- 3 months ago
A profile of Ed Gein, the killer and body-snatcher who came to be known as the 'Butcher of Plainfield', and whose story is thought to have inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
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00:30In November 1957, police in the small town of Plainfield, Wisconsin
00:42were searching for a missing woman named Bernice Warden.
00:46They were about to make one of the most gruesome discoveries in U.S. criminal history.
00:52One of them turned on his flashlight and beamed it around and saw this object that was hanging from the rafters,
00:58which at first they thought was some kind of gutted deer.
01:02They realized to their incredible horror that it was a woman's corpse that was hanging by its heels.
01:08The twisted killer was a quiet loner named Ed Gein.
01:12Hidden inside the 51-year-old's rural farmhouse was a ghoulish treasure trove of human remains.
01:19There was a lampshade made of human skin.
01:22They found that the remains of 12 human heads, gloves made out of the skin from a corpse's fingers.
01:30You think of this happening, you know, now, it's still be shocking.
01:34But back then, in a small, tiny rural community, it was breath-shaking.
01:41America had woken up inside the nightmare of Ed Gein, one of the world's most evil killers.
01:47The gruesome crimes of Ed Gein horrified 50s America.
02:15When his rural home was searched on the 16th of November, 1957, the police uncovered a gothic house of horrors.
02:25As well as the remains of two missing local women, they found an array of human bones, skulls, and skin
02:33that had been fashioned into furniture and clothing.
02:37The town of Plainfield was in complete shock.
02:41One of the residents who remembers the effect Gein had on Plainfield is Max Harrington.
02:47I think shock would be the biggest thing that we could use to describe the atmosphere in the community.
02:52We were still pretty much a clannish community at that time,
02:57and a lot of the families that were here had always been here.
03:01It took your breath away, you know, you just, you know, it was shocking.
03:04It still is.
03:07People don't do things like that in a small town on a normal day.
03:11That's just not part of what we grew up with.
03:14The story of this twisted killer begins over a century ago.
03:20Ed Gein was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, on the 27th of August, 1906.
03:26By the time he was eight years old, his parents moved Ed and his older brother Henry to Plainfield.
03:33Well, the Gein family moved to Plainfield from La Crosse, Wisconsin,
03:40partly because the mother of the family, the matriarch, Augusta,
03:47had decided that La Crosse was a kind of Sodom and Gomorrah-like hellhole,
03:54and she didn't want her children to be corrupted by all the immoral influences of the big city.
04:03Needless to say, La Crosse was not a particularly big city,
04:06but they moved to a remote farmhouse about six miles west of,
04:13you wouldn't necessarily say downtown Plainfield, because there was no uptown Plainfield.
04:18It's not the largest city in the state of Wisconsin,
04:22but it's plenty big enough for those of us that live here.
04:26Plainfield was a very remote, isolated, featureless little village.
04:32A state guidebook at the time described it as totally nondescript.
04:37Um, the population was very small, never more in its history, I think,
04:45than 700 or 800 people.
04:47You know, probably the entire population of the village
04:50could have fit into a New York City apartment building.
04:53The Gein's 150-acre farm was located on the corner of Archer and 2nd Avenue.
05:01Ed rarely got to leave the property and socialize with other children.
05:05His mother, Augusta, is a very domineering character indeed.
05:10She is a devout Christian and she has some very extreme ideas about sin and about morality.
05:17And she drums into her sons that they're not to socialize with anybody outside of the family
05:23because all of the people around them in the local town are sinners, they're evil,
05:27all the women are whores.
05:28And so she creates this very insular family environment where they're quite isolated from
05:35the rest of the community and that has a really significant impact on them.
05:39Gein seemed to have been very friendless whenever he would make some kind of friend.
05:45On those rare occasions, when he would try to make a school friend and bring home a school friend,
05:50the mother would immediately find some reason to disapprove of the other child
05:55and forbid Ed from ever bringing him home.
05:57So he grew up again in a state of complete social isolation.
06:03And Gein's relationship with his father was also far from perfect.
06:08Well, the father, George, was an alcoholic.
06:11He appeared to have been somewhat free in his use of physical punishment,
06:17but mostly the picture that emerges of George is of a, you know, kind of a hapless individual
06:24who was, as all three male members of the family were, under the thumb of his wife,
06:30and again, who is regarded as much as anything else as a sort of obstacle or impediment to the household.
06:39As Ed entered adolescence, his life became even more insular.
06:44He dropped out of school when he was around about 12 or 13 to work on the family's farm.
06:49And he was considered to be a bit of an oddball.
06:52He was quite a loner, and he enjoyed quite solitary pursuits,
06:56so he really quite liked reading and was quite a prolific reader.
07:00So he was somebody who didn't really fit in,
07:03but worked incredibly hard to keep the family farm going.
07:06On April 1st, 1940, Ed's father, George, died of heart failure,
07:13leaving 33-year-old Ed, his brother Henry, and Augusta alone on the family farm.
07:19Ed's older brother Henry seemed to have freed himself a little more emotionally
07:26and psychologically from Augusta's dominance and even apparently on a couple of occasions
07:34expressed some criticism of their mother and the hold she was exerting over both of them.
07:42So Ed, who at least on a conscious level worshipped his mother
07:47and saw her as a kind of goddess who could do no wrong,
07:51appears to have been both a little shocked, you know,
07:55that Henry would find any cause to criticise Augusta
07:58and possibly built up some kind of animosity toward Henry for that attitude.
08:07Ed became a handyman doing odd jobs around Plainfield
08:11to help with living expenses on the farm.
08:14We used to see Ed occasionally. I'd see him around town.
08:18And then he was always a friendly person, quiet, friendly.
08:24Usually had a joke to tell.
08:26He always had time to say hello and ask after how you were.
08:30A person who you would never suspect of anything
08:32other than being a decent sort of person.
08:36In May 1944, death would hit the Gein family once again,
08:41but this time in more suspicious circumstances
08:44after a brush fire on their farmland got out of control.
08:49Ed and Henry were out there trying to put out the fire
08:52and they got separated and Ed could not locate Henry
08:58and he went and got help.
09:00But then after getting this help,
09:01he led the other people directly to where Henry's body lay
09:06and there were some mysterious bruises on Henry's head.
09:11Anyway, the official verdict of the medical examiner
09:13was that Henry had died of a heart attack
09:16while fighting this fire
09:18and had injured his head when he fell and hit a rock.
09:22But afterwards, when Gein's crimes were uncovered,
09:25there was a lot of talk
09:27that perhaps Henry had been a victim of Ed's,
09:30that Ed, in fact, had killed Henry partly
09:33because of Henry's criticism of Augusta.
09:37The impact upon their mother Augusta was phenomenal.
09:41She really broke down about Henry's death
09:43and she had a stroke.
09:45But of course, by then, you know,
09:47the psychic bond between Augusta and Ed
09:50was so incredibly intense already.
09:54Evidence seems to suggest
09:55that with the other two men out of the way,
09:58Ed reveled in having his mommy alone to himself.
10:04But Gein's mother never really recovered from her stroke
10:07and their time alone only lasted for 19 months.
10:11Ed nursed her very, very diligently,
10:14even apparently would get into bed with her on occasion
10:18and stroke her and comfort her.
10:21And then she seemed to recover,
10:23but then she suffered another, this time, fatal stroke.
10:27Augusta Gein died on December the 29th, 1945.
10:3439-year-old Ed was completely devastated.
10:39Because his mother was so domineering,
10:41I think she really did stunt his development
10:43and he almost got stuck
10:45at a kind of teenage, adolescent phase in his life.
10:48So looking at how he behaved at the funeral,
10:51he was in his 30s at this time
10:52and he was reported to be wailing like a small child.
10:55So he hasn't got that kind of emotional control
10:58that's associated with 30-something men.
11:01The death of his mother
11:02left him completely, completely isolated,
11:07you know, living in this increasingly ramshackle,
11:10dilapidated farmhouse
11:11that he ceased to take care of whatsoever.
11:14Augusta was his only real human contact.
11:17So it was at that point, you know,
11:21that Gein embarked on these various outrages
11:25that would ultimately make him
11:27this notorious figure in American crime.
11:30Alone and isolated from the rest of society,
11:33Gein spiraled out of control.
11:36Over the next 12 years,
11:37he became obsessed with recreating
11:39the world he'd shared with his mother.
11:41It would lead him to a series of dark
11:45and disturbing crimes
11:46that would eventually culminate in murder.
11:52One of my summer jobs
11:54when I was a student in high school
11:57was mowing the cemetery.
12:00And two of my buddies and I,
12:03that was about a four-day job for us to mow that.
12:07And we would see Ed out there on occasion.
12:10He'd come out, and if he saw us working,
12:11he'd always come over and say hello.
12:14And again, sometimes have this little story to tell.
12:17And he was very good about stopping
12:19and seeing his mother's grave.
12:21I think neighbors saw him as an odd,
12:24very meek, somewhat simple-minded person,
12:30but one who was always willing to pitch in
12:32when some farm work needed to be done
12:35or some chore needed to be run for them.
12:38But they, of course, had no sense
12:40of the life that he was pursuing
12:43inside that incredibly creepy,
12:46dismal world of his own farm.
12:49It was a world that 51-year-old Gein
12:52had managed to keep hidden away
12:54until the winter of 1957.
12:57November 16, 1957,
12:59was the first day of deer hunting season that year.
13:02And it was a day when basically
13:05the entire male population of the town
13:07would have been out in the woods
13:09hunting deer, as Ed knew.
13:12Ed drove into town to the Warden Hardware Store.
13:17The Warden Hardware Store was owned
13:19by a woman named Bernice Warden.
13:22I knew Mrs. Warden quite well.
13:24She and her family ran the hardware store here
13:27for many years.
13:28Almost everybody in the community knew Mrs. Warden.
13:30Ed had kind of been hanging around the store
13:33for a couple of weeks previously.
13:35He had developed something of an obsession
13:38with Bernice Warden.
13:39He would talk to her.
13:40He would ask her out.
13:42And it was quite clear that she really
13:43wasn't that interested in him.
13:46Ed came in, asked to buy
13:48half a gallon of antifreeze,
13:50which Bernice Warden poured out for him
13:53and wrote out a receipt.
13:54He went back out to his truck,
13:56then came back inside
13:57and asked her to see a rifle that was in the window.
14:01When Bernice Warden turned her back to him,
14:04he shot her in the back of the head
14:06and then loaded her corpse in his truck
14:09and drove back to his farm.
14:12Dean had murdered the 58-year-old woman
14:14in broad daylight.
14:16It was deer season,
14:17so deer season is like a ghost town around here.
14:20Everybody, in those days especially,
14:21everybody was out hunting.
14:23And she wasn't even missed for quite a,
14:25for some hours.
14:27And then someone reported
14:29that she wasn't at the store.
14:31Well, that was her son, of course.
14:34Later that day,
14:35Frank Warden returned from the woods
14:37and found the store empty.
14:40His mother wasn't there.
14:41He was very perplexed by that.
14:43And then he saw a trail of blood
14:45across the floor of the hardware store
14:48and not only realized, you know,
14:50that some foul play had occurred,
14:52but immediately suspected Ed Gein
14:53because Gein had been kind of bothering his mother
14:57for the past few weeks.
14:58And there was one piece of evidence
15:00that confirmed Frank Warden's suspicions to the police.
15:04When they went to search the place,
15:07they found the receipt for the antifreeze
15:10that was in Ed's name.
15:11And they just worked backwards,
15:15saying that he was probably the last person
15:17to see her alive,
15:19but they didn't suspect that he was
15:20as deranged as he was.
15:23One set of lawmen went out in search of Gein.
15:26They found him having dinner at a neighbor's house
15:29and they arrested him.
15:30And then another set of lawmen
15:32went out to Gein's farmhouse.
15:35And that's where they made these discoveries
15:37that really sent shockwaves around the world.
15:41On a dark winter's night,
15:44officers from the Plainfield Police Department
15:46began to search the Gein farm for Bernice Wharton.
15:50They couldn't get into the house,
15:52so they went around back
15:54and entered into what was called the summer kitchen,
15:58which was a little shed outside.
15:59This property didn't have any electricity,
16:03so they were pretty much fumbling around
16:05in the dark with flashlights.
16:07But I don't think they expected to find
16:09what they did find there.
16:11One of them turned on his flashlight
16:12and beamed it around
16:14and saw this object
16:16that was hanging from the rafters,
16:18which at first they thought
16:19was some kind of gutted deer.
16:21Although it didn't look like a deer,
16:24they realized to their incredible horror
16:26that it was a woman's corpse
16:29that was hanging by its heels
16:31and been completely gutted.
16:33She'd been strung up, essentially,
16:36and she was slit from her sternum
16:39to her pelvis.
16:40So she'd essentially been butchered by Ed.
16:44It really was the most grotesque thing
16:47that these officers had ever come across.
16:49And they realized
16:50they had found the body of Bernice Warden.
16:53And, of course, both of them
16:54just stumbled out in horror
16:56and vomited, you know,
16:58at the sight of this thing.
17:00When the news spread across the town,
17:03the residents of Plainfield
17:04were in complete shock.
17:06When I heard of his arrest,
17:08I couldn't believe it.
17:10I was sure they had the wrong person
17:12because it just didn't seem like anything
17:13that they were telling us
17:16was the Ed that we all knew.
17:19But, yeah, it was a Saturday night.
17:23We were at a dance,
17:24and the story went through there,
17:26and everybody said,
17:27I don't believe it.
17:28But it was true.
17:31After finding the butchered body
17:33of Bernice Warden
17:35in a shed at Ed Gein's farm,
17:37the police officers moved their search
17:39into the main house.
17:41He boarded up some areas of the family's home
17:44to maintain the rooms
17:45as his mother had left them.
17:47And in other parts of the property,
17:49he just started hoarding things.
17:52You know, you would have trash
17:53and rubbish build up,
17:55and it really became
17:56a complete hovel.
17:58He'd reverse the normal process
18:00of trash disposal,
18:02you know, and instead of taking
18:04all his garbage to the dump,
18:05would go to the dump
18:06and bring it into his house.
18:07It was just this incredible chaos
18:10of trash and garbage.
18:12But there was more
18:13than just household waste.
18:15Amid all that wreckage,
18:17they discovered these incomprehensible,
18:21unspeakably awful objects
18:24that had been fashioned
18:25out of human body parts.
18:27There were chairs
18:27that were upholstered
18:28in human flesh.
18:30There was a lampshade
18:31made of human skin.
18:33They found that the remains
18:34of 12 human heads,
18:36gloves made out of the skin
18:38from a corpse's fingers.
18:40There was a jar
18:41containing human noses.
18:43There was a box full
18:44of female genitalia,
18:46some of which had been painted
18:48and tied with ribbons.
18:51There was a belt
18:52fashioned out of female nipples.
18:55There was a shade pull
18:57made of human lips.
18:58They found all types of things
19:01that belonged to people
19:02that were no longer people.
19:05And it was shocking.
19:06I mean, you think of this
19:07happening, you know,
19:09now, it's still be shocking.
19:11But back then,
19:12in a small, tiny, rural community,
19:15it was absolutely,
19:17it was breathtaking.
19:19Ed Skeen's farmhouse
19:20was the habitation
19:22of a literal ghoul.
19:25You know, somebody
19:25who had been living
19:27amidst these horrific relics
19:29of human dismemberment.
19:31It was a madhouse.
19:34Geen's fascination
19:35with death and corpses
19:36had been growing
19:38ever since his mother
19:39had died 12 years previously.
19:41Ed had always enjoyed reading.
19:43It was quite a solitary pursuit,
19:45so that's not particularly surprising.
19:46But after the death
19:47of his mother and his brother,
19:49he started to read
19:50an awful lot more.
19:51And his tastes
19:53in literature
19:54really did span
19:55quite a wide spectrum.
19:57He read pornographic magazines,
19:59he read medical textbooks,
20:01and he developed
20:02a particular interest
20:03in Ilse Koch,
20:05who worked at one of the
20:06Nazi concentration camps
20:08and collected patches of skin
20:10of the prisoners
20:11who were detained there.
20:13And I think all of this
20:15was fueling
20:16a very active imagination.
20:19So he's developing
20:19these obsessions
20:20and these interests,
20:21and he's quite skilled
20:23as a farmhand
20:23at this point in time.
20:25He knows how to slaughter animals,
20:26he knows how to prepare carcasses.
20:28He's from a community
20:29that's very much
20:30into its hunting
20:31and its fishing.
20:32So at some point,
20:33reality and fantasy
20:35are going to collide.
20:36As the search
20:37of the farmhouse progressed,
20:39officers found
20:40that the grotesque collection
20:42of body parts
20:43became even more disturbing.
20:45Among the most hideous
20:46of all the items
20:47were human skin masks
20:50that were hanging
20:51from the wall
20:52of his bedroom,
20:53the faces of women
20:54that had been flayed
20:56from the skulls
20:57and that had been preserved.
20:59Some of them
21:00had lipstick applied to them
21:01and that had been hung
21:02on the walls
21:03as decorations.
21:05And then,
21:06most notoriously,
21:07there was a skin suit
21:09that Ed had crafted
21:11out of the upper torso
21:14of a woman
21:14and the leggings
21:15of a woman.
21:17And apparently,
21:18as he later confessed,
21:19he would put on
21:20this skin suit
21:22and put on one
21:23of the female skin masks
21:24and caper around
21:26in his yard
21:27pretending to be
21:28his mother.
21:31Gein's macabre collection
21:32had been acquired
21:33from the very same cemetery
21:35where his mother's body lay.
21:37Two years after the death
21:39of his mother
21:39in 1947,
21:41he starts grave robbing.
21:43So, he's going into
21:45a local burial ground,
21:47he's digging up bodies
21:48and he's taking things
21:50from the bodies.
21:51Now, he's not taking
21:52jewellery or items
21:54of any value,
21:55he's actually taking
21:56body parts.
21:57It really is
21:58an absolute house
21:59of horrors.
22:00So, what started off
22:01as an interest
22:02which was confined
22:03to the pages of a book
22:04has now become
22:05a reality
22:06behind the doors
22:07of this rather bizarre house.
22:09So, what he's doing
22:10in a really grotesque way
22:12is trying to bring
22:13his mother back to life
22:15in some way, shape, or form
22:16because he was just
22:17so dependent upon her
22:19for a sense
22:19of his own identity.
22:21And the search
22:22wasn't over yet.
22:24Officers would soon discover
22:25inside a paper bag
22:27in Gein's home
22:28the severed head
22:30of a woman
22:30who'd been missing
22:31from Plainfield
22:32for over two years.
22:35I think that the real
22:36tipping point for Ed Gein
22:38was when his mother
22:39and his brother died
22:40because even though
22:41this family was very intense
22:43and rather extreme
22:44in its beliefs,
22:45it was still a check
22:46on his behavior.
22:47There was still
22:48that informal surveillance
22:50over him
22:51and I think that
22:52kept him contained.
22:54But once he was on his own,
22:55he was free to ruminate
22:56and fantasize
22:57and his behavior
22:59was only going to escalate.
23:00You know, it's like
23:01some crack opened up,
23:03you know,
23:04in the civilized part
23:05of his head
23:06and all this weird,
23:08archaic stuff
23:09going back to the days,
23:11you know,
23:11when our species
23:12did engage
23:14in these bizarre,
23:16unspeakable rituals,
23:17you know,
23:18flooded out
23:19and took possession of him.
23:21With Gein in custody,
23:23officers continued
23:24to scour his home
23:25and they were about
23:26to make another
23:27startling discovery,
23:29a local woman
23:30who'd been missing
23:31for almost three years.
23:33There had been
23:34a female tavern keeper
23:35named Mary Hogan
23:36who ran this roadside tavern
23:39outside of Plainfield
23:40who had disappeared
23:42very, very mysteriously.
23:44In those days,
23:44we had 18-year-old bars
23:46where teenagers
23:47could go in
23:48and have beer
23:49and she ran
23:52one of those
23:52and it was
23:53a kind of a modest place
23:55to be very kind.
23:58But she disappeared
24:00before I was old enough
24:01to frequent
24:01those establishments.
24:03When she went missing,
24:05he'd said some
24:05rather bizarre things.
24:07He said to one
24:08of the townspeople,
24:09oh, she's not missing,
24:10she's up at the house.
24:12But because he was
24:12a bit of a misfit
24:13and because he was
24:14a bit weird,
24:15people didn't really
24:16take what he said
24:17very seriously at all.
24:18So that one
24:19was allowed to slip
24:20under the radar
24:21until this grisly discovery
24:23a few years later.
24:24In searching through
24:26Gein's house of horrors,
24:28the investigators
24:29opened up some receptacle
24:32and saw this face
24:34and pulled it out
24:36and realized
24:37it was Mary Hogan's,
24:38that she had been
24:39another one of these victims.
24:42Gein had murdered Mary Hogan
24:44on December the 8th, 1954,
24:47three years previous
24:48to killing Bernice Warden.
24:51I think there was
24:52some sense in which
24:53he associated her
24:55with his mother.
24:58You know, she almost
24:58seemed to be like
25:00the shadow side
25:01of his mother.
25:03And I think in killing her,
25:04again, he was both enacting
25:06some kind of homicidal rage
25:08toward his mother.
25:09But I think also
25:10there were times
25:11when he just ran out
25:13of suitable female corpses
25:15and had to make his own.
25:17Back at the local
25:19police station,
25:20it was time for Ed Gein
25:22to start talking.
25:24Well, for the first day
25:25after his arrest,
25:26I think Ed felt like
25:27a bit of a fish
25:28out of water.
25:29He didn't quite know
25:30how to react.
25:32But he did start talking
25:33after about 24 hours.
25:35And the first thing
25:36he said was that
25:37he wanted an apple pie
25:38with a slice of cheese on it.
25:39And that really does show
25:41the emotional immaturity
25:43of this guy.
25:44And when you've got somebody
25:45whose development stops
25:46at a particular point,
25:48they don't develop
25:50those complex emotions
25:51that enable them
25:52to empathize
25:52with other people
25:53or to think through
25:54the consequences
25:55of their actions.
25:57So what you've got here
25:58is a teenage boy
25:59in a man's body
26:00and he was capable
26:01of some really
26:02terrible things.
26:03He was subjected
26:04to a very lengthy interrogation.
26:06He freely confessed
26:07to the murders
26:08of Bernie Swarden
26:09and Mary Hogan.
26:10When the police
26:12first broke into
26:13Gein's house
26:13and discovered
26:14this crazy mass
26:16of body parts,
26:17their first assumption
26:18was Gein was
26:19a serial killer.
26:20It was only
26:21during his interrogation
26:22that he revealed
26:24that they were
26:25taken from the corpses
26:27he had dug up
26:28from the local cemetery.
26:30And people,
26:31in a way,
26:31had a harder time
26:32believing that
26:33than that he was
26:34a serial killer.
26:35That seemed like
26:36totally beyond
26:37the bounds of belief
26:38for a whole variety
26:39of reasons.
26:40Human bodies
26:40are traditionally
26:41buried six feet
26:43underground.
26:44That's a lot of digging.
26:45That's a lot of work
26:46to get to them
26:47through packed earth.
26:49He'd need spades,
26:50picks.
26:52He'd need to be strong
26:53and he'd need,
26:54one assumes,
26:55to do it at night
26:55because he'd need
26:56to be undisturbed.
26:58I'm not sure
26:59he did recognize
27:00that what he was doing
27:01was wrong.
27:02You know,
27:02there are some necrophiles
27:04who think,
27:05well, I wasn't really
27:06hurting anybody.
27:07You know,
27:07they were dead anyway.
27:09Gein confessed
27:11to investigators
27:12that between 1947
27:14and 1952,
27:16he'd regularly visited
27:17the local cemetery
27:18after dark.
27:20He would often
27:21follow the local newspapers
27:22and read the obituaries,
27:24and when some middle-aged
27:26or elderly woman
27:27who bore some vague resemblance
27:30to his departed mother
27:32died and was buried,
27:34he would apparently
27:35go out to the cemetery
27:36at night
27:36while the soil
27:38was still fresh
27:39and easily dug up
27:40and exhume these coffins
27:42and remove the bodies
27:44and sometimes take
27:46the entire corpse
27:47back to his farmhouse,
27:48sometimes just take parts
27:50of the corpse
27:50back to the farmhouse
27:51and leave the rest there.
27:52Investigators decided
27:54to dig up some of the graves
27:56to see if Gein was telling
27:58the truth.
27:59When they uncovered them,
28:00they discovered
28:01that the coffins
28:02had been broken into
28:03and the bodies were missing
28:06or, you know,
28:07there were just parts
28:08of the skeleton
28:09remaining there.
28:10He admitted
28:10to grave robbing
28:11nine corpses,
28:13but the maths
28:14didn't quite add up
28:15because the police
28:16had found 12 human heads
28:18in Gein's property,
28:20and he'd only admitted
28:22to 11 offences
28:23against separate people,
28:25so the numbers
28:26never really added up properly,
28:28so there's always been
28:29questions over that.
28:30Ed Gein's crimes
28:33were in the late 50s,
28:341957.
28:36The state of forensic science
28:38in those days
28:39was far less
28:41than we have now.
28:43Things like DNA
28:44simply didn't exist
28:46as a tool,
28:48so identification
28:49could potentially
28:50be very difficult,
28:51and I would suspect
28:52in certainly
28:52some of the body parts
28:53simply impossible.
28:55There was no doubt
28:56that Gein
28:57specifically targeted females.
28:59All the graves
29:01he desecrated
29:01belonged to women.
29:03I think he was both
29:04trying to rebuild
29:05his mother,
29:07but I also think
29:09that he was
29:10taking revenge
29:11on his mother.
29:13That kind of love
29:14and hate
29:15and hate
29:15of mommy
29:15were manifested
29:18both by his
29:20attempting to bring her
29:21back from the dead
29:22but also perpetrating,
29:24you know,
29:25these atrocities
29:26on the corpses
29:27of female bodies.
29:29It's been reported
29:30that Gein did in fact
29:31try to return Augusta
29:33to the family home
29:34after her funeral.
29:36There's some indication
29:37that he initially tried
29:39to exhume
29:39his mother's corpse.
29:41You know,
29:41apparently Ed
29:42missed the presence
29:43of his mother so much.
29:45You know,
29:46he wanted to bring her back
29:48and somehow,
29:49in his madness,
29:51you know,
29:51reconstitute her
29:52in his household.
29:55He couldn't get
29:55to his mother's grave
29:56because the soil
29:58in that part of Wisconsin
29:59is very sandy
30:00and many coffins
30:02are buried
30:03within concrete vaults
30:05to prevent the sand
30:07from collapsing on them
30:08and that was apparently
30:09true of Augusta Gein.
30:12In November 1957,
30:15Ed Gein was charged
30:17with the murder
30:17of Bernice Warden.
30:19The media descended
30:20on the tiny town
30:22of Plainfield, Wisconsin.
30:25What kind of a man
30:25did you know in those?
30:27Well, a man,
30:27he's a nice man
30:29just like anybody else.
30:32The only difference
30:33I'd say in a man,
30:34he seems to be a little hot.
30:37Well, the cultural context
30:41of the Gein case
30:42is quite an interesting one
30:43because I think this was
30:45one of the first cases
30:47that gathered
30:48an awful lot of attention.
30:50There was a media circus
30:51that developed around this
30:52because nothing like this
30:54had ever really happened before.
30:56It was something completely new.
30:57It spread very quickly
30:58through the local newspapers
31:00and, you know,
31:02and then through
31:03the Associated Press
31:04and so on
31:05to the national media.
31:06You know, a Plainfield,
31:08which, you know,
31:09had always existed
31:11from the time
31:11of its founding
31:12and happy obscurity,
31:15you know,
31:15suddenly found itself
31:16to be the center
31:18of national
31:19and even international attention.
31:21It was just
31:22an exasperating time
31:24and then we were inundated
31:26by nosy Nellies
31:28that all thought that,
31:30boy, I've got to go drive
31:31by that old farmhouse.
31:33And then we became a,
31:35I don't like to use
31:36the word chaotic,
31:37but a very unsettled community
31:40for a while.
31:42Plainfield was suddenly famous
31:43and famous
31:44for the most horrifying
31:46of reasons,
31:47you know,
31:48that it was the home
31:49of America's
31:50most notorious psychopath.
31:52The entire community
31:54was stunned.
31:56For the previous decade,
31:57they'd been living
31:58in the same town
31:59as a real-life bogeyman.
32:01It would now be down
32:03to the courts
32:03to decide whether or not
32:05Ed Gein
32:06was insane.
32:09On November the 21st, 1957,
32:13the 51-year-old pleaded
32:15not guilty
32:16by reason of insanity
32:17at his arraignment
32:18at Washara County Court,
32:21and it was declared
32:22that he was unfit
32:23to stand trial.
32:25There were indications
32:26that Ed was clinically psychotic,
32:28that he had hallucinations,
32:31that he heard voices,
32:34or the trees
32:34would start talking to him.
32:36Most serial murderers
32:38are not psychotic,
32:39but Ed seemed to have
32:40the symptoms
32:41of some form of psychosis.
32:44Gein was sent
32:45to the Central State Hospital
32:46for the Criminally Insane
32:48in Warpen, Wisconsin,
32:50which is now
32:50a maximum security prison.
32:5370 miles away
32:54in Plainfield,
32:55the community
32:56was trying to get back
32:57on its feet,
32:58but the shadow of Ed Gein
33:00lingered over the town.
33:02In 1958,
33:03the property
33:04that Gein had lived in
33:05was due to be auctioned off,
33:07and I think the last thing
33:08that local people wanted
33:09was for this
33:10to become some kind of shrine,
33:12some kind of attraction
33:14for people
33:14who were morbidly fascinated.
33:16So a few days
33:17before the auction,
33:19the property
33:19was burned
33:20to the ground, essentially.
33:22A lot of talk of arson.
33:25They had been cleaning up
33:28around there
33:29and had been burning
33:30trash up around
33:31that particular day too,
33:35so then that was,
33:36or anyway,
33:37that was an excuse
33:38of a possible cause
33:40that maybe the wind
33:41got something in the evening
33:42and got some live embers
33:45in there.
33:46A lot of the neighbors
33:46weren't too happy
33:47with having talk
33:48of it being turned
33:49into a museum of sorts,
33:52but that was,
33:55there were a lot of stories.
33:57Anyway, it's gone.
33:58People still kept coming,
33:59though,
34:00even after the house
34:01was gone.
34:02For a year,
34:03still had people coming
34:04to drive by the empty lot
34:06where the house used to stand.
34:08In March 1958,
34:10the car which Gein used
34:12to transport
34:13the bodies of his victims
34:14was bought at an auction
34:15for over $700
34:17by a carnival operator
34:19who charged
34:20fascinated Americans
34:2125 cents
34:22for a photograph
34:23at a macabre sideshow.
34:25I think what we're seeing here
34:27is the rise
34:27of the serial killer
34:28consumer culture.
34:30People are fascinated
34:31in these kind of cases,
34:34and some criminologists
34:35refer to this
34:36as wound culture,
34:37that we're essentially
34:38drawn to the trauma
34:39and the suffering
34:40of other people,
34:41and we're drawn
34:41to the artifacts
34:42that exist
34:44around these cases.
34:46Gein remained
34:47in the Central State Hospital
34:48for 11 years
34:50until doctors determined
34:51that he was finally fit
34:53to stand trial
34:54for the first-degree murder
34:56of Bernice Warden.
34:58The hearing lasted
34:59for a week,
35:00and on November 14,
35:011968,
35:03Judge Robert Gullmar
35:04had reached a verdict.
35:06He was tried
35:06and found guilty
35:07of the murder
35:08of Bernice Warden,
35:09but then he was judged
35:09insane and stuck back
35:11on the mental institution.
35:12I think that was possibly
35:13somewhere where
35:14he may have thrived
35:16because he had structure,
35:17he had a routine,
35:19he had people watching over him
35:20and looking after his needs.
35:23Forensic psychologist
35:25Dr. Helen Morrison
35:26interviewed Gein
35:27during his time
35:28in hospital.
35:29I was working
35:30at that time
35:31as a staff psychiatrist
35:32and I was covering
35:35all the units
35:36and when I was asked
35:39to go over
35:40to see this person,
35:42I went over to see it
35:44and I saw Ed Gein.
35:46He was not at all coherent.
35:49He was such a little person
35:51that I found it hard
35:54to picture him
35:55as the person
35:57who'd committed
35:57all these homicides.
35:59He lived there
36:01very peacefully.
36:02He never caused
36:03any problems,
36:04never had any type
36:06of behavioural thing,
36:08no type of,
36:09I guess you could say,
36:11consequence
36:12for bad behaviour.
36:15Gein's quiet nature
36:17in hospital
36:17was in stark contrast
36:19to the monster Helen
36:20had heard so much about.
36:21I received a letter
36:23from one of his neighbours
36:24who used to be
36:25a friend of his.
36:27She was a little girl
36:29and she remembers
36:30going over to his house
36:32and he would serve soup
36:34and everything.
36:36What turned out
36:36the soup bowls
36:37were the skulls
36:38of many of his victims
36:40and people never knew it.
36:43On July the 26th, 1984,
36:47Ed Gein died
36:48of lung cancer
36:49aged 77.
36:50He was buried
36:51next to his mother
36:53on the Gein family plot
36:54at the same cemetery
36:56which he so often
36:57desecrated
36:58during his career
36:59of horror.
37:01Gein has left
37:01a lasting impact
37:03on the small community
37:04where he committed
37:05his ghoulish crimes.
37:07We really wouldn't care
37:08to have that be our claim
37:10to fame.
37:11We've turned out
37:13lots of doctors
37:14and architects
37:15and some really good people
37:18out of our schools here.
37:19We're very proud of them.
37:20We'd rather be known
37:21for a tremendously good population
37:25than to be credited
37:28for only one issue.
37:32But just like
37:33the carnival operators
37:34of the 1950s,
37:36people continue
37:37to try and get
37:38their hands
37:39on grisly souvenirs
37:40related to Gein.
37:42In the year 2000,
37:43somebody was found
37:44to be selling
37:45parts of the gravestone
37:47that had been erected
37:49at Ed Gein's grave.
37:51For people who are fans
37:53of the serial killer cult,
37:54this was just the gift
37:56that kept on giving.
37:57They keep putting up headstones
37:58and the headstones
37:59keep disappearing.
38:00There's a whole category
38:02of collectible
38:03that has come to be known
38:05as murderabilia.
38:07And Gein relics
38:09are particularly prized
38:11among people
38:12who collect that kind
38:13of morbid relic.
38:15Over 60 years
38:16since the horrific crimes,
38:18Gein has grown
38:19into a notorious figure
38:21in American folklore,
38:22a killer of almost
38:24mythic proportions.
38:25The two things
38:26that are fascinating
38:27about Ed Gein
38:28is the fact that
38:30he only,
38:32as far as we know,
38:33murdered two people,
38:34which is a lot less
38:35than many infamous killers.
38:38But he's had
38:39such a huge legacy
38:40in films,
38:43books, music.
38:44He seems to have become
38:45a sort of
38:46pop culture murderer.
38:48At the time
38:49the Gein crimes
38:51were being revealed
38:53in the press,
38:54there was a writer
38:55of pulp horror
38:56named Robert Bloch
38:57who had moved
39:00to Wisconsin
39:00to be with his wife's family.
39:02And at some point
39:03when Gein was being interviewed
39:05by various psychiatrists,
39:07all these headlines
39:08in the papers
39:09were trumpeting the fact
39:11that Gein had been motivated
39:12by these deranged,
39:15Oedipal conflicts,
39:17you know,
39:17that he was this
39:18desperately sick mama's boy,
39:21you know,
39:22who was perpetrating
39:23these atrocities
39:24on middle-aged women,
39:26you know,
39:26who reminded him
39:27of his mother.
39:28And this caught
39:29the attention
39:30of Robert Bloch
39:30who decided
39:31this could potentially
39:32make the basis
39:33of a good horror novel
39:35and that became
39:36the book Psycho.
39:37In the book Psycho,
39:39Norman Bates,
39:40actually,
39:40after he's arrested,
39:42compares himself
39:42at the end of the book
39:43to Ed Gein.
39:44So the connection
39:45is made very,
39:46very explicit
39:47there in the book.
39:48Anyway,
39:49Psycho,
39:49as we know,
39:50became,
39:51turned into
39:51one of the great
39:53classic horror movies
39:54of American cinema.
39:56You know,
39:56if you look at
39:57horror movies
39:57before then,
39:59there were all these
39:59Eastern European monsters,
40:02Frankenstein and Dracula
40:04and the Wolfman,
40:05you know,
40:05or else they were
40:06aliens from outer space.
40:09You know,
40:09with Psycho,
40:10Psycho establishes
40:12and, you know,
40:12Ed Gein establishes,
40:14you know,
40:14this quintessentially
40:15American figure of horror,
40:18the ordinary
40:19middle American guy
40:21who turns out
40:22to be this monster
40:23in disguise.
40:24And then,
40:24of course,
40:24Gein becomes
40:25the basis
40:26for Toby Hooper's
40:27Texas Chancellor Massacre
40:29and later on
40:30for Thomas Harris's
40:32character Buffalo Bill
40:33in Silence of the Lambs.
40:35You know,
40:36so Gein has this
40:36very, very direct influence
40:38on American horror cinema.
40:40But Gein's crimes
40:42were not fictional,
40:43they were very real
40:44and he remains
40:45one of the most infamous
40:47murderers
40:47in U.S. history.
40:49We think of Gein
40:50as this notorious
40:53American serial murderer
40:55but in many ways
40:57he doesn't really
40:57fit that profile.
40:59You know,
41:00for example,
41:00he wasn't a sexual sadist
41:02in the way
41:03John Wayne Gacy
41:04or Ted Bundy were
41:06or Jeffrey Dahmer.
41:08You know,
41:08he wasn't driven
41:09by that particular
41:10form of deviance.
41:12I think he was
41:13brought up
41:14in a vacuum
41:15that created
41:16the conditions
41:17for someone
41:17who would go on
41:18to do evil things.
41:20So,
41:21whilst most people
41:22are shocked
41:23and repulsed
41:24and absolutely
41:25horrified
41:27at some of the
41:28things he's done,
41:29because he didn't
41:30have that filter
41:31and that check
41:32on his behaviour,
41:33he was able
41:34to escalate
41:35to a level
41:36of evil,
41:37I think.
41:37Evil is something
41:39that, you know,
41:40professionally
41:41people don't believe
41:42in evil
41:43but I truly believe
41:45that he was evil.
41:46I think there are
41:49people who would
41:50like to say
41:51that the devil
41:52got into him
41:53and made him
41:54do these awful
41:55things,
41:55but I think
41:57he was born evil.
41:59The Ed I knew
41:59was not an evil
42:00person.
42:01He did things
42:02that normal people
42:03do not do
42:04and there's no,
42:06just no doubt
42:06about that
42:07and to kill
42:09two people
42:09is certainly
42:11not a person
42:12who you would
42:12really like to
42:14invite to your
42:15neighbourhood party,
42:16but,
42:17yeah,
42:19he was,
42:19he was,
42:20there was something
42:21in his head
42:22that didn't
42:24click right.
42:25Ed Gein's crimes
42:27are the stuff
42:27of genuine
42:28nightmares.
42:29The man
42:30with an unhealthy
42:31obsession
42:31with his mother
42:32brazenly murdered
42:33two women
42:34and kept a bizarre
42:35collection of gruesome
42:37keepsakes
42:37inside his
42:39house of horrors.
42:40He truly deserves
42:41to be remembered
42:42as one of the
42:43world's most
42:44evil killers.
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