounds on the young man’s head.

Ed was left alone with his mother. A year later, she suffered a stroke and Augusta found herself bedridden. Ed looked after her around the clock, but this attention was not enough for her mother. She constantly yelled at her son, calling him a weakling and a loser. And yet, he could not survive without her, which Augusta abused all the time. Ed endlessly begged his mother not to die and not to leave him alone in this world.

Augusta died in December 1945 after a second, even more severe blow. 39-year-old Ed was left alone and it was then that his slow fall into the black abyss of madness began. At first, no one noticed what was happening, even in such a tiny town as Planfield. Ed was very reserved and rarely left the farm. Leading a reclusive life, he came to the city only when he needed the services of a mechanic. No one seemed to notice that he was stranger than before his mother's death.

Looking back, one can see that he allowed his oddities to be discovered through his own carelessness. Townspeople later recalled how Gein loved to discuss stories about Nazi atrocities, cannibalistic natives and gender reassignment operations that he read in men's magazines. His jokes were always considered quite rude and even cruel. When Mary Hogan, the diner's overweight owner, suddenly disappeared, Gein repeatedly joked that she was staying at his house. Mary disappeared from the motel, leaving behind only pools of blood, so Ed's jokes about the poor woman seemed tasteless to everyone. Even stories about strange things happening on his farm did not bother anyone. Local children who looked into the windows of Gein's house talked about seeing human heads hanging on the walls. Edward just laughed and said that his brother served during the war somewhere in the South Seas and sent him these heads as a gift.

Old Ed Gein wouldn’t hurt a fly, the townspeople thought. This is just a strange little man who can’t even stand the sight of blood. He had never even taken part in a traditional deer hunt, as everyone in Planfield believed until Bernice Worden disappeared.

She disappeared on November 16, 1957. In the afternoon, Frank Warden returned from hunting and stopped at a hardware store run by his mother, 58-year-old widow Bernice. It was strange that his mother was not there. She left her work area, leaving the front and back doors unlocked. Frank also discovered something else, something that scared him terribly - a trail of blood stretching from the display case to the back door. Quickly examining the room, Frank found a crumpled receipt lying in the backyard. The receipt was in the name of Edward Gein.

Frank called the police and went with the sheriff to Gein's farm to ask him a few questions regarding the whereabouts of Miss Worden. Upon arrival at the place, a terrible discovery awaited them on the summer terrace behind the house. Bernice's naked body hung upside down on a huge pulley, gutted in the same way as a deer. Shocked police called for reinforcements. Half an hour later, a dozen policemen were combing Gein’s home, which later became famous as the “House of Horrors.” What they discovered that night was unprecedented in the history of American criminology.

Soup pots were made from human skulls. The chairs were upholstered in human skin. The lampshades were made of flesh and gave off a terrible rotten smell. One of the boxes standing in the corner was filled to the top with cut off noses. The belt was decorated with female nipples. The bedspread was decorated with women's lips. A shoebox under the bed contained several dried female genitals. The faces of nine women, carefully crafted and stuffed, hung on one of the walls... there was also a leather bracelet, a drum made of flesh and much more. The shirt with breasts was made from the skin of a tanned middle-aged woman. Gein later admitted that he often wore this shirt at night, imagining himself as his own mother.

But that was not all. The refrigerator was filled to the top with human organs, and a heart was found in one of the pots. The sheriff estimated that the remains belonged to approximately fifteen women, and possibly more. Around 4:30 a.m., after searching for several hours, police discovered a bloody bag. Inside was a recently severed head. Large nails were stuck into the ears, connected with string. The head belonged to Bernice Worden. Gein planned to decorate one of the walls of his creepy lair with it.

During many hours of interrogation, Gein confessed to the murder of two women - Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan (however, Gein confessed to the murder of Hogan only a few months later). He allegedly collected the rest of the terrible evidence found on the farm in a local cemetery for 12 years after his mother’s death. Robbing graves at night, he collected his terrible collection with the help of the weak-minded farmer Gus, whose task was to dig up the bodies. One day, Gus, to his misfortune, went to Gein’s house. He just needed fresh trophies and decided on his first kill.

A few months after Gein’s arrest, local boys became so bold that they were already throwing stones at the windows of the “House of Horrors.” The townspeople considered the farm a symbol of evil and depravity and avoided it at all costs. Ultimately, the authorities decided to sell the estate at auction. People protested, but there was nothing they could do about it - or so it seemed at first. On the night of March 20, 1958, Gein's house mysteriously burned to the ground. It was rumored that it was arson, but the culprits were never found.

According to Planfield residents, the fire saved their town from the fate of becoming a monument to the madness of Ed Gein. However, he did not stop the flow of curious people who wanted to take part in the sale of the surviving property. A huge number of rusty cars were sold, and the Gein plot itself was purchased by real estate dealer Edmin Shi. Within a month, it destroyed the ashes and the nearby undergrowth of 60,000 trees.

The only unusual incident at the auction involved the sale of Ed Gein's car, which he was driving on the day Bernice Worden was killed. 14 people fought for this lot, and, in the end, Ford went for the then unheard of sum of $760. The buyer chose to remain anonymous, identified by some as "Cooch Brothers", some as "Cook Brothers", and some as "Cock Brothers" of Rothschild, Wisconsin. The buyer appears to have been the organizer of the Seymour fair, as evidenced by Ford's subsequent appearance as an attraction called "Ed Gein's Ghoul Car."

A huge poster next to the sedan read:

Look at the car that transported the dead from their graves!

Ed Gein's car!

The reward is $1000 to anyone who proves otherwise!

Speculation on Planfield's notoriety was met with disapproval by the townspeople. However, the fair organizers were not too worried about this and continued the attraction. Soon the car demonstration began to attract trouble. At the Washington State Fair in Slinger, Wisconsin, the car was on display for four hours before the sheriff arrived and closed the ride. After this, Wisconsin authorities banned the display of the car and the offended businessmen went to southern Illinois, hoping for understanding. The further fate of the car is unknown.

However, rumors about Hein did not end with his arrest. In 2002, a man named John Fisher released memories of his meetings with the maniac. From 1959 to 1960, he worked at the Wisconsin State Criminology Laboratory under the direction of Charles Wilson. The first time John saw Gein was when he arrived at the laboratory and met several sheriff's deputies standing around a short man whom John did not know. Fischer asked the laboratory director about this man and received the answer that it was Ed Gein. He was taken to the laboratory and connected to a printing machine, with which the police tried to force Gein to confess to the murder of Mary Hogan. The woman's heirs wanted to settle matters with her fortune, but could not do this as long as she was listed as missing.

In 1984, Ed Gein died, becoming a legend even though he spent most of his life behind bars. He died on July 26, 1984 and was buried in the Planfield City Cemetery.

Ed Gein became the prototype for the maniac in the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.