Ed Gein is one of history's most notorious killers, yet his name is relatively unknown. Now he's getting the Netflix treatment.
Warning: We go into graphic detail below about Gein's crimes
It's been termed its most harrowing series of Monster yet, and with Ed Gein as its focus, it's no surprise that it's back in the headlines. While series one covered Jeffrey Dahmer and season two focused on the Menendez brothers, Gein's name isn't immediately known. Yet his gruesome crimes have inspired the fictional likes of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho's Norman Bates.
When police raided Gein's home in the 1950s after arresting him, they were so shocked at what they found, that it must have stayed with them until the end of their days.
The missing woman they were searching for had been decapitated and was hanging by her ankles inside the property. They also discovered that he'd collected human organs and skulls and fashioned clothing and accessories out of human skin. He'd even made a lampshade from a dead person's face and created chairs upholstered with skin.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the third part in this anthology series and is definitely not for the fainthearted. It stars Charlie Hunnam (of Sons of Anarchy and Queer as Folk) as Gein, as well as Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf as his strict mother.
What to Read Next
"[Gein] is probably one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and yet people don't know that much about him," executive producer and co-creator Ryan Murphy told Netflix's Tudum. "He influenced some of the biggest serial killers of the 20th century."
So who was this terrifying man?
Edward Gein was born in August 1906 in Wisconsin, USA, to a quiet but alcoholic father and a fanatically religious and domineering mother, Augusta. She preached to Ed and his older brother, Henry, about the sins of lust and not letting the devil in. She liked to keep her boys close by to avoid temptation. Ed and Henry were also beaten by their father as kids.
The family moved to a farm outside Plainfield around 1915 ,and Ed was rumoured to barely leave the house, other than to attend school. His slow speech and lazy eye made him a target for bullies and students thought of him as socially awkward.
In 1940, his father George died of a heart attack, meaning it was Ed and Henry's responsibility to provide for the family. They took up odd jobs and one time started a fire to burn away vegetation on their property, but the flames took hold, claiming Henry's life. He was found face down on the ground, having died from asphyxiation. The fire was claimed to be the cause, although some later questioned whether Ed was responsible for his brother's death.
Henry's passing meant that it was just Ed and his mother in the house. He became even more devoted to her, to the point of obsession. He never went on dates and isolated himself from the outside world, other than when he was working.
Augusta passed away in 1945, and Gein became even more reclusive, keeping her bedroom boarded up and pristine – a shrine to her – while the rest of the home fell into squalor.
He's understood to have started reading about cannibals and Nazi atrocities, including war criminal Ilse Koch. Then, he started robbing the graves of recently buried women he thought resembled his mother to make his sick accessories from.
In 1954, Mary Hogan – a tavern keeper – went missing. Three years later, a widowed 54-year-old hardware store owner named Bernice Worden disappeared. Blood was found in her shop and the last person to visit was supposedly Ed, then 51, who bought a gallon of antifreeze.
He was arrested, and it was then that police searched Gein's home and made the shocking discoveries. Bernice's body, human skulls, a corset – and other accessories – made from human skin, and Mary's skull.
Under questioning, it's believed that Gein admitted to police that he'd killed Worden and Hogan, who both bore a resemblance to his mother, by shooting them, and confessed to robbing graves to make his skin accessories. He was also claimed to have said his goal had been to create a skin suit to 'resurrect' his dead mother, whom he was still obsessed with. Some reports suggested he wanted to wear the suit.
Despite admitting the killings, Gein pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was later deemed unfit to stand trial after being diagnosed as schizophrenic and committed to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.
It wasn't until over 10 years later, in 1968, that he was finally found fit to stand trial, and in November that year, he was convicted of Worden's murder. However, he was judged to have been insane at the time of the killing and was therefore re-committed to the same state hospital.
Consequently, despite his own confession, Ed Gein was never tried or convicted for the murder of Mary Hogan.
After that, he remained out of the headlines, although he petitioned for a release in 1974, which was rejected. Within a few years, his health began to fail. In July 1984 he was transferred to Mendota Mental Health Institute, where he later died from complications of lung cancer and respiratory illnesses aged 77.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix from 3 October
The new edition of Living Legends is here! Buy Gaga in newsagents or online, priced at just £8.99.
