Ed Gein: The Monster Behind the Monsters

If you’re any type of a horror movie buff, you’ve undoubtedly seen 1960’s Psycho, 1974’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and 1991’s Silence of the Lambs. While these films are certainly grotesque displays of cinematic gold, the man whose despicable acted as the inspiration for the leading characters in these movies are far more terrifying than one could ever even dream up—even for entertainment purposes. In this article, we’ll explore the life and crimes of this man and paint a better picture for you as to how he ended up being the method behind the madness for these horror classics.

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The Life and Crimes of Ed Gein

In 1905, Augusta Gein could have never imagined that her second son growing in the confines of her womb would end up being one of the most devilish humans to have ever walked this earth. In 1906, however, Edward Gein made it to earth-side successfully in Plainfield, Wisconsin. His father was a belligerent alcoholic who worked odd jobs, but even when he finally got his big break and was able to own a grocery store, he found that it was impossible for him to stay employed in one place for more than a few years at a time.
When Ed was about seven, his father finally gave up on conventional living and moved himself, his wife, and two sons to an enormous farm where they lived rather reclusively. Augusta homeschooled the boys and instilled extreme religious teachings upon them—namely, driving the point home that all women were promiscuous by nature, and as a result, entirely full of sin and trouble. She taught them that alcohol was the devil’s water, and backed up these extreme claims with quotes from the Old Testament.
Eventually, though, Ed and his brother were enrolled in regular school, but Augusta made sure that each afternoon as soon as they had returned home, that they would study the Old Testament for a few hours even before completing their homework. Ed didn’t have the best time making friends as he was remembered by his peers as being all around strange, even at a young age. He would randomly burst out into laughter in the middle of class, and his educators noted that he behaved much more shyly than the usual timid child might have.
Somehow, though, through all of that, he still attempted to make friends. He would often try to get them to come back to his house after school to play, but the other child was immediately sent home, and Ed was severely beaten for trying to have friends. She reminded Ed every day that no one—not a woman, nor a friend—would love him like his mother did and expressed her feelings of betrayal at him trying to make friends.
In 1940, Ed’s father eventually died as a result of his fervent alcoholism and left the farm to his two sons and wife. They tended to the farm pretty well until one day when Ed and his brother were burning off rotten plants, the fire burst out of control, and once it was completely put out- his brother was missing. A search party later found Ed’s brother dead, and it appeared that he had been for some time. The police ruled the death as heart failure, but a reopening of the investigation in 1957 found that the cause of death was actually asphyxiation and suspected Ed as the murderer.
Now that it was just Ed and his mother, he vowed to take care of her as best as he could for the rest of his life. The older she became, the worse she got about her bible teachings and hatred for women in general. There was even one instance where the two had to go and purchase food for their farm animals, and the man who was selling the food had badly beaten his dog while they were there. On the way back home, Ed and his mother discussed it, and her upset lied with the fact that the man who sold them the food had a woman at his house that he was not married to—rather than the beating of the dog. She went on for hours about the sinful nature and promiscuity of women each time they came across one in their daily life.
Eventually, Augusta had a stroke and from there, her health declined, and she eventually died within a few weeks. To say that Ed was devastated would be a gross understatement. He blocked off and boarded up each of the rooms in his house that his mother was last using and subscribed to magazines of the esoteric variety, which, at that time were incredibly shocking. Through that, though, he somehow continued to keep up with the farm and worked odd jobs to make as much money as he could. In his free time, he would put on his mother’s clothes and imitate how she used to talk.
Nonetheless, as the years went onwards, his disturbing behavior increased. He began to rob graves for body parts from which he would create clothes, masks, and upholstered furniture from. He would upholster sofas and chairs with human skin, make lampshades out of many different faces, and so on. No one knew about these atrocities until about ten years later in 1957.
Bernice Worden, a cashier at a local grocery store, was reported to be missing. Since Ed was the last person to have seen her, police went to his house to question him, but got answers that they would have never hoped to receive.
Police were met by a terrible odor when Ed opened the door and because of his odd behavior during the questioning, immediately began to search the premises. They ended up finding Bernice Worden’s body hung upside down like a gutted pig in his farmhouse. In addition, they found paper bags filled with separate human faces that had been peeled off of bodies, forks constructed with human bone handles, fingernail clippings from deceased female hands, a corset made from a skinned female, skulls on each of his four bedposts, a pair of lips as a pull for a window shade, among many other grotesque items. The most disturbing of all, however, was the female skin suit he was in the process of making so whenever he missed his mother, he could simply put on the suit, and then put his mother’s dress on over the top, and feel as if he were her.
Ed was arrested on the spot and later confessed to the killing of another woman by the name of Mary Hogan. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and ended up in a mental hospital for the rest of his life. He died in 1984 from lung cancer, and his gravestone is still the subject of frequently being visited by vandals.

Conclusively, it’s easy to see how he was the face-eating monster portrayed by Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Norman Bates in Psycho, and Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While there is a documentary circulating around the life of Ed Gein, there isn’t an actual Hollywood-made movie, but it’s plain to see how the films we’ve mentioned definitely touch on the most shocking and important true parts about the monster behind the monster.