For Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s third season of “Monster,” the duo are diving into arguably one of the least known and most influential true crime cases of all time: Ed Gein.
Nicknamed the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul, Gein’s case inspired such iconic horror films as “Psycho,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” His crime spree helped spark our modern obsession with the true crime genre as a whole. Before you press play on Netflix, here’s what you need to know.
How many people did Ed Gein kill?
Though Ed Gein may have inspired some of the most notorious serial killers brought to film, the real Gein only confessed to killing two people.
The first was Bernice Worden, the 58-year-old owner of a hardware store in Plainville, Wis. Worden disappeared the morning of Nov. 16, 1957, but her deputy sheriff son didn’t realize anything had had happened to her until he found blood on her store’s floor that afternoon. Frank Worden knew that Gein was supposed to go by the store that morning, so he immediately turned his investigation to the local loner. No one was prepared for the horrors that awaited authorities on the Gein family farm.
Bernice Worden’s decapitated body was found hanging upside down in Gein’s shed. He head was later found in a cardboard box inside of Gein’s house. That’s far from all. Police also found several disturbing artifacts like a wastebasket made from human skin, skulls mounted on bedposts and a corset made from a female torso.
That search also uncovered Gein’s second murder victim: Mary Hogan. A 51-year-old tavern owner, Hogan had been missing since December 1954. After he was taken into custody, Gein admitted to shooting her.
Over the course of several interrogations, Gein admitted to stealing body parts from nine graves. Initially, he tried to dig up his mother’s body but was unable to extract her body because it had been filled in with cement. When that didn’t work, Gein targeted the graves near his mother’s body. He estimated that he visited the graveyard as many as 40 times. When asked by professionals, Gein denied having sex with or eating the exhumed bodies. Instead, he was attempting to make what he called a “woman suit,” an obsession that began after his mother’s death.
Was Ed Gein sentenced to prison?
Gein was originally declared unfit for trial after he was found mentally incompetent by reason of insanity. He was sent to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane until 1968 when doctors determined that he was mentally able to confer with his counsel.
The trial, which began in November of 1968, only lasted one week. According to a testimony from a psychiatrist, Gein was unsure if he killed Worden accidentally or on purpose. The first trial found Gein guilty. But a second trial, which dealt with his sanity, ruled that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and spent the rest of his life in mental hospitals. Ed Gein died of lung cancer in 1984.
Was Ed Gein suspected of killing others?
Gein only confessed to killing Worden and Hogan. But over the years he was considered a suspect in unsolved cases throughout Wisconsin including the disappearances of eight-year-old Georgia Jean Weckler, 14-year-old Evelyn Grace Hartley, Victor Harold Travis, Raymond Burgess and his neighbor James Walsh. Due to lie detectors and a lack of evidence on Gein’s property, it was determined that he was not involved in these cases and that Gein only targeted women who reminded him of his mother.
There were also suspicions raised around the death of Gein’s brother, Henry. The older of the two siblings, Henry Gein died after a fire that was supposed to burn away marsh vegetation got out of control. But it was later reported that Gein died of heart failure rather than burning, and there were bruises on his head.
“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” is now streaming on Netflix.
