Ed Gein, the Real Story: Chilling Details From Newspaper Stories at the Time

Newspaper articles from the 1950s give the chilling and real details of the Wisconsin serial murderer, Ed Gein.

Gein’s story has been fictionalized by Ryan Murphy in the latest installment of his Netflix series, Monster. Gein “is thought to have inspired the fictional killers depicted in the films Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. He confessed to murdering two women in the Plainfield, WI, small town where he lived on a farm, and robbed graves. Authorities described a house of horrors, including body parts and lampshades and other items fashioned out of human skin.

Gein’s obsession with his stern and domineering mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein, forms the basis of the movie Psycho. She was described in a 1957 article in the Sunday Mirror as a “domineering prude who was always quoting the Bible.”

“I blame all my trouble on my mother,” Gein told the police, according to that article. “I never went out with girls. I was afraid of them. All I could think of was my mother and how much I loved her. At one time, I wondered whether an operation could turn me into a woman.”

Ed Gein Had an Urge to Dig Up Graves on ‘Moonlit Nights’

Newspaper articles at the time shed additional light on the infamous killer. According to a Nov. 30, 1957 news article in the Nashville Banner:

• Gein “visited the funeral parlor every time there was a death in town.”
• He told authorities that the urge to dig up graves was strongest on “moonlit nights” and described it as a “pulling.”
• He dressed in the body parts of the women whose graves he dug up, according to the Banner. Some authorities believe Gein wanted to be a woman.
• He was known around Plainfield, WI, where he lived on a farm, as “eccentric.” He liked to talk about crime and women.

A fervently religious and overbearing woman, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein raised her son Ed to believe that the world was full of evil and that women were "vessels of sin."

Fearful that living in a town would corrupt Ed, she moved the family to a remote part of Wisconsin to isolate… pic.twitter.com/QtUFdPoMsu

— TheForgotThings (@TheForgotthings) March 25, 2024

A December 1, 1957 article in the Akron Beacon Journal, gave additional details on Gein’s life and crimes:

• Ed Gein frequently read a “family medical book” while growing up.
• He was 5 foot 7 inches tall and 140 pounds in real life and didn’t drink, smoke or swear.
• He moved to Plainfield from La Crosse, WI, as a child and wasn’t considered particularly good in school, attending through the 8th grade.

Ed Gein’s Biography Included Parents & a Brother Who Died Relatively Young

A November 19, 1957 article in the Minneapolis Star revealed more details about Gein’s family members and their deaths:

• Ed Gein was born in La Crosse in 1906 to an electric power plant employee. The family moved to a 155-acre farm in Plainfield, where they lived during World War I.
• Gein helped on the farm and attended a country school. He once traveled to Milwaukee for a “draft call” but didn’t qualify because of his eyesight.
• His father George Gein died “of a heart ailment” in 1940. His mother Augusta Gein died of a stroke at age 61.
• His brother Henry was going to split the farm with him and marry. Henry “suffocated” from the smoke in a swamp fire, but there was no autopsy. He was 40 years old, and it was 1944.
• According to the article, Ed Gein ate only cornflakes and bean soup at home. He enjoyed reading “western and detective story magazines.”
• He dated a woman named Adeline Watkins for a time (she gave conflicting reports of their romance.)

Ed Gein’s Victims Were 2 Local Women

Gein admitted to murdering two women.

According to the Minneapolis Star,he murdered Bernice Worden at a Plainfield hardware store after going there to purchase antifreeze. He dragged her through the store and put her in his truck, along with the cash register.

Horrifically, her remains were later discovered hanging in his woodshed. He told authorities that he had an aunt who worked at a mental institution who claimed people were wilder when there was a “full moon.”

Mary Hogan, 54, his second victim, worked at a local tavern. Authorities found skulls and pieces of skin in his home and were analyzing chairs and drums. He turned faces into masks, according to the Sunday Mirror.

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