Ed Gein: Difference between revisions

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Gein had a difficult childhood, his mother, Augusta, was a pious woman who would read Gein and his brother Henry handpicked verses from the old testament, often of a misogynistic or grotesque context. Gein's father, George, was an alcoholic which caused a significant amount of tension in his family, his mother Augusta detested her husband due to his alcoholism and inability to hold down a job, which many speculate may have been a contributing factor in Gein descending into insanity.

Augestine,                                                                                                                                                          Gein's mother.

On November 16, 1957, Bernice Worden disappeared, she was the owner of a local hardware store in Plainfield. Worden's son informed authorities that Gein had been spotted in the store the evening before his mother disappeared and informed her he would return the following morning to purchase an item. When authorities searched Gein's property, they discovered Worden's decomposing body in a shed hung upside down by her wrists and a crossbar at her ankles, she had been shot by Gein and her torso had been dressed out, a tactic often performed by hunters after killing their desired prey. When authorities searched Gein's home, what they found were much more shocking than Worden's dead body, they discovered.

* Whole human bones and fragments

After being photographed, they were destroyed. When questioned, Gein denied murder, but admitted between 1947 and 1952 he had made about 40 nocturnal visits to three local graveyards and exhumed the remains of recently buried victims, but stated he was in somewhat of a "dazed state". However, Gein remarked that on approximately 30 of his occasions he had managed to come out of the dazed state and put the bodies back and left the grave in good order. Gein admitted to making nine grave robberies and subsequently lead investigators to them, authorities were skeptical as to whether or not Gein could rob a grave within the space of an evening and dug up two of the graves Gein had informed them about, in one instance there was a crowbar in place of the body and contradicted Gein's story. Gein was accused of committing necrophilia with the bodies he had exhumed, but denounced this claim stating "they smelt too bad." He also confessed that following his mother's death in 1945 he wanted to become her, and began these gruesome acts due to his mother's psychotic hatred of women.

Gein's trial began in 1957, but he pleaded not guilty due to reason of insanity, a plea which was accepted by the court. He was confined to a mental institution in Wisconsin were he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a trait that many speculate his mother also possessed.

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Gein has served as the inspiration for many notable literary and cinematic villains, most notably Norman Bates. Robert Bloch, the author of the famed novel and later Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho, based Norma Bates of Gein's mother Augusta, both share many attributes, Gein's mother had a deep hatred for women and taught her son all women are whores, as did Norma Bates. Norman Bates' unwanted willingness to kill women were also based of Gein's murder and human trophy collecting. Leatherface of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was also based loosely based of Gein's human trophy collecting. Leatherface, the franchise's  antagonist, wears a mask made of human flesh. Thomas Harris, the creator of the legendary movie character, Hannibal Lecter based Buffalo Bill, the main antagonist of his 1988 novel, The Silence of the Lambs of Gein.