Ed Gein Research Paper

Ed Gein was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes were committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. Eddie had a very rough childhood that may have contributed to him becoming a widely known serial killer. He was obsessively devoted to his mother and a religious fanatic. After his mother’s death, Gein began robbing graves—keeping body parts as trophies, practicing necrophilia, and experimenting with human taxidermy. He then turned to murder, killing at least two women in 1957. Gein inspired film characters Norman Bates (Psycho), Jame Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs), Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Ed Gein (The Butcher of Plainfield).

Gein was born on August 27, 1906 in LaCrose, Wisconsin but the family soon

His father was a tanner and carpenter when he wasn’t working the farm but still was frequently unemployed. Gein’s mother was the dominant parent and set most family decisions on her own. George was a drunk but was no match for his domineering wife Augusta. Devoutly religious, she warned her two sons against premarital sex, but Gein recalled that she was “not as strong” in her opposition to masturbation. It was a household ruled by his mother's puritanical preachings about the sins of lust and carnal desire. With a slight growth over one eye and a weird demeanor, the young Gein became a target for bullies. Classmates and teachers recall other off-putting mannerisms such as seemingly random laughter, as if he were laughing at his own personal joke. Despite his poor social development, he did

Gein at first did not admit to any of the killings. However, after more than a day of silence he began to tell the horrible story of how he killed Mrs. Worden and where he acquired the body parts that were found in his house. Gein had difficulty remembering every detail, because he claimed he had been in a dazed state at the time leading up to and during the murder. Yet, he recalled dragging Worden’s body to his Ford truck, taking the cash register from the store and taking them back to his house. He did not remember shooting her in the head with a .22 caliber gun, which autopsy reports later listed as the cause of death. Eddie showed no signs of remorse or emotion during the many hours of interrogation. When he talked about the murders and of his grave robbing escapades he spoke very matter-of-factly, even cheerfully at times. At first, everyone assumed that Eddie Gein had been running a murder factory. But during his confessions he made a claim that seemed, at first, almost too incredible to accept. He wasn’t a mass murderer at all, he insisted. Yes, he had killed two women-Bernice Worden and the tavern keeper Mary Hogan, whose preserved, peeled-off face had been found among Ed’s gruesome collection. But as for the rest of the body parts, Eddie revealed that he had gotten them from local cemeteries. For the past twelve years, ever since his mother’s death, he