- 3 months ago
Psycho: The Lost Ed Gein Tapes is a chilling 4-part docuseries that dives deep into the twisted psyche of Ed Gein—the real-life inspiration behind horror legends like Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs).
In this series, we explore Gein’s disturbing crimes through rare archival audio, interviews, and dramatizations. We also connect the dots to Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story, starring Charlie Hunnam, and examine how Hollywood transformed Gein’s grotesque reality into cinematic terror.
🎥 Whether you're a true crime junkie or a horror film fanatic, this series uncovers the terrifying truth behind the myths.
👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more deep dives into the minds that shaped horror history.
In this series, we explore Gein’s disturbing crimes through rare archival audio, interviews, and dramatizations. We also connect the dots to Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story, starring Charlie Hunnam, and examine how Hollywood transformed Gein’s grotesque reality into cinematic terror.
🎥 Whether you're a true crime junkie or a horror film fanatic, this series uncovers the terrifying truth behind the myths.
👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more deep dives into the minds that shaped horror history.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Transcribed by —
00:30I was doing emergency coverage at Mendota Mental Health Institute.
00:47I was on the ward, and one of the nurses said, have you met Ed Gein?
00:52I said, no, I haven't. But she said, well, let me introduce you.
00:55I knew that he had murdered two people
01:01in this tiny town in the middle of Wisconsin.
01:07Then I learned all the other things that he had done.
01:16Make lampshades out of human skin,
01:20take skulls and make soup bowls out of them,
01:23and had a tremendous number of things that he did
01:28that were kind of macabre.
01:33One of what parts would you take, Paul?
01:36The head.
01:38And the sexual part.
01:41Yeah.
01:42He knew that they had made a movie.
01:49The comparison between the two of them
02:00was so right on
02:03that it was very, very scary.
02:11But I was interested.
02:13I've always been curious.
02:14That's been my downfall.
02:17That's been my downfall.
02:44You know, over the years,
03:05when these movies would come out about Ed Gein,
03:07I never was really interested,
03:10because we live the fact.
03:12It's a terrible thing for Ed Gein.
03:16It's a terrible thing for the people involved,
03:19and it was a terrible thing
03:20for the whole community of Plainfield.
03:27Why Ed Gein done what he done, I don't know.
03:30It's just too bad that the whole thing happened.
03:33Don't know what to call him.
03:34I don't know if he was deranged or if he was insane.
03:37I'm not proud to connect my dad with Ed Gein,
03:43but I'm proud of the way he handled the case
03:47and that things were handled the way they were handled.
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04:22I once made a movie rather tongue-in-cheek called Psycho.
04:45A lot of people looked at this thing and said,
04:48what a dreadful thing to do, how awful and so forth.
04:51But of course, it was to me, it had great elements of the cinema in it.
05:00Psycho originally appealed to one of Hitchcock's assistants
05:03who placed the novel in front of Hitchcock and said, let's do this next, boss.
05:08We all enjoy, shall we say, putting our toe in the cold water of fear.
05:15Hitchcock had just made North by Northwest.
05:23And what came after this was the birds.
05:30Psycho is a kind of outlier for Hitchcock in many ways.
05:33First of all, of course, it's much more of a horror film
05:36compared to the suspense that he typically is associated with.
05:39Possibly what drew Hitchcock to Psycho
05:43was the idea that this was an American small-town horror story.
05:53I think he was so attracted to this material in general
05:57because he was interested in what makes a character tick
06:00and how we can understand a character via that character's psychology.
06:03The name of Ed Gein means return of memories.
06:14Memories that many have been trying to forget.
06:21Hitchcock attempted to get financing through his studio for this
06:26and the studio pushed it away, rejected it and said,
06:29you can't make this film, this is not what we want.
06:31And so what Hitchcock did was enforce the terms of his contract,
06:36which gave him creative control over even big questions like,
06:39okay, what film are we doing next?
06:42You have to remember that this process of frightening
06:46is done by means of a given medium,
06:51the medium of pure cinema.
06:53Hitchcock used his TV crew,
07:04not his film crew, to make this.
07:07And that's part of the reason why the film's in black and white,
07:11when his previous films had been in color.
07:15He was using the tools that his TV crew knew best to make this film.
07:19That's one really interesting thing about Psycho.
07:29Of course, at that time,
07:31black and white is still a little bit more associated with realism than color film,
07:36right, because color has this long history of being used as something of fantasy.
07:40Think about the Wizard of Oz.
07:42When Dorothy goes to Oz, all of a sudden, everything's in color.
07:46We still kind of have those associations with black and white versus color by 1960.
07:52We don't think of Psycho as like a realism, realistic kind of movie,
07:57but the use of that particular kind of film stock
08:00actually places it much more in the realm of lived experience and of the world.
08:05The assembly of pieces of film to create fright is the essential part of my job.
08:14Just as much as a painter would, by putting certain colors together,
08:21create evil on canvas.
08:23Well, I run the office
08:29and tend the cabins and grounds and do little errands for my mother.
08:36I think the first time I saw Psycho, I was a teenager.
08:39I think I was about 15, and it scared the living daylights out of me.
08:43I was absolutely terrified.
08:45I mean, it was just absolute terror.
08:47The movie signals something about this interest in violence,
08:53this interest in the kind of perversions underneath the placid surface.
08:57Sometimes when she talks to me like that, I feel I'd like to go up there.
09:02This is a shot that is so famous,
09:05and many people turn to this shot when they're talking about Psycho,
09:08and that's because this is a really, really great low angle here
09:11where we see Norman Bates.
09:13Something's very, very wrong.
09:16Something's wrong in Norman's psychology.
09:18All is not what it seems.
09:20And this is the scene where Norman says something equivalent to
09:23a boy's best friend is his mother.
09:26One of the things that we can see as Hitchcock's career progresses
09:29is that he really uses a lot of these kind of psychoanalytic approaches
09:34and approaches to character psychology,
09:36and that was part of what made it such a raging success.
09:43Psycho was released just over two years
09:56after Ed Gein's crimes were discovered.
10:00I've suggested that Psycho be seen from the beginning.
10:05In fact, this is more than a suggestion.
10:09It is required.
10:10This is the very first time that audiences were not allowed
10:18to enter the film after the movie had started.
10:23So if you wanted to buy a ticket and go see Psycho,
10:26you had to get there when it started
10:28because Hitchcock didn't want anybody to give away the twist.
10:31No one, but no one, will be admitted to the theater
10:35after the start of each performance of Psycho.
10:39Audiences loved the film.
10:42It was amazingly popular.
10:46But reviewers less so.
10:49And in many of the reviews,
10:51Hitchcock was getting a lot of credit for like,
10:53and wow, Hitchcock had the courage to kill off the main character so early.
10:58This film had a horrible scene at the beginning
11:02of a girl being murdered in the shower.
11:05Well, I deliberately made that pretty rough.
11:08But as the film developed,
11:10I put less and less physical horror into it.
11:16I was transferring it from film into their mind.
11:20So towards the end, I had no violence at all.
11:22But the audience by this time was screaming in agony.
11:25Psycho's a lot more raw than earlier Hitchcock films.
11:31And I don't want to make it sound that Hitchcock
11:33wasn't interested in psychology before.
11:35But here in Psycho,
11:37we have it linked up with it actually being a real story.
11:40And that makes it really, really scary.
11:45It's in the title.
11:47It's about somebody being a psychotic.
11:50And that is really different from just saying,
11:54this monster's outlandish.
11:56This monster can never happen.
11:59Here we have a monster who is defined
12:02by the inner workings of his brain.
12:06And that's what I think makes it such a different horror film.
12:09I grew up in the 1950s, baby boomer,
12:15and going to the movies all the time.
12:17And all the monsters,
12:19all the monsters in movies back then
12:22were alien in some way.
12:27What Hitchcock did with Psycho was
12:38he created the first, like,
12:40all-American cinematic monster.
12:44And it was, of course, directly inspired by Gein.
12:47I was doing emergency coverage
13:11at Mendota Mental Health Institute.
13:14I was on the ward,
13:16and one of the nurses said,
13:18have you met Ed Gein?
13:19I said, no, I haven't.
13:21But she said, well, let me introduce you.
13:23I was interested.
13:24I've always been curious.
13:27That's been my downfall.
13:34I saw the movie Psycho
13:36when I was in high school.
13:41And I was terrified by it.
13:44I remember I was with a girlfriend of mine.
13:47We had gone to see the movie.
13:49When we left the movie,
13:51we walked down the middle of the street
13:53because we weren't going to be near anybody
13:55who could do anything to us.
13:58When you saw the rocker,
14:01the rocking chair,
14:02and you saw the mother,
14:04and you saw him,
14:09you could see that Ed Gein
14:11was the prototype for the character.
14:18The first meeting of him,
14:20he was in what we call the day room,
14:23and I went up to talk to him.
14:26What would you do with the sexual part?
14:30That was him.
14:32One was painted, they said.
14:34Oh, that one was, uh,
14:36you know, uh,
14:38the main guy.
14:39Yeah.
14:44I just put the thing over it.
14:47Is there anything you like, you know?
14:48We would talk about the weather,
14:52we would talk about
14:53some of the things he remembered
14:55about his life.
14:57He was aware that he had been
14:59very much written about
15:01and talked about.
15:02He was very soft-spoken.
15:18My sister-in-law,
15:20she's in a home now.
15:22She said,
15:22did you know Eddie Gein
15:24killed Mrs. Wharton?
15:26I'm afraid that
15:27if people found out about that,
15:29there might be quite an uprising.
15:32He knew that they had
15:33made a movie
15:34in which he was
15:36the prototype
15:37for the character.
15:41Oh, we have 12 vacancies.
15:4412 cabins, 12 vacancies.
15:46Ed Gein was Norman Bates.
15:48Norman Bates was Ed Gein.
15:50Mild-mannered,
15:52attractive,
15:54nice to people around him.
16:00But very much hidden
16:02were all of the crazy things
16:04that he did.
16:13Some people had made movies
16:15or some characters after him,
16:18but that didn't make him
16:20any better.
16:21He's just very bland
16:22about everything.
16:24He never seemed
16:25to show much emotion.
16:27But that's so common
16:30in serial murderers.
16:33But he didn't like
16:34to talk about his crimes.
16:36He didn't want to glorify it.
16:45Psycho was such a powerful movie.
16:50He had so many people
16:52after him.
16:54He was hounded
16:56by everybody.
16:59So there's a bunch
16:59of photographers
17:00from the newspaper
17:01who want to take a picture.
17:02Do you want to take a picture?
17:04No.
17:04Of course not.
17:05Yeah.
17:05He will get taken straight.
17:08No.
17:08There will be an auction
17:25here, Palm Sunday.
17:27But this house
17:28and the personal belongings
17:29of Ed Gein
17:30will be conspicuously absent.
17:32Call it an act of God
17:34or whatever you will.
17:35The main attraction
17:36will be missing,
17:37reduced to a mass
17:38of rubble
17:38by a mysterious fire.
17:44All we knew
17:45is that that one morning
17:46we got up
17:48and Ed Gein's house
17:49had burnt down.
17:51The farm where Ed Gein lived
17:53and where much
17:55of the grisly evidence
17:56has been found
17:57has been leveled.
17:58It burned down one night.
18:00No one knows why.
18:01But since then,
18:02the ground has been
18:03bulldozed over
18:04and trees planted there,
18:05trying apparently
18:06to wipe out
18:07every vestige
18:08of the grisly tragedy.
18:11We had heard
18:12that it took a long time
18:13for the fire department
18:14to get there.
18:16I'm sure it was arson
18:17and I think there was
18:18proof of that,
18:19but everybody was glad.
18:21We had heard they were
18:42going to make
18:42a museum out of it
18:44and that would be
18:46the last thing
18:47that the community needed.
18:48After it burnt,
18:50everybody was glad
18:51that it had burnt
18:52rather than having
18:54a museum
18:54of a sick man's home.
18:56The people of Plainfield
19:05in the area
19:06hope that 10 years...
19:08Oh, stop.
19:10Stop a minute.
19:16But a period of 10 years
19:18isn't enough
19:19for people to forget
19:20and the farmers
19:21and people of Plainfield
19:23hope they won't have
19:24to return to the agony,
19:25the notoriety
19:26that accompanied
19:27the Ed Gein case
19:29just 10 years ago.
19:46He was found incompetent
19:48for many years
19:49and I think the reason was
19:50is because what he did
19:52was just so outrageous.
19:54It was so bizarre
19:55that the psychiatrist
19:57that evaluated him
19:58as well as the judge
19:59probably said,
20:00I just don't know.
20:01Let's just wait
20:03and see what we have.
20:07Eventually,
20:08he was found
20:08competent to proceed
20:09because he always
20:10was competent.
20:11Oh, he looked
20:15somewhat healthier.
20:16He was rather,
20:17seemed a rather dark
20:18and gaunt personage
20:1910 years ago.
20:23He seems more like
20:24a middle-aged businessman
20:26at this time.
20:29Ed Gein,
20:30he had all kinds
20:31of fantasies
20:32about traveling
20:32to Europe.
20:33This is the courtroom
20:54where Ed Gein was.
20:56Hey, Wes.
20:57Nice to see you.
20:58This would have been
21:03whereabouts Ed Gein stood
21:05when he was on trial.
21:07Pretty much think
21:07it's identical
21:08to what it was back then
21:09from the photos I've seen.
21:21Judge Robert Gomar
21:23presided over
21:23Gein's 1968 trial.
21:25Gein was found insane.
21:27When he first appeared
21:28before me,
21:30I got the impression
21:31somewhat of a puppy.
21:34He's a small,
21:35neat-looking man,
21:37and he stood there
21:38with a kind of a
21:39ingratiating little smile
21:41on his face.
21:42It was obvious
21:43he wanted to make
21:44a good impression
21:45on the judge,
21:45and if he'd had
21:47a tail to wiggle,
21:48I'm sure the puppy
21:49description would apply
21:51to him.
21:54I had contacted
21:55Judge Robert Golman,
21:57and was invited
21:59to his home.
22:03He did have this
22:05kind of Colonel Sanders
22:06aura about him.
22:10He'd kind of basked,
22:12I think, a little
22:13in his connection
22:14to the Gein case
22:15because it was obviously
22:19kind of the highlight
22:21of his judicial career,
22:23and he had taken advantage
22:27of his position
22:29in the case
22:30to write a book
22:31about Gein.
22:35One thing he did do
22:37in the book
22:38was reproduce
22:40crime scene photographs
22:43of Bernie's warden's
22:45violated corpse
22:47hanging from the rafters,
22:50disemboweled,
22:50very shocking photographs,
22:52which had incurred
22:57the anger
22:57and the resentment
22:58of the people
22:59of Plainfield
23:00because they felt
23:01those photographs
23:02should never
23:03have been publicized.
23:05He took parts
23:10of the people
23:10home with him.
23:12He took the skin
23:13of women particularly.
23:16He decorated
23:17furniture with it.
23:18He made many
23:21other items
23:22out of it.
23:24At that time,
23:25I don't know
23:26if it still holds,
23:27but Wisconsin
23:28had what they call
23:29these bifurcated
23:30or split trials.
23:33First,
23:34Gein would be tried
23:35for the murder
23:36of Bernie's warden.
23:38Then he would
23:38immediately
23:39have another trial
23:41in which his
23:42mental competence
23:43would be determined.
23:46My folks never
23:47talked about a trial.
23:50I don't think
23:50that they thought
23:51we needed to know
23:52these horrific details
23:54of the crime.
23:56We knew
23:57that my dad was having,
23:58we thought
23:59that my dad
23:59was having heart problems.
24:01My dad
24:02would get such
24:03bad pains
24:04and I hated
24:06to see that.
24:07I'd say,
24:07Dad, what's the matter?
24:08What's the matter?
24:09Oh, nothing.
24:09I just got indigestion,
24:11he'd say.
24:12But then one night
24:13it was just
24:13a massive heart attack
24:15and that was it.
24:16He had just
24:16turned 43 years old.
24:20One of his relatives
24:21said that this sheriff
24:22was actually
24:23the last victim
24:24of Ed Gein
24:24because he was
24:25so disturbed
24:26by what he'd seen
24:28and so disturbed
24:29by what Ed Gein's
24:30actions did to him.
24:30personally
24:31that Gein may as well
24:32have killed him.
24:40Gein was found
24:41guilty of the
24:42first degree murder
24:43of Bernie Swarden.
24:45Immediately,
24:46there was a second part
24:47of the trial
24:48and he was declared
24:50mentally incompetent
24:51and returned
24:52to the mental institution.
24:56And so,
24:57in effect,
24:58Gein was convicted
24:59and acquitted
25:00at the same time.
25:01The issue is his mental state
25:16at the time of the crime.
25:18In this case,
25:19you could argue
25:20that he has
25:21a mental disorder,
25:22but that's not all
25:23with respect to meeting
25:24the legal standard.
25:25would you enjoy
25:26while you were doing it?
25:28That's the worst
25:29fire that I really
25:30didn't plan.
25:32I move better
25:33like, you know,
25:34for the
25:35restless.
25:36You need a defective reason,
25:41and that usually means
25:42your thinking is delusional.
25:44God told me to do it,
25:46Martians are controlling
25:47my mind,
25:47that type of thing.
25:48Well, Gein knew
25:49what he was doing.
25:50He knew very well
25:51what he was doing.
25:52When you dig the grave up,
25:54you were kind of
25:55in a haze, too,
25:56is that it?
25:56And then one time
26:04you said you
26:04realized what you were
26:06doing,
26:06and you covered her up
26:07without taking the thing.
26:08That's right.
26:15When I look at this
26:16from a distance,
26:17I don't see any basis
26:18for incompetency
26:19or legal insanity.
26:22Disturbance?
26:23Yes.
26:23Legal insanity?
26:25Based on what?
26:26He knew what he was doing,
26:27and he knew what he was
26:28doing was wrong.
26:28That's the standard.
26:43Back in 1962,
26:45the crime scene investigators
26:47returned all the body parts
26:48from Ed Gein's house,
26:50and they put them
26:51in a mass grave,
26:51which would include
26:52Mary Hogan's head.
26:54So they're all
26:55in that one grave.
26:56So this is the spot
27:00of the mass grave
27:01where all the body parts are.
27:03His skin suit,
27:04all the mass,
27:05Mary Hogan's head
27:06is probably here.
27:08So now we're
27:08trying to uncover it.
27:17Okay, this is it.
27:19We found it.
27:20It says this is dedicated
27:25to the unknown
27:26that are buried here.
27:31Gein admitted
27:32to digging up
27:33nine to 11 bodies,
27:35most from this
27:36plainfield cemetery.
27:37But to this day,
27:38no one is sure
27:39how many graves
27:40may actually be empty.
27:41So it's actually weird
28:00that they would not
28:01have confirmed
28:02and identified precisely
28:04who was missing
28:05from which grave.
28:06I don't think nowadays
28:09anyone would accept
28:10the,
28:11what should we call him?
28:14The patient
28:15or the perpetrator
28:16would accept
28:17their self-report
28:19as being valid
28:21and entirely truthful,
28:23especially if you're
28:24raising issues
28:24about mental illness.
28:29Plainfield does not
28:30want to be remembered
28:31as the home of Ed Gein.
28:32People here
28:33do not want
28:34to be reminded
28:35that it was murder
28:35and grave robbery
28:37which put Plainfield
28:38on the map.
28:41The people of Plainfield
28:42were angry
28:43that the world
28:45had shined a spotlight
28:46on them
28:47as the home
28:49of Ed Gein.
28:52They were this
28:53small farming community
28:54that was perfectly happy
28:56with being isolated
28:58and not being known
28:58by the rest of the world.
29:01It was very traumatic
29:03to the community
29:03and after the Gein crimes
29:08came to light
29:08all these jokes
29:10began to circulate
29:12around the community.
29:16They were called Geiners
29:18so, you know,
29:20they're not especially funny
29:21but it would be like
29:22why did Ed Gein
29:24always keep the heat
29:25on in his house
29:26so the furniture
29:28wouldn't get goosebumps
29:29or why didn't people
29:33want to play cards
29:34with Ed
29:35because they were afraid
29:37he'd come up
29:37with a good hand.
29:40What were Ed Gein's
29:42favorite pastries?
29:45Lady fingers,
29:47you know,
29:47stuff like that.
29:48But, you know,
29:48folklorists,
29:49you know,
29:50tend to see
29:50that kind of
29:51sick humor
29:52as, you know,
29:53defense
29:54against all the,
29:56you know,
29:57horrors.
30:01I remember when we first
30:02were reading
30:03Harold Schechter
30:04about the concept
30:04of Geiners
30:05and it's kind of
30:07a direct line
30:07to us
30:08to the last podcast
30:09on the left.
30:10It's more of kind
30:11of a mirror
30:11of like how people
30:12react to that horrible thing
30:14and why we say
30:15these jokes
30:16which is to cope
30:17with horrible information.
30:41It's showtime.
30:44Texas Chainsaw Massacre
30:51came out in 1974.
30:53A lot of people
30:54were very upset
30:55by Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
30:58What's the matter, honey?
30:59You don't look so good.
31:01Some people
31:02were very, very disgusted
31:03and walked out of the film.
31:07They were so upset
31:08by what they saw
31:09as hyperviolence
31:10on screen.
31:14I think you're going
31:17to see a movie
31:18called Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
31:19Like, what do you expect?
31:20But for a lot of audiences,
31:22it also was thrilling.
31:26It was something
31:27that was so new,
31:28that was so different,
31:29that was doing something
31:30entirely new
31:32with this form
31:32and with this genre.
31:33when you understand
31:37that it's partially based
31:38on an actual story,
31:40on something
31:40that actually happened,
31:42what happened
31:43was true.
31:45All of a sudden,
31:46that outlandishness
31:47becomes something
31:48that's possible
31:49in real life
31:50and possible
31:51in somewhere
31:51like Wisconsin.
31:52Part of the film's
31:56inspiration
31:56came from the news.
31:59And it was so graphic.
32:01I mean,
32:02it was unbelievable.
32:07I have relatives
32:08from Wisconsin
32:09that lived
32:10about 27 miles
32:11from, you know,
32:13where the Ed Gein
32:14incident happened.
32:17And so when
32:18the Wisconsin relatives
32:19came to town,
32:20they would tell
32:22the story
32:22about the guy
32:25that covered
32:25his furniture
32:26with human skin,
32:29makes the human skin
32:30lampshades.
32:32Oh my God.
32:33And, you know,
32:35those people
32:36continuously wound me up.
32:39Whatever they told me,
32:40and I'm sure
32:41I can't,
32:42wouldn't even want
32:43to recall all of it,
32:45but it stuck with me.
32:46It was always,
32:46it was always
32:47ever-present.
32:49The Texas chain
32:49Chainsaw Massacre
32:50after you stop screaming,
32:52you'll start
32:53talking about it.
32:56People are afraid
32:58of that little house
32:59in the middle
33:00of an abandoned field.
33:03When you're driving
33:04down the highway,
33:05it's why
33:07Texas Chainsaw Massacre
33:08was based off
33:08of his actions.
33:10Why Psycho
33:10was based off
33:11of his actions
33:12because it was just
33:13such a unique moment
33:15in crime history,
33:17and then you see
33:18the guy who did it,
33:19and it's this goofy
33:20backwoods gremlin.
33:35I first saw
33:36Texas Chainsaw Massacre
33:37when I was 22.
33:38I can identify
33:40that it was
33:41at this exact moment
33:42because it left,
33:44like, a really dirty
33:45stain on my brain
33:46that I have never
33:46been able
33:47to scrub away since.
33:53I remember
33:54really clearly
33:55seeing that opening
33:56of the film
33:57and being so unsettled
34:00and so upset
34:01because what that
34:02extreme close-up
34:03of an eye does
34:04is it puts us
34:06immediately in the zone
34:08of watching something.
34:09I think by making
34:16Leatherface into
34:17this character
34:18who wears
34:19somebody else's face,
34:21Tobe Hooper
34:22is in some ways
34:22making a really sick joke
34:24about how we understand
34:25character psychology
34:26to work
34:27and how we understand
34:28our own psychologies
34:28to work.
34:29The face that we present
34:31to the world,
34:32often that is kind of
34:33the face of another person,
34:34but here it's literalized
34:36in Leatherface, right?
34:37And so imitators
34:38and people inspired by it,
34:40they kind of sprang up
34:41really, really quickly
34:42because it was so
34:43abundantly clear
34:44that this was a work
34:44of such imagination,
34:46such creativity,
34:47but also it was a work
34:48that was so rooted
34:50in exactly what was
34:52happening in the U.S.
34:53at exactly that moment.
34:54I probably saw him
35:07about 10 times.
35:11Every time I went,
35:12I was a new person to him,
35:13even though I had seen him before,
35:16and he would not recognize me,
35:19or he wouldn't seem
35:21to recognize me.
35:22People in the hospital
35:31basically didn't react
35:32at all to him
35:33because he was basically
35:35just a patient.
35:37He was demented,
35:39so he really didn't
35:40cause any problems.
35:42They never had to call
35:43any codes
35:44or any special kinds
35:46of interventions
35:47because he was acting out.
35:49He was just there.
35:52He was a monster,
36:07and I think people
36:10tended to not see
36:13that part of him.
36:14He lived as a model prisoner,
36:29never displayed
36:32certainly any signs
36:33of violence.
36:34The big story
36:37was that he was harmless.
36:40I think people
36:40kind of felt sorry for him
36:42because he had been there
36:45for years now
36:46and wasn't showing symptoms.
36:52It just seemed
36:53in many, many ways
36:54Ed's life
36:57in a mental institution
36:59was far better
37:02than the kind of life
37:04he had been living
37:04up to that point.
37:06You know,
37:07he was living
37:07in this horror house
37:09surrounded by
37:11the body parts
37:13of human beings,
37:14no electricity,
37:15no running water.
37:17The only living things
37:20in the house
37:21were the spiders
37:22and the vermin.
37:23Now he was,
37:25as they say,
37:26three hots and a cot.
37:28We had other
37:28human interactions
37:29and so on and so forth.
37:31So, you know,
37:32I think he lived
37:33out his life,
37:34you know,
37:35pretty contentedly.
37:36My takeaway
37:38from my time
37:39with Ed Gein
37:40was I was
37:41very sad for him.
37:46He was really
37:48an enigma
37:49and he could never
37:51have made anything
37:53different in his life.
37:55The 좋은 beyond
37:58the life
38:01of Goods
38:03and his life
38:03was so
38:04that he's
38:05a lo au a miserable
38:06thing
38:06in the wind
38:07and that he could
38:08have made anything
38:09able
38:11to have
38:12his life
38:12and would
38:13also
38:14think
38:15whether
38:19he
38:21had
38:21any
38:22This is it.
38:52Ed's right here.
38:56The tombstone kept getting stolen.
38:59So once it got returned,
39:01it's right now in the basement of a cemetery board member has it,
39:06and they're talking about burying it somewhere,
39:08so they never put one back on.
39:10Augusta's right here,
39:12and Henry's on the far left end.
39:15I always get an adrenaline rush being out here,
39:18seeing all the souvenirs being left for Ed.
39:22All the incense and work gloves and flowers.
39:25A lot of people come under and visit Ed.
39:27Eddie had a very troubled life,
39:30and I think it had to be a relief to him when the end came.
39:36It affected me not one way or the other.
39:39Eddie had been there part of my life.
39:42Now he's gone.
39:43Now he's gone.
39:44Now he's gone.
39:45It affected me not one way or the other.
39:48Eddie had been there part of my life.
39:50Now he's gone.
39:52Well, I'm from Chicago.
39:53So Ed Gein was always satelliting in my consciousness.
39:55I'm Chuck Parello.
39:56I'm Chuck Parello.
39:57I am the director of the movie Ed Gein.
39:58Ed Gein.
39:59It is time for you to do the Lord's Word.
40:00It is time for you to do the Lord's Word.
40:01It is time for you to do the Lord's Word.
40:03Are you ready, Edward?
40:04I'm ready, Mama.
40:05I'm ready, Mama.
40:06I got into the third movie.
40:08The The End
40:11I am the director of the movie Ed Gein.
40:16It is time for you to do the Lord's Word.
40:20Are you ready, Edward?
40:21I'm ready, Mama.
40:22the director of the movie, Ed Gein.
40:25It is time for you to do the Lord's work.
40:28Are you ready, Edward?
40:30I'm ready, Mama.
40:34I got into the preparation for making the Ed Gein movie
40:38by first watching as many incarnations of the story
40:42that I could.
40:44So I watched Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Texas Chainsaw
40:48Massacre, Deranged.
40:52And we did go to Plainfield.
40:57I did feel an obligation to make it historically accurate.
41:01I thought there had been so many fictitious takes on it
41:05and people just borrowing elements from it
41:08that this time around we were going
41:09to tell it the way that it really happened.
41:14The portrayal of Ed in my film actually
41:17comes off as kind of sympathetic.
41:20I think that ended up being the right decision
41:22because you do empathize with him even
41:25though he's a horrible degenerate person.
41:28He was misunderstood and he just didn't get any help.
41:32I don't really see him as evil.
41:34I see him as someone who's sick, whose psychosis just kept
41:38getting worse and worse and who couldn't get any help.
41:44The evilness that manifests itself in the bad stuff
41:48that he did was quite another matter.
41:50There was a scene in the script where Ed was sewing together a skin suit
42:03and I ended up taking it out just because it was too similar
42:07to something that was in The Silence of the Lambs.
42:09I knew there would be fanboys who would say,
42:18oh, you took that from The Silence of the Lambs,
42:20you know, not knowing that it was actual source material stuff.
42:24There's been six movies based on the book Psycho
42:39and there's been a prequel TV show.
42:41House of a Thousand Corpses is a movie that clearly fits into this lineage.
42:48It's so clearly influenced by Toby Hooper,
42:51but then also with Ed Gein put back in and made central,
42:55more so than in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
42:57Then Devil's Rejects is a great example
43:01because that film also takes on a kind of twisted Americana.
43:05There's definitely things about movies like Ed Gein and Psycho.
43:11If that really makes you look twice at the kindly neighbor,
43:15you know, that lives next door to you.
43:18When Ed Gein came out, it just became a hit.
43:22All of a sudden, it was everywhere.
43:25But at the end of the day, you just turn it off
43:29and go back to leading your normal life.
43:31One thing I tried to do was to show the plight of the victims
43:36and show that these people actually had horrible things happen.
43:40I think that's what makes it have longevity
43:43and stick-to-your-ribs kind of appeal.
43:48I think all of these movies and the story of Ed Gein,
43:52they really demonstrate a couple of things.
43:54They tell us that horror is something
43:58that is a way that we understand ourselves.
44:02It is a necessary element of how the United States functions.
44:06I think one of the main attractions to the Ed Gein character
44:12is that he was an outsider.
44:13We've all felt like we didn't belong.
44:16People didn't like us.
44:18So there's this general thing there
44:21just that everybody can identify with,
44:23and I certainly did.
44:24How does the taste of Ed Gein características
44:33and the humanITiew exercise
44:35will realize that the keep it moving
44:39as well as the original of the moon
44:42and the child has been preserved
44:45and has been preserved
44:46until we're all a miracle.
44:46We get it.
44:47It has been so beautiful danses
44:48to be seen on Earth
44:49and is not a miracle.
44:50There's this man,
44:50and I usually got as far as the only
44:54change the story. Well I mean no one knew of the existence of this tape. I mean
45:02this casts a whole new light on the Gein case. It's the whole context.
45:24It's almost as if something emerged. A crack in Gein's psychology that allowed all this primitive
45:33archaic stuff to pour out. In this modern America where all these families were gathered around
45:43you know watching Leave it to Beaver on TV. You know you have this guy simultaneously in this
45:50little hell hole of a house. Dressing in the victim's skin and so on.
46:01What would you do with these sexual parts? I wouldn't it be all in your turn and see?
46:07The question arises as to why does Gein or any offender like him keep doing it over and over
46:14again? And the answer is it's part of what arouses them sexually and the sexual instinct itself is
46:21strong. The fact that Gein kept doing it shows how strong the compulsion was. How strong the urge was
46:31to do it over and over and over again. And if he didn't get caught he would have continued to do it
46:38until he got arrested.
46:47When I listen to the tapes there's the researcher in me that's interested at an intellectual level
46:53about learning more from the the actual words of a killer describing in detail why they did what
47:02what they did. So there's a part of me that's just like intellectually fascinated by that but then
47:06there's another part of me that you know when I take off the researcher hat there's an eeriness in
47:12hearing somebody seemingly so oblivious to the nature of what they have been doing. Ed Gein doesn't
47:21even remember some of the things or pretends or talks about how he doesn't remember things right so
47:26the banality of what he's talking about is also really striking. The man is truly very ill so as
47:41you're talking to him and it's becoming very very evident that he is you're hearing him one word
47:46sentences the ending like that's right that's right like just trying to just like he's talking about the
47:53weather. He sounds exactly as I expected him to sound but he has an underlying urge that he does not
48:08understand like there's something inside of him that is absolutely undying it will not go away and
48:16this is the only way that he can manifest that. That's the most calm person I've ever heard with a
48:21bunch of vulvas in a box what do you think Augusta would have thought of all this Augusta would have
48:34disapproved Ed Gein was a puzzle why did he come out the way he did why didn't his brother turn out the
48:50way Ed Gein did they were raised in the same family the same kind of relationship the same mother and
48:59father the same environment why did Ed Gein become such a horrible murderer someday somebody who's smarter
49:14than I am is going to figure out these people before they kill everybody
49:44nd then but I would perhaps refuse to meet them as I started jump with you now they could put long as you
49:50be able to take long as I'm just used to ask them Full save money on this show some of the
49:53朝 absolutes ok it's truly a lot of fun of other parts of Chevron so that you were really
49:55listening to us and they were really tired of taking pictures from anything else coming to people who viu it
49:57with help me know that I could spend on hours or nights you don't have any problems for it but I would
50:01know and then he doesn't want to feel that much better and I will see what your thoughts are doing with that
50:03you understand it and I would ask you to ask them like so let's see one thing coming here I want to call right now do you put our
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