Only two murders make a serial killer, and Ed Gein fits the bill.
In Ryan Murphy’s latest edition of his “Monster” anthology, he explores the twisted world of Gein, who went on to inspire Hollywood killers in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Psycho.” But few know Gein’s story.
Though his life has been dramatized for decades since his murders in the 1950s, the serial killer has only admitted to the deaths of two women: Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. However, the twisted way that he engaged with their bodies made him a spectacle.
It is reported that Gein had an abusive father, and after his death, he became attached to his mother. After her death, the “Butcher of Plainfield” became fascinated with dead bodies and robbed graveyards of women that looked like his own mother.
Gein flew under the radar for many years but first came under police scrutiny in 1957 when Worden, a hardware store owner, went missing, and people said she was last seen with Gein. The police searched his house and found his disturbing basement, which contained Worden’s body hanging by her ankles with her head decapitated. Her head was being preserved elsewhere. During the search, authorities also discovered the head of Hogan, a tavern operator who had disappeared in 1954.
There were also household items made of human flesh, including lampshades, and he also built a face mask and woman suit out of skin peeled off of corpses. Historians believe that Gein used the “woman suit” to become his mother.
Gein admitted to killing both Worden and Horgan but pled not guilty by reason of insanity. He was placed in a mental hospital and diagnosed as a schizophrenic and deemed not fit for trial in late 1957. He was later put on trial in 1968 and was only found guilty of killing Worden. Due to his mental health issues, Gein was sentenced to live in a mental hospital until his death in 1984.
He was suspected to have killed his brother, who died in a mysterious fire, but the cause of death was ruled an accident. Murphy’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” speculates about other deaths that Gein may have been responsible for, but he was only found guilty of one and admitted to two.