Body Snatcher-Ed Gein
The Silence of Lamb in real life
Have you ever watched the Chainsaw Massacre or The Silence of the Lamb? If you did, What if I tell you those characters are based on a real person and his name is Edward Gein also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul.
EARLY LIFE
Augusta Wilhelmine Gein, Edward’s mother was raised in a strict and religious household and was the victim of abuse by her father. She was described as stern and strict. While George Philip Gein had lived in an orphanage at a young age He was described as a strong man with a reserved and dignified personality. They liked each other and got married. George worked many jobs at a young age but couldn’t keep one because of his addiction to alcohol. It is known that Augusta was verbally abusive towards him. He would get drunk after work and beat his wife while she prays him to die. In 1901 Edwards’s older brother, Henry George Gein came to life and In 1906 Edward Gien was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. In 1950 Augusta forced her husband to leave “Sinkhole of filth” Lacrosse and move to a 155-arc farm in a town of Plainfield. She kept her Children on the farm from anything dangerous or sinful or what she believed is a sinful whorish woman. Augusta took advantage of the farm’s isolation by turning away outsiders who could have influenced her sons. he preached to her boys about the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drinking, and her belief that all women (except herself) were naturally promiscuous and instruments of the devil. She reserved time every afternoon to read to them from the Bible, usually selecting verses from the Old Testament concerning death, murder, and divine retribution.
CHILDHOOD
Edward was described as shy, and classmates and teachers would say that he had strange behavior and manners. Edward didn’t have any friends and if tries to make some of his mother heavily against it and punish him. Edward was close to his mother and described her as his first love and best friend. Then comes 1 April 1940 and Edward’s father, George dies due to heart failure. Ed and Herny find odd jobs to cover the expenses. Herney starting dating a single divorced mother and planning to move in with her while Edward is just struck with his mother. Henry worried about his brother’s attachment to their mother and often spoke ill of her around Ed, who responded with shock and hurt.
DEATH OF HIS BROTHER
On May 16, 1944, Henry and Ed were burning away marsh vegetation on the property; the fire got out of control, drawing the attention of the local fire department. By the end of the day — the fire having been extinguished and the firefighters gone — Ed reported his brother missing. With lanterns and flashlights, a search party searched for Henry, whose dead body was found lying face down. He had been dead for some time, and it appeared that the cause of death was heart failure since he had not been burned or injured otherwise.t was later reported, in Harold Schechter’s biography of Gein, Deviant, that Henry had bruises on his head.
DEATH OF HIS MOTHER
Somehow Edward was happy that he has his mother all of himself. Edward uses to worship her day and night but still, she used to verbally abuse him. She would call him a weakling and a failure and that he would never be able to survive without her but then she had a paralyzing stroke and Edward devoted himself to taking care of her. She died on December 29, 1945, at the age of 67. Ed was devastated by her death. This is where it takes a downfall. Edward had the whole house to himself so he starts boarding up all the rooms in the house and kept his mom room in perfect condition.
CRIMES
Mary Hogan, the tavern owner went missing one day and the only thing left behind was a pool of blood and then no one saw her ever again. Ed used to joke around that she is staying at his house. On the morning of November 16, 1957, Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared. Late that afternoon Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden return from deer hunting and stop by his mother’s hardware store. The only thing he found is a trail of blood. On the cash counter, there is a receipt of Edward purchasing a gallon of antifreeze. Frank informs the police and they go to his farm to question him. When they arrived they search the home and found the body of Bernice in the summer kitchen, she was hanging naked by her feet on a pulley and there was a large cut on her from her pelvic bone to her chest. Edward had taken out her internal organs and also she was decapitated.
They went inside and searched “The Ed Gien House of Horror” and found a lot of gruesome things. Dozens of skulls are turned into soup bowls, Chair that is upholstered in human skin, Lampshades of human flesh, A box of human noses, a belt which is made of nipples, a Shade pole made of women’s lips, One wall is covered with nine faces of women, He made a shirt of different type of skin he collected, A corset from woman’s torso. He later explained he used to wear these clothes and dress up as his mother, a lady. They also a lot of fingernails and tongues. His refrigatory was filled with human organs and a heart was found on the stove.
He admits the murder of Bernice and Mary and now would you be wondering where all the other bodies came from. Well, he lived near a cemetery where he made a friend Gus who used to help him take the bodies out of graves. He said that the bodies were dead for sometimes so their flesh was hard to sew so he needed fresh flesh.
TRIAL
He was charged with first-degree murder and pled not guilty due to the reasons of insanity. He was unable to stand trial and sent to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and after 10 years he stands on trial and within a week found guilty.
DEATH
Gein died at the Mendota Mental Health Institute due to respiratory failure secondary to lung cancer on July 26, 1984, at the age of 77.
