Ed Gein: From Plainfield Farm Boy to America's Most Infamous Monster

Content Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of homicide, grave desecration, and post-mortem mutilation. Reader discretion is advised.

• Full name: Edward Theodore Gein

• Born: August 27, 1906 — La Crosse, Wisconsin

• Died: July 26, 1984 — Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wisconsin

• Known victims: Bernice Worden (confirmed). He also admitted killing Mary Hogan; authorities tied extensive grave robberies and human-remains artifacts to him.

• Crimes: Murder, grave robbery, mutilation of corpses, human-remains keepsakes

• Legacy: Inspired elements of Psycho (Norman Bates), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Leatherface), and The Silence of the Lambs (Buffalo Bill).

The True and Gruesome Story of Monster Ed Gein

Childhood: Isolation by Design (1906- 1924)

Ed Gein was the second son of George (an alcoholic, largely unemployable) and Augusta Gein, a domineering, fanatically religious mother who preached the depravity of sex and the wickedness of women. Seeking isolation from “sin,” Augusta moved the family from La Crosse to a ramshackle farm on the outskirts of Plainfield, Wisconsin around 1914. The boys—Henry and Ed—handled grueling chores and had minimal contact with peers.

At school Ed was shy, effeminate, and often the target of bullying. He was intelligent and a decent reader, but Augusta discouraged friendships and punished him for trying to make them. Her teachings became Ed’s worldview: women (other than his mother) were corrupt, sex was filthy, and obedience to Augusta was the only path to grace.

Adolescence to Early Adulthood: A Shrunken World (1924-1944)

Ed left school after the eighth grade, remaining on the farm and picking up handyman jobs. He was socially awkward but polite, doing odd work in Plainfield and babysitting for neighbors—he reportedly related more easily to children than adults.

The Gein men deteriorated. George drank himself into poor health and died in 1940. Ed’s older brother Henry challenged Augusta’s grip and criticized Ed’s devotion to her. In May 1944, the brothers fought a brush fire near the farm. After the blaze, Henry was found dead in a marshy area with head injuries that some investigators considered suspicious. The death was officially attributed to asphyxiation; no charges were filed. The event left Ed alone with Augusta.

The Mother Bond--Then the Break (1944-1945)

Augusta suffered a stroke and Ed became her caregiver. She berated and controlled him as before. When she died in December 1945, Ed—already emotionally stunted and socially isolated—was unmoored. He sealed off rooms Augusta had used, leaving them untouched as shrines, while he lived in a small, filthy corner of the farmhouse.

Descent: Obsession, Grave Robbing and "Projects" of a Monster (1947-1957)

In the years after Augusta’s death, Ed read obsessively—true-crime magazines, anatomy texts, medical encyclopedias, and lurid accounts of atrocities. He told authorities that during “trances” he visited cemeteries at night, opening fresh graves and removing remains. He said he tried to choose middle-aged women who reminded him of his mother. Back at the farm, he experimented with tanning skin and preserving body parts.

When police finally searched the farmhouse in 1957, they documented a macabre inventory that included (representative, not exhaustive):

• Human skulls—some intact, some turned into bowls

• A wastebasket and chair seats upholstered with human skin

• Masks made from the flayed faces of women (including one later identified as Mary Hogan)

• A corset fashioned from a woman’s torso, leggings, and other garments made of preserved skin

• A belt made from nipples

• Lips attached to a drawstring used as a shade pull

• Boxes and jars containing organs and other body parts

• A lampshade stitched from skin

• Human bones scattered through the house and outbuildings

Gein claimed he wore some of these items in an attempt to “be” his mother—what later commentators have called the “female (or mother) suit.” He denied sexual intercourse with corpses, saying the smell repelled him, but this mentally ill monster admitted to “fascination” and to extensive handling and mutilation.

The Known Murders

Mary Hogan (Disappeared December 8, 1954)

Mary Hogan, a tavern owner in nearby Pine Grove, vanished after closing. Blood was found, but no suspect was charged at the time. During the 1957 search of Gein’s property, investigators found Hogan’s face fashioned as a mask and other remains linking the crime to Ed. He later admitted shooting her, but prosecutors did not try that case after his insanity ruling.

Bernice Worden (Murdered November 16, 1957)

Hardware-store owner Bernice Worden disappeared in broad daylight. A receipt noted a sale of antifreeze to Ed that morning. Police went to the farm with a warrant that evening.

In a shed behind the house, they discovered Worden’s body strung up by her ankles, decapitated, and “dressed out” like a deer. She had been fatally shot. Inside the home, the trove of human remains revealed a decade of desecrations. Ed was arrested without incident.

Arrest. Confession, and Mental Evaluation ( 1957-1968)

Gein confessed to killing Worden and, separately, to killing Hogan. He described at least nine cemetery raids, sometimes leaving graves partly intact to avoid detection. Psychiatrists diagnosed him with schizophrenia and profound personality disturbances rooted in domination by his mother and extreme sexual pathology.

Deemed incompetent to stand trial, Gein was committed to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (later housed at Mendota). Over the next decade, his condition stabilized on antipsychotic medication and under structured care.

Trial and Deposition (1968)

In 1968, a judge ruled Gein competent for trial. He waived a jury, leaving the case to Judge Robert H. Gollmar. The court found him guilty of the murder of Bernice Worden, but legally insane at the time of the crime. He was returned to state psychiatric custody for life. Authorities elected not to try the Mary Hogan case.

The Farm, the Car, and the Souvenir Market

Before an estate auction could occur, the Gein farmhouse burned down in 1958 under suspicious circumstances, widely assumed to be arson by locals disgusted by the site becoming a morbid attraction. The car he used (to haul bodies during grave raids, by his admission) was sold at auction and later exhibited by a carnival promoter—an early example of “murderabilia.”

Institution Life and Death (1968-1984)

Staff described Gein as a quiet, compliant patient who worked menial tasks and enjoyed reading. He aged into a gentle, almost childlike routine. In 1984, weakened by cancer and respiratory illness, Ed Gein died at age 77 at Mendota Mental Health Institute. He was buried in the Plainfield Cemetery near his family. His headstone was repeatedly vandalized and eventually removed; the grave is now unmarked.

Why This Case Endures

Ed Gein is not among America’s most prolific killers, but the tableau inside his farmhouse—and the psychological knots tying sex, death, and mother-fixation—made an outsized cultural impact. Writers and filmmakers borrowed pieces of the Gein story to build unforgettable villains:

• Norman Bates in Psycho (1960): mother fixation, private shrine, isolated house

• Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): skin masks, bone décor, rural abattoir aesthetics

• Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs (1991): tanning skin to create a suit

Beyond pop culture, the case reshaped law-enforcement thinking about grave robbery, evidence handling of human-remains artifacts, and media ethics in reporting graphic crime scenes.

Final Thought

Ed Gein’s crimes were not “legendary” because of body count—they were terrifying because they collapsed the boundaries between grief, desire, and death inside a lonely farmhouse. The cost was paid by two murdered women, countless disturbed families whose loved ones’ graves were desecrated, and a rural community that never truly slept the same again.

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Sources used for this podcast:

WikipediaWikipedia contributors. (2025, October 6). Ed Gein. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein (Wikipedia)

MurderpediaMurderpedia. (n.d.). Edward Gein. https://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/gein-edward.htm (Murderpedia)

The Sun News | 04.21.2021 | Alison MaloneyMaloney, A. (2021, April 21). Killer Ed Gein made nipple belts & skull bowls… The Sun. (Web version available; date on page may vary by region/caching.) https://www.the-sun.com/news/2646381/real-psycho-ed-gein-murder-human-skin/ (The Sun)

The Stevens Point Daily Journal | 11.20.1957Gein also admits he killed Mary Hogan; results of lie tests announced. (1957, November 20). Stevens Point Daily Journal. (archival clipping) https://www.newspapers.com/article/stevens-point-journal-photo-of-ed-gein/24095186/ (Newspapers)

The Stevens Point Daily Journal | 12.04.1954Woman’s disappearance hints slaying at Pine Grove tavern. (1954, December 4). Stevens Point Daily Journal. [Print/archives].(Closest accessible clip online is Dec. 9 follow-up:) https://www.newspapers.com/article/stevens-point-journal-mary-hogans-murde/24096492/ (Newspapers)

The Capital Times | 11.19.1957‘Won’t believe’ graves robbed. (1957, November 19). The Capital Times (Madison, WI). [Print/archives].(Referenced widely in secondary bibliographies; no free public clip located.) (Apple Podcasts)

The La Crosse Tribune | 11.16.1958Anniversary coverage related to the Gein case. (1958, November 16). La Crosse Tribune. [Print/archives].(For related coverage of the farmhouse fire, see March 1958 photo report:) https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-la-crosse-tribune-ed-gein-house-bu/23052281/ (Newspapers)

A&ELallanilla, M. (2025, October 1). Case File: Ed Gein. A&E. https://www.aetv.com/articles/ed-gein (AETV)

Radford University Department of PsychologyAkbar, N., et al. (n.d.). Edward Theodore Gein [PDF]. Radford University, Department of Psychology—Serial Killer Information Center. https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/psyc%20405/serial%20killers/gein%2C%20ed.pdf (Maamodt)

The Charley ProjectGood, M. E. (n.d.). Georgia Jean Weckler. The Charley Project. https://charleyproject.org/case/georgia-jean-weckler (The Charley Project)

The Big Book of Serial Killers (book)Rosewood, J. (2017). The big book of serial killers: 150 serial killer files of the world’s worst murderers. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. (ISBN 978-1548119645). https://amzn.to/4707P0f

Deviant (book)Schechter, H. (1989). Deviant: The shocking true story of the original “Psycho”. Pocket Books. (ISBN 978-0671644826). https://amzn.to/4707P0f

Good, M. E. (n.d.). Evelyn Grace Hartley. The Charley Project. https://charleyproject.org/case/evelyn-grace-hartley

Good, M. E. (n.d.). Georgia Jean Weckler. The Charley Project. https://charleyproject.org/case/georgia-jean-weckler

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