Infamous Murderer & Serial Killer Profiles - #4 Ed Gein

Following on from previous profiles of infamous murderers and serial killers posted here, such as Dennis Nilsen, John Wayne Gacy and Dr Harold Shipman, this week's case is the "Butcher of Plainfield", Ed Gein. As before, the intention of these profiles is not to rake over the same old gory details (as many blogs do), but by asking a series of standardised questions about each serial killer or murderer, the aim is to try to understand who they were as a person and why they did what they did, without absolving them of their heinous crimes. 

Profile #4 - Ed Gein: Dubbed the "Butcher of Plainfield" (Wisconsin), Ed Gein was grave-robber, murderer, necrophile and (possible) serial killer, who exhumed the corpses of freshly deceased women to fashion himself a "woman suit" and re-animate his beloved dead mother. 

PERSONAL DETAILS

• Birth Name: Edward Theodore Gein
• Date of Birth: 27th August 1906
• Place of Birth: La Crosse County, Wisconsin (USA)
• Weight: 9 stone 8lbs (60kgs) * estimate based on height & frame
• Height: 5 foot 7 inches (1.7 m)
• Hair Colour: Brown
• Eye Colour: Blue
• Nickname: Dubbed by the press as “The Butcher of Plainfield” and “The Ghoul of Plainfield”, he was known simply as “Ed” or “Eddie” by his few friends and family. Growing up in a troubled and isolated 155-acre farm in middle of rural Plainfield, Ed doesn’t appear to have been blessed with an affectionate nicknames.
• Star Sign: Virgo
• Disabilities: Although not a disability, Ed Gein had a non-malignant fleshy growth on the corner of his left eyelid which caused this eye to droop, and for which young Ed Gein would be bullied and ridiculed by the kids at school. And although not pronounced, Ed has a lesion on his tongue which caused him to have a mild speech defect as well as a slight stammer.
• Health Issues: None known, although there is no record of Ed Gein visiting a hospital for his own medical needs before his committal to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in 1957. 
• Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual, although as a child Ed would often imagine what it would be like to be a woman, to have female genital parts, a fascination which would continue into his adulthood. Aged 12, Ed’s mother caught him masturbating in the bath, to punish him she grabbed his genitals, squeezed them and called them “the curse of a man”.
• Personality: Shy, quiet and socially awkward, Ed was punished whenever he tried to make friends (as his mother was desperate to protect her boys from outsiders who she saw as sinful). Being just 5 foot 7 inches tall and of a slight build, Ed had effeminate mannerisms for which he was mocked, and was a consummate daydreamer who would laugh at his own thoughts. That said, as a handyman and babysitter, he was regarded by the townsfolk as honest and reliable.

L-R: Augusta (Ed's beloved mother) and the Gein Farmstead in Plainsfield

FAMILY HISTORY

• Parents: George Philip Gein (1873–1940) and Augusta Wilhelmine (née Lehrke) Gein of German heritage were married on 7th July 1900 and remained unhappily wed for forty years, living in remote isolation. George was a violent alcoholic who struggled to hold down a job, whether as tanner, carpenter, insurance salesman or even his own grocery store and was seen as useless by his domineering wife Augusta. She was a strict Lutheran who abhorred drink, sexual deviance such as masturbation, believed that all women – excluding herself – were whores sent by the Devil to tempt men, and she didn’t believe in divorce.
• Siblings: One older brother, Henry G Gein.
• Sibling Order: Second of two boys, youngest.
• Traumatic Event as a Child: Two events preceded the death of Ed’s beloved mother; Ed’s violent father died of heart failure caused by alcoholism on 1st April 1940 (aged 66) and on 16 May 1944 his older brother Henry died of asphyxiation whilst stemming a crop-fire at their farmstead, this left Ed alone in the house with just his mother. By this point, Augusta had suffered two strokes, was physically disabled and required daily support from Ed to achieve even the simplest tasks, and although Ed cared for her deeply, she never showed any affection for him, which he craved so deeply. Unfortunately, on 29th December 1945, Ed’s entire world collapsed when his beloved mother died aged 67, leaving him alone and grief-stricken over the loss of “his friend, and one true love”.
• Divorced or Deceased Parent or Sibling: Ed was unemotional at the death of his father and brother, and although the death of Henry G Gein, Ed’s older brother was deemed “accidental asphyxiation” caused by smoke inhalation, it was later reported that Henry had bruises about the head suggested that Ed had battered him to death, before leaving him to be consumed by the fire.
• Head injury or Accident as Child: Yes, Ed claimed that his alcoholic violent father would repeatedly beat him about the head “so hard my ears would ring”.
• Bed-Wetter (as child): Unknown
• Fire-Starter (as child): None, but making a fire was part of rural farm-life, as used for cooking, heating and clearing scrubland, so it seems unlikely that Ed would find pleasure from an every day task
• Animal Abuser (as child): Again, unlike many serial killers, there is no (known) history of animal cruelty by Ed Gein, as it believed that shooting, skinning and butchering animals was a way of life for him. Although, he would often watch his father “gut a hog or deer”, stripping its skin, filleting its muscles and gutting its innards, Ed would later claim that he’d never butchered any large animals as “the sight of blood made me queasy”. It is worth noting though that Ed claims to have experienced an ejaculation watching a hog being slaughtered.
• Pets: Unknown, although living on a farm it would be more than likely that The Gein Family had a dog, not as a pet, but as a rat-catcher.
• Abandoned / Fostered: No, but Ed was raised in an uncaring and abusive family, all of whom were dead by the time he reached 40 years old.
• Marital Status: Single/virgin, there are no records of Ed being in a relationship, but given that his deeply Lutheran mother had ensured her sons were not exposed to “the evil of women”, and that Ed saw his mother as his “one true love”, it’s unlikely that he dated, or engaged in consensual sex.
• Partners: None.
• Children:  None. 

East Main Street in Plainfield (circa 1952), with Worden's grocery store where Ed murdered Bernice

WORK

• Jobs: His working life started in childhood as a farmhand on his parent’s farm, a role which he and his brother would entirely look after as his father’s drinking increased. Although Ed never had a career, his hand-to-mouth existence was part-funded by a federal farm subsidy and Ed also earned money working as a handyman, as part of the road building crew, crop-threshing for local farmers and even as a babysitter for the local children. There is no evidence of Ed abusing these children, in fact they were happy to see him and he enjoyed their company, finding them easier to relate to than men and women of his own age.
• Training: Whilst working on his parent’s farmstead, Ed had experience of shooting, skinning, hide tanning and butchering, which would come in useful during his murderous spree.
• Military Service: In 1942, aged 36, with Ed still just-about eligible for the conscription draft, he travelled to Milwaukee for his physical exam but was rejected by the Army owing to the growth above his eye which (they said) impaired his vision.
• IQ / Education: IQ – 106, Ed was assessed following his arrest to determine if he was mentally capable. Went to Roche-a-Cri grade school, he was an average student, but an excellent reader, though he would often be bullied owing to his speech impediment. 

The type of lurid crime and pulp magazines which Ed enjoyed reading

SOCIAL

• Favourite Food: Ed wasn’t much of a cook; his farmstead had no electricity or running eater, and his cupboards contained little more than the basics of canned goods, oatmeal and bread, with his main source of nutrition being potatoes and the rabbits he hunted. Ed did enjoy a meal at Irene & Lester Hill’s home (the local store owners) of pork chops, boiled potatoes, Macaroni Cheese, coffee and cookies.
• Favourite Music: Unknown.
• Favourite Film: Unknown. There is no record of Ed going to a cinema, and as his farmstead didn’t have electricity, he didn’t have a television or a radio.
• Favourite Book: Just prior to the death of his mother, Ed became interested in reading lurid crime stories and adventure magazines he’d get from the general store, many of which were seedy tales about cannibals, murderers, death-cults and Nazi atrocities, with reference to grave-robbing, shrunken heads and death masks.
• Favourite Drink: Ed didn’t drink alcohol, owing to his mother’s strict moralistic code.
• Smoker: Likewise, Ed didn’t smoke.
• Hobbies: When he wasn’t reading lurid crime magazines, Ed entertained himself by playing the accordion and the flute. He was also a taxidermist.
• Religion: Lutheran
• Drugs/Alcohol Abuse: None.
• Political Leanings: Unknown.

L-R: The face of Bernice Worden, Mary Hogan and the "dressed-out" corpse of Bernice found in Ed's shed

MURDER CAREER

• Reason for Murder: Fixated on his childhood fantasy of what it would be like to be a woman, Ed fashioned himself a “woman suit” – a full-body onesie, from head-to-toe, sewn from the tanned skin of various recently deceased corpses he had dug-up and dissected from the local cemetery. Ed claims to have made 40 nocturnal visits to Plainfield Cemetery, stealing from nine graves, as well as murdering two women - hardware store owner Bernice Worden and tavern owner Mary Hogan (who resembled his mother). It’s worth noting that Ed Gein isn’t a serial killer so much as he is a murderer and body-snatcher, but his profile is often used to explain a serial killer’s mind-set and is the inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho and Jamie Gum in Silence of the Lambs. That said, numerous girls and women disappeared during Ed’s crimes, so whether there were other victims, that can’t be discounted.
• Method of Killing: Although Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan were shot with a .22 calibre rifle, it’s what Ed did with their corpses (and those he dug-up) which is more intriguing. He skinned his victims, turning their body parts not only into a “woman suit” - complete with mask, corset and leggings - but also fashioned their flesh as wastebaskets and chair seats, skulls as bedposts and serving bowls, with nine vulvae kept in a shoe-box, a belt of human nipples, a pot of noses, a pair of lips as a drawstring and a lampshade made from the skin of a victim’s face.  
• Number of Victims: Gein confessed to killing two women – tavern owner Mary Hogan on 8th December 1954, and a Plainfield hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, on 16th November 1957, but his other victims (although already dead) include the nine women whose corpses he dug-up and dissected, including his own mother. Ed is also believed to be responsible for five murders and disappearances in Plainfield, although there could be more. None of Ed’s victims can be DNA tested, as their remains were destroyed shortly after the crime-scene photos were taken.
• Length of Career: This is almost impossible to determine, as Ed’s career as a murderer or grave-robber either started on 16th May 1944 (when it is believed but never proved that he killed his brother), June 1947 (when Ed dug-up his mother’s corpse), or 8th December 1954 (when he murdered Mary Hogan), right up to the death of Bernice Worden on 16th November 1957.
• Previous Criminal Record: None that he was charged with, although excluding the death of his brother, Ed was a suspect in the disappearance of 8 year old Georgia Weckler and 15 year old Evelyn Hartley.
• Preferred Victims: The majority were female, white and middle-aged, many of whom physically resembled his mother, as his plan was to create a “woman suit”, as if he was bringing his dead mother (his “beloved”) back to life.
• Preferred Murder Location: Although Bernice was murdered in her own store and it is unknown where Ed murdered Mary Hogan, the bulk of his victims were dug-up from the Plainfield Cemetery shortly after they were buried, to ensure that their corpses were fresh and pliable to fashion into a “woman suit”, but also so the recently filled-in hole of disturbed earth wouldn’t be noticeable.
• Perversions: Although a frequent masturbator as a child, Ed later progressed to grave-robbing, skinning his victims, wearing their skin and necrophilia (sleeping in the same bed as his mother's corpse), not the act of having sex with the corpses, Ed later stated “they smelled too bad”, but that his actions with the corpses were sexual in nature.
• Disposal: Although Ed utilised much of his victim’s flesh for homewares, there is no evidence that Ed ate any of his victims. 

L-R: Ed Gein shortly before his death, Plainfield Cemetery and teh Gein family plot (Ed's headstone was previously vandalised and stolen, so was confiscated by the police

ARREST/SENTENCE

• Detection: On 18th November 1957, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden entered the West Plainfield grocery store, ran by his mother Bernice Worden and found blood-stains. The cash register was empty, a .22 rifle was missing and the last sales slip Bernice filled out was for a gallon of antifreeze for Ed Gein. As (possibly) the last person who saw her alive, Ed was arrested and the Waushara County Sheriff's Department searched the Gein farmstead, where they found Bernice’s decapitated corpse strung-up upside-down in the shed, her limbs tied and splayed wide and her torso cut open, her innards removed, she’d been “dressed out like a deer”.
• Arrested: On the evening of 18th November 1957 Ed was arrested at home and – although the local police had found Mary and Bernice’s bodies as well as nine other corpses in various states is dissections and rigour-mortis, Ed didn’t confess to the two murders until the next day.
• Trial: Although Ed’s trial for first degree murder began on 21st November 1957, just three days after his arrest, he pleaded “not guilty” on the grounds of insanity, he was clinically diagnosed as a schizophrenic and declared mentally unfit to stand trial. Therefore it wasn’t until 7th November 1968, that Ed Gein (after spending ten years in a mental institution) that he was deemed mentally competent to stand trial, the trial lasted one week, and Ed was found “guilty, by reason of insanity” of the murder of Bernice Worden but “due to the prohibitive costs of the trial” Ed was never tried for the murder of Mary Hogan.
• Prison: Ed spent 10 years before his trial at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (now known as the Dodge Correctional Institution), then a maximum-security facility in Waupun during his trial and later the Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin to serve the rest of his sentence.
• Sentence Length: Deemed “mentally incapable”, Ed was spared the death penalty and was sentenced to “life in prison” at Mendota State Hospital, where he died on the 26th July 1984, suffering from respiratory failure exacerbated by stage-three lung cancer at 77 years old.
• Type of Prisoner: Ed was described in hospital as a “perfectly amiable and docile patient” who rarely required tranquilisers to keep his mood under control.
• Parole: No applicable. 

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If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers & Murderers Who Were Never Caught, London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters, Are More Serial KIllers Born During a Full Moon, Killer's Birthdays / Star Signs, Serial Killers Who Were On TV, Celebrities Who Have Killed, London's Railway of Death, Serial Killers as Kids and the World's Weirdest Death Rituals

No plans this weekend? Why not book onto Murder Mile Walks, a "truly curious thing to do in London", rated FIVE STARS by Time Out Magazine

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Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, podcaster, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.