Edward Theodore Gein (1906 – 1984), was one of the most notorious murderers in U.S. history. The particularly bizarre nature of his crimes shocked the world, even though it may never be known if he committed more than two murders. Besides the death of his brother under mysterious circumstances, six people disappeared from the Wisconsin towns of La Crosse and Plainfield between 1947 and 1957.
CHILDHOOD:
Ed Gein was born to Augusta Lehrke and George P. Gein in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Gein's father was a violent alcoholic who was frequently unemployed. Gein and his brother rejected their violent, aimless father, as did Augusta, who treated her husband like a nonentity.
Augusta decided to move to this desolate location to prevent outsiders from influencing her sons. Gein only left the premises to go to school and Augusta blocked any attempt he made to pursue friendships. Besides school, he spent most of his time doing chores. Augusta, who was fanatically religious, drummed into her boys the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drink, and the belief that all women (herself excluded) were whores.
At the age of ten, Gein experienced an orgasm upon viewing his mother and father slaughtering a hog in a nearby shed. When Gein reached puberty, Augusta became increasingly strict, once dousing him in scalding water after she caught him masturbating in the bathtub, grabbing his genitals and calling them the "curse of man".
ARREST:
Police investigating the disappearance of a store clerk, Bernice Worden, suspected Gein to be involved. Upon entering a shed on his property, they made their first horrific discovery of the night: Worden's corpse. She had been decapitated, and was hanging upside down by the ankles and had been split open down the torso like a deer. The mutilations had been performed post-mortem; she had been shot at close-range from a .22-caliber rifle.
Searching the house, authorities found:
* severed heads acting as bedposts in the bedroom
* skin used to make lampshades and upholster chair seats
* skulls made into soup bowls
* a human heart in a saucepan on the stove
* a face mask made out of real facial skin found in a paper bag
* a necklace of human lips
* a "mammary vest" made of a vagina and breasts stitched together
* a belt made from nipples
Above all, Gein's most infamous creation was an entire wardrobe fabricated of human skin consisting of leggings, a gutted torso (including breasts) and an array of tanned, dead-skin masks that looked leathery and almost mummified. Gein also participated in a stunted form of necrophilia, achieving sexual pleasure by playing with the mutilated sexual organs of corpses.
Shortly after his mother's death, Gein decided he wanted a sex change, although it is a matter of some debate whether or not he was transsexual; by most accounts, he created his "woman suit" so he could pretend to be his mother.
PUNISHMENT:
Sheriff Art Schley physically assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein's head and face into a brick wall; because of this, Gein's initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Gein was found mentally incompetent and thus unfit to stand trial at the time of his arrest, and was sent to the Central State Hospital. Later, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the rest of his life in the hospital.
FILMS:
PSYCHO
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
DERANGED
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
ED GEIN
CASE FILE:
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/streiber/273/gein_cf.htm
