Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
When authorities discovered Ed Gein‘s house in Plainfield, Wisconsin, for the first time, he was suspected of killing a hardware store owner, Bernice Worden. The latter reportedly disappeared on November 16, 1957. Upon entering the house, they found Worden’s decapitated body hanging upside down. Her body was only one among the many horrors that authorities came across during their search.
Ed Gein‘s family first moved to a house in Plainfield in 1915. His father, George Philip Gain, was an alcoholic and died in 1940. According to Fox News, his mother, Augusta, was a domineering matriarch who was verbally abusive towards her son Ed. However, he was obsessed with his mother. His brother, Henry, reportedly died of asphyxiation in a mysterious fire in 1944, a death that investigators later suspected could have been planned by Ed Gein. At the age of 67, Augusta died in 1945.
It was after his mother’s death that Gein began digging up and robbing graves. He reportedly attempted to make a woman’s suit out of a woman’s skin to wear and turn it into his mother. He also turned parts of the house that his mother frequented into shrines. His brother, Henry, allegedly brought up Gein’s unhealthy devotion to his mother and had a conversation with Augusta about it before he died in the fire at Ed Gein’s house.
A fire destroyed Ed Gein’s house on March 20, 1958. The La Crosse Tribune reported that this was exactly ten days before it was scheduled to be auctioned. The house was located on a farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin. Ed Gein died of lung cancer at the age of 77 on July 26, 1984.
What did the police find in Ed Gein’s house?
Ed Gein’s house was filled with artifacts and ornaments made from human bones, skin, and other body parts. He allegedly dug up graves of the dead to procure the other body parts that he used to embellish his house. Human skin was used to make chairs and lampshades, while bones and skulls were used in the making of bowls. According to TIME, some paper bags consisting of human heads and noses were found around the house. Authorities also found the head of Mary Hogan, a tavern who had disappeared in 1954.
Despite the large number of human body parts found in Ed Gein’s house, he was convicted of killing only one person, Bernice Worden, who was found shot, decapitated, and hanging by her ankles in the house. He also confessed to killing Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden. However, he was found unfit to stand trial in 1958.
He was convicted of Worden’s murder in November 1968, following which he was sent to the Central State Hospital after he was declared insane at the time of the killing. According to Oxygen, Gein was never charged with the murder of Mary Hogan. He also wasn’t charged with the murder of any of the other people whose bodies were found at Ed Gein’s house because the county was short on funds to investigate all of the crimes.
Ed Gein’s house and his crimes have inspired many movies and television shows over the years. These include Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho and the character of Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. In addition, the documentary titled Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein features exclusive interviews with Gein and reveals the crimes behind the horrors found at Ed Gein’s house. It is available for streaming on MGM+.
