- Edward Theodore Gein – American murderer and body snatcher
- AKA – The Butcher of Plainfield
- Born: August 27, 1906, La Crosse, WI
- Died: July 26, 1984, Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, WI
- Exhumed corpses from local graveyards which he then turned into keepsakes, furniture, masks, etc.
- Ed had a brother, Henry, who also died in suspicious circumstances while the brothers worked together on the family farm. Ed was never charged or implicated in his brothers death.
- Confessed to killing local tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954.
- Confessed to killing Bernice Worden, a local hardware store owner.
- When police searched his home they walked into a house of horror.
Some of the findings:
- A belt made from female human nipples
- Human skin covering several chair seats
- A wastebasket made of human skin
- Bowls made from human skulls
- Worden’s decapitated body in a shed on Gein’s property, hung upside down by her legs.
- Skulls on his bedposts
- A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to waist
- Leggings made from human leg skin
- Masks made from the skin of female heads
- Bernice Worden’s entire head in a burlap sack
- Bernice Worden’s heart “in a plastic bag in front of Gein’s potbellied stove”
- Four noses
- A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring
- A lampshade made from the skin of a human face
Gein was found guilty but legally insane of the murder of Worden and was sentenced to a psychiatric institution.
His crimes gained worldwide notoriety and inspired numerous books and horror films.
. .
Leave a Reply